Designer barely beats builders to finish line in Harrah's project

PENTA Building Group in nearly finished with a 5,000-square-foot Asian restaurant at Harrah's Lake Tahoe.

The project's design, however, won't be finished much before the builders begin packing up their tools.

The process of building even before the design is complete is hair-raising, acknowledges Lou Primak, PENTA's Reno-based area manager.

"It's almost like building from drawings that aren't there," he says. "You're doing a lot of sketches on napkins."

Harrah's, however, needed the project in a hurry. Work began in late January, and the casino badly wanted the restaurant to be open for customers during the big Fourth of July holiday, says Randy Conroy, the property's vice president for finance.

Then, too, Harrah's wanted to limit the pain of high-priced space failing to generate revenue during the renovation.

The process used by PENTA with designers Barada Fuetsch Architects and TM & SK Design Co. wasn't based on a firm price quotation.

Instead, Primak says, the company provided what's known as "an opinion of probable cost" that includes plenty of room for contingencies.

Then the builder put experienced estimators and supervisors on the job so they could work closely with designers to find the best way of doing things things such as installation of a 1,200-gallon fish tank in the new restaurant. Or ensuring cost-effective use of feng shui techniques.

The fast-track technique, fairly rare in northern Nevada, is common among casino jobs in Las Vegas, Primak says.