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BUSINESS NEWS SG BLOCKS SECURES CONTRACT TO DESIGN AND CONSTRUCT A FOUR-BUILDING WORKFORCE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT TOTALING 183,000 SQUARE FEET IN NEW YORK STATE SG Blocks, Inc., a leading designer, innovator, and fabricator of container-based structures, has secured a major workforce housing project in Sullivan County, New York, representing the second largest project in company history. SG Blocks has been commissioned to design and build a four-building, 183,000-square foot multi-story, multi-family workforce housing development in Sullivan County, New York, representing an estimated revenue opportunity of $29 million. This complex will be built to house low- to middle-income households. SG Blocks will provide the services of a turn- key development manager for this project, including architectural engineering and design, project administration and building systems work. The workforce housing development will target employees for a newly built $1.2 billion destination resort that includes: an 18-story hotel and a casino and entertainment complex with approximately 100,000 square feet of casino floor, an entertainment village, golf course and waterpark. The hotel and casino

will feature more than 10 varied bar and restaurant experiences, including fine dining and an Italian steakhouse created by celebrity chef Scott Conant, and year-round live entertainment at the 2,500-seat event center. “We are proud to announce another major workforce housing development project, representing the second largest in company history,” stated Paul Galvin, chairman and CEO of SG Blocks. “The National Multifamily Housing Council expects that 4.5 million new apartments will need to be built in the U.S. by 2030, particularly in the affordable housing sector. Our modular approach to construction enables a faster time to market and notable cost savings for these types of projects, allowing innovative developers to rapidly address new market opportunities. “Our growing construction backlog, which currently sits at 715,000 square feet, stands as a testament to the value that the market places on our technology, and we expect to recognize revenue from this project starting in the second half of 2018. We look forward to continuing to provide visionary developers with our eco-friendly, economical and safe housing alternative,” concluded Galvin. Founded in 2007, SG Blocks was listed

on Nasdaq in June 2017. It utilizes code- engineered cargo shipping containers to construct and provide safe, strong, and green structures and environments. Instead of consuming new steel and lumber, the firm capitalizes on the structural engineering and design parameters a shipping container must meet and repurposes them for use in building. This unique methodology is transformative and delivers to its customers a sustainable and scalable solution that lowers their costs and increases lead-time to market. Clients have included Lacoste, Puma, Mini Cooper, Aman, Taco Bell, Marriott, Starbucks, Equinox and several branches of the U.S. military. SG Blocks, Inc. is a premier innovator in advancing and promoting the use of code- engineered cargo shipping containers for safe and sustainable construction. SG Blocks is the only container-based construction firm to receive an Evaluation Service Report from the International Code Council for its structural building materials. The firm offers a product that exceeds many standard building code requirements and also supports developers, architects, builders and owners in achieving greener construction, faster execution and typically stronger buildings than most traditionally constructed buildings.

BERNIE SIBEN, from page 11

❚ ❚ What do I just let you handle? ❚ ❚ What do I need to understand about what you’re handling? ❚ ❚ What do I need to do myself? ❚ ❚ What do I need to learn in order to do that? For the next month, the marketing manager and principal meet for 10 minutes every day to coordinate, mostly for the manager to answer the principal’s questions about activities and processes. The second month, the principal meets every week with the entire marketing staff to learn how the group functions, what the group is working on, what challenges they anticipate, and what assistance and decisions they need to move ahead successfully. At the start of month three, the marketing principal schedules weekly meetings for all the principals and the marketing manager. Now, with backlog still dropping, it is easy to convince the other principals that marketing needs their serious attention. And the first big turn-around success in making marketing an activity all principals recognize as important? Just before the start of the New Year, the marketing principal and marketing manager call a meeting of principals, discipline and market sector leaders, and senior project managers to develop a strategic plan for the next year. Everyone attends. BERNIE SIBEN, CPSM, is owner and principal consultant of The Siben Consult, LLC, an independent A/E marketing and strategic consultancy located in Austin, Texas. He can be reached at 559-901-9596 or at siben@sibenconsult.com.

the people who don’t attend get the worst assignments. In the end, none of the principals attend, so marketing staff suffers from a leadership vacuum wherein they get no instruction, no guidance, no praise, but a boatload of criticism when the principals finally realize that their backlog is getting dangerously low. Now, the principals panic, and they want to propose on every opportunity they find. One of my past employers used to call that approach, “Shoot at everything that moves!” I call it, “Shoot first, aim later!” First step: the principals recognized that there was a problem. So far, so good. Then it falls apart. Second step: the principals meet often to ascribe blame for the marketing problem. This is totally unproductive, especially since they all share blame equally but don’t want to admit or accept that. Finally, they appoint one principal to be the marketing/ business development principal. They think this solves their problem because they still think their problem is “who do we blame,” and that the person accepting this appointment automatically accepts the blame. Then, the principal meets with the marketing manager and gets schooled on all the activities involved in marketing/ business development. Finally, the marketing principal puts his/her working brain into gear and asks:

THE ZWEIG LETTER April 16, 2018, ISSUE 1244

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