CASE STUDY:
ConEst IntelliBid Software Helps Win Bid for Daniels Electric on Mototown USA Indoor Motocross Stadium
Mototown USA is the first dedicated indoor racing stadium in the United States catering to the Motocross and Supercross enthusiasts throughout the Northeast and beyond. The $25M facility boasts over 333,000 square feet and is located in Windsor, Connecticut. The founder and visionary is Tommy DeFranzo, a motocross riding enthusiast who saw the need for a world class facility offering practice, racing and events year-round. In fact, Mototown USA Indoor Motocross Stadium is the largest and most comprehensive facility of its kind for the motocross sport. In the summer of 2004 Daniel Ferraina, a local prominent real estate developer partnered with Defranzo and brought the plan for Mototown USA to the town of Windsor. On June 8, 2004, the plans for Mototown USA were approved and construction began shortly thereafter on January 31, 2005.
In February of 2006, Daniels Electric, a family owned electrical contracting business established in East Windsor in 1979 by Dan & Cindy Etienne, won the design/build contract for this massive sports facility. Bernie Morissette, Vice President with Daniels who was part of the very first company in the Nutmeg State to use ConEst IntelliBid, leveraged the estimating system to pull all the plans and numbers together, showing the owners different scenarios.
“From the get-go,” said Bernie, “It [IntelliBid] was user friendly and relatively easy to customize to feed our needs. And the labor units in the product are realistic. It’s easy to modify the labor units based on the degree of difficulty associated with the project.” This project in particular, was especially demanding (see sidebar) but thanks to ConEst IntelliBid, the electrical contracting piece was relatively easy, according to Morissette, especially when it came to modifying our cost based on design changes. “I use IntelliBid’s summary reports as back up and in all my years in the industry I have never been questioned about my change orders, principally because I could show them both my materials and labor units side-by-side. As a best practice I always submit back up. It’s not only a check for me, of course, it’s also a check for them as it relates to budgets. Over the years I’ve found it’s a win-win for both sides,” said Morrisette. For the Mototown USA project Morissette credits ConEst IntelliBid’s quick substitution and unit pricing on break outs as system elements he consistently relied on to deliver materials and labor on-time and within budget. But Morissette, when asked, will go even further.
“In the last three years we have increased our business three fold to over $5M a year. I credit ConEst, our exclusive estimating system, for at least a portion of that growth,” said Morissette. “In 15 years time ConEst has proven to be the difference in my ability to not only get the job, but to also earn the respect of my clients and the shop’s owners. At the end of the day what more could you ask?”
