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CONSTRUCTION
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The Industry’s Newspaper Happy Thanksgiving
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Volume 3
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Number 11
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NOVEMBER 2015
Matt’s opens third store
Totally noble
L-R: Ben Smith, Isaac Smith, Jeremy Smith and Danny Smith
L-R: Rene Capistran, Patrick Williams, and Alfredo Garcia Jr. believe that construction should be a noble field.
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hen Matt’s Building Materials owner Danny Smith moved to the Rio Grande Valley in 1969, it was in response to a request by the former owner of the lumberyard, Cecil McDonald. McDonald had come to the Valley to open lumberyards after Hurricane Beulah tore through the area in 1967. Having already learned the ins and outs of the lumberyard business, Smith was a natural choice for the job. In 2002, Smith bought the business from Ira Matt, who was the company’s accountant and who had purchased it from McDonald in 1976. There are now three locations for Matt’s: the original store in San Benito (1969), the Pharr location (1972) and the
newest store in Palmview (2015). Current owners include Smith, his sons, Jeremy (general manager San Benito), Isaac (head of purchasing) and Ben (general manager Palmview), as well as long-time employees Luis Macillas (CFO) and Oscar Sandoval (COO). Marketing director Nathan Cain says Smith has been in the business for 40 years and believes it’s not just about lumber – it’s about people. “When my boys came into the business I told them that if we don’t earn the business, we don’t deserve the business,” Smith says. “We need to do the best we can, with integrity and do it the right way. The only way to be successful is to please continued on Page 13
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new general contracting firm opened its doors in February in Weslaco, and opened an additional office in Wimberley in October. Noble Texas Builders is a GC, construction management, and design + build firm headed by partners Rene Capistran, president; Patrick Williams, vice president; and Alfredo Garcia, Jr., director of operations. “We provide hands-on professional construction services with pro-active solutions that deliver on a commitment to build quality facilities by an experienced and trusted team,” says Capistran. Even though the firm is new, Capistran says the partners have a combined experience of more than 60 years. The
firm’s philosophy is: “Having Fun, Doing What We Love.” “As partners, we came together and dedicated ourselves to building a company that would provide a friendly work environment that fosters and promotes employees’ growth,” Capistran says. “Noble Texas Builders core values are ‘Trust, Team, Community.’ The partners say the name ‘Noble Texas Builders’ comes from two sources. “What we have learned is the importance of being honest and ethical and building relationships,” Williams says. “When you take all those things one word defines that – and that is noble. It embodies the integrity we were looking for. If we continued on Page 14
It’s all about helping
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he Rio Grande Valley experienced a surge of immigrants beginning last year – desperate people coming from Mexico and Central America looking for relief. “We’ve been in the media spotlight for the last year,” says McAllen city manager Roy Rodriguez. “We’ve been working side-by-side with Catholic Charities to provide a site where we were able to have them rest, shower and get clean clothes.” This past summer, the city went on the proactive with a major remodeling project to provide a central place for immigrants to go find help from their own people. Called Consulate Row, Rodriguez says the idea to turn the building across the street from city hall into a multi-consulate set of offices came as the city was in the process of remodeling the building already for a Guatemalan consulate.
“Last summer, we were opening the consulate office for Guatemala across the street from city hall and we realized we had an empty building we could utilize there,” Rodriguez says. “We spoke to the governments of Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to see if there was interest there. “We found out that they were already moving to makeshift buildings here in McAllen. We pitched to them about remodeling the building and they were excited about it. With the immigration issue it just made sense. Now we have them across the street. They have been very good partners.” The general contractor on the project was Rigney Construction LLC, located in Edinburg. John Rigney is president of the company he founded 15 years ago. Project manager was Joe Lino and project The flag flies over the Consulate of El Salvador
continued on Page 14