by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
After spending a day in the recently opened UNM Business Center, UNM staff had different opinions about the building.
The new payroll office has some advantages over the old facility, said student Ashley Ortiz, who works in payroll.
"It's a lot newer, so I like it because of that," she said. "There's a lot more space in the area where students work, too. That's nice."
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However, she did not like the way the payroll office was designed, she said.
"It's too open, I think," she said. "This way, everyone can hear everything that's being said in the whole department."
She would like there to be more walls and doors in the 87,000 square-foot building, instead of thin partitions, she said.
The building at 1700 Lomas Blvd. houses several administrative departments, including payroll, human resources, purchasing and accounting. It was finished ahead of time and under budget, said Andrew Cullen, budget administrator.
The building cost about $9.55 million, less than the original budget of $10.8 millio--n, he said. Flyntco, the contractor for the building, finished major construction on Nov. 14, nearly a month and a half earlier than the original Dec. 28 deadline, he said.
Flyntco was to thank for the sav---ings in time and money, he said.
"I think that goes back to Flyntco's ability to run a really tightly scheduled project," he said. "The savings in time and the savings in money are directly related to each other."
Cullen said the company did not receive a bonus for finishing early.
Josie Abeyta, a manager for payroll, agreed with Ortiz that the department needed more walls, especially between the employee files and the rest of the building.
"There's no privacy with these partitions - they don't even go all the way to the ceiling," she said. "They're confidential files. They should be more secure."
Chris Adams, an information technology worker for human resources, said the building was almost perfect.
"I would say it's one of UNM's success stories, as far as buildings are concerned," he said. "Of course, if they could add a hot tub or a pool, that would be great."
A lot of thought seemed to have been put into the building, he said.
"They're really paying attention to details," he said. "Everything's very consistent. All the conference rooms have the same chairs, and all the signs have the same look."
All offices in the building should be functional by Dec. 21, Cullen said. The move will have little impact on University business, he said.
"We expect no break in the service for the Payroll Department, or the Accounts Payable Department," he said. "That's a major undertaking."
Payroll was giving out checks Monday morning from its new office.
Adams said the move went well.
"It went surprisingly smoothly," he said. "There was an unbelievable amount of planning beforehand. I personally went to three or four meetings about exactly what was going to happen when we moved."
Fred Youberg, who works in human resources, said it was good to consolidate the different departments into one building.
"We've been scattered across all these buildings for so long," he said. "I think it will be really nice for people who have to do business with the University to have it all in one place."
Much of human resources was in an old sorority house before moving to the five-story UNM Business Center.
Construction of the building began in January. It was built to help UNM conduct business more efficiently by having different departments working in close proximity, Cullen said.
The building was paid for by using part of the $135 million student-financed bond issue. He was not sure what will happen with the $1.25 million savings from the building, he said.
"There's a lot of needs, and we'll be looking at what to apply those funds toward," he said.
