First Midwest Group — Commercial Building Shell
Electrical infrastructure connecting a new building, its site, and the next phase of construction.
Project at a glance
- Location
- Rockford, Illinois
- Project
- Ground-up commercial shell & site
- Electrical service
- 400A · 120/208V · three phase
- Site lighting
- Five 25-foot LED light poles
- Next phase
- Infrastructure for tenant installation
An electrical foundation for the next phase
Before a commercial tenant can complete an interior, the building needs utility service, underground routes, exterior lighting, and pathways for future systems. LH Block Electric provided that foundation for First Midwest Group’s ground-up commercial building in Rockford, Illinois.
Our shell and site scope brought together a 400-amp service, underground infrastructure, parking-lot and building lighting, and provisions for the tenant’s electrical installation.
Adapting the service to utility requirements
The installation included a 400-amp, three-phase, 120/208-volt service with a building-mounted CT metering cabinet and outdoor fused service disconnect.
The original design anticipated a nearby pad-mounted transformer. As utility requirements developed, the connection changed to a utility pole approximately 300 feet away. That change required revisions to installed underground infrastructure, conductor sizing for the longer route, and coordination during directional boring. An approved aluminum-conductor alternative provided a lower-cost approach than the revised copper design.
A defined handoff to the tenant contractor
LH Block installed a conduit route from the service disconnect to the future interior panel location and supplied feeder conductors for installation by the tenant’s electrical contractor.
Building-lighting conduit and wiring were routed toward the future panel location. These provisions established connection points for the next phase while keeping the shell scope and the tenant contractor’s responsibilities clear.
Lighting the building and its site
Five 25-foot steel poles with LED fixtures were installed on precast concrete bases, with underground conduit and wiring connecting the locations across the site.
The building-lighting scope included the scheduled fixture package, exit and emergency lighting, and two additional LED wall packs.
Installing pathways before paving
The underground work included two communications conduits between the building and parkway for future telephone and internet service, plus a sleeve for a future gas line.
Additional pathways served planned monument, directional and announcement signs, a clearance bar, and a drive-through loop-detector sleeve. These routes were provided for later wiring and connections by others—before final paving and landscaping made access more difficult.
Coordinating the shell, the site, and what comes next
Commercial shell construction calls for coordination across utility service, building systems, site improvements, and future tenant work. This project required that coordination while adapting to a changing utility-service arrangement.
For developers and general contractors, the result was electrical infrastructure serving the shell and site, with a defined starting point for the tenant’s interior buildout.
From underground routes to exterior lighting.
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