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CONSTRUCTION
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(210) 308-5800
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Volume 13
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Number 4
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APRIL 2016
Arch of triumph
Monkey business at TAS
L-R: Dallas office manager Jennifer Ortiz, vice president of Office and Industrial Robert Martin and superintendent Robert Lovell
Have you seen this monkey? TAS’ Rusty Vaughn needs your help.
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hen Arch-Con Construction President and CEO Michael G. Scheurich founded his contracting company in 2000, his vision was to expand and diversify its reach outside of its Houston home base. In March, Scheurich finally realized that vision with the opening of Arch-Con’s Dallas office, located at 8235 Douglas Ave., Suite 100 in Preston Center. For Scheurich, Dallas was a natural choice for Arch-Con’s expansion. It was a homecoming of sorts, given that he started his construction career in Dallas in the early ’90s, working on projects like the Ballpark at Arlington and Doctors Hospital at White Rock Lake. It also achieved Scheurich’s goal of diversification. The company is sharply
focused on Dallas’ office building and industrial markets, with a quick vision and intention to ramp up in the markets of retail, hospitality, multifamily, community and corporate interiors. “We hope to bring our unique business model to the Metroplex and broaden our brand,” Scheurich says. “There are many common core relationships within the major Texas cities – we expect to leverage these relationships to serve our clients better.” The current strength of North Texas’ building industry also played a part in the decision. “Dallas has a different set of economic drivers from Houston,” he says. “Therefore, the development cycle for continued on Page 18
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t was almost as if the entire French Quarter had been transported to Texas AirSystems’ Irving warehouse and parking lot for the night. The company’s annual Mardi Gras event, held Mar. 3 for more than 1,000 guests, had everything except a beads-tossing parade. A New Orleans-style band – complete with a washboard-thumping musician – played songs from the South. New Orleans Saintsations cheerleaders flown in for the event posed for photos with guests and manufacturers Texas AirSystems represents. Cajun food overflowed on the tables as guests ate and networked with abandon. A fire performer amazed the crowds with blazing tricks. And then there was the trained monkey – the emphasis being on “was.” The monkey, who had been hired to
perform tricks at the festivities, mysteriously disappeared during the event, and even more mysterious is the events that have happened since. Rusty Vaughn, a partner of Texas AirSystems, has tried his best to keep a lid on the chaos that has ensued since the monkey fled the party, but he can no longer stay silent: Vaughn needs the public’s help to find the missing monkey. “It’s gotten out of control,” Vaughn admits, sighing with frustration. “We really didn’t want to panic anyone, and we thought the monkey would have been found by now. I mean, we know the monkey is in the building. Every morning, we find evidence that he’s still there. Documents have been … damaged, if you know what I mean. Employee lunches in continued on Page 18
It’s the little things
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ift products company Diverse Marketing has a prime location for its showroom in Dallas’ World Trade Center, but prior to January, the interior looked as if the 1980s had come in to shop and never left. Black ceiling and slat board-covered walls, single level display tables and insufficient lighting made the space seem unwelcome and outdated. Nicole Arnold, owner of Nicole Arnold Interiors, was brought on board to revitalize a 600-sf section of the showroom with a new floor plan and light construction to bring the space into 2016 and so that it would bring new clients into the shop. “They have this really great corner space,” Arnold explains. “There’s a glass wall on the store’s front section, and in the area where the chain security gates open, there are no walls on two long sides of the corner, so you can walk right
Making small changes created a huge impact for Diverse Marketing’s showroom.
into the showroom. It is immediately adjacent to a main escalator and is very close to the central elevator, so there’s tons of traffic. It’s in a great visual spot; they have great real estate.” But even “location, location, location” wasn’t bringing in the amount of customers Diverse Marketing wanted “As with any trade show, they wanted to attract more walk-in customers for their January market week, not just make it a destination that someone has to come to at market,” she says. “We were hired to go in and give it a new look, something fresh and exciting, give it some color pop and make people want to come in and stay.” Arnold met with the DM team the first week of December to begin making plans, with the deadline being set as the second week of January. To meet an extremely tight deadline of one month was challenging enough, but continued on Page 18