SMALL BUSINESS
10
PACIFIC BUSINESS NEWS | pacificbusinessnews.com
STRATEGIES
JANUARY 13, 2012
Architects look westward to build a niche
Hawaii firm focuses
on China’s booming
hotel/resort market
BY LYNN NAKAGAWA
PACIFIC BUSINESS NEWS
eeing their future to
the west, three Honolulu architects are
carving out a niche
business in China,
where more than half of the hotels under construction in the
Asia Pacific region are located.
James Freeman, Ralph Shelbourne and Benjamin Candari
got their first hint of China’s
potential while working for
WATG, one of Hawaii’s largest
architectural firms. Seeking to
break away from the corporate
structure, they left WATG two
years ago and formed FSC Architects, working at first out
of Shelbourne’s living room
in Kailua and later moving to
downtown offices at 32 Merchant St.
Their venture is paying off.
They’re currently designing
five hotel and resort projects in
places such as Sanya, the Wuyi
Mountains and the Zhoushan
archipelago. All are five-star
quality and include brands
such as Marriott and Hilton.
Two hotels that they previously
designed are under construction.
The firm’s revenue reached
$2.1 million in their first year
in business and they estimate
2011 revenue at $2.2 million to
$2.5 million.
“We wanted to get back to the
basics of architecture practice,
which is a design-architect selling services to clients,” Freeman, 52, said of their decision
to leave WATG. “Clients buy
services from a principal or
architect. A corporate name
might get your foot in the door,
but at the end of the day your
client has to look across the
table and believe you’re the
one.”
FSC employs four junior architects in Hawaii, six in the
Philippines, and four part-time
translators in China.
Candari said they work with
architects in the Philippines
because labor costs are cheaper
there and it is closer to China’s
time zones. That means that
architects in the Philippines
are working on drawings and
designs after the principals in
Hawaii have gone home for the
night. It also positions the firm
for future expansion into other
international markets.
FSC considers it important
S
RENDERING COURTESY: FSC ARCHITECTS
FCS Architects Principal Benjamin Candari is lead designer on Shangri-La, a 350-room urban resort planned for Zhoushan, China.
FSC Architects
Hospitality design
architecture firm
Principals: James Freeman,
Ralph Shelbourne and Benjamin Candari
Address: 32 Merchant St.,
Suite 204B, Honolulu, HI
96813
Phone: (808) 352-5299
Website: fscarchitects.com
SMALL-BUSINESS ISSUE
Establishing a client
base in China.
TINA YUEN PBN
FSC Architects founders and principals, from left, Ralph Shelbourne, James Freeman and Benjamin Candari plan eventually to expand their business footprint globally beyond China.
for clients to meet with senior
architects rather than just junior architects and marketing representatives, and that
means frequent trips to China
for Freeman, Shelbourne and
Candari. They have managed
to hold the cost of air fare to
$36,000 a year by flying coach.
Before they travel to Asia for
initial design meetings, they
require potential clients to pay
20 percent of the total design
fees, or 50 percent for smaller
jobs under $100,000, a standard
practice in Asia, Candari said.
In a rapidly developing country such as China, Freeman,
Shelbourne and Candari en-
counter some wealthy developers with a poor understanding
of the hotel and resort industry.
They have turned down jobs because prospective clients have
requested designs for a luxury
hotel in an area it would not
perform well in.
Freeman, Shelbourne and
Candari acknowledge that, despite its vast potential, China
can be a difficult market for a
Western firm to establish itself
in, especially when the Westerners do not have a command
of the language and must rely
on translators. They say understanding body language and
building one-on-one working
relationships with clients are
keys to success.
Freeman said the environment is similar to Hawaii in
that regard.
“America is more deal-based
where in China the clients
think, ‘If I don’t like you or
respect you, how can I possibly
work with you?’” he said.
“Hawaii is a great training
ground for that because in Hawaii it’s a little more laid back
and a little more about the relationship.”
While many Hawaii architecture firms do work in Asia,
not all have entered the Chinese
market.
STRATEGIES
■ Develop one-on-one relationships between the firm’s
top executives and potential
clients.
■ Establish offices in the
same time zones as the
clients so that work can continue round the clock.
■ Be prepared to reject
projects if they are not in the
best interests of the clients.
hHonolulu-based Media5 Architecture, for example, does
mostly government projects
in Hawaii. Managing Principal
Melvyn Choy said the firm has
no current work in China but
has a half-dozen prospects there
this year.
And, despite its current focus on Asia, FSC plans to bid
on projects in Hawaii as more
hotel and resort design jobs
become available. It also is looking at Egypt, India and Brazil
as it continues to grow.
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