Retail Case Study

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Challenge

Time Warner Cable (TWC) had steadily grew their Southern California Operations from a few thousand clients to millions and as they grew in sophistication, they realized that their payment and equipment exchange stores were not providing any value-add services. They sought to change their stores from payment and equipment centers to interactive, customer experience centers more like an Apple store. Targeted store locations included Glendora, Westminster, Torrance, Hollywood, Eagle Rock, Van Nuys and Baldwin Hills. Because the projects were very diverse, some being stand alone, some in retail centers, some in mall, and all with different ceiling heights, window conditions and space layouts, a cookie cutter approach would not work. Additionally, each store project had a different program, budgets, landlord, permitting jurisdiction, accounting requirements and stakeholders. TWC needed a dynamic partner that could work with their Real Estate Department to plan and implement the project. 

Solution

TWC contracted with Jack Kozakar and for 7 years, Jack managed major retail store retrofits. Jack proved to be the dynamic partner that TWC was looking for. At the Baldwin Hills location, Jack built the store in the bottom level of a parking structure – a project that required some unusual structural and infrastructure planning. The Hollywood flagship store was constructed in a mall. 

Results

Cost – Time Warner Cable is a dynamic company with aggressive budget expectations. Cost savings were accomplished using the following strategies:

Site analysis and due diligence.  

Lease and work letter negotiations. 

Value engineering. 

Aggressive bidding for design, construction, furniture, signage, etc. 

Use of design-build strategies where possible. 

Contract negotiations. 

High level local government relations.  

Schedule – Time Warner Cable’s dynamic nature extended to schedule expectations as well. Often projects were greenlighted towards the end of a fiscal year when funds became available and there was a tremendous rush to get the work done. Jack was invited back to project after project because of his creativity and success in meeting schedule expectations. 

Quality – In many ways TWC’s stores are the face of the company, and now they are a major driver for upselling and customer retention. Resultantly the quality of construction had to be the highest possible, and Jack consistently delivered quality projects exceeding Time Warner’s expectations.