Communication: The Key to Productive Teams and Quality Service

Terracare Associates Field Supervisor, Rudy Sifuentes, provides quality service to many clients by staying in constant communication with his team and Terracare Associates account managers. By talking with his team and personally walking each property weekly, he’s able to spot and tackle possible problems quickly and thoroughly generating outstanding customer service, timely results, and strong long lasting client relationships.

Take a moment to watch the video to hear what Rudy has to say about communication and how it is a pillar to Terracare Associates client and customer service strategy.

 

 

Terracare receives National Landscape Awards of Excellence

Terracare Associates, a leading outdoor maintenance company headquartered in Littleton, Colorado, announces it has been honored with three national industry awards.

Professional Landcare Network, Planet, awarded the National Landscape Awards of Excellence for three properties Terracare Associates maintains; Wind Crest- Retirement Community, TMA – I-25 South Corridor, and Arapahoe Lakes Homeowners Association. Planet is the largest professional association in the U.S. for landscape design, construction, and maintenance companies.

Wind Crest Retirement Community

landscape awards excellenceAccount Manager: Cindy Gioia & Team: Jose Rodriguez Iniguez, Enrique Molina Erasto Ojeda-Vazquez, Joel S Samano, Federico Sapien, Alfredo Solis,Rudy Sifuentes

Wind Crest is a high-end resort living retirement center, 55+ community with over 84 acres of property to maintain creating a relaxed and beautiful residential retreat for the aging. The location of the property sits upon a bluff overlooking the Rocky Mountains. The corporation’s intent is to create a landscape that is inclusionary of their residents, while maintaining the highest standard in integrated plant life.

This property provides gardens for congregating, open space, walk ways and horticultural therapy gardens for members of the community. Creating a safe environment for the residents is up most important which include snow removal and debris/trash removal. The landscape busts with native grass and cottonwoods while incorporating colors, drought tolerant turf and new installations. Plant Healthcare, aesthetics, and irrigation are of critical importance to the property manager and to the residents.

Transportation Management Association – South I-25 Urban Corridor

landscape awards excellence

Account Manager: Aimee Lacouture & Team: Juan A. Ramirez, Juan A. Ramirez Jr., Blas I. Hernandez, Jesus G. Silos

One of the most unique projects in a landscape management portfolio of work; South I-25 urban corridor Transportation Management Association (TMA) is the management agency supporting transportation solutions for one of the busiest highway corridors in the state of Colorado.

The public-private partnership agency (TMA) was challenged to create an open space environment at highly congested interchanges. The projected outcome for each interchanges’ landscape is to provide a common look and feel throughout the corridor and honoring specific interest of the 3 counties and 4 cities along the I-25 exchanges.

This landscape contractor projects include: maintaining and integrating new install with native growth, irrigation, highway debris and pollution clean-up resulting in a distinctive and welcoming Colorado appearance. A bonus to the project is to build an ecosystem of plantings, bird and insect life mirroring a park-like setting.

Arapahoe Lakes

landscape awards excellenceAccount Manager: Cindy Gioia & Team: Andrew Thomas, Guillermo Zabala, Rolando Rodriguez, Jose Rodriguez, Adrian Lozano, Rudy Sifuentes 

Arapahoe Lakes is a community of 208 single family homes and 13 townhomes. The property has a three-acre lake, unusual for Colorado neighborhoods, swimming pool and four tennis courts.

The Home Owners Association and property managers are fiscally responsible while committing to high-quality landscape maintenance. As an established neighborhood in the region, the homeowners goal is to achieve an environmentally friendly neighborhood. Through a long-term partnership with the client, Terracare Associates assisted in developing a plan of phased improvements focused on environmentally friendly landscape care. This plan reduced water usage by 34% and more than $11,000 in 2013.

For more photos, see our Project Gallery.

Bill Horn, Sr. Vice President is Nominated for Prestigious Award

Bill CroppedBill Horn, Vice President at Terracare Associates, was nominated for Professional Landcare Network, PLANET, Lifetime Leadership Award for his outstanding commitment to the green industry.

Planet is a national landscape network representing more than 100,000 landscape and lawn care professionals across the country.

Continue reading “Bill Horn, Sr. Vice President is Nominated for Prestigious Award”

Terracare Announces Acquisition of VMC Landscape

Terracare Associates, LLC, a leading outdoor maintenance company, announces the acquisition of VMC Landscape of Dallas, Texas. This transaction will combine decades of individual and collective expertise while continuing to provide customers with superior landscape and public infrastructure maintenance services and helping to improve outdoor environments across the Western United States.

OCT. 8, 2014 – Terracare Associates has acquired VMC Landscape of Dallas, Texas. With 65 combined years in business, the resulting organization will include an extremely seasoned management team and numerous long-term client partnerships. Terracare Associates and VMC Landscape are highly complementary with similar customer bases, including municipalities, corporations, retail, homeowners associations, institutions and special districts. In addition, both organizations share a culture of providing exceptional service to those clients.

“People are our most valuable asset and we will take advantage of working together, integrating our cultures and sharing best practices as we go forward,” says Dean Murphy President of Terracare Associates. “We are excited about expanding into a new market and partnering with the terrific people at VMC while doing so.”

