Focus | Commercial Real Estate Awrads
INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES EXCELLENCE IN CONSTRUCTION AND ENGINEERING Finalists Loren Venegas, Ideal Contracting Susan Harvey, Ashley Capital Ryan Maibach, Barton Malow Loren Venegas CEO Ideal Contracting, Detroit
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EXCELLENCE IN ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN Victor Saroki, Saroki Architecture Joel Smith, Neumann/Smith Architecture Richard Hess, Quinn Evans Joel Smith President Neumann/Smith Architecture
COURTESY NEUMANN/SMITH
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the Michigan State Fairgrounds at Woodward Avenue and Eight Mile Road into the Jason Hargrove Transit Center. Today, the transit hub serves tens of thousands of DDOT and SMART bus riders annually. In another visible project, the Ideal Contracting team assisted the University of Michigan when it decided to replace the massive scoreboards at Michigan Stadium. The company, which erected four new scoreboard columns that each weighed approximately 70 tons, self-performed all civil, steel erection, concrete, and carpentry for their scope of work, and the project was delivered within the tight timeframe between football seasons. This project made Michigan Stadium’s scoreboards the largest in college football per square footage of video board. — R.J. King
EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY SERVICE
Finalists
hether it’s historic preservation, adaptive reuse, or an all-new glass tower, Joel Smith leads Neumann/ Smith Architecture with a progressive approach to projects while also presiding over a diverse and inclusive company culture. The firm’s credo states diversity leads to improved decision-making and enhanced creativity, with the added dividends of better client representation and greater social awareness. Smith, who is included in DBusiness’ Detroit 500, an annual publication of the most powerful business leaders in the region, has been at the vanguard in revitalizing the downtown area. Even though the Neumann/Smith home office is in Southfield, the firm established a Detroit Design Studio on the third floor of the Wright-Kay Building at 1500 Woodward Ave. The studio also is home to Hannah-Neumann/Smith, a strategic partnership of Hannah & Associates and Neumann/Smith Architecture that offers its own comprehensive architecture and interior design services. The list of local Neumann/Smith clients includes Microsoft, Ford Motor Co., General
ased on the numbers, if not the relative weight of erecting 55,000 tons of steel, Ideal Contracting in southwest Detroit helped build what will be Ford Motor Co.’s most advanced and efficient production complex in its history: Ford BOSK in Stanton, Tenn. Specifically, Ideal Contracting erected the steel for the 4-million-square-foot battery plant. The 200-person team, led by Loren Venegas, president of Ideal Contracting, included skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen made up of ironworkers, operators, and laborers. The company’s trade partner for the project is Walbridge, a large general contracting firm in Detroit. The Ideal team also helped refurbish the historic arched windows at Michigan Central in Detroit, and renovated and greatly enhanced the iconic Dairy Cattle Building that was part of
Motors, and Lear. Recent projects in Detroit run the gamut. On the glistening, ultramodern side of things, the 21-story Huntington Bank Tower integrates ground-level retail, 10 levels of parking, and nine upper floors of office space. Reaching 312 feet above street level, its rooftop hosts community events such as movies or telecasts of sporting events, which are projected against the glass tower’s upper reach. Other features include solar panels and a green roof. Another Neumann/Smith accomplishment is the 25-story Riverfront tower called The Residences at Water Square. On this building, the strategic placement of metal fins divides a glass curtain wall to suggest the outline of a large key. In Corktown, Smith and his team designed the newly-built Godfrey Hotel along Michigan Avenue. The exterior mixes brick and glass, in celebration of the neighborhood’s heritage. Inside, there’s award-winning terrazzo flooring, and the extensive use of bronze coloring gives the space a rich feel. — Ronald Ahrens
42 DBUSINESS || November - December 2024
Finalists Lynn Drake, Compass Commercial Paul Magy, Clark Hill Robert Pliska, Sperry Commercial Global Affiliates Robert Pliska President Sperry Commercial Global Affiliates, Birmingham
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obert Pliska’s father was a mechanic at Ford Motor Co., and his mother was an accountant. Pliska chose to follow his mother’s footsteps, and received a B.S. in accounting from the University of Detroit Mercy. He also earned an MBA from Michigan State University. In the 1970s, he was an accounting manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and gained additional experience as senior vice president of Lambrecht Co., overseeing mortgage financing and servicing. He entered commercial real estate in 1985, first working for a developer, then a realty company, and a property services group. He launched his own commercial real estate firm in 2005 with SVN Property Investment Advisors, and has been president of a Sperry Commercial Global Affiliates franchise in Birmingham since 2021. In service roles, Pliska has logged two decades on committees and in board positions with the Counselors of Real Estate of the National Association of Realtors. He’s a past
president of the Detroit-area Commercial Board of Realtors, and was elected chairman of the Detroit Board of Realtors for the Metro Commercial Investment Division. He has received the Michigan Association of Realtors’ award for Realtor of the Year, while SVN International named him Humanitarian of the Year in 2017. Last April, for his service as a six-term Detroit chapter president and two-term international board member of Legatus, Pliska received that organization’s National President of the Year award. Founded in 1987 in Ann Arbor, Legatus is an international organization of Catholic business leaders and executives who commit to study, live, and spread the Catholic faith. In an interview on the Legatus website, he described how the organization strengthened him after the death of his wife. “In a world that seems to be going crazy in so many ways, it’s been a source of stability and support,” he said. — Ronald Ahrens