IMPACT | The ICS Newsletter

The

Newsletter

MORE Than The Midwest

An Inside Look at Our PA Office

BUILDING STRONG CONNECTIONS ICS Announces Rebranding

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHTS

CLUES Expansion & Forest Lake Area Schools

Rendering Courtesy of SchraderGroup

I C S - B U I L D S .C O M

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WELCOME TO

THE NEW IMPACT

Welcome to a new decade and the first ICS Impact Newsletter of 2020! As we reflect on 2019, we’re grateful for working with amazing clients and the growth, success, and collaboration of our team. A new decade brings with it great change. And one of the biggest changes is the launch of our new ICS brand. More than just a consulting firm, our mission is to positively impact people through innovative facility solutions. Our team knows how facilities play an important role in your life – how they provide places to live, learn, work, and play.

With our new look and feel, we know that we don’t just build buildings at ICS. We build strong, real, and meaningful connections. That’s why we do what we do.

In this issue, we not only talk about impact, but we highlight our office on the East Coast. Located just 20 miles west of Philadelphia, our Media, Pennsylvania office houses a fantastic team focused on strategic facility planning, engineering, energy-savings projects support, construction management, and project implementation.

We also focus on impact through a couple of unique projects including a local non-profit organization for the Latino community in St. Paul and a districtwide project in Forest Lake, Minn. Our hope is that through these stories, you can relate to the situations they were in, the challenges they faced, or simply share in the excitement alongside of these communities.

As we step into 2020, we continue to focus on relationships, build impactful facilities, and dream big for our team and for those we get to work with. At the end of the day, we’d love to build a strong connection with you. For more information, you can reach out to me at arif.quraishi@ics-builds.com or 612-437-9416.

Arif Quraishi Principal ICS

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CONTENTS Building Strong Connections, ICS Announces Rebranding

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More Than The Midwest: An Inside Look at our Pennsylvania Office 6

Customer Spotlight: Forest Lake Area Schools

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Customer Spotlight: CLUES Office Expansion

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#TeamICS Spotlight: The Marketing Team

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What’s Happening

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BUILDING STRONG CONNECTIONS ICS ANNOUNCES REBRANDING ICS Consulting, Inc. has shortened our company name to ICS and changed our website from ics-consult.com to ics-builds.com. The company’s previous slogan of “Innovate, Collaborate, Sustain” is replaced with “Building Strong Connections.”

Founded in 2006, ICS has provided innovative facility solutions to clients across the Midwest for 13 years. Throughout that time, our organization has experienced significant growth with mergers, staff, and services. We’re taking this opportunity to evolve the brand and position ICS to move up and into an exciting future.

The new ICS logo symbolizes evolution – of projects, relationships, buildings, and people. It shows the movement of how our team takes clients through the lifecycle of a building project. The growth of lines symbolizes our team’s togetherness and how we’ve evolved over time and will continue to evolve.

At ICS, we specialize in providing innovative facility solutions to help plan, build, and operate buildings well. Our customized services integrate the planning, funding, construction, and ongoing operations of buildings as we help throughout all phases of building projects.

Up until now, ICS has primarily worked with public sector customers throughout the Upper Midwest to help them with facility planning, construction, and building commissioning. The rebrand positions ICS to increase the services we provide as well as the markets we serve. More than just a consulting firm, ICS’s mission is to positively impact people through innovative facility solutions.

“Our people make up who we are. We focus on building strong connections with our project partners, our team, our clients, and the communities we work in,” said ICS Principal, Arif Quraishi. “We engage in meaningful conversations with our clients, and it’s through this collaborative approach that we best meet the needs of those who use the facilities we create - that student in a classroom, that patient in a hospital, or that city council member in a local government building.”

“Collaboration and partnership are what we’re built on and are fundamental principles of everything we do. And as we step into our new brand, we will continue our culture of commitment, collaboration, and care,” said ICS Principal, Pat Overom.

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Photos to the right are from the ICS rebrand launch event in January.

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MORE

THAN THE MIDWEST An Inside Look at our Pennsylvania Office

It was 2016, and ICS was looking to expand to the East Coast. With a 10-year history in strategic facility planning in the K-12 market in the Midwest, and a staff with experience dating back nearly twice that, they needed a leader. Now, over three years later, with a professional staff with combined experience of over 100 years and many successful projects under the ICS brand, Phil Solomon, Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, looks back at the start of it all.

