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[BACK] August 13, 2009 To Whom It May Concern, For the past six years I have had the pleasure of working with Mike Kelty and his associates at INGENII, LLC. The projects have ranged from small as-built remodeling projects, to full site development of an 18,000 sf free standing buildings. I first met Mike during my employment at Walgreens as a Senior Project Architect. My territories at that time included Florida, Puerto Rico and various special projects around the country. My last five years at Walgreens, I was involved with Puerto Rico, New Jersey, and the first Walgreens stores in Hawaii. I retained the services of INGENII, LLC for the first Walgreens to open in Hawaii. They were hired to coordinate the entire project, from initial building department contacts, permitting coordination, preparation of as-built drawings, contract document development, construction coordination, through the final building completion and certificates of occupancy. INGENII and their consultants performed above and beyond their contracted scope of work. Plans were completed on time, and they reacted to numerous client changes calmly, professionally, and made all of the required changes rapidly and thoroughly. Due to the five hour time difference, they were on call late into the night, and always responded to any request for clarifications and information. I worked with INGENII, LLC and their consultants on a multitude Puerto Rico projects. They were the architects and engineers for several developers building free-standing Walgreens Drug stores throughout the island. Their sets of contract documents were among the best prepared by any of the firms that I was dealing with during my 10 years of managing projects in Puerto Rico. They consistently incorporated the latest design criteria, bulletins, and plan changes often before the plans reflected these items. Talking with the various developers and contractors I worked with, they also praised the quality of the contract documents indicating that they received minimal questions from their construction people, and that the plans reflected value engineer resulting in cost savings to the developer, as well as the professionalism of the people in their offices. INGENII, LLC was retained, at my recommendation, to prepare as-built and remodeling plans of a former 5 story neglected building for conversion into a modern, district office for the entire Puerto Rico market. The plans were completed on time as was the conversion and rehabbing of the building. They were also retained by Walgreens to prepare as-built drawings for 10 of the 20 El Amal Drug Stores that Walgreens purchased in 2008. Their local staff surveyed the sites quickly, and professionally, and generated the required plans and elevations on schedule. Lastly, I retained the services of INGENII, LLC to permit, prepare contract documents, through final certificate of occupancy for a relocation of an existing store to an out parcel in the Rio Hondo Shopping Center in Puerto Rico. When I retired from Walgreens in February, 2009, this store was under construction and scheduled to open in the Fall of 2009. It is my understanding that the store will open on time and within budget. Mike and all of the people at INGENII, LLC have been a pleasure to work with, and I would strongly recommend them for any architectural and structural projects. Sincerely, Douglas P. Schwartz, AIA, NCARB |
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