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Vecino Group named Developer of the Year

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Top honors at the 2015 Salute to Design and Construction awards Nov. 5 went to The Vecino Group LLC.

Named Developer of the Year, Vecino Group rolled out over $30 million worth of renovations in recent years across four downtown buildings: The Landmark, The Woodruff, The McDaniel and the former Sterling Hotel. CEO Matthew Miller said the downtown projects represented a team effort.

“Individual projects are great, but to assemble the level of talent that we have, and to work together toward this higher mission of improving the world via housing – that’s the pinnacle,” Miller said.

“It’s hard to imagine a better companywide honor than this one.”

During the Salute to Construction Council banquet at Ramada Plaza Hotel & Oasis Convention Center, Sherwood Elementary School in Springfield garnered Project Team of the Year honors. The $18 million, 500-student school project, which features classroom pods and a 5,500-square-foot Boys & Girls Clubs unit, was led by general contractor DeWitt & Associates Inc.

The design and construction team included Sapp Design Associates Architects PC, engineers Olsson Associates Inc., Toth and Associates Inc. and Malone Finkle Eckhardt & Collins Inc.

A nine-member event committee established by the Springfield Contractors Association vetted honorees. SCA board President Brent Beattie of Wildcat Materials said the annual developer and project awards were based on a scoring system.

He said the three project finalists received site visits by committee members, and each ended up within a few points of each other.

Other finalists were the Tri-Lakes Biosolids Regional Drying Facility, a wastewater plant serving three communities in Taney and Stone counties, and Kickapoo High School’s Phase I addition.

“Any one of those three could have won,” Beattie said. “They all three had challenges that were unique to them. I think with Sherwood, the uniqueness of having the Boys & Girls club attached, helped them a little bit.”

He added a smooth handling of a few design changes during construction also was factored.

For developer, Vecino Group’s efforts to revitalize downtown and draw residents to center city gave it the edge.

“They’ve really taken some old buildings and brought them back to life,” Beattie said.

“It’s really a reward for their body of work.”

Miller said part of Vecino Group’s mission is to pursue projects that pass its “gut check,” which calls for a community benefit.

In that niche, sometimes the company passes up projects.

“Trust me, I’m a guy who loves the art of the deal. That’s what motivates me, and it’s hard to pass on deals sometimes,” Miller said, adding each of the four downtown projects needed elements of public financing to come to fruition. “The biggest challenge we had was making the pro formas work.

“We are blessed to live in a progressive city that supports the development community.”

A committee created by the Springfield chapter of the American Institute of Architects picked the Craftsman of the Year and Superintendent of the Year.

The construction of the Missouri State University O’Reilly Clinical Health Science Center helped a team from M&I Drywall LLC and DeWitt & Associates Inc. take home the craftsman honors.

Award recipients were Jim Newton, Waylon Wilson and Billy Gragson of Dewitt & Associates and Jorge Kariluna of M&I Drywall. The team was recognized for creating wood ceiling element wraps around the central staircase that moves throughout adjacent spaces at the science center.

“We have recognized for the first time in several years a team effort,” said Lindsay Reichert, a project manager with Paragon Architecture who served on the award committee. “They had a really interesting centerpiece of the project with the stairway. Its focal point is the circulation that winds up through the building. The architect’s concept was to get people moving through it because it’s a health-sciences center.”

Michael Rand of Carson-Mitchell Inc. was selected as Superintendent of the Year for his work connected to four highly technical projects in the Branson area: Tri-Lakes Biosolids Regional Drying Facility, the Cooper Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Compton Drive Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Hollister Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“Our superintendent this year has thousands and thousands of pages of documents to organize and go through to try and get these very highly technical projects accomplished,” Reichert said.

The first Salute to Design and Construction awards ceremony was held in 1985 as one of a dozen “salutes” to various industry segments, including health care, agriculture and government. It was sponsored by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce before the Salute to Construction Council took over the planning and implementation of the Salute to Design and Construction event in 1988.

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