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Minnesota Real Estate Journal
April 2014
Company Profile
Providing an alternative to costly concrete replacement: Twin City Outdoor Services helps buildings look their best while saving their owners money By Dan Rafter, Staff Writer
K
ai Milota, director of sales with Plymouth, Minn.-based Twin City Outdoor Services, says his company has a simple goal: It wants to save the owners of commercial buildings money. And the company does this through its surface-restoration division. It's less expensive for Twin City Outdoor Services to restore cracked and crumbling concrete than it is for another company to replace this same damaged material. In today's economy, building owners and managers are looking for ways to cut their expenses. That's why it's important for them to consider restoring the cracked concrete in their parking lots and patios rather than replacing it. According to Twin City Outdoor Services, the company's surfacerestoration services can save business-
es 40 percent when compared to concrete replacement. Businesses and building owners can save 70 percent by paying Twin City Outdoor Services to restore block-and-brick surfaces instead of shelling out the dollars to hire another company to replace them. "At the end of the day, restoring concrete instead of replacing it saves money and is less intensive," Milota said. "In a retail environment, if you replace concrete, if you're ripping out materials, you might have to shut your doors for some time. With restoration that doesn't have to happen. It's less disruptive on business and customer traffic." Rich Byrne, the owner and vice president of Twin City Outdoor Services, says that his company originally focused on commercial snow-removal services, a facet of the business that was active during the Twin Cities' particularly harsh winter. The company still provides snowremoval services, and is still adding
new customers. But its surface-restoration business has also become a big one, largely because many of the driveways, parking areas and concrete columns that developers have installed outside buildings are getting older. This means that many of these structures are in rough shape, Byrne said. Companies and building owners then face an important question: Should they completely replace concrete or brick-and-block surfaces? Or should they go with the less expensive restoration of these surfaces? "A lot of these surfaces are dramatically deteriorating," Byrne said. "The weather, the sun, road salt, it can all degrade these surfaces. We saw the big building boom here in both corporate and retail spaces 10 to 20 years ago. All of those facilities are starting to show their age now. The businesses are now realizing that they have to spend money to maintain their reputations and their curb appeal. Building owners want to keep their tenants happy. They
need to do something. And often, restoration makes the most financial sense." Businesses and property owners don't have the option of ignoring their cracked or fading outdoor surfaces. As Milota says, exterior spaces can make a huge first impression on clients or customers. What will potential clients think if they pull up to a business only to find a parking lot dotted with potholes or concrete steps that are missing big chunks? "Curb appeal matters," Milota said. "Business owners need to refresh the look of their facilities. For the same amount of dollars that business and property owners will pay to replace a panel of concrete here and there, they can have their entire outdoor surfaces restored. We can make them look like all-new concrete." Byrne says that he expects business at Twin City Outdoor Services to continue to boom in the coming years. TCOS to page 22