Where Fashion, Construction and Handshakes Meet
Trinity Heritage Construction Partners, LLC is the go-to general contractor for luxury brands across North America
Trinity Heritage Construction Partners, LLC (Trinity Heritage), of McKinney, Texas, is a general contractor that has made its name working with luxury brands known the world over—M·A·C Cosmetics, Burberry, Tory Burch, OMEGA and Stuart Weitzman, to name a few. It is a company that maintains contractor licenses in 12 states and 10 major cities across the U.S. From overseeing and managing site grading, infrastructure development and ground-up structures through high-end retail finish-outs, Trinity Heritage “has the experience and knowledge to handle any project from start to finish,” says Stan Brasuell, Trinity Heritage’s Managing Partner.
Since its inception in June 2000, Trinity Heritage has completed shopping center projects, industrial buildings, free-standing retail locations and numerous high-end retail mall stores. Trinity Heritage has also built for big-box stores and hospitality. But Trinity Heritage’s clients also include brands more accessible to the average person: Baseballism; Kwik Industries, Inc.; CVS Pharmacy; Estée Lauder; and Zara United States also rely on its skills and experience. In fact, Trinity Heritage has completed hundreds of retail projects across the U.S. and Canada and, as Stan says, “has no intention of slowing down.”
Three Partners, One Company
The company was founded in 2000 by three partners, including John Donahoe. Between 2003 and 2005, the two other partners separated, pursuing other ventures. John and his wife, Kathy (the company Secretary and Treasurer), continued as the sole members of the LLC.
As the business expanded, John needed help running the company. He convinced his long-term consultant, Stan, to join the company. Stan became a Vice President and LLC member.
Stan grew up in a family of contractors but was called to the ministry in 1994. That same year, he became the chaplain for the Fresno City Police and County Sheriff's Departments. “I thought I would do that for the rest of my life,” he says. “I truly loved it.” But, fate had other plans. In 1998, he was called by a friend who was planting a church in Frisco, Texas. “It was a hard decision, but my heart was telling me to help him. So, my wife, Cheryl, and daughters, Bailey and Maddie, loaded up a truck and drove to Texas,” explains Stan, a native Californian. “North Texas was a culture shock to say the least, but I was committed to helping my friend build his church.”
Stan and Cheryl enjoyed their time with the church in Frisco. “Ultimately, we decided it was time to move on to something else,” Stan says. With ecumenical life in the backseat, Stan relied on the family trade to make ends meet. “I started doing freelance general contracting work and consulting, primarily building microdevelopments,” Stan says. “Eventually, I was offered to become the operational pastor at a larger church in Frisco. While there, I helped the church build and open new locations. This was the time that the Albertsons grocery store chain was downsizing in Texas. So, we would purchase old Albertsons and retrofit them into churches. In fact, due to this relationship, we just finished an $18 million build-out a year and a half ago.”
Then came the Great Recession. “At that time, I was taking any job I could, working for two or three general contractors at a time,” he adds. “That’s how I met John and learned about Trinity Heritage.” The two hit it off. “I took my first job from them in 2009. Then, in 2014, John told me he was thinking of retiring and asked if I would be interested in coming on full time.”
Stan wasn’t sure what to do. But then, fate intervened again. “My wife became deeply involved in Traffick911, a nonprofit focused on freeing youth from sex trafficking. She wanted to help this nonprofit full time, and she had given so much to let me follow my dreams,” he says. “She took jobs that she didn’t love to support us. It was my time to give back to her.” So, in 2015, Stan joined Trinity Heritage full time.
It’s About Relationships
The interesting thing about Stan’s story is its inherent contradictions: Stan, a clergy member turned construction manager, is now responsible for building retail units for some of the world’s most high-end, exclusive and expensive brands. “I suppose there’s a contradiction there, but I think it’s more similar than it seems to be,” he says. “At the end of the day, construction is about relationships. That’s the same in the ecumenical world as well—our job is to help people overcome challenges, give advice when needed and be the quiet voice of reason when problems arise. And, I bring my own personal beliefs of honesty and respect to my day-to-day work at Trinity Heritage.”
The power of personal relationships can be seen throughout the Trinity Heritage story. “In fact, the reason why we work with high-end clients is that John had a good friend who worked for Burberry,” Stan says. “In 2011 or 2012, John’s friend casually asked if he had experience with retail build-outs, and of course John did. The client needed to bring in a GC that could meet the brand’s high standards and quick turnarounds. So, John started bidding on Burberry projects. It was that simple.” To date, the company has worked on more than 20 Burberrys in Canada and the U.S. “The thing about high-end retail is that the designers and architects jump from one brand to another. And, because we take the time to build relationships with our clients and deliver great products, they choose to work with us again and again.” Stan pauses. “That’s how we gained work with Zara and Tory Burch—a designer that we had worked with for many years took a new job with Tory Burch and took us along with him.”
Personal relationships are a cornerstone at Trinity Heritage. Stan notes that they receive so many repeat business referrals that they’ve never advertised. He says, “We take only a couple of clients at a time, and focus on work-life balance. We take weekends off; we give back to our community. I’ve taken the principles learned in the ministry and brought them to this business. But, we don’t preach or bring religion to work. We just do a good job, show up on time, work clean and end projects on time and on budget. That’s how we keep winning clients—we are honest and fair.”
Quality is a word that comes up multiple times when one talks to Stan. “People come back to us for the quality of our work, and we are very choosy in what types of projects we do,” he says. Stan says the company’s exclusivity allows them to streamline work. “Take a project for M·A·C Cosmetics or Marc Jacobs. They have incredibly high standards; that’s what they’re known for. They are meticulous in their designs. And then you have the malls,” Stan says. He explains that when you work in malls, which all have their own stringent criteria, you have to be really careful. “One wrong move and a mall will blacklist you. So, we take the time to learn the ins and outs of the job. We have heard from multiple sources that we know the plans better than their own clients.”
One of the hardest parts of the job, says Stan, is the relationship between the retailer and the mall. “We always abide by the mall’s rules,” he adds. “For example, the NorthPark Center in Dallas has very definite standards because it’s a very high-end mall. Obviously, they don’t want construction to inhibit a shopper’s experience. When we did a build-out there, we realized that the best course of action would be to work at night. So, that’s what we did. Sure, it was a little harder, but it was the right thing to do. We will do whatever we can to keep the clients and the mall management team happy.”
One example of the firm going above and beyond was the Tory Burch fashion location in San Francisco’s Union Square. The building was one of the few structures that survived the 1906 earthquake and is located in a heritage district. “But unknown to us, the owners replaced the main A/C unit with a very specific and hard-to-acquire brand. However, we were never told this,” Stan says. “The engineers didn’t get that information either, which meant the plans we studied were incorrect. So, we quickly ordered new HVAC systems that would fit with the landlord’s updated system. It took a lot of coordination to fix the problem, but within four weeks we were back on track. You see, people will remember a lot of things during a build-out. But, if you make the date and keep the budget, then people will generally forget any problems. So, we worked hard to make it right, which included working around the clock to make up for lost time. I spent a lot of time at that job site.”
Stan adds, “At Trinity Heritage, the principals in our company visit every job site every other week. We want to shake a client’s hand, look them in the eye and ask, ‘What else can we do for you?’ ”