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Francesca's Collections Corporate Office

Francesca’s Collections corporate office was completed October 2012 in Houston.  The goal was to transform a 220K-sq-ft warehouse into office space to house the Francesca’s corporate headquarters.  The J&S project team delivered an outstanding, modern 100K-sq-ft office space that genuinely represented our client’s upscale and classy style. 

The plans called for a 90-day substantial completion, a diamond-polished stained floor and did not initially include any finishes for the project.  The J&S project team, architect and owner met on a weekly basis to review any design issues and to select all the finishes as the project progressed, which was a big challenge. 

As deliberation for the finishes were made throughout the project and on the field, our team rose to the occasion, and overcame design obstacles and more than 40 change orders due to the decision-making process for the finishes. A project of this complexity and size is challenging in itself, not considering the time constraint, but was substantially executed within the 90 days. 

The office included an open floor plan with state-of-the-art features from the private offices to conference room, to the lavish restrooms and employee break room.  A unique touch that added even more flavor was the clean, hard-wearing and low-maintenance diamond polished and stained concrete floor. 

Congratulations on delivering yet another J&S quality product; a true display of how our project team shines through their hard work.

Company Announcements

Congratulations to Steven Van Eman from our Dallas office on his marriage to Whitney Rae on October 27. Here's to a lifetime of happiness!

Our commercial division was recently awarded three contracts for Texas State Veterans Home projects located in Floresville, Bonham, and Big Spring. Combined the project value is just over $5MM and includes nurse station upgrades, bathroom remodels, vestibule addition, roofing, dining remodels, special system upgrades, and mechanical updates. Great job on winning the bids!

J&S was a sponsor of the Houston Independent School District Foundation 2012 Golf Tournament held on October 17 at Wildcat Golf Course. The golfers pictured were J&S's own Ed McKenzie and Rob Peterpaul with guests Victor Fleming, Bob Kuhn, Marcus Swayzer, Israel Wong and Scott Fendrick and some unknown ringer who stepped up at the last minute with a 4 handicap. Lisa Blonshine was present in the background with beer support for our other handicapped challenged players.

Our Galveston office was recently selected by the Port of Galveston to do an exterior wall restoration, roof replacement, window replacement, and related renovation work to the cruise ship terminal one garage and walkway bridge. The Galveston region also won a bid at Galveston College for the renovation of two single-story buildings and to do site improvements on the VTTC Campus. Congratulations on the winning bids!

There were also successful bids on the JOC side of J&S. Our Austin office was chosen as one of four contractors for the City of Austin JOC program, and our Dallas office was selected as one of the contractors for the City of Dallas JOC. Congrats to both offices! Keep up the hard work!

Halloween 2012 marked the beginning of our special J&S holiday celebrations. In an effort to give gifts and thanks that really stand out to our clients, we decided to buck tradition and ditch the Christmas cards. We have designated two holidays per year as J&S holidays with the first one being Halloween. All the offices participated by delivering Halloween cans of popcorn to their clients. Renee Leaman and Genoveva Rodriguez were the deliverers for the Austin office, and they decided to really get into character! Stay tuned for pictures from our St. Patrick's Day deliveries!

J&S sponsored a team for the United Way
Golf Tournament on Oct. 6 in San Antonio. The tournament was hosted by Visionary Properties (Visionworks), which is one of our clients. The team of four included Mark Lane, the director of our retail division.

J&S hosted a reception on October 22 to support the Houston Community College 2012 bond referendum, as well as a reception on October 25 to support the 2012 Houston ISD bond referendum. Both bonds were passed in the election.

Prairie View A&M University

Jamail & Smith Construction has been working as a JOC for Prairie View A&M for three years through our BuyBoard contract. Just like any JOC program, we do a variety of renovation and repair projects with a few significant projects thrown in the mix. In 2012, our Houston office did some pretty interesting work for PVAMU, including constructing a new state-of-the-art goat laboratory.

Goat Laboratory
We provided metal cabinetry with epoxy countertops, new flooring, ceilings, electrical work and plumbing for the new goat laboratory at Prairie View A&M University. The lab will be used for experiments on goats and goat embryos. This facility features state-of-the-art equipment and maintains more than 1000 acres of goat farm land for these experiments.

Carden Waller Roof
We were selected to work on the Carden Waller roofing project, which entailed removing the existing foam roof and providing a modified bitumen roofing system. We installed new parapet walls and changed out the exterior windows in the high roof. The main challenge for this project was working in an occupied facility, but our team is highly experienced with such circumstances and worked with the client determine an appropriate and efficient work schedule that allowed us to complete the project within 60 days.

Agricultural Research Building Plumbing
J&S completed a large plumbing project in the agricultural research building. We removed all existing gas and air lines in the crawl space under the building, provided all new piping and pipe supports, and created a 27,000-sq-ft mud slab in the crawl space. The challenge with this project was cramped working conditions; our team had only 3-5 feet of standing space, but we were able to overcome this issue and finish the project to the complete satisfaction of PVAMU.

New Year's Resolutions

My resolution is to be a better proofreeder. - Stuart Stutzman, Marketing Assistant

Mine is to survive this year! - Darrell Smith, PE, Vice President - Healthcare Division

My 2013 resolution is to pick up my hobbies/things I enjoy doing again. - Genoveva Rodriguez, Proposal Writer

I resolve to get my radio controlled helicopters back out to the flying field, fuel them up practice until I finally learn to fly upside-down, do loops and rolls and the other tricks they’re capable of doing! So far, I’ve only learned how to LAND upside-down, which is pretty hard on the equipment. - Gene Rigby, Estimator

Make my health and family my priority and stop being so OCD about the small stuff! - Carol Voges, Administrative Assistant

Get back under 200 pounds. - Tim Odermann, Project Manager

Get back to the gym 3 to 5 times per week!!! - Jeff Clark, PMP, Project Manager

My goals for next year are to give more time where it matters, make more phone calls to family and friends, send more written letters, laugh too much, start my charity series of poker games back up, take more random classes, get a bunch of vitality points by being healthy & fit, and my last goal is to have as many “WOW” moments as possible personally & professionally. - Kim Holmes, Risk Management Consultant

Run 20 miles a week. - Andy Hood, Project Manager

Finish grad school!! - Ashley Goode, Marketing Coordinator

Employee Profile

Tim Odermann, Project Manager

Tim Odermann had an exceptional 2012 here at Jamail & Smith Construction, and we're proud to feature him in our employee profile. He has worked with us as a project manager and hard bid estimator since May 2011, and he's had some major project accomplishments. Tim's main project management focus is on Arlington ISD JOC, Chase Bank and Discount Tire projects.

Tim enjoys working here at J&S because we serve a variety of clients in both the public and private sectors. He believes that our flexibility in the type of work we do for each client really sets us apart from the competition. In addition to the work he does at J&S, Tim enjoys the people he works with on a daily basis. His funniest experience yet was the time someone from the Houston office turned on the heat in the Dallas office in the middle of July before they left to go back to Houston. Needless to say, everyone in the office was sweating before they realized the heat was on.

Tim was born in Montana, grew up in Dayton, Texas, and currently lives with his family in Corinth. He served four years in the US Air Force and would recommend any young person join the military to help pay for their education - Tim had 90% of his college education paid for because of his military service. Additionally, he learned some important life skills and job training that he uses every day in his career and personal life. When Tim's not at work, he spends most of his time taking care of this three daughters and occasionally squeezing in a round of golf.