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CONSTRUCTION
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Volume 13
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Number 3
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MARCH 2016
Brick on it
Striving every day
L-R: Acme’s commercial sales team: David Sterne, Steve Cox, Chris Pelton, Steve Christianson
L-R: Noah and Crystal Espinoza
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cme Brick Co. (Acme) has had a strong start to 2016 by selling its brick and other construction related products directly to architects and masonry contractors in the Houston market. “Our ever growing list of products has prompted us to make this change from our former arrangement,” said Rusty Haile, Acme’s South Texas regional sales manager. “We have always called directly on architects in all our other markets and Houston is now consistent with the rest of our company.” Architects in Houston can now draw from the resources of five of Acme’s largest commercial brick plants located in Perla, Arkansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Denver,
Colorado and Acme’s Elgin and Denton. “We have a local yard to inventory our commercial products which will support scheduling,” Haile said. Acme has added architectural representatives, all of whom are well known inside the Houston community. Steve Christianson has been an 11year sales leader for Acme and has been the point man with its former distributor. Christianson’s hobbies on the side include woodworking, do-it-yourself projects and spending time with his grand kids. Steve Cox is an eight-year Acme veteran and salesman with heavy multi-family experience. Cox enjoys playing golf, continued on Page 18
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oah Espinoza is the Master Plumber and founder of All About Plumbing. He operates the League City-based company with his wife Crystal. “I began doing plumbing work after I graduated high school because I knew I needed to learn a trade,” Espinoza said. “Several of my family members are also plumbers. My brother Vidal works with us today.” After working in the plumbing industry for more than a decade, Espinoza started All About Plumbing through referrals from previous customers. Espinoza says at the time, he was the youngest plumber in the State of Texas to receive his Master Plumber license (Texas
State Board of Plumbing Examiners). Established in 2007, the company has operated at its current location for more than a year. “It is a prime location for us,” he said. “We have definitely seen an increase in business since we moved here.” An eye catching wood sculpture in the shape of a pipe wrench is in front of the office. “The tree out front was starting to get old and the limbs were falling down,” Espinoza said. “We didn’t want to cut the tree down, so we found the sculptor named Earl Jones from Galveston to do the wood sculpture. continued on Page 18
Achieving the end goal
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rch-Con Construction has recently completed the Gateway at Spring Valley project located at I-10 and Campbell Road. The co-developers are Ersa Grae Corp. and StollerUSA. Tenants include part owner StollerUSA (4th and 5th floor) as well as East West Bank (3rd floor office and 1st floor bank branch). The restaurant Peli Peli will also be on the first floor. Arch-Con Construction’s senior vice president is Jason Cooper; senior project manager is Ken Hudson and the building superintendent is Montan Montemayer. According to Cooper, the construction team utilized four story tilt wall panels to achieve a fire rating between the building and the parking garage. “The site was very constrained, therefore staging deliveries was crucial as storage and construction workers were at a premium,” he said.
Cooper says the exterior construction materials included glass curtain wall and architectural precast with tilt wall panels between the building and parking garage. The interior construction materials included stone, glass, glass walls, upgraded light fixtures, cork flooring, wood veneer, motorized fabric blinds and 3M acrylic panels Major challenges were keeping the Class A project within its preliminary budget and having a tight timeline. “We held the budget by working with the design team from the onset of design and reworking design features to ensure the architectural intent was maintained,” he said. “With the amount of rain in 2015, the timeline was constricted. “We overcame this by overlapping trades and starting core MEP work early Gateway at Spring Valley
continued on Page 18