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CONSTRUCTION NEWS The Industry’s Newspaper
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www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 20 H Number 8 H AUGUST 2020
Father and son dynamic
Flooring family
L-R: Father-and-son Flynn Construction Inc. team Patrick Flynn and Preston Flynn
Terri and Mark Szeneri are proud of multi-generational wood flooring company Ace Hardwood Flooring’s family legacy.
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or most of his life, Preston Flynn, Vice President of Flynn Construction Inc., has watched his father, Patrick Flynn, build a construction industry legacy. Now, he strives to ensure the legacy continues. “My father had a structural engineering background and worked for a contractor before he started the company in 1986 in the middle of a downturn,” Preston says. “He started out building fences, doing anything they could get their hands on in the late ‘80s, and really started following Royce Faulkner in the ‘90s. Royce Falkner built a lot of semiconductor clean rooms and we would do the smaller cleanrooms as we got introduced to the semiconductor industry. We were kind of tight knit in that semiconductor
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hile Jimmy R Sanchez’s friends were making post-high school college plans, he had a plan of his own: construction. “I was 17, and even then I knew that I wanted to build houses,” Sanchez says. “My influence in construction was my first wife’s dad. He was a master builder and master carpenter who built cabinets. He taught me construction and got me into this.” Young, strong and a hard worker, Sanchez voraciously learned the trade. In his 30s, he decided he wanted to be a superintendent, but was told he lacked education and experience. He enrolled at Austin Community College and took classes in construction management, architectural drawing and blueprint reading and got his first break as a superintendent working on a San Antonio hotel project. For more than 10 years, he worked in that
cleaner industry in the ‘90s and that became our bread and butter, but it moved overseas by the end of the ‘90s. There was a lot of work for UT in the 2001 downturn and we got more into private, ground up office and healthcare.” For many of those years, Preston watched his dad navigate the changing markets, and joined the company as a teen. “I was always in the field every summer and in the office during Christmas break,” Preston says. “I was on a job site every summer since I was 14; I started out as a laborer. By the time I was 17, I was managing safety at UT for a summer and always got to be around really good projects and good people. You learn a lot being hands on more than you do a classroom.” continued on Page 14
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ark Szeneri began his career in the lumber, building, and hardwood flooring industry as an adolescent working alongside his brothers and father, Joseph Szeneri. Joe Szeneri began his career in the lumber industry in 1939 while living in Ohio before relocating to southern California in 1968 to transition into becoming a residential builder. Under the guidance of his father, Mark and his brothers not only learned the trade but developed a passion for the many aspects of the lumber industry, which has remained in all of them to this very day. Like most trees that sustain the hardwood flooring industry, the seed for Ace Hardwood Flooring Inc. was planted in
Austin, TX after Mark Szeneri relocated from California to Texas in 1977. Ace Harwood started in a much different and smaller location and has since moved four times. President and owner Szeneri leads a dedicated team including Management/ Sales Director Tim Dunnahoo, Job Supervisor Manny Casteneda, Accounting Manager Jon Sheppard, Senior Marketing Director Lizbeth Ramirez and 16 subcontractors. Together, they manufacture, install, sand, and finish lumber, flooring, stairways, end-grain blocks, ceilings, backsplashes, and countertops, all with top quality wood. Ace’s wood selection is endless, including European Oak, Fir, Walnut, Anticontinued on Page 14
Brave new business
For Jimmy R Sanchez, a pandemic is the best time to launch a construction business.
capacity for several companies on projects including the downtown Austin Hilton and the Evangeline. “I have had a great career and have worked for great companies. I’ve done many big downtown projects and have been involved as an owner’s rep, senior project manager and job superintendent, so I’ve done a lot in construction management.” Sanchez broke into consulting over a year ago and was doing very well as an owner’s rep overseeing a Midland multifamily project – and then the pandemic hit in March. Sanchez, however, wasn’t caught unprepared. He had paid close attention to past recessions and took note of what successful businesses did. “I knew it was coming; there were just so many factors. What I learned in 2008 is that everyone who was building something was up to their ass in debt. We continued on Page 14