FIRST PHASE UNDERWAY FOR LARGEST TOTAL ICF PROJECT EVER 
(Press Release)

Omaha, Nebraska, September 2002.  Construction has begun on a 64,848 square foot office/warehouse building at Lakemont Landing in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, the first of at least five commercial buildings and condominiums planned for the site.

All of the buildings will include wall construction with insulating concrete forms (ICFs) by Reward Wall Systems®. Wall construction on the office/warehouse began in mid September, and is expected to be complete within 90 days with a projected mid-January completion date for the rest of the building. All exterior and all interior walls will be built with Reward's 11" flat wall ICFs, creating individual "warehouse condominiums." 

"This is a true design/build project," said developer/general contractor, Mike Radke of MDR Designs, LLC and RW Holdings LLC, who built a similar, highly successful project in Denver two years ago. Radke plans to build at least four more buildings in the Lakemont Landing project, using Reward. When complete, the development will have used a record number of ICFs, making it the largest total ICF project ever.

Radke explained that he plans out the building for maximum flexibility of use, and hires a professional architect to make the drawings based on his plans. The building contains twenty-six 1,830 square foot single units, each of which contains a large second floor space that can be developed for a wide variety of uses. Two 3,660 square foot double units also have the second floor space available.

"Building occupants purchase their space instead of renting it, so energy efficiency is very important to them" said Radke. "And since we have such a wide variety in the types of businesses that occupy the building, noise abatement is equally important." Building occupants will include an electric company, garage door manufacturer, fire alarm company, management company and tool supply company.

"Using the Reward ICFs for both the interior and exterior walls provides the energy efficiency and noise abatement unit owners are looking for," added Radke. Reward ICF walls provide an R-value of 32 and Sound Transmission Class rating of 49 which reduces noise as loud as a lawnmower on one side of the wall to the level of a whisper on the other side. A wood-frame structure built for utmost energy efficiency typically only achieves an R-value of 19.

Based on the experiences of the occupants of the similar building in Denver, Radke expects occupants of this building to average utility bills of $50 per month or less. To add to the energy savings, Radke designed a unique computer-run metering system that automatically reads the meter and sends out the bill. This saves occupants the $28 per month metering and billing costs from the local utility company.
The Lakemont Landing office/warehouse project will be featured on a tour October 3 during the 2002 Design/Build Conference in Denver.

Located in Omaha, Nebraska, for the past 14 years, Reward Wall Systems, Inc. was the first national manufacturer of two complete and diversified lines of insulating concrete forms used in residential and commercial structures. Reward's customers include general contractors, residential contractors, concrete contractors and construction supply distributors. To learn more about Reward Wall Systems, Inc. go to www.rewardwalls.com.