HENDERSON’S HOCKEY HOMEBASE
Adan Carrillo
THE DOLLAR LOAN CENTER ARENA
ARTICLE BY: ADAN CARRILLO - PROJECT MANAGER
HOCKEY HEADS TO HENDERSON
Last Year, I was able to give you a sneak peak of a project we have been working on with the City of Henderson and Whiting-Turner Construction. This project is Co-owned by the City of Henderson and The Las Vegas Golden Knights and will serve as the home arena for the Henderson Silver Knights Hockey Team (the AHL affiliate team of the NHL’s Golden Knights). Today, I am proud to pull back the curtain on The Dollar Loan Center Arena and show you some of the work our crews did on this landmark project.
As the home to the Henderson Silver Knights, this massive arena is outfitted with everything one might expect in a modern sports venue. Drawing inspiration from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the Dollar Loan Center Arena is loaded with similar features. There are observation platforms that overlook the ice, an exterior plaza, and a design language that mirrors the medieval theme the Knights are known for.
READY FOR ANYTHING
The City of Henderson also has big plans for the venue, as co-owners they wanted to be sure that the arena would be a facility capable of hosting a multitude of events for their citizens. The arena can transform to allow for much more than just hockey. Additional events such as concerts, arena football, basketball, will be featured regularly. Accessibility was very important to the City of Henderson and they ensured that each seating area within was outfitted with reserved seating for attendees with disabilities.
Here is a glimpse of the “Aerial Lift Rodeo” that took place during the construction of the arena. As you can imagine coordinating an operation like this was a massive undertaking.
A COORDINATED EFFORT
The scope of this 197,714 SQ FT arena was considerable, and we were faced with our fair share of challenges as a design-build electrical contractor. Changes to the plan as construction progressed meant that we had to “fly the plane, while we were building it.” With a good deal of the arena being exposed and viewable to the public, both our designs and installations had to look great. Another challenge was posed by the high ceilings in the facility. During some portions of the installation, meticulous planning and scheduling was required in order to coordinate the use of multiple aerial lifts to do work in high spaces. Topping the whole thing off was that fact that a huge portion of our build schedule took place during the pandemic which added additional protocols and labor considerations to avoid potential exposure.
Thanks to the management of Whiting-Turner and coordination of all the trades involved in this complex project, we were able to make this project a reality. GSL’s electricians put in nearly 55,000 combined labor hours into this project, and I think its pretty clear that their hard work has paid off. Billy Collins, our General Foreman on this job, stated that all the credit for our success was due to his team. I would like to join him in thanking all of our electricians and designers for their work on this project.
