Jack Nieporte & Associates
Company History Part II
This Story Continues from a Previous Page
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JNA began to gain a solid reputation, and a unique one at that, for taking on crazy projects and beating the odds to succeed. We fortunately gained a reputation for building things very fast. Plus it was fun, and because the industry and the financial communities that supported builders was flat on its back, we needed something fun to hold our interest and have some new benefit to provide to our home buying potential customers. Fastrack building was born with us.
Fast Track versus Fastrack
It will be important here to explain a few things to the reader prior to moving on. First, we did not invent building something fast; others have done it before and we are sure, much better than we could have ever done. So, let's set that point firmly in place here. Second, we did not invent the counterpart to FASTRACK in FAST TRACK. The two-word model is very different in scope and implementation than is ours. Our word Fastrack was born in the early part of the 1980's. Living and working in Utah we were not of course privy to what others were doing, if any, in a similar or like fashion. So, we decided to coin the word to differentiate it from the more traditionally used word, Fast Track.
Let us now explain the primary differences in these words, but with the intent and content of both compared with each other. Fast Track was reportedly created in the WW II period by DuPont Chemical. They needed to build their plants faster. They decided to split up the work into stages or building phases that allowed one to proceed while the other component was still being worked on. To be more specific, the A/E firms created a special bid package for this new concept. They put out to bid the sitework, etc. with the expectation that the bidders would bid it and start construction immediately thereafter, once being awarded the contract; but, the rest of the project was not yet completed but one it was, then yet another bid package went out to bid. The process continued until it was all complete and the project was done. As one might wonder, there were probably a vast myriad of technical and administrative problems that arose as a result of a design scheme that was at best (early on) piecemealed together into one fully integrated design package.
JNA was not building then or now the type of large industrial projects where this was used. Our projects compared to theirs were very small indeed. However, building a project has almost the same issues technically in a broader view, whether they are small or large. We needed to cut construction way down as was indicated earlier. Our Fastrack has now served our needs well these past many decades. We have nearly perfected this process in concept. We now know what should be done at a certain time and what shouldn't be done.
Alright, we continue on our story now that paused while you our visitor registered at our site's web registration page. We appreciate you doing that. JNA's former development company decided then to raise the fast construction 'bar' and to take on yet one more project. This one to be the largest yet. In fact it was a massive project for us to undertake at that time, now looking back. It was on approximately 7 acres MOL of land down near Brigham Young University, located in Provo, Utah. A California builder/developer asked us to bid on their project, since they were in another state and licensing, subs and supplier issues and the like, might be better and more easily done by a local general contractor. We were in the end deemed that contractor.
120 Unit Condo/Apartment Project in 60 working days!
Our next project was a 120 unit condo/apartment project. It was 120 four bedroom two-bath 1330sf condo units. This project was a real test of our metal. We were optimistic. But realism set in quickly though and we had a real tiger by the tail. This project was set to complete in just 60 working days plus excusable delays as a result of bad weather. We did it and here is the quick account of this project.
It was the summer of 1983. We began the project from scratch on July 8th and completed on or about the first week of September of the same year. It rained and rained and rained for quite a period of time when compared with the delivery schedule we committed to. We pulled the permit and began excavation the same day. Right behind the excavation came the footing crew and right behind them yet another crew. They worked side by side and did well. Within the first week we had some building slabs poured with framing about to begin on the first building. Their were 10 12-plexes, a community building, a commercial swimming pool, weight room and laundry. We had to work around some very large mature trees that really got in the way of our cranes.
The subs and suppliers worked their hearts out for us. They too were under contract to perform their work to our posted schedule, and they did; almost to the man! It was a wonderful sight to behold. People in the community were amazed. Our site superintendent was a young man named Randy Hickman. His counterpart on the vertical construction was a young man named Alan Squires. And behind them was the brains of the outfit Jack's partner, Wesley Wilson. These are the men that made the Fastrack program work. They truly excelled beyond anything we could have ever imagined at that point in our company's young lifetime. They worked long hours and sacrificed much to pull all of this off. The company did it! There were a million problems along the way but we did it.
Professional Builder Magazine again ran the full story. It chronicled the progress of the buildings with photographs and a form of date-stamp on the times. The article was very complimentary of our company and its efforts. As a direct result we were inundated by phone calls asking for our help on other projects. Many of them were out of the state of Utah. One in particular excited us. It was a large hotel to be built in Las Vegas, Nevada. The brief overview story of this project now follows.
560 Room Luxury Resort Hotel Built in just 7 Months!
We were summoned to California again by yet another developer there. This was a different one that our previous story above. This group was not on a tight budget it appeared. They wanted to build this project fast and they wanted it done right. We hired on as the Fastrack Construction Management firm. We consulted with the A/E team, all of the subs and suppliers, and many other specialty consultants, which were on the project team. The men involved were desirous for us to again succeed. They supported our efforts and we did the best job we could for them. The developer did have their own local Nevada general contractor. Our overall design-development-construction team was significant and talented. We were honored to be participating in this project with them.
Of special note was the very talented project manager for the developer. He was excellent to work with and did a superb job. This project was expected to take as much as two years to construct depending upon who one spoke to. JNA had a tremendous job ahead of them. The Subs in the area were not necessarily used to being told that they had to do something on a schedule; much less a very tight and rigid schedule. We had some pretty hairy meetings with a few who challenged us to the limit. They were large experienced subcontractors that had made their mark in that city and elsewhere. In time they meshed with the others and ultimately supported our construction schedule.
The project was a mid-rise wood frame stucco one. It had significant amenities not the least of which was an enormous commercial swimming pool and spa, as well as a large convention and meeting facility that could host large groups in one setting. The design was typical of Nevada and California. In the end it was built and completed in just 7-months against our initial schedule of 6-months. The project also grew from a $20 million dollar one to over $30 million. The savings on this one project from building it in a mere fraction of the normal industry time frame gave them a huge bonus in both time (with occupancy over one year earlier than previously planned) and money. Just think of the dollar savings just in interest and carrying costs! The numbers were enormous!
We could keep going on and on, but we should probably stop here for the time being. We have many more different and exciting additional projects that we could also profile but suffice it to say, we trust that the reader/visitor to our site, gets the picture. Again, we have done this consistently in over 45 states and other foreign countries. In a word, our system and methodologies work!