Covering the Industry’s News
P.O. Box 791290 San Antonio, Texas 78279-1290
Texas Style
PRSRT. STD. U.S. POSTAGE PAID DALLAS, TX PERMIT #1451
Change Service Requested
San Antonio Dallas/Fort Worth Austin Houston South Texas
Dallas/Fort Worth
CONSTRUCTION
™
The Industry’s Newspaper www.constructionnews.net
H
(210) 308-5800
H
Volume 13
H
Number 11
H
NOVEMBER 2015
Dallas by design
All in the family
JQ’s Dallas staff is downtown – and all together – again.
Rachael Cummings is part of the second generation running her family’s plumbing company.
A
n 80-person conference room. A café with a kitchen for employees who want to cook lunch rather than microwave it. A fitness room. A rooftop deck overlooking views of downtown Dallas. “All of this is located on the second floor with our offices, conference rooms and other support locations on the ground floor,” JQ managing partner Stephen Lucy, PE, says of the firm’s new location in downtown Dallas. “In addition, we will be a part of all of the dynamic changes currently taking place in the Design District and West Dallas.” JQ’s newly-renovated 31,000-sf office space located at 100 Glass Street is a far cry from the 13,500-sf building they
relocated from at 2105 Commerce. In addition to the amenities, the increase in space will finally reunite the Dallas team, now totaling nearly 100 members. “Due to our growth we have had to office some of our staff in separate lease space and have also been limited in our ability to have some much-needed amenities such as training rooms, break/gathering spaces and break-out meeting spaces,” Lucy says. “The new office allows us to get all Dallas staff back under one roof and provides for future growth. In addition to addressing needs for our expanding staff and services, the new office will provide us a better work environment which will further assist in retention continued on Page 18
F
irst comes love, then comes marriage, then comes company ownership and a baby carriage. That’s how it went for Kim and Robbie Mayse, who began courting in the sixth grade, married in 1983, founded a plumbing company in 1985 and started their family that same year. In the 30-year history of the company, Kennedale Mansfield Plumbing (KMP) has grown in parts, been sold off in others, moved into new offices a few times and welcomed two of Kim and Robbie’s children into the fold. “My mom and dad actually started Kennedale Plumbing in 1985 in my mom’s mother’s house,” Rachael Cummings, KMP’s CFO, says. “They purchased
a company called Mansfield Plumbing which had been around since the 1950s. They then incorporated Kennedale Mansfield Plumbing.” The company moved to Venus and then returned to Mansfield in the early 1990s. Eight years later, the couple bought and expanded another Mansfield office. By 2004, what had started as a home-based business had boomed into a $12 million company with additional offices in McKinney and Houston. With four kids of their own now needing more of their time, Kim convinced Robbie to scale back, sell the company’s new construction/residential side and focus on offering service. Within two years though, continued on Page 18
A new Millennium in housing
B
uilt as a U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) project, the construction goal for the Millennium Apartments was to make the residences best-in-class and indistinguishable from other McKinney market-rate properties. General contractor KWA Construction made sure that goal was met and exceeded. The 162,440-sf, 10-building complex is a study in how to create highend, low-cost, multi-family housing using exceptional design and high-quality materials. Although 130 of the 164 residences are reserved for low-income residents, material quality was not sacrificed in the name of affordability. Each building utilized traditional slab-on-grade construction, concrete paving and high-quality wood frames. Exteriors include Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) flat roofs and 100 percent masonry (brick and composite stone) highlighted by architectural detail-
Millennium Apartments is a modern, but cost-conscious, affordable housing project in McKinney.
ing. Residents have a choice of one-, twoand three- bedroom units boasting ninefoot ceilings, patios and balconies and high–end appliances. They also enjoy access to a community center with a swimming pool, library, business and fitness centers, a sun porch and cookout area. In addition to these amenities, the Millennium Apartments are conveniently located in the exemplary-rated Frisco Independent School District, and adults can access nearby life-enrichment opportunities. Project manager Don Jones says the project is KWA Construction’s third assignment for GroundFloor Development. Their existing relationship smoothed the path for any challenges the project faced, including unexpected city requirements. “The unique aspect of this building was the requirements by the City of McKinney to have all of the concrete paving in continued on Page 18