Xtrata's operations lead wanted to know if our building system could hit an aggressive per square foot target on a 121 unit extended stay hotel shell in Texas, well under a conventional framing budget.
I ran the full cost analysis. The target was reachable. I passed on the project anyway.
Texas meant real logistics, labor and shipping problems. No local presence, no distributor, no inspectors we knew, and framing labor out there is cheaper than it is back home in Arizona or California. Better opportunities exist right here, where we already have the infrastructure, the trained labor, the relationships with code officials. Better to save that kind of effort and political capital for home turf than stretch to make an out of state number work.
We passed. Kept the analysis on file in case the hotel brand goes national later and the deal reopens with real volume behind it.
A number that pencils on paper isn't the same as a project worth chasing. Sometimes the right move is protecting your attention for the market where you already have the relationships.
Attention and relationship capital are the real constraint here, not just whether the math works on a spreadsheet.