FOR PHIL, ICS WAS THE RIGHT MOVE AT THE RIGHT TIME Phil had built a successful 19year career with a Fortune 500 development, design, and construction company. He was a 6-time Master Award Recipient (top 10% of project development nationwide), earning accolades for his infrastructure improvement projects and happy customers. “It was a difficult decision to leave because I was comfortable and successful and would be going into something that wasn’t well-established in Pennsylvania,” said Phil. “But I was feeling a little bit pigeonholed. The projects I worked on had evolved into large scale infrastructure improvement projects. They included everything except moving walls and redesigning classrooms. And almost all my projects were for schools. But the impact I could directly have on education was really limited.”

As a parent of young children, Phil spends a lot of his free time researching education styles. His children attended Montessori school

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for Pre-K, which is very hands-on learning. “My son has a learning difference, and so he’s at a specialized school and my daughter attends our local public school. I’m passionate about education and how schools are adapting to the 21st-century learning model.”

It was when Arif Quraishi, Principal at ICS, explained how all of the facets of the ICS strategic planning process come into play that the gears clicked into place. “I was both inspired and eager to start,” said Phil.

“The opportunity to lead a team of experts in efforts of this magnitude was invigorating because I get to integrate all the things I am passionate about.”

IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS + PASSION FOR EDUCATION = WINNING With his background as a contractor and an engineer, Phil saw the opportunity with ICS to marry his background in school improvement projects with his passion for education. The way Phil and the ICS team in Pennsylvania approach (continued on page 8)

PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOLS WE’VE WORKED WITH Avon Grove School District Bensalem Township School District Downingtown Area School District Hazleton Area School District Interboro School District Kennett Consolidated School District Mountain View School District North Penn School District Rose Tree Media School District School District of Philadelphia Spring-Ford Area School District Unionville-Chadds Ford School District

The strategic planning process can be an incredible opportunity to

BUILD COMMUNITY SUPPORT for a school district’s mission and vision.

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From L to R: Tim Guider, Russell Voigt, Gene Alligood, Bill Slawter, Phil Solomon, and Barry Carl

projects is to meet at the corner of education and infrastructure – optimizing buildings to support educational needs in the most economical way possible. Having a background in both the traditional public bid process and performance contracting gives our team multiple tools to solve infrastructure problems.

CHALLENGES OUT EAST As opposed to Minnesota, Pennsylvania schools are primarily funded by the local taxpayer. Each district has nine board members and getting pure alignment among nine people, even about the weather, can be tough. “Putting together these comprehensive, long-range facilities plans when there are tough trade-offs to be made can be extremely challenging,” Phil said. “Especially when you’re trying to get everyone in agreement, not just a 5-4 vote.”

STATUS QUO ICS has been open in Pennsylvania since 2016, and while school boards can be an interesting challenge, Phil said the biggest challenge to breaking into the market has been fighting the status quo.

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The ICS process moves away from this traditional approach, leaving some school administrators feeling unsure about adopting a new process.

“Our process is much more stakeholder-engaged than some school districts are comfortable with,” Phil explained. “In Minnesota, large construction projects for schools must be approved by a public referendum, meaning that school districts need the taxpayers to vote and approve their projects.”

IF A SCHOOL DISTRICT DOESN’T NEED VOTER APPROVAL, WHY GET THE COMMUNITY INVOLVED? Is it good practice to get feedback before pursuing large projects? Of course. But why risk engaging the community in a comprehensive, strategic plan? “Many school districts in Pennsylvania haven’t had a lot of positive experiences with community engagement.

Many times, a community will only engage with a district if it believes the district has made a misstep and there’s fallout.

Many districts associate community engagement

as a negative, but this is not necessarily true.

If done correctly, by people who know how to build consensus and communicate effectively, the strategic planning process can be an incredible opportunity to build community support for a school district’s mission and vision. The process may require a little more due diligence, but the reward is massive.

Since there are rarely referendums in Pennsylvania, it makes it tougher for school board members. Nine elected officials with various backgrounds decide on $50, $60, or even $100 million projects, and they’ve got to own that decision in their community. That’s a lot of responsibility.

data both internally and externally so they have the information needed to support a long range plan confidently.”

