Diamond in the rough

Manpower is one thing that will be considered as occupancy within the building increases.

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MAF Dalkia’s Arnaud Martinez and Francisco Ramalheira discuss the challenges posed by sophisticated systems in Bahrain Bay’s Arcapita Bank.

To date, $230m has been invested in the infrastructure and utility networks of Manama’s Bahrain Bay development. Though it remains incomplete, the bay proudly shows off its jewel - the Arcapita Bank HQ.

Less than six months ago, MAF Dalkia was awarded the FM contract and tasked with providing multi-technical services for AC, electrical, plumbing, BMS system, lifts, generators and managing soft services such as cleaning and landscaping. But the relationship between the two had blossomed before.

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“In the Middle East, there are two entities, MAF Dalkia which is the Energy and FM provider and Dalkia Utilities which is involved in district cooling projects,” explained Arnaud Martinez, MAF Dalkia Director for UAE.

Five years back, Dalkia Utilities won the BOO/T contract for the district cooling and sewage plant for the Bahrain Bay development. During this construction we had a very close relationship with Arcapita for the HQ because we have an interface with the utilities between the provider and consumer. Finally, Arcapita requested us to continue work with them.”

There was a partial involvement from MAF Dalkia to begin with. The company placed some electrical and mechanical engineers on site and provided some soft services alongside offering a consultancy service.

This was bumped up at the later commissioning stages when a technician and engineer were added, now making up a total team of 11 on site MAF Dalkia staff. Martinez believes that this number will continue to increase as occupancy does.

Early input
One of the factors that MAF Dalkia hails as leading to the overall success of the project was its early involvement from the concept to delivery stages.

“There was a comprehensive contribution from us [including] input in terms of design access and equipment and everything related to the lifecycle cost of the building,” said Martinez.

Further, MAF Dalkia contributed to the review of the specification and tender issued for construction, following up to ensure access and equipment were ready to be handed over for operation.

The company was also involved during the commissioning of all the testing of the equipment on site, review of O&M manuals and performance of the systems before handover and at the end witnessed handover on behalf of the client.

“From the moment construction started, there was active involvement from us. It meant there was an element of change we could introduce in the building, especially with the team that was to be permanently on site,” said Francisco Ramalheira, general manager, Bahrain.

Martinez explained that this early involvement improved the understanding of FM both on the project and in Bahrain.

“It helped a lot to change people’s mindsets; what FM is, the value of it and what we can bring as a company to client and asset. When I arrived in Bahrain in 2007 there were a lot of small multi technical companies, small cleaning companies, security companies, but not yet the concept of optimising and grouping the activities and having a one stop shop service.

This started when the first big development project started - like Bahrain city centre - due to the size and benefit of having a provider like MAF Dalkia - a one stop shop.”

And it appears understanding is growing with the company securing a number of projects in the country for 2012. But for all the projects MAF Dalkia has been involved with, Arcapita is one of its favourites.