A small business, owned by an Indian couple, won a major award at a national competition held last month.
Sanjesh and Sangita Lal, owners of Keola Homes, won a bronze Award in the New Zealand Commercial Project Awards 2013.
Mr Lal received the Award from Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce at a Presentation Dinner held in Auckland on May 11, 2013.
Mr Lal said that the winning project was ‘Magic Kingdom Childcare Centre’ located in Blockhouse Bay, owned by Darius and Nikeeta Singh, another Indian couple.
He said that his company was pleased to win the prestigious Award.
“Keola Homes faced intense competition from large corporations. I think we were the smallest business at the gala Dinner,” he said.
Several credentials
According to him, the Centre has many environmentally-friendly credentials, including solar panels and rainwater recycling.
“Even the building process had a strong emphasis on recycling, with re-use of trees for carvings and sculptures, and recycling of other materials on site as hard fill. The site was challenging in terms of geotechnical issues, and project management was more complex than usual. The client had to start marketing the facility one month prior to construction being completed, and he had to obtain a certificate from Education Ministry. While the construction was in progress, furniture was being delivered and installed, the exterior landscaping was being done,” Mr Lal said.
Mr Singh claimed that his Centre has become successful.
“It opened on time despite geotechnical issues complicating the project schedule in the early stages. The Centre was oversubscribed at the time of opening,” he said.
