SNC-Lavalin’s nuclear sector now has updated, modern facilities as part of a recently completed $46-million renovation at its Sheridan Park campus in Mississauga, Ont.
The two office buildings on the property, located at 2251 and 2285 Speakman Drive, were retrofitted to update the facilities with modern amenities. Slate Office REIT invested the funds to revitalize the property.
“Over two years ago, in partnership with our landlord, we began a $46-million renovation to update two of the three buildings we have onsite,” said Katherine Ward, vice-president of communications, Canada at SNC-Lavalin.
The main building is referred to as Sheridan Park 1 (SP1) and the building at the rear of the property is referred to as SP2. SNC-Lavalin leases the two buildings. The third building on the property, a manufacturing facility, is owned by the company.
“We’ve done renovations with our landlord on SP1 and SP2, ripped them right down to the studs, replaced the framework including the windows and exterior facade, and the campus is now home to almost all of the nuclear staff and its about 1,200 employees,” she explained.
Rob Stewart, senior vice-president of operations with SNC-Lavalin Nuclear, said the renovation of the buildings represents a “remarkable transformation.”
“In the two offices we had facilities that were worn, tired, showing their age and quite frankly were not reflective of the business and the leadership that we represent in the nuclear business worldwide,” said Stewart. “We now have a modern first-class facility that is reflective of the innovative, sensitive and very important work that we do for this industry.”
The renovations bring together employees that were previously scattered at other facilities onto one campus.
“We consolidated our workforce into this campus, the benefit being that we have better communication, more synergy, and it allows us to focus better on the task and deliver our designs, our services, our products much more consistently and efficiently,” said Stewart, adding the Oakville office and the other Mississauga offices housing employees in the nuclear sector are no longer needed.
“As our business continues to grow, and it is growing right now, we are going to be in a somewhat scary position of needing many more technology resources. We look forward to that challenge because it is certainly more fun than downsizing. Our facility has been built with a mind to growth and the replenishment of our industry.”
The renovations were extensive and involved gutting the interior of both buildings.
“In the main building, the landlord started with asbestos removal, which he took care of first and we had a slab to slab demolition, removed all of the interiors, installed new windows, HVAC systems, electrical systems and new security systems,” explained Stewart.
The configuration of the main building was also changed and the entrance is now located off Speakman Drive as opposed to through the parking lot of the campus.
“There is much more of a presence from the road and it is more inviting with the entranceway and the landscaping,” said Stewart.
The building also features a replica of a CANDU reactor control room.
“We can do training, we can do various simulations,” said Stewart. “We tried to replicate conditions as much as we can and there are privacy features for when we have sensitive information. If we have training going on or we have a customer coming in and we need to do something sensitive from a security point of view that’s good to have.”
The contractor for the renovation project was Arguson Projects Inc.
“We took learnings from SP1 because they overlapped, things that we found would work better for us or would be more cost effective,” explained Stewart. “We had the luxury of time to be able to build that into SP2.”
SNC-Lavalin is a major player in Canada’s green energy sector through its work with Ontario Power Generation, playing a key role in the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station refurbishment, and supporting the Bruce Power Life-Extension Program.
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