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BUSINESS NEWS DALLAS AREA LIHTC PROJECT AWARDED TO FTK CONSTRUCTION SERVICES FTK Construction Services is pleased to announce the contract award for Brandywine Apartments, located in Richardson, Texas. The contract for this LIHTC rehabilitation award is $4,267,543. Brandywine Apartments, built in 1981, is an affordable rental community of 50 units for seniors 62+ years of age and individuals with mobility challenges. The property is located at 500 Rockingham Drive, Richardson, TX, 75080. The ownership group is National Church Residences, the architect for this project is Alliance Architectural , and the lender for the project is Capital One. FTK will complete extensive interior and exterior renovations over a 12-month time frame. Exterior renovations will include new roofs, paint, and electrical upgrades. The interior renovation will encompass updating kitchens with new appliances, cabinets, and countertops; adding central air conditioning; new flooring; new interior doors and windows; fixture upgrades; and new plumbing. Additional upgrades include parking lot
pavement, sidewalk repairs, new lighting, new perimeter fencing as well as energy efficient enhancements. Additionally, the community building will be renovated that will include a new kitchen and a renovated leasing and management office. FTK has recently completed or has in-process more than $163,000,000 in LIHTC projects with zero citations for compliance issues, and has completed 100 percent of its LIHTC projects on, or ahead of schedule. In February of this year, because of FTK’s demonstrated expertise, financial strength, completed LIHTC project portfolio and upcoming pipeline of projects, The Great American Insurance Company increased FTK’s bonding capacity from their previous $350,000,000 bonding capacity to $500,000,000. Mark Frazier, COO of FTK Construction Services said, “We at FTK are thrilled to continue our partnership with NCR at Brandywine Apartments. We always look forward to making a positive impact on Senior Housing Developments.”
“FTK Construction Services has been amazing to work with throughout the planning process for the rehabilitation of Brandywine Apartments,” said Tracey Fine, director of housing development for National Church Residences. “I have been impressed with their heart for community and willingness to meet the needs of our residents in order to provide them with quality, safe and affordable housing in the prime years of their lives.” FTK continues to ensure that all our project protocols comply with the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for preventing person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 as well as all emergency state and federal executive orders. With offices in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and North Carolina, Alliance Architecture is a dynamic team of designers, architects, and industry thought-leaders. The firm provides clients with expertise in architecture, interiors, and project management, with a focus on commercial interiors and workplace design, adaptive re-use, and base buildings.
MARK ZWEIG, from page 11
that when I eventually turned in my notice to join a larger, more successful firm, my boss, the chairman and CEO, said if anyone ever asked him about me, he would “tell them I was a s***-disturber, but that they needed their s*** disturbed.” I don’t think I realized what a compliment that was at the time! But really, it may have been as simple as the fact that I was not culturally compatible with the rest of the owners. “Cultural compatibility may stifle disagreement, but disagreement is sometimes necessary. You need people who will challenge you and your assumptions about things.” Cultural compatibility may stifle disagreement, but disagreement is sometimes necessary. You need people who will challenge you and your assumptions about things. It doesn’t mean you will always love those people, nor does it necessarily mean they will always stay with you over the long haul. I won’t deny that I don’t usually love having my ideas or ways that I do things challenged – at least at first. It can be very uncomfortable. But I do think it is often necessary if you want your business to move ahead and take on a life of its own, and develop real leaders who can keep things going in a positive direction after you are gone. Cultural compatibility is one of those things that, on the surface, seems like a good goal for hiring. I haven’t run into many people in this business who would question the wisdom of it. But maybe it’s time to rethink that one. MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com .
my students form their own teams to work on their new business planning teams at the beginning of the semester. After a few years of that, I decided that I would assign the team members and still do that today, 15 years later. Why, you may ask? I do it so there is some diversity. The least creative teams I had were the most homogeneous and culturally compatible. When they self-selected, we would have five frat brother marketing majors, and their ideas weren’t very creative. One of the best examples of that was a culturally compatible business planning team whose idea was to create a “koozie” for Mickey’s Big Mouth malt liquor, because they have an odd bottle shape. On top of that, because they were all duck hunters, they wanted to use a camouflage pattern employing the shape of the state of Texas as the basis. They couldn’t understand that they would have a very small market potential with that idea, because to each of them it sounded like something they’d buy. No diversity and cultural compatibility led to myopia. I have witnessed the same thing in AEC firms where the owners and key people all had similar backgrounds and ways of thinking. Diversity doesn’t just mean different sexes or ethnic backgrounds, especially when talking about AEC firms – not to say those things aren’t important. It can mean different academic or experience backgrounds, or different discipline expertise. For example, early in my career I worked for an engineering firm as the head of project development (another term for marketing) and human resources. I was the first non-technical person who was part of the executive team there and the first non-engineer to become an owner. I didn’t think many of the ways we did things at that company were the best ways to do things, and I pushed for a lot of changes. I will never forget
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THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 27, 2021, ISSUE 1410
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