With the topping out of the AC Hotel in Clayton, Missouri, on Sept 26, Midas Construction is advancing toward a spring 2024 completion of the hotel after having overcome several challenges.
The $50 million project has emerged on an extremely tight urban site in an era marked by ongoing issues with material supply chain costs. When the 11-story, 207-room AC Hotel Clayton debuts, it will give downtown Clayton a total of 1,323 hotel rooms, according to the city of Clayton.
The team of Concord Hospitality, Homebase Partners, Koplar Properties, Eagle Realty and Midas Construction is developing the project, which broke ground in September 2022. Designed for business and leisure travelers, it will feature a rooftop bar and restaurant open to the public. It also revitalizes a historic, underutilized site that once hosted the former headquarters for the Clayton Police at 227 S. Central.
Front busy South Central Avenue, the AC Hotel has risen a mere four inches next to the building to its north, five feet from a parking garage to its south and has a nearby existing building to its west. Uniting building partners through intense planning with BIM technology, pre-fabrication has been essential in managing the tight site and schedule.
Precision prefabricated plumbing has been inserted in walls then hoisted by crane and put in place to serve each of the 23 rooms on floors two through 10. Likewise, exacting standards for lighting and electrical by the owner has entailed strategic planning and placement of prefabricated electrical duplicated on each floor. Prefabrication has also accommodated limited space for staging material on site, facilitating Midas’ “just in time delivery” of construction components.
To manage costs and supply chain issues, Midas and the development/design team implemented a plan to use structural steel for the podium and top floor of the 118,602-square-foot hotel. Structural steel serves as the foundation podium for the first-floor public spaces, including registration, offices and a kitchen. It transitions to more cost-effective structural metal stud panels for the hotel rooms on floors two through 10. Structural steel is then reintroduced for the 11th floor which hosts meeting rooms, a rooftop bar and outdoor terraces. Using structural steel on the first and top floors also facilitates large storefront windows to flood the interior with light offering better views of downtown Clayton.
Midas and its team have also avoided disruptions in the busy downtown Clayton business district by using off hours for some construction. That includes pouring as much as 150 yards of concrete daily during off hours. Over the next few months, the Midas team will again adapt to the tight site by deploying swing-stage scaffolds, typically used by window washers, to complete exterior finishes.
Designed by DLR Group, the AC Hotel Clayton will feature several signature elements. This includes the AC Lounge and the AC Kitchen, an onsite restaurant offering a European-inspired menu. The rooftop bar and restaurant will be the only of its kind in Clayton.
Joining Midas Construction and DLR Group on the project are DeLuca Plumbing, L.L.C.; Streib Co.; TJ Wies Contracting, Inc.; Eisen Group; Acme Erectors; Jacobsmeyer Construction; Leonard Masonry; Vee-Jay; Titan Carpentry; Custom Service Crane; Grasse & Associates; Waterhout Construction; and Castle Contracting.
