Covering the Industry’s News
Texas Style
P.O. Box 791290 San Antonio, Texas 78279-1290
PRSRT. STD. U.S. POSTAGE PAID DALLAS, TX PERMIT #1451
Change Service Requested
San Antonio H Austin
Memorial Day May 30
Austin
CONSTRUCTION NEWS The Industry’s Newspaper
www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 24 H Number 5 H MAY 2022
I
Growing after 25
Two decades strong
L-R: Shad and Bill Zapalac
Mario Carlin, owner of Mario L. Carlin Management
n 2021, Zapalac/Reed Construction Company celebrated 25 years in business. The company was formed in 1996 as a means of continuation of the Austin office of EE Reed Construction. EE Reed Construction was established in 1977 and started operations in Austin in 1984. In 1996, Bill Zapalac and Gene Reed founded Zapalac/Reed Construction, both of which are still working today and are still partners in the business. Zapalac/Reed Construction Company is a diverse commercial general contractor/construction management firm. Bill Zapalac has headed up the Austin office of EE Reed since 1989 and EE Reed was well established by the time Zapalac/ Reed was formed.
G
Bill Zapalac, co-owner of Zapalac/ Reed started his career in construction as an intern working on roofs while playing football for The University of Texas. After a stint in the professional national football league, Zapalac returned to Austin and to the construction industry. As a Zapalac male family tradition, Zapalac’s son, Shad Zapalac who is now vice president of Zapalac/Reed, went to work as a laborer in the field throughout high school and college. Enjoying seeing projects come together, Shad got a civil engineering degree from The University of Texas and went on to work for another general contractor before joining the family business with his father, mother and now wife. continued on Page 14
F
rom a family of migrant workers, Mario Carlin’s mother wanted better for her son. She did not want him to work as hard as her family had, traveling from state to state, season after season, following the crops until finally calling it quits. By the time Mario was in middle school, his mom’s family was working in construction. When he was in the eighth grade, she sent Mario to work with her brother who had his own concrete company. “I’m going to send you with the Castillos so you’ll learn how to work and appreciate what it means to work. Maybe you’ll go to college so you don’t have to work so hard,” Carlin recalls his mother saying. Little did she know, according to Ma-
rio, most of the time while with her brothers, he and his cousins would go to the donut shop, have lunch at a restaurant or shoot pool at the pool halls. All the while, telling his mother they worked really hard. “I sure hope you go to school and do something with yourself, she’d say. That went on for about four years,” says Carlin. Carlin graduated from high school and went on to college, earned his degree and started working for an engineering firm who did a lot of design work for city projects. “It was nice, but it was inside work,” says Carlin. “I didn’t like being inside an office all day. That’s when I knew I was going to start my own construction company.” continued on Page 14
Building by example “I can build houses by myself from the ground up. I know all the different trades. Commercially, I have a core group of vendors that I work with and then I have my core group of guys. I’m training constantly which has been interesting. I’ve trained guys that have gone away to work for bigger builders and then later, will come back. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I think that’s a good sign that I’m doing something right.” Based out of Cedar Park, Are One Construction performs work from as far north as Georgetown down to the Colorado River. ”We try not to go over the river. I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes in Buda or San Marcos,” he says. “We basically try to stay around downtown Austin and north – Lakeway, Steiner Ranch and all the way out to Manor for commercial jobs.” With 44 current employees, Vito says he would like to get back into doing residential, the sector which helped him build his career. “My goal when I started the company was by the time I retired to employ 100 people,” Vito states. “Commercial is going to be a big aspect of that, with a home building business as another. Right now, my LLC is set up to do both, but there is actually an
ian Vito started his construction career working as a day laborer in 2001. He worked for several large national homebuilders until the recession of 2008 hit. In 2008, he moved to commercial work in Seattle, WA. Five years ago, Vito moved to Texas and settled in Cedar Park. In 2019, pre-pandemic, he started his own company, Are One Construction. “I have 20-plus years of experience,” says Vito. “In the beginning, I focused on residential remodel work. I have since shifted to commercial work.” When Vito started Are One Construction, he was a one-man show. Since then he has established a great crew and has people waiting in the wings who want to come work for him. “I have to get the contract for that next job and then I’ll bring on people,” Vito says. “I actually have what I call a mentorship program. The guys that tend to work for me are pretty green. Some of them are in college or just out of high school. Others might have a year or two of experience under their belt. I basically show them and give them the tools that they need to succeed. Gian Vito, owner and president of Are One Construction
continued on Page 14