Terracare Associates, LLC is now one of the top 25 commercial landscape maintenance companies in the United States, managing nearly 1,000 commercial and public projects in Colorado, California, Utah and Texas. “Our shared reputation for building customer relationships is built on a foundation of leadership, integrity, safety, concern for our communities and the environment,” says Murphy.

“We are fortunate to work with a professional and supportive group of financial partners, who believe in the Terracare family and have chosen to support our growth through continued investment.” Terracare is owned by Progress Equity Partners with additional financing provided by NBH Capital Finance, Harbert Mezzanine Partners and Patriot Capital.

VMC Landscape has operated successfully in the Greater Dallas area for more than 35 years and is led by Bruce Verdick and a strong and seasoned management team who will all remain in place post-closing.

Terracare Associates, LLC was established in 1985 as a single crew providing landscape maintenance services with a genuine commitment to customer loyalty. The company has now grown into an organization of more than 550 employees offering a broad range of service lines in multiple states.

Smart Irrigation Controllers – What Property Managers need to know

Property and facility managers have a lot to think about.  Finding innovative irrigation solutions that make business sense and at the same time help our environment can be a challenge.  Water, one of the increasingly precious resources is top of the list.  Continue reading “Smart Irrigation Controllers – What Property Managers need to know”

Terracare Associates Acquires Traffic Control Assets

Public_Works_Management2Terracare Associates, headquartered in Littleton, Colorado, is pleased to announce the recent acquisition of all assets of a traffic control company out of Sandy, Utah. Terracare also appointed of Mr. Loran Gillen, past owner of Gillen construction, as the Manager of Terracare Associates Utah operations. Continue reading “Terracare Associates Acquires Traffic Control Assets”

3 Ways to Grow Teamwork

Does teamwork increase productivityIMG_1333 and service quality? Professional teamwork can be defined as a group of employees whose members work together on a common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills.

Some companies force teamwork to improve production, but real teamwork is organic. The most productive teams are those that empower employees, build ownership in their actions and clearly communicate and understand outcomes. They simply create an environment to grow teamwork. Continue reading “3 Ways to Grow Teamwork”

Five Steps to Maximize Water Efficiency

Sprinkler with run off“Drought” is the scary word for municipalities, property and facility managers, especially in the Western United States due to its severity and the multi-year impact on regions.

The challenge is to create an aesthetically beautiful landscape while working with significant water restrictions and maximizing water efficiency. In 2014, California’s Governor Brown declared a statewide drought emergency asking all Californians to reduce their water use by 20%. Similar drought situations plagued Colorado and Utah in 2002 and 2012. Continue reading “Five Steps to Maximize Water Efficiency”

Experience is the Key to Public Private Partnerships

PI clipped

Experience matters! Especially in the world of public private partnerships (P3’s)

Public Private Partnerships are a way for governments to collaborate with the private sector to share the risks and rewards involved in the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure projects. Since 1998, Terracare Associates has been at the forefront of public private partnerships, public works and city landscape maintenance services in the Western United States. And, the Public Infrastructure management team at Terracare, brings quite an extraordinary resume to every project with over 200 years of combined experience.

Experience is the Key to Public Private Partnerships

The leadership is comprised of seasoned individuals with a breadth and depth of public works experience, and the knowledge and tools to help clients with a wide variety of infrastructure projects. The combined backgrounds include decades working for the Colorado Department of Transportation, city management, and multiple industry certifications.

We are so fortunate to have such an impressive group of people working together, sharing knowledge and resources to best serve our customers,” says Justin Stewart, Vice President of the Public Infrastructure Division at Terracare.

NameTitleYears ExperienceCertifications/Degrees
Thomas DeGaffeProject Manager163
Antonio DelunaProject Manager186
Greg HayesColorado Operations Manager305
Tim GowanShopManager1615
Nick MadridAsst Project Manager356
Loran GillenUtah Operations2911
Todd RodriguezProject Manager224
Justin StewartVice President255
Bill WinfieldDirector of Operations164
Jacque Wedding-ScottStrategic Partnerships252
Totals23261

Every team member in our division contributes to our success. From our field personnel, and line supervisors to our project managers and our fleet management group, we are better together, sharing and caring about delivering quality performance every day” says Stewart.

Terracare Associates offers a wide variety of public works maintenance services including right-of-way mowing, all-inclusive roadway and roadside management, sign repair/replacement, concrete, traffic control, and snow removal on a citywide scale.

Submitted by Jacque Wedding-Scott, Terracare Associates Manager of Strategic Partnerships 

Stormwater Management: It’s our responsibility and more…

Water to drainWhy should we care about stormwater management? Originally, stormwater management involved primarily quantity of flow and now equally important is quality of water runoff. Since 1970’s, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is responsible for managing runoffs in the United States.

The EPA utilize computerized mapping and models to best manage water runoff, erosion and pollution problems resulting from weather or other fresh water flow. Because of these regulations, municipalities, counties,  and the private sector strive to achieve compliance and more. Continue reading “Stormwater Management: It’s our responsibility and more…”