ProCon

6 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 7 they do not want the truth, they can work with somebody else. From an accountability standpoint, everyone must put in a maximum effort. If there is no maximum effort, then they do not survive in the company. The team that I’ve been able to build over 20 years has employees that have been loyal for over 20 years.” Lemus says being bilingual puts him in a unique position. “I have been able to understand the industry,” he said. “I have had the experience where I’ve been able to deal with an entire broad sector of employees. Because I am bilingual, I can relate to those persons having to work with their hands and hot rebar in the sun, and I can also then change my shoes and comb my hair and come into a meeting with geotechnical engineers and nuclear imaging facility site designers. So ProCon does not have an employee or labor shortage or a subcontractor shortage. We never have.” Lemus also discussed the housing shortage and its impact on ProCon. “We are a thriving business,” he said. “We put in the ground approximately 50 homes last year, self-developed. We developed 50 individual in-fill projects. An in-fill project would be labelled a vacant lot purchase within a developed area. We were able to develop between 40 and 50 homes that we developed ourselves and sold. “Currently,” he added, “the market has slowed. The interest rate rise has priced some people out of the market. The first-time homebuyer can no longer afford the $430,000 first- time home with the interest rates at six and seven percent, so we have adapted. And we are now bringing