Serving the residents of Quebec City, Polyclinique Val-Bélair is a two-floor, 49,000-sq.-ft. medical office building that houses a variety of healthcare professionals including general practitioners and specialist practitioners, radiology, a pharmacy, a medical clinic, and retail shops.

When property owner NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT wanted to improve the lighting in the parking lot in 2021, it turned to Concept Illumination.

“At first, Concept Illumination came to NorthWest with a proposal for a lighting project for one of our newer buildings in Laval. They submitted a plan, but then COVID-19 happened so we put everything on hold,” explains Katherina Vannarath, property manager for NorthWest Healthcare Properties REIT. “The following year, we got a lot of complaints from tenants at the Polyclinique Val-Bélair property. I called Daniel for a proposal because the tenants were saying that it was very dark at night. Daniel proposed a turnkey solution and we were really happy with that, so we went with Concept Illumination.”

“Originally, the parking lot was only lit by flood lights installed on the two existing poles near the building, which meant that the rear of the parking lot was in the dark,” explains Daniel Herz, director of sales for Concept Illumination. “The client really wanted to optimize the lighting and chose to add poles and fixtures.”

The project ended up requiring the installation of three new bases and three new poles, including all of the excavation and electrical work; the installation of four new fixtures on new poles (one double, two singles); the replacement of eight flood lights on two existing poles (four per pole); the replacement of 31 existing wall packs with 31 new LED wall packs; and the replacement of 10 existing recessed fixtures with 10 new LED recessed fixtures.

The work was completed in three phases: the excavation and wiring for new bases and poles; the replacement of wall packs and recessed fixtures; and the installation of new poles and all the pole-mounted fixtures.

“Given the scope of work and the fact that it was rolled out in several phases, coordination with the building owner and their tenants was key. We also needed to make sure that vehicular and pedestrian traffic was minimally impacted throughout,” Herz says.

Managing all of the work and deliveries over three phases posed a challenge.

“In order to convert to LED and meet our client’s needs, three new lamp posts had to be added. To do this, we had to install three new concrete bases and run the wiring without doing too much damage to the asphalt,” explains Benoit Authier, project manager for Concept Illumination. “So, in a day and a half we dug 190 metres of trench, installed three concrete bases and the wiring, backfilled the trench and repaved the asphalt – and all of this was done while customers attended the shops and the clinics. I consider this an achievement.”

For the second phase, Concept Illumination had a team replace all of the lights on the two buildings.

“Many of the old lights were no longer working. So, there was instant positive feedback for good lighting and improved safety around the buildings,” Authier says.

The third phase consisted of changing eight existing 400w floodlights for eight new LED floodlights consuming 265w. And finally, the installation of three new poles with four LED area lights.

The project started in September 2021 and was completed in November 2021. Concept Illumination also handled all of the paperwork for the Hydro Quebec rebate.

The only concern that property management has had since the project was completed was that the lighting worked too well.

“The beam from LED floodlights is much more precise than it was with the old floods. Because of that, accurately angling the new floods was very important so we did not disturb any of the neighboring residential properties. We actually had to go back to fine tune four out of the eight fixtures,” Herz says.

“We’ve had good feedback from tenants. They feel safer when they walk out of the building at night,” Vannarath adds. “They really did good work, and the communication was very effective. They made sure to make us aware of everything they were doing, so we were able to keep the tenants informed. It was great.”