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Cocozza Group
Reed describes Cocozza as a small company with limited capacity per year, which means it’ s very purposeful about the projects it takes on. Over the next five years, it aims to increase its network of returning clients, while inspiring new restaurant groups to work with the company on future projects.
When selecting partners to work with on these projects, Reed explains that each one is different, depending on location requirements and customer preference.“ The client may have a favorite designer they want to work with, so we’ ll work with that person. Other clients may have ideas but no designer, in which case we can introduce them. We’ ve built well over 100 restaurants and worked with a lot of different designers, so we actively try to match the right person with the right project. For example, the design specifications of a gym will differ to a French restaurant, but it’ s important to make sure that there’ s a personal connection too.“ It also depends on the complexity of the project. Kitchen designers, mechanical engineers and structural engineers are all integral parts of the team. In New York, we have expediters who will file all the drawings with the cities and pull construction permits. You can also have lighting designers, sound designers and sound engineers. There’ s a long list of options that we decide early on.”
Although these partnerships are integral to the success of Cocozza’ s projects, Reed concludes by describing the people of the company as its real driving force:“ We’ re a small yet mighty team; everyone is passionate about the work we do, and everyone takes ownership of their projects. We all understand that we’ re protecting people’ s livelihoods, and we take that very seriously – we want to see our clients become successful.” ■
www. cocozza. com
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