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San Antonio Construction News • Mar 2015
Metallic youth
Construction News JOB SIGHT
Modern remodel
As a Texas State grad, Peter Willcox, owner of Willcox Metal Fabricators, shows off his Bobcat pride with a metal sign from his shop. Mario Rivera, a “jack-of-all-trades” for general contractor Treco Enterprises, installed the laminate for new countertops and cabinet doors in one of the guest suites at the La Quinta Inn downtown. Treco started renovations of the largest corporate-owned hotel property in the country on Jan. 5 and should be finished by the beginning of April, completing a whole floor every 12 days. –mh
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n the first years as Willcox Metal Fabrication, Peter Willcox had started his own company so young that he feels it was hard for people to take him seriously: “I’d have people come in and ask where my dad was. It would definitely take people off guard.” Today, he’s the 34-year-old owner of a successful business, and it still might be hard for his customers to believe he’s been doing this going on 10 years now. He enjoys what he does and tries to do the best he can for his 27 employees. Last year, he was proud to finally be able to bring in health insurance, and in the next year or two, he hopes to be able to offer a 401K plan. “It’s really neat to me that so many people can make a living working here, and I just think it’s my responsibility to keep it going, and with my success, share it with everybody else,” he says. “I don’t want to leave anybody out, because Willcox Metal’s success is [because of] them.” Originally from Austin, Willcox moved to San Antonio after graduating from Texas State University, and three months later, was laid off. When opportunity knocked to start his own business, he started operating in Boerne and moved to San Antonio a few months later. At one point, Willcox had a partner and they bought out Triple J Manufacturing, which
made angle iron sign frames. He sold that part of the business about a year ago. Willcox Metal Fabricators does a lot of signs, and a very unique project was the AT&T logo on the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington. Willcox came in on the job to help complete parts of the signage, doing one entire logo on one side, and the top three pieces on the other side. They also did two of the words AT&T Stadium on the Jumbotron, and a set of letters behind one of the end zones. He says the logo is about 95 feet wide and the letters are 50 feet high, and he remembers that it required 18 18-wheeler truckloads from San Antonio to Arlington. They also had just a monthand-a-half to complete it, whereas a project like that typically takes them six or seven months to do. Willcox was particularly excited to be part of this project since his father played a small part in the construction of the original stadium. When his dad was younger, he drove a truck and delivered concrete to the jobsite. The sign business has kept the shop busy lately; they’ve recently completed the pylon for the Sonterra Village shopping center and the new pylon for Community Bible Church. Aside from the signs, Willcox did the wine racks for Kirby’s Steak House and Stonewerks. –mh
Construction News ON LOCATION
The men with a plan
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