In 2007, Mehmert Store Services worked with Whole Foods on their new store to be located in Chicago's "South Loop." This was a 55,000 SF flagship store located on Canal and Roosevelt Streets on Chicago's Southside. The store was to be built as the anchor tenant within a new development known as the Southgate Market Mall. In this ambitious project, Mehmert was hired to fulfill the roles of project manager, equipment manager, and owner's representative.

This complex project was even more challenging in that Whole Foods intended for this store to be its first in the chain to achieve a level of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. In order for a project to be LEED certified, it must go through a rigorous accreditation program to prove that planning and design, materials, equipment, and construction techniques meet the USGBC's (U.S. Green Building Council) high standards. In 2008, the Whole Foods store at South Loop proudly received its LEED "Gold" status making it the first grocery store in Chicago and the first store in the Whole Foods chain to achieve this prestigious certification.

Our role in this project was many faceted.

We were responsible in the overseeing of the project from start to finish to make sure that it stayed within its budget and that it was completed on time. Over the course of the project, we acted as a liaison between the entire Midwest Whole Foods staff, the project architect, the numerous engineering firms that were hired as project consultants per each discipline, the GC, the project subs, and the City of Chicago.

In addition to the overall project responsibilities, we acted as equipment manager, selecting and ordering equipment to meet the LEED guidelines for "energy star" rated efficiency, sustainability, and sourcing products within a certain mile radius of the project.

LEED standards for the systems chosen and implemented for building management, lighting and lighting controls, integration of boilers, HVAC systems, refrigeration and reclaim systems were state-of-the-art. In the end, beyond our various assigned responsibilities, we functioned as the on-site accrediting engineer conducting and recording the equipment and installation of pre-functional and functional testing, which eventually resulted in the accreditation of the store.

The construction of this store showed our ability to work within a much larger infrastructure. In the end, we successfully functioned as an extension of Whole Foods itself. This project is gratifying in many ways. Achieving LEED "Gold" status, being the first LEED accredited grocery store in Chicago, and creating a fabulously successful store within the Whole Foods chain are just a few.