THE BENEFITS OF A GOOD PLAN ICS can help school districts develop and implement the best long-range facilities plan for their unique community through our proven process that minimizes risk and maximizes accountability. And by taking the more comprehensive approach, the result is a plan that the community and stakeholders can get behind.

“Making big decisions a lot easier. That is the real value of what we do.”

“They’re making big decisions on what are often very complex projects that impact the district for decades,” Phil explained. “Our job at ICS is to help them clarify true needs and provide them real

Top row photos are from North Penn School District. Bottom row photos are from Mountain View School District.

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customer spotlight

FOREST LAKE AREA SCHOOLS Passing a $143 million bond referendum requires hundreds of parents, business owners, and community members coming together. On November 3, 2015, District voters said yes to a project focused on safety, security, educational improvements, and building infrastructure upgrades and replacements. This successful campaign provided improvements across all District facilities.

Phased over a few years, creating a comprehensive 7th – 12th grade campus meant moving all 7th – 8th grade students to a single Middle School and all 9th grade students to the High School. Creating a campus that aligns with educational programming will make an impact for generations to come.

The High School project began with additions on two sides of the building followed by extensive interior

renovations. The two-story classroom addition, termed by our team as the “life boat,” afforded the extra space needed to house classes during renovations.

Completing additions and renovations at the Middle School paved the way for significant renovations to the former Century Junior High building, additions and renovations to Forest Lake Area Community School to house Early Childhood, alternative learning, and community education, and other District-wide improvements. Andy Faulkner, ICS Vice President of Construction, said “I’ve heard numerous parents talk about the great education their children received and will continue to receive with these improvements. That is my ‘why’ – seeing how people benefit from our projects.”

From a unique science classroom addition at the High School, which creates an effective use of space between two classrooms, to a welcoming and open media center to a large and flexible field house, Forest Lake’s improvements have changed the landscape of how they educate their students.

Size: District-wide Project Cost: $143 million Completion Date: September 2019 Services Provided: Planning and Project Development, Referendum Planning and Community Engagement, and Construction Management Services

ICS Team: Pat Overom, Andy Faulkner, Jack Carlson, Taylor Rugroden, and Raeann Wynn Project Team: DLR Group, Larson Engineering, Martin Pevzner Engineering P.A., WunderlichMalec Engineering

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“Since 2015, the ICS team has worked alongside our district with different community task forces to have this bond referendum approved. We’re big fans of ICS and this project couldn’t have happened without their efforts.”

—Larry Martini, Director of Business Services at Forest Lake Area Schools

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customer spotlight

COMUNIDADES LATINAS UNIDAS EN SERVICIO (CLUES) Size: 40,000 square feet Project Cost: $7.5 million Completion Date: August 2019 Services Provided: Owner’s Representation, Project Development, and Technical Services

ICS Team: Bob Prell, Dana Fontaine, Pat Schaefer, Brandon Schmidt, and Raeann Wynn Project Team: BWBR Architects, RJM Construction

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Almost doubling the size of their St. Paul headquarters, CLUES (Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio) has entered a new season as an organization. “With the expansion comes a lot of new programming, new services that we will be providing,” said Ruby Lee, president of CLUES. When CLUES launched its capital campaign in 2017, the organization recognized their need to grow. Space and capacity were limited, which meant placing clients on waiting lists for services. CLUES also wanted to offer more programming later in the day and on weekends.

“We’re really excited to continue to offer the kinds of programming that the community is asking us to host, and to help grow and develop the capacity that we know already exists in our community,” said Angelica Klebsch, senior director of policy and community development at CLUES.

The expansion became a reality through years of planning, fundraising, and building. CLUES, through the capital campaign, raised a $7.5 million project budget. Best Buy was an early sponsor and donated a Teen Tech Center, which supports coding, programming, and audio and video production skills development.

As the owner’s advocate, ICS made the budget cover as many of these features as possible. “Our role was to help CLUES oversee quality and spend their money wisely,” said Bob Prell, project manager with ICS. After going through estimates, it became clear that the probable budget would not cover everything on the CLUES wish list. ICS created a variety of budget scenarios, showing what CLUES could get for their money.

donated by Cargill and named La Cocina de Cargill, not only teaches life skills, but serves as a gathering place for elders and youth alike.

