BRIAN LEVY: Our owner’s philosophy is not that the customer is always right, but that we’re going to do whatever it takes to make them happy. That means going above and beyond the call of duty. The philosophy is if you do the customer right, they’ll do right by you. We don’t want a job, we want a relationship. We have companies that call on us to do just a project or whatever, and we respectfully decline most of those invitations. We don’t want to bid on projects. We want to be a partner with the companies that we serve. That’s where the “whatever it takes” motto comes from.

SHA: Student housing is such a hot sector, and it’s attracting a variety of new players. Are you seeing new entrants to market?

LEVY: We do have some customers who are new to the student housing market, though they might be standard market rate investors and owners who are trying to get into the game.

SHA: You do renovations. Are you seeing a lot more work with distressed assets?

LEVY: We’re seeing a tremendous upswing in not just the amount of projects we’re doing, but also the size of the projects. Three or four years ago, when the market was slow, people just wanted to do the bare bones minimum amount of work. But now that the banks have loosened up and want to get the properties off their books, the investors—particularly from California and New York—are coming in and buying distressed properties—many in the Texas market—and have a little bit left over to renovate them. So we’ll come in and take a C or D property and bump it up a notch or two. Not just put lipstick on a pig, but really put enough into it to make it feasible for the owner to raise the rents and increase the quality of the residents.

SHA: These days, everyone is cost conscious. Most developers will say it’s a balancing act between keeping cost contained, remaining competitive and keeping costs contained. How do you, on the construction end, help your clients keep that balance?

LEVY: Our customers in general are very cost and price conscious. They have budgets and they want to stick to them. On the flip side, there are companies out there that want to go all out. They need to be competitive because they know they have a small window of opportunity to attract the students to live in their place. They’re going to incentivize these students. Unlike with market-rate properties, students don’t really care about a free month’s rent or concessions, because their parents are paying their rent. They care about location, and especially amenities. We have companies that are even giving away iPads to every person who signs a contract. So the amenities change. Who dictates that? The students. They want the best, latest and greatest.

We’re hired by the owners and the management companies, and they give us their budget. If we can’t do what they want within budget, I’ll be the first to tell them. A lot of these companies have pie-in-the-sky dreams, but not the budget. We’ll work with them to bring their plans within their budgets.

SHA: What’s been your most unique or interesting project to date?

LEVY: We recently did a really cool project for the Preiss Co., University Village at Slippery Rock in Pennsylvania. They wanted to keep the look and integrity of the existing building and add onto it. We basically took the existing building—the leasing office—and extended it to include an outdoor kitchen, sunken hot tub, waterproof plasma TV, gas grill with LED lights and a smoker. It was just a complicated, exciting project, and it turned out stellar. Typically you don’t have customers that can do amenities out there at that level. It’s just so different than what’s out there.