Walsh is the owner and project director of Confluence Builders, a design-build and project-management consulting firm. Projects the Denver company is involved with include the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences, the Denver School of Science and Technology, and the Taxi development in the River North district.
It was about this time in 2006 that I decided to take the entrepreneurial leap. At the time, the economy was softening, but it was still fairly strong. I felt it was just the typical economic cycle and Colorado would weather the slowdown better than most places.
“I started it with the idea of being a developer/builder and building urban, mixed-use projects. After I started the company, the economy started slowing and credit and financing was harder to get. I really had to start shifting the focus of the company.
“We’d built a team of 10 really talented people, and we knew we could provide valuable services to customers — more on a project-management and consulting basis versus being an at-risk developer/builder.
“The biggest change because of the economy is the uncertainty of when projects will start because financing is so difficult to get. You think you’re close, and some of the requirements change.
“The lender will ask for more equity and more presales at the last minute, and it really pushes back the start of construction.
“Through 2009 and midway through 2010, our company looks pretty good. We’ve got enough work to maintain our current staff.
“A couple of projects we’ve recently pursued in the past might have had five to seven contractors or design/ builders pursuing those projects.
“On one of the projects, there were 18 contractors pursuing it. On another, there are 24.
“Before, companies specialized in one area. Now, everybody is chasing everything. They’re crossing their traditional lines of market focus.”
