Located in the heart of the thriving town of Lititz, PA, this multi-use development is steeped in rich history. Once the booming Wilbur Chocolate Factory complex, dating back more than 100 years, this decommissioned factory was repurposed to become an upscale hotel, market, restaurant, and luxury condominium development known as The Wilbur.
Facing an accelerated and complex construction schedule, Quality Buildings was selected as the framing contractor to fit out the 5-story, 74-room hotel, and 26-unit condominium, which encompassed three wings. Because one of the wings was originally just four-stories tall, the project required dismantling the roof and reinforcing the existing structure to support the fifth floor. Adding to the complexity of this project was the need to maintain the original look and feel as new sections were added. To do this, we took beams from other areas of the building, resized them, and reused them in newly built sections of the condo.
In addition to the framing and constructing of a new floor, the scope included adding a rooftop terrace and removing portions of the five floors and roof to make room for two masonry elevator shafts and one masonry stair tower. To accomplish this, our work involved shoring up the structural timber beams, cutting the timbers, and reapplying a ledger for attachment to the tower once the masonry was in place.
Given the limited jobsite space and multiple trades using one courtyard, we pre-fabricated the walls in our off-site facility and transported the walls to the jobsite as needed. This process not only eliminated the need for a staging area, it also allowed us to have a 4-story wing under roof in just four weeks.
For Oak Tree Development Group, who owns the property, aligning with capable contractor partners was a crucial aspect to the success of the challenging project.
“Quality Buildings provided the kind of attention to detail that provided impactful results in the areas of value engineering, quality control, scheduling, providing manpower, and cost containment. Without reservation, I recommend Quality Buildings for any future projects,” states Michael O’Brien, President of Oak Tree Development Group.
Project Complexities:
- Due to the nature of this project being primarily restoration/renovation with some new construction, a high-level of collaboration and problem solving was required to develop practical and time/cost saving construction details to keep the project moving forward.
- Given the many unknowns associated with historical restorations, the project started with structural details just 50% complete, which required an exceptional level of expertise, flexibility, and strategic thinking.
- The project included every type of wood style construction available from stick framing, to Glulam beams, to repurposing existing beams to keep the aesthetics of the project cohesive.