"It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I provide this Letter of Recommendation for CityView Construction Management and William (Bill) Jones. Having enjoyed a more than 25-years professional association with Billi, I feel I am uniquely qualified to speak to his knowledge of the industry and his overall ability to participate in the construction management of projects large and small. Likewise, I have observed over the last decade how he has built his business and project team and can again offer nothing but the most positive assessment of CityView’s capabilities and “ownership” of projects that they are engaged in.
CityView has consistently played a pivotal role in many aspects of the development of Larkinville and of other properties Larkin Development Group (“LDG”) owns and operates in the Central Business District in Buffalo. In most cases, they have “been at the table “from project inception to project completion offering practical and intelligent value engineering options. Bill Jones’ knowledge of all aspects of construction is uncanny and intuitive and he and CityView have always approached projects with the owner’s best interest."
"Bill and his development team hired Flynn Battaglia to prove a design solution to connect five late 19th century buildings into one multi-occupancy building complex, which is known as Genesee Gateway. Bill’s construction management company served as the general contractor for this complicated project. Bill’s involvement during the design phase provided constructability review, design feedback, Owner maintenance feedback, user utility metering and maintenance. Many of his comments were based on his experience with the development of City Center, a commercial and residential property.
We recently worked on the restoration and conversion of the former Buffalo Psychiatric Center into Hotel Henry urban resort and conference center, where he was part of the client technical committee. Again, Bill participated in design meetings and served as an advisor during construction administration. During our Owner-Architect construction meetings, Bill would comment on material selection, identify quality concerns with installation, and thoroughly review proposed change order costs. He provided the Owner input at key decision points.
We have enjoyed working with Bill Jones on the aforementioned projects. His experience and leadership are great assets to any new or renovation construction project."
"I have known Bill since the late 1980’s when he was tackling the adaptive reuse of the former Nemmer Building, a falling a down 8-story building at Main and Chippewa Street that today is the 14-story City Centre luxury condominium project. I was the commercial loan officer for the project. Bill managed the construction for the development team, overcoming obstacle after obstacle long before there was any significant local experience putting old downtown buildings back to productive use. I subsequently watched Bill lead team that brought the Root Building on Chippewa Street, Genesee Gateway on Genesee Street, as well as the LCo Building and U-Building in Larkinville back to life. He also built one of the first local on-premise brew pubs, Hydraulic Hearth, working with a building that was so fragile that extreme measures had to be taken just to keep it upright. All these projects are today beautiful buildings that are withstanding the test of time.
Bill is first and foremost, practical. He has had enough life experiences to know what will work and what won’t, so he won’t blindly follow a set of drawings to some unfortunate waypoint. He will work with project architects and engineers to insure that what gets designed can actually get built. And Bill is the kind of guy who when he walks around a job site the recognizes how things are going and where he needs to take action. He is personable, friendly, but no one’s fool. He is respected by owners and by the guy pushing the wheel barrel. He is a consummate professional. His character is beyond reproach."
"Your experience in complex mixed-used project and especially in hospitality, as at Larkinville, Emeson School and with the Hotel Henry, and your extensive work on historic structures at Larkinville, Root Building, Genesee Gateway at the National Historic Landmark Richardson Olmsted Campus, make you of just a few people who have long track record of success in planning, constructing and enjoying the work of rehabilitating great old structures in our city for new user for years to come.
You have kept a rather low profile, You quietly attend to the details that are crucial to success in these complex projects of renewing historic place, placing the focus on the task at hand and not yourself. Richardson board members have come to rely on your anticipating conflicts in scope of work, budget and schedule, and working on solution to them. You analyze and think before speaking, and you gracefully state what you think must be said to keep a project on track, not calling attention to yourself, but calmly advancing to project’s success. And, yes, keeping architects focused!"
Over the past 15 years CityView Construction Management (“CityView”) has provided a variety of services to its clients. Projects ranging from small to large as well as simple to complex, CityView’s ability to provide a wide variety of service to its clients are well documented. CityView has worked on many historic building projects. In fact historic building work has dominated our project makeup for most of our history. We take pride in our participation from planning to completion of all our projects. We work in a timely and professional manor and understand the importance of a well-orchestrated plan always looking out for best interest of the owner as well as the project.
