Ken Wilshire of Rotolo Consultants Inc (RCI) Talks About Why They Stand Out as a Top 25 Nationally

Foreign. Hello. Ginny Bowling here with Pivot to Prosperity brought to you by Pivotal Real Estate Investments, where we help our investors build wealth and income through commercial real estate that also improves communities. Today we have Ken Wilshire here as our guest. Thank you for coming on, Ken.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

You're welcome. Let me do a little bit of your bio and then I'll let you fill in more.

Yeah, of course.

Ken has about 30 years of service operations and customer service business management and development experience in the business world and more particularly in the environmental, would you say natural. Environmental world?

Yes. A good portion of my, my life has been spent in that. About 10 years being in a. Management of a wildlife management area and working cattle ranch and then now more recently in a more commercial landscape setting. So.

Yeah, that's, that's terrific. And the environmental sciences is really probably the better way to put that. And, and anthropology, which is also a very unique background, I would say.

Yes.

So, yes. And you are working with the company called Rotolo Consultants, right?

That's correct. Yeah, I've been working with them for, for a few months now and I love being with the team and be happy to tell a little bit more about them as the, as things go through here. But.

Yeah, let's do that.

Okay.

Yeah, perfect.

Yeah. The company is 45 years strong, based out of Slidell, Louisiana. We actually operate out of 21 cities currently. And one of the newer additions to, to their portfolio is the Central Florida area. And that's the reason how I got involved. We do commercial construction and commercial landscaping. And on, I'm on the landscaping side and for, you know, for, for my piece, I act as a business consultant looking for, for projects and, and ways to help commercial properties improve their landscaping and kind of rely on this 45 years of experience and, and the depth of our, and our guys on the ground and gals on the ground to make, you know, make those promises and those kind of commitments come. Come to life. So we started in Central Florida with a construction side. We actually are wrapping up at Universal's Epic Universe park doing all their Partscape softscape installations. That team will be finishing up pretty soon and heading on to other projects. But it's given us an opportun opportunity to expand into kind of what we're good at. In the commercial maintenance side, we started working with Orange County Public Schools with the Toho Water Management District. We brought on some other partners and are just looking to expand that. The company is really strong and growing and this is the third generation that's taken helm in this family business and wanting to keep the Rotolo Consultants Incorporated name alive and continue to push out and do great things in the landscape and construction world. So.

So when you say construction, too, is that all kinds of construction or is it certain. Certain aspects.

There's certain aspects of it, but we are, you know, licensed in. In areas to be able to do as a full general contractor more often. Most of our projects tie back into landscaping in some component. Generally, we try to stay outside of the building, and so anything inside we leave to other contractors to handle. But anything exterior to that, lighting, aquatics pools, fountains, any of those kinds of hardscape elements, tree houses. We've done all kinds of unique projects across over the years and continue to look at unique projects moving forward. And Epic Universe is one, at least in the backyard here that I think once that's done, we'll. We'll be very proud of, so.

Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. Can you explain?

I'm excited to see it. I haven't seen it yet. I haven't gotten any previews yet, so.

Oh, gosh.

Yeah.

Explain more about what hardscape is, would you?

So, yeah, speaking of those things, like, like, fountains and water features, other components that kind of build into the. Like, rock facades, things that are like, hard elements that tend to have landscaping inside of them. So as you go into other. Like, just imagine a theme park, you know, as you're going through those various areas, and you see these unique formations that have trees and other plantings around them, that tends to be the kind of work that we do in that setting. So adding in, whether it may be, you know, facades, rock facades, or even hard concrete facades, but then splash pads, pools, other kind of components fall into that hardscape element for us. Pavers, fire pits, those kinds of things.

Oh, okay. So I was originally thinking. I got it. It's. It's a. A material. A hard material where you add some life to it by putting a plant or some. Something that lives. But that's not really it, is it?

Not necessarily. Well, they kind of go side by side. Right.

Figure out where the heart part comes from.

Yes. So the hard part, Tim, you were on the right path with harder materials, typically concretes, rocks, those kinds of things which become part of the overall landscape, and then those softer elements come in to balance them. So the grasses, the other native plants that may be introduced, even pops of color, become things that become part of that overall landscape appeal, but are not just plantings. So the two work hand in hand, especially in those larger commercial settings like that. You know, whether it's like you imagine a university or a hospital, as you're walking down those corridors, they have elements that are hard fixtures, but there's softer elements around them. That's the balance between the two. So hopefully that.

So. Yeah. So I'm thinking it's kind of like, you know, in this. We just were interviewing. I was interviewing somebody that is into zoning and whatnot.

But it's okay.

Orange county is doing all this place making, and there's a lake. Nona is known for place making.

Sure.

It's like the statement pieces that make. That make a place unique. Is that a good way to put it?

Yeah, most definitely. And it's. It creates. I mean, it. It's designed to not only help with, you know, based on what. What it is, whatever the project is, it's not only designed to help, you know, pedestrian flow, but also to add that aesthetic in that wow. Factor in a lot of settings. You know, a. A great example of a hardscape would be the, like the Washington Mall. So you have this, you know, really, like, dramatic element let's. In place that has a tremendous amount of, like, hard edges around it. You know, there's concrete, there's a bottom structure, but there's also water. There's also plantings and grass. And so you combine those two hard and soft elements to create this kind of cohesive landscape that is, in that particular case, able to be enjoyed by millions of people on a regular basis. You know, you know, lots of foot traffic and designed to be able to take on that kind of pedestrian wear and tear, but also add that aesthetic value that those projects are looking for.

Interesting. Very interesting. So hardscapes. Now, you also mentioned a couple other kinds of scapes, right?

Yeah. So I mean, what I focus on primarily is the maintenance of landscape. So communities that already have existing landscape, you know, that's where I come in to help assist and maintaining it. Help also consult on enhancing it. In a lot of cases, there's an opportunity to improve what's there. Maybe it's older landscape, maybe previously it wasn't maintained in the most appropriate fashion. And maybe there's opportunities or changes in the direction that the project or the property wants to go. And so there's ways to improve it and then put in place those maintenance and management components so that it. The pretty things stay pretty and that investment stays protected. Right. You know, because it. It does cost money to. To make those improvements. It does cost money to maintain it, but it's essential. It's essential to be able to do that.