By Lisa Scontras

One wouldn’t think a trip to Vegas could possibly inspire money-saving strategies, but that’s exactly what happened to Hawaii accountant Mel Takahashi. During a visit to Vegas in 1996, Takahashi saw newly constructed homes selling for less than $100,000 and wondered how an identical house in Hawaii could cost four times as much. That quandary prompted him to create a company that he says revolutionizes the home-construction process.

Heeia Construction architects Barry Ng (left) and Adolph Yago go over building plans. Photos by Hal Lum

“My original idea was to gather a group of professionals, keep all the trades under one roof and take away all the double mark ups,” he says. “I also wanted to break the cost of building a house down to how many 2-by-4s are needed and how much each one costs, how many guys it would take to install each phase and how much time it would take. This allows us to more accurately estimate jobs.”

Takahashi, convinced there was a more efficient way to build a home, set out to build a company — Heeia Construction — that would make home construction more understandable to consumers.

“This is a high anxiety business — we try to minimize that,” he says. “I don’t know anything about construction — I’m an accountant — but one thing I’ve found is that people like to know the cost of a project before they hire a company.”

Estimating cost is a key element in Takahashi’s business plan. It’s not enough just to give the customer a single grand-total figure. Customers of Heeia Construc-tion are given an item-by-item, man-by-man, hour-by-hour breakdown of the project’s costs so they know exactly where the money is going and can keep a running tally of all the expenditures themselves.

“We show them every dollar spent,” says Takahashi. “I don’t think there’s another construction company in the world that does this.”

Company owner Mel Takahashi says an innovative design strategy enables Heeia Construction to stick to the original budget.

Heeia client Shannon Flazer says it is the company’s ability to remain on budget that has been most impressive during his add-on project that is 90-percent complete.

“I’ve been keeping my own records and we all went over the numbers today,” he says. “We’re eye to eye — it’s amazing. They even allowed me the opportunity to bring in my own painter.”

Meanwhile, Takahashi adds that Heeia’s non-traditional process doesn’t stop at cost accounting; the company’s experienced construction and business team has also revamped the design phase of home construction.

Architect Adolph Yago says Heeia’s common-sense approach goes against the grain of what he was taught in school, and describes it as 180 degrees from how the industry normally handles the design phase.

“We don’t spend three or four months creating a set of construction drawings right off,” he says. “We do sketches that take a week or two. The details are all there and the materials are all called out, but we just haven’t done drawings yet.”

So rather than taking months to create drawings to send out contractors and sub-contractors, Yago says he can send out sketches in a couple of weeks and have estimated costs for the client within three weeks.

“In the time it takes to do the set of drawings, we can already be building,” he adds. “Architects say it’s all about the romance of a beautiful drawing. The real beauty is when you can save your customer all that time.”

Then, by using Takahashi’s itemized breakdown of construction costs, Heeia estimators are so confident their numbers will be accurate through the end of the project they actually guarantee their bid. If the estimate is too low, Heeia pays the difference.

“They don’t make you pay for mistakes they make in estimating,” says Flazer. “They commit themselves to the budget.”

This budget-driven approach appeals to a broad spectrum of home remodelers who have heard horror stories about how projects can end up costing twice as much as originally planned.

“It really boils down to how much the customer wants to spend,” says Yago, who believes Heeia has developed a more budget-friendly approach to the design and construction process. “It’s the money first, then the design. There’s a point where the design has to be practical. Almost everybody has a budget. And they are amazed that we can guarantee sticking to it.”

Oahu contractor and project manager Stan Sasaki says the company’s concept is unique and that it took several years to iron out all the details as to how Heeia’s goals could be achieved. He remembers playing golf with Takahashi after he returned from that Vegas trip.

“He kept asking me, ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about that?’” says Sasaki. “I never really took it that seriously and then little by little, he made it happen. In May of 2004 he called me to be a part of the team”

Clients not only appreciate the company’s honesty in itemizing the costs, they also like the flexibility in substituting their own sub-contractors.

“If you have a friend who can paint, you can substitute our painter with yours and take that part out of the estimate,” says Sasaki.

“If you don’t like their price, you can bring in someone of your own,” recalls Flazer. “I really liked that they were open to that.”

By looking for ways to save money, Heeia Construction’s methods may ultimately change the construction industry, which is exactly what Takahashi hopes to do.

“If I do stuff the way everyone else does, I’m going to lose — because there is always going to be someone who is doing the same thing,” says Takahashi, a born entrepreneur. “But if I can dream up a way to change the industry, I can win. If I can take a problem and turn it into a strength, then we’ve really got something.”

Now two years after opening his business, Takahashi is not worried about sharing all his secrets.

“If all the construction companies would do what we’re doing, the industry would be a better place,” he says. HS