In total, the expansion brought the size of the CLUES headquarters building to 40,000 square feet. They added six new classrooms, flexible meeting space, and a Latino Elder Day Center. The building is also now home to Minnesota’s first exclusively Latino Art Gallery, a key feature of the expansion.

“Our new spaces are a representation of our institutional commitment to uplift Latino narratives and leadership, foster community healing through cultural engagement, and improve social and economic odds for the people we serve,” said Ruby Lee.

“We found room in the budget for a commercial teaching kitchen,” Bob said. The commercial teaching kitchen,

“Our new programs are designed to empower Latinos and youth by providing them with access and opportunities so they can realize their own American Dream. Our new spaces reaffirm our mission to support Latinos and new immigrants to be healthy, prosperous, and engaged in their communities.”

-Ruby Lee, CLUES President

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MEET THE ICS MARKETING TEAM ERYN SORENSEN

Director of Marketing & Communications ....on the rebrand It’s not what you communicate, but how you communicate, and that translates to every part of marketing that our team is involved in: proposals, branding, communicating referendum plans, social media, events, and more. As we step into our new brand, I am beyond proud of the work our team has put in to communicate how we build strong connections with so many different communities, team members, project partners, and more. Being a part of the ICS rebrand has been a once-in-alifetime project.

KELLY NAPOLI Marketing Specialist

....on referendum communications I grew up in a tiny farm town in Iowa and graduated with 28 kids from my consolidated school. Since I graduated, my hometown communities have continued to evolve and have consolidated the schools even further. I loved growing up in a small town and I believe there’s so much value in that for today’s kids. I don’t live near home anymore, but I do have the privilege of working with some smaller school districts across Minnesota. Every time I put together a referendum logo, microsite, or flyer for a District, I do it like I would want it done for my alma mater.

ASHLIE KUEHN

Events & Office Coordinator ....on an unexpected career in Marketing When I was younger and began thinking about potential careers, it never occurred to me to pursue a career in Marketing. However, as you start learning and growing in your skill set and experience, life has a way of changing direction in ways you didn’t expect. This is what led me to ICS and I’m so thankful and proud to be a part of this team and organization. My role here at ICS involves assisting in the logistics and coordination of events, conferences, and trade shows across the country.

It is so rewarding to be a part of the process in developing relationships with our partners and community members. I’ve loved getting to take part in showcasing what makes ICS special and how we build strong and lasting connections.

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WHAT’S HAPPENING Our mission at ICS is to positively impact people through innovative facility solutions. Photos seen here are ICS Team members participating in conferences, employee events, and fundraisers.

1. MSBA 2020 ICS attended Minnesota School Board Association’s annual leadership conference this January.

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2. Annual Holiday Party Team members and their families from our Minneapolis, Blaine, and Duluth offices teamed up for a huge holiday party at 7 Vines Vineyard in Dellwood, Minn.

3. ICS for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Our Pennsylvania team and ICS Principal Dave Bergeron participated in the Bike MS: City to Shore Ride this fall, raising $7,755 for MS.

4. Duluth Crew Visits Minneapolis Members of our Northern Market Team visited Minneapolis this December and went to a Wild game.

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ICS 3890 Pheasant Ridge Dr NE, #180 Blaine, MN 55449

CONNECT WITH US!

LEARN MORE BY CONTACTING THE ICS TEAM MEMBER NEAREST YOU! Twin Cities Blaine, MN Pat Overom 763-354-2670 pat.overom@ics-builds.com

Northeast MN Duluth, MN Jeff Schiltz 218-722-3060 jeff.schiltz@ics-builds.com

Red River Valley Fargo, ND Dave Bergeron 701-280-0500 dave.bergeron@ics-builds.com

South Dakota Sioux Falls, SD Mike Hubbard 605-261-5616 michael.hubbard@ics-builds.com

Pennsylvania Media, PA Phil Solomon 215-479-3543 phil.solomon@ics-builds.com

North Central MN Park Rapids, MN Jason Splett 218-252-8025 jason.splett@ics-builds.com

Central Minnesota Sauk Rapids, MN Brett Baldry 612-817-9318 brett.baldry@ics-builds.com

OUR MISSION OUR VALUES

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ICS-BUILDS.COM

To positively impact people through innovative facility solutions.

We Care, Integrity, Collaboration, Quality, Smart Innovation