The Thompson Hotel is a four-star luxury hotel located in Nashville, Tennessee. The hotel is in a trendy industrial neighborhood south of downtown called the Gulch, in which warehouses have been renovated into offices, restaurants, and retail space. The Thompson Hotel (a 244,000-square foot, 12-story building, with 224 rooms) offers a unique Music City experience with a vintage turntable, along with a full library of vinyl records from Jack White’s Third Man Records. Enterprise Solutions was contracted to perform the electrical scope of this project and to work in tandem with the Contractor, J E Dunn to implement two innovative programs.

The first major innovation that Enterprise Solutions utilized for the Thompson Hotel Project was the installation of prefabricated rooms. We developed a warehouse operating system at our headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee where we assembled build materials needed for the prefabricated rooms. All in-wall and overhead rough-in assemblies for the hotel rooms were prepared in-house and sent to the construction site packaged by room for installation. The prefabricated rooms saved production costs and time by building all assemblies in a controlled and repetitive environment. We are able to reduce excess material waste, avoid delays, and cost overruns by utilizing this method.

The second innovative process we employed for this project was pull-plan scheduling. Pull plan scheduling is a collaborative approach to scheduling that includes all employees that are responsible for supervising the work on the project. Pull planning allowed us to work directly with all trades to in order to create a streamlined plan for the overall project. Pull planning proved to be critical in the Thompson Hotel Project in order to help mitigate two major delays that could have potentially put the project behind schedule and over budget.

With an aggressive 21-month timetable given the scope of the project, the Thompson Hotel posed a great risk for cost overruns and delays. The project was put on hold for two months due to a major winter storm. Despite this delay, and through the utilization of pull scheduling, we were able to bring the project in on time. Additionally, due to the size and duration of the project, we experienced manpower challenges but by hosting job fairs and strong recruiting efforts throughout middle Tennessee, we successfully employed over 28 Enterprise Solution employees on the job.

In the Thompson Hotel Project, Enterprise Solutions self-performed 100% of the electrical scope. Enterprise Solutions installed all aspects of the electrical and low voltage work. This project included high-efficiency LED and fluorescent light fixtures. The installation of these light fixtures will help reduce power consumption by 30% when compared to standard practices, leading to cost savings and an immediate and long-term return on investment to the Thompson Hotel.

The Thompson Hotel was an exciting project for Enterprise Solutions. We self-performed the electrical scope, innovatively used prefabricated rooms, and applied pull scheduling to build a modern hotel in a contemporary industrial area. This project also allowed us to put our stamp on our hometown and help redefine the hotels in Music City.