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CONSTRUCTION
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The Industry’s Newspaper www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 22 H Number 1 H JANUARY 2019
How the Keck did it happen?
40 years of not working
L-R: Owner of Keck Electric Co, Tommy Keck and Vice President Casey Keck.
Setien & Associates team
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et’s take it from the top. Tommy Keck was in the Air Force Reserve in 1973, going through basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Then he went to electrician school at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, TX. “We were stationed out at the 433 Tactical Airlift Wing at Kelly and a ‘prime beef’ [civil] engineering [deployable] team. I was an electrician out there,” explained Tommy. After coming out of the AF Reserve, Tommy went to work for a small electrical company that he remembers being located on Josephine St. “I worked for other companies along the way. My wife, Julie, was pregnant with Casey while I was working for another electric company,” shared Tommy.
“She got laid off and then I got laid off. We didn’t have any insurance, so we had to pay cash for Casey to be born. When Casey was born, that’s when I went into business for myself.” Tommy is the proud owner of Keck Electric Co, which he established in 1981. Of course, Tommy was on his own then, but already had nine years of experience within the trade. To continue what he started, Tommy paid $600 for an old, used green van, made it his by installing shelves in it and started to go to work. “The engine was between the twobucket seats,” Tommy recalled. “I remember I had to pick up Casey from day care and I had his little car seat strapped down to the top of the engine.” continued on Page 21
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young man of 14 getting ready to start high school usually only has one or two things on his mind. Likewise, a father with a daughter preparing to start high school has only one thing dominating his thoughts as well. When Domingo Setien was 14 and getting ready to start his freshmen year at Central Catholic High School, he naturally was only interested in seeing his girlfriend. Every chance he could, he would go and visit the young lady. Her father, an engineer, had converted his garage into a work studio where he and his buddies would work on designs and brainstorm ideas. “All these men would accumulate in the afternoon and evenings,” recalls
Setien. “I’m looking at these guys and they were jolly and laughing. They’d come in smoking their cigarettes and just going to town working at their tables. I was intrigued by their attitudes and how they were bouncing ideas off each other.” Noticing the frequent visits by Setien and being a protective father, he decided he had to disrupt the visits, as the two were too young to be seeing each other so often. He approached Setien during one of his visits and gruffly asked him if he wanted to learn the stuff they were working on. Suddenly, money seemed to be more important. As he learned, he earned – $.75 an hour to be exact, scrubbing drawings. continued on Page 21
A new distribution center
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ounded in 1997, Catamount Constructors, Inc., has been in business for 22 years and opened their San Antonio Office eight years ago. After 20 years, Catamount transitioned in 2017 to a 100 percent Employee Owned Company (ESOP). With vast experience in commercial, industrial, multi-family, retail, senior living, medical and government work, Catamount is no stranger to multimillion dollar projects. In early 2017, Catamount began construction of the new TJ Maxx Distribution Center San Antonio located on San Antonio’s south side. The 1.2MMsf warehouse, plus 540,000sf mezzanine facility, took 15 months to complete at an approximate cost of $70,000,000. The distribution center is one of the largest and most modern in the country. It was built on a 200-acre tract of undeveloped rangeland near Mitchell and Cassin Lakes, wetlands known to attract
many species of migratory birds and other wildlife. Project Manager John Poitevint, Superintendent Randy Metz and MacGregor Associates Architects oversaw the construction of the new ground-up distribution center. Of the 1.2MMsf space, 540,000sf is mezzanine space and 33,000sf is office space. The slab-ongrade facility with its concrete tilt panels was constructed primarily of concrete and steel materials. The structure’s heights varied from 20ft 10in office ridges to 40ft low bay ridges and 60ft high bay ridges. The facility’s parking lot is equipped with 866 auto spaces and 846 trailer spaces with room allocated for an additional 266 auto spaces and 413 trailer spaces. The Catamount team was faced with 20ft of fill at the north end of the buildTJ Maxx Distribution Center San Antonio
continued on Page 21