Case & Associates General Contractors: Luxurious Craftsmanship in Any Economy

Discerning customers look to hotels to provide all the comforts of home when they are traveling. In order to facilitate this, discerning hoteliers look to a full-service contractor that understands how to incorporate the most current construction methods and materials, applying them with an eye for detail no matter how aggressive the schedule. For many in the hospitality industry, Case & Associates General Contractors is the firm looked to for delivery of on time and on budget sequencing of all structural, cosmetic and mechanical services necessary.

Case & Associates has over two decades of experience in construction and renovation for national, regional and local developers. The firm has worked all across the United States (including Hawaii) from its headquarter in Houston, Texas. Over the years, the firm has earned a solid reputation for its commitment to quality workmanship. The firm also takes extra care to prepare and schedule renovations so as to disrupt an active hotel’s operations as little as possible.

Thanks to its commitment to honest, client-oriented services, Case & Associates regularly works for luxury hotel chains – including repeat customers Starwood, Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton – as well as for independent boutique hotels and casino families such as Harrah’s. Allen H. Case, the firm’s principal owner and current president, who brings over 22 years of experience to the firm, believes the key to Case & Associates’s success lies in the quality of its personnel.

“We have about 14 full-time employees, and many of them have been in the industry for over 20 years,” says Case. “We take pride in our staff and our craftsmen.” The firm primarily operates as a general contractor and project manager, assembling and supervising a team of proven subcontractors augmented by a few in-house tradesmen to take care of finishing as needed. Allen personally is involved in the pre-construction, design and estimating stages of projects.

Though the firm has had a few slow years as a result of the economic downturn, things appear to be picking up as renovations have become a more cost-effective way to update a hotel’s image. “We don’t expect to see 2011 be a real bang-up year, but we’re definitely expecting things to pick up towards the end of the year and into 2012,” reveals Case.

Staying Ahead of the Curve

While hotels have definitely slowed down new construction operations in the past few years, Case feels the industry has reached a critical point where many companies simply can’t afford not to update their properties. “A lot of these hotels have been holding off on new construction and renovation, but in the hotel market, your product needs to be fresh and current, because if it’s not, customers will book at another hotel down the street.”

Currently, the firm is working on a renovation to a W Hotel in New Orleans, La. For the renovation of this French Quarter area building Case & Associates turned its primary attention to the building’s exterior. “We’re making improvements to the building’s roofing system, and replacing windows and reinforcing waterproofing, and this is being completed while still occupied,” explains Case.

The firm is no stranger to tailoring work schedules to cause minimal inconvenience to a hospitality facility actively in operation. More often than not, renovating an occupied hotel is the norm, and has been increasingly common recently when hotels can’t afford to leave rooms empty. The firm understands the need to balance both quality and speed and carefully sequences the stages of renovation or construction with the help of the client to cause as little disruption to daily operations as possible.

Able to coordinate the entire range of construction services, Case & Associates is also called upon for far more extensive projects, dispersing teams through the facility in one block of time rather than in stages. The firm recently completed a renovation project at the Sheraton Hotel in Steamboat Springs, Colo. The Sheraton underwent $20 million in renovations to all the guest rooms and shared spaces throughout the complex, extending to a number of villas. As part of the renovations, Case & Associates oversaw a total mechanical renovation.

As the project was not a new construction, the firm was responsible for retrofitting the new mechanical systems into the existing structures. “We executed a complete redoing of the HVAC systems,” says Case. Though the scope of the renovations was extensive, the hotel remained closed for just six weeks.

Also this year, Case & Associates expects to be part of some major renovations at a hotel on the island of Kauai, and the firm is finishing up renovations to both rooms and public spaces at the Hilton Hill Country in San Antonio, Texas. Despite 2010 having been a comparatively slow year for the firm, Case affirms his belief that things will pick up, and when they do Case & Associates General Contractors will have the resources assembled to continue its long history of successful partnerships. “The hospitality industry is a very competitive market, and when the hotels make the decision to renovate we will be in a great place to take on those projects,” summarizes Case.