Interview: Zaha Construction CEO Mariam Lortkipanidze

Zaha Construction, with a team with 25 years of experience in the construction sector, took over the construction-engineering direction of York Holding Group.

Currently, Zaha Construction is working on two large-scale projects in Lisi Lake and Tabakhmela. The project involves the arrangement of not only residential, but also various types of leisure and entertainment infrastructure.

Additionally, construction has begun on the 2,000,000-square-meter “Bazaleti Resort.” The region will include residential and recreational zones, as well as a hotel and a variety of commercial, public, and educational organizations.

All of this is headed by Mariam Lortkipanidze, who has extensive experience working in the construction industry. She has been in this sector for ten years and has worked on both public and private, large-scale initiatives on a global and local basis. Lortkipanidze essentially founded the holding company’s construction business and was responsible for assembling a team, developing a strategy, and establishing processes.

Mariam Lortkipanidze spoke to Diplomat Magazine about Zaha Construction, its projects, and future plans:

Your directorship has coincided with a rather turbulent time in business, as well as the new phase in the history of York Holding Group. What exactly has this involved?

The Georgian economy grew by 29.8 in Q2 2021 compared to the same period of previous year. The construction sector, which itself recorded a 30% growth, contributed significantly to the recovery of the economy. However, considering the lockdowns and restrictions on travel for foreign buyers, it truly has been a period with lots of uncertainties, although York Towers has proved to be resilient to these shocks, moreover we’ve grown and matured and took the time to restructure. During these 2 years we’d been building the in-house team of construction professionals in order to become more hands-on in our development projects, and finally came to a point when it was decided to form a separate arm for our construction activities. We underwent significant transformation in terms of structure, ideology, branding and technology.

What services can the customer receive from Zaha Construction under the one-window principle, and aside from dealing with construction-related issues, what services can be obtained?

Zaha Construction provides comprehensive services to our clients throughout the project’s life cycle, from sketches to turn-key housing, including project planning and measurement, design work, pre-construction services, the so-called DESIGN-BUILD service, which combines design and construction, as well as construction management and interior design.

It is one thing for an investor or capital owner to wish to build a hotel, a residential block or a shopping center and come to us with an appropriate permit, seeking to get precisely the type of building that is shown on the paper. It is another thing altogether when an investor gives us a general outline and tasks us with obtaining the necessary permits from the relevant authorities. This requires a different approach that combines construction and planning, Design-Build as we call it. It’s the notion that when owners/investors sit at the same table with architects, builders, engineers and estimators, great ideas — the best ideas — are born. And the way is paved for creative solutions to take hold, resulting in costs minimized, schedules streamlined and efficiences realized.

Design-Build - a construction delivery method offered by Zaha Construction provides Clients with a single point of contact for both the design and construction phases of a project. We as one entity hold single-source responsibility and contractual risk for every aspect of a build — from estimation, assessments and pre-construction to architecture, schematics, engineering, subcontracting, construction and post-construction, we manages all contracts with companies, such as subcontractors, equipment vendors and materials providers.

Clearly, the market is more regulated now than it was years ago...

We wholeheartedly support latest developments in the construction industry. I’m referring to the adoption of more stricter safety standards and regulations governing health, fire, and life safety. This will put us on a par with other construction companies. I’d also want to emphasize the benefits of recent fundamental standard revisions that control both safety and quality in construction.

It’s worth noting that our joint projects with York Holding Group complied with 90% of the aforementioned requirements even prior to their introduction. This has always come at a high cost. However, we operate in a high-risk environment, which necessitates strict adherence to health and safety regulations for our professionals, as well as to general construction norms. Our engineers and employees are priceless to us. This was true before the regulations, and remains true now.

In Georgia, where there are many construction companies, what is special or different that Zaha Construction offers to its customers? What is your the competitive advantage of the company?

In general, the construction sector is a complicated one, and rivarly may be seen in broad terms. Competition in the fields of engineering, steelwork, façade work, and decoration obviously varies. A hotel or an office building will have a different set of challenges than, say, a residential development. For example, there is a fierce competition in residential construction, but there are few Georgian enterprises capable of undertaking such a challenging project as large-scale hotels. One of our most valuable assets is the mix of young and experienced engineers and technical personnel who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with one another.

Furthermore, we use cutting-edge technology and are always searching for ways to improve it. Because our technology superiority offers us an advantage in healthy competition, this helps both the customer and us expedite construction.

To answer your question briefly, resources, expertise, and a will to improve ourselves are all three components of our competitive edge.

Though it’s true that sourcing qualified personnel in Georgia might be challenging, what are your thoughts on this?

The main asset of our company, as I have mentioned several times, is experienced human resources. At the moment, Zaha Construction employs as many as 25 engineers and technical personnel. , since they each bring decades of experience to the table in their particular fields of expertise. They are the company’s heart and brain. Each stage of the project is meticulously planned and designed by them. Our organization relies on highly qualified employees for the development of the project’s subsequent phases; this is a given. Zaha Construction now employs approximately 140 individuals, but this figure is expected to at least double in the next two years due to the scale of our planned projects.

How do you plan to double these figures? Tell us more about your future projects.

We intend to construct up to 1.5 million square meters over the next five years. All of this will be accomplished primarily through York Holding Group projects, however we are also actively working with other parties. We are moving into the second phase of construction of the York Towers projects - “Lisi View” and “York Town” - which is quite large, and most importantly, we are launching the Bazaleti Resort project in the near future; we are extremely proud of this project and believe that its implementation will benefit this region greatly. Economically and socially, this will necessitate doubling the number of employees and employing indigenous people not just in construction, but also in operational and administration jobs.

When managing such a large workforce a certain strategy and management style are required; I’m curious as to what is Mariam Lortkipanidze’s approach in this case?

We are a team working together from start to finish in open communication and purposeful collaboration to deliver otherwise unachievable results. Some of the team members at Zaha Construction have provided full-service land surveying, engineering and design-build services for more than 20 years — that’s back when tape measures and paper were the tools of the trade. Today, our crews are equipped with the latest technology to provide the most accurate and smart services available.

Our team members are self-managing individuals who are leaders in their industries. As a result, my management style is horizontal rather than vertical. My objective is to elicit the best performance from my team members and to develop them to achieve the best results possible.

In summary, in your opinion what is the main prerequisite for achieving success in this business?

You must know what you want to accomplish and with whom you want to achieve it. Our greatest accomplishment has been the formation and maintenance of a team of experts who have remained on the same page and shared the core values that determine the success of our work - they are highly qualified, driven, and unified as one big family. I am overjoyed that we are now pursuing our ambition — we have formed a new Georgian brand and are doing what we love, with the same team and a renewed sense of determination, as we plan to become the largest construction company on the market by 2025.