Wisconsin Department of Health Services Milwaukee Enrollment Services

The State of Wisconsin’s Department of Administration (DOA) leased two adjacent office suites for use by the Department of Health Services (DHS) in one of CH Coakley’s properties in Milwaukee. JP Cullen was hired to transform the empty space into modern offices for the state department’s Milwaukee Enrollment Services program. Due to the state moving their staff out of their previous building, MiLES needed a new home for their offices. The Governor put in place a deadline of 120 days to complete the project and open the new MiLES program space. This tight deadline coupled with the supply chain/procurement crisis and labor shortage issues across the nation, created a “tough job” challenge for all partners involved.   JP Cullen had to do a coordinated effort and work together with multiple owners and PRA to complete the project by the deadline. We continually looked for opportunities and welcomed all creative ideas to ensure satisfaction from the client and meet the schedule. Here are the main strategies:

• Brought on early trade partners to get the electrical, plumbing, and glass material procured earlier than the traditional method. We knew we had to get those firms on early. We drove and pushed our partners to look for alternative methods or material to work with, that allowed us to get materials more readily available.
• Looked and found a way to use temporary measures to give the State and CH Coakley what they wanted. To have the office space ready for MiLES to move in at the start of November, temporary doors were installed in its office space. The permanent ones were delivered about three weeks later.
• Worked very closely with the State’s furniture supplier early on in preconstruction to make sure the electrician and early trade partners knew where things were going so they could rough in where items would be going. Coordination meetings were held to talk through coordination.
• Worked closely with local municipality to help us through the permitting and inspection process.

JP Cullen along with PRA, the State of Wisconsin and CH Coakley completed an impressive amount of work in a very short amount of time with high satisfaction from the client. The MiLES program was able to move in on time and open its doors to customers needing to utilize the services the program provides.