Innovation – Franco D’Ascanio
Franco D’Ascanio, president of the design/build firm D’Asign Source, has always lived in the Florida Keys. He’s always worked with his brothers Anthony and Amedeo and cousin Eugenio DeSanctis, the other three principals at the company. But he hasn’t always been satisfied with the building product selection in the sleepy Keys, and a year ago he and his partners decided to do something about it. They opened a $5 million, 25,000-square-foot design center on Marathon Key so that their clients could choose everything from landscaping to appliances to furniture at one location.
The all-in-one design center works especially well for vacation home clients, who make up about half of D’Asign Source’s customers. “One of the projects we’re building now is a $3 million vacation house,” says D’Ascanio. ‘The people flew in for half a day and picked out everything that’s going into their home.”
In addition to making the process more convenient for out-of-town clients, the design center also helps bring new business to the firm. “We feel we’ve created this new market,” D’Ascanio explains. “People coming to the Keys don’t expect this kind of selection. When they see the design center, people who normally would build a house somewhere else start thinking seriously about building one here.”
The center is open to the public, and it gets as many as several hundred visitors per day. Not all of them are looking for faucets or easy chairs, either. Many are just curious to see the design center, and with good reason. Among its highlights are an outdoor furniture section featuring fresh and saltwater ponds stocked with tropical fish; a fully functioning nursery containing over 300 kinds of plants and trees; and a home theater room with reclining leather seats. The building houses D’Asign Source’s executive offices as well, and each one is decorated in a different style to showcase the firm’s capabilities. Likewise, the outside of each of the four offices demonstrates a different architectural style. And the accounting department is housed inside a solid concrete hurricane bunker, an element that’s important to homeowners in this part of the country.
Such a large operation requires a good-sized staff. D’Asign Source has 140 employees, many of them the tradespeople and skilled laborers to whom most builders would subcontract work. “We try to subcontract as little as possible,” says D’Ascanio. It’s hard to find good subs, he reasons, and when he finds high-quality ones he wants to be able to utilize their talents on all of D’Asign Source’s projects. Good benefits and a profit-sharing plan help keep turnover to a minimum. And the interesting, unusual work environment doesn’t hurt morale. The most important function of the design center, though, according to D’Ascanio, is to inspire: “It gives people new ideas about what they can do to their houses.”
D’Asign Source, Marathon, Fla. Type of business: design/build; Years in business: 40; Employees: 140; 2000 volume: $15 million; 2000 starts: 11
2001 Pacesetter Awards
Introduction
Excellence in Customer Service
Excellence in Design
Excellence in Marketing
