We recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Jon Rosky of Corsi & Associates to discuss his business and why he chooses to work with Arctic Industries. A slightly edited transcript of the conversation can be found below.
Please tell us about Corsi & Associates
“At Corsi & Associates, we design foodservice operations for casino-hotels, hospitality, gaming, healthcare, senior living, K-12 schools, higher education, corporate, and non-profit clients while emphasizing new technology, intuitive designs, and a client-centered approach. The current owners of the company, Adam and Matt, and Kevin – they are the three Corsi brothers. Their father, Rennie, started the company. They now have one of their daughters in the company – it is going to someday be a third-generation foodservice design company! We have grown organically with the business demands and we are approaching 40 years in business.”
What do you think has lent to Corsi’s success over the past 40 years?
“There are two key pillars to our company. One is that it’s family-owned – Rennie started Corsi & Associates in 1983. The other one is that there are quite a few firms in our business that are pretty focused on one particular sector, but we have a wide variety of specialties within the firm. There are firms that do a lot of prisons, firms that only do country clubs, firms that just do healthcare. We’ve got one person in our firm that is probably the premier senior living and assisted living designer in the country. And then we’ve got a really diverse group, we do football and baseball stadiums, we’re wrapping up Fenway Park! But, I’ve also done a few under-a-thousand-square-foot coffee shops. This longevity and diversity mean we have all this expertise in-house. We’ve got all these people with all this diversity of experience and knowledge and I think this really helps us find solutions to customer’s problems.”
How is the firm different from other consultant or design firms in marketing, approach, customer interaction?
“One thing that comes to mind is that the team likes to stay ahead of technology – that really sets us apart. Seven and a half years ago we were getting into Revit, into 3D modeling. Less than a year after that we were buying the headsets so that we could put our clients on a virtual reality walk-through. We were doing 3D renderings of kitchens when most of our competition was not even aware that it was possible.”
You have specified Arctic Coolers in the past and recently right there in Atlantic City. What do you like about the Arctic product and team? What are the most important traits of your Walk-in cooler provider of choice?
“There are a few reasons I love working with Arctic. The first is time. What I always tell people is that I sell time – if you take more time to complete a project, you’re costing me time and money. Jacqueline at Arctic doesn’t mess around! She doesn’t make me do things three times. That’s what really sets Arctic apart.
I also need the right mix of performance and cost. And that’s why I’ve landed on Arctic as such a strongly preferred manufacturer; it really is the perfect blend, it’s a high-quality box but it’s also not the most expensive box. I used to supervise the installation crew and the installers used to say to me ‘why didn’t we get an Arctic box on this job?’ and I would say ‘well why do you care?’ and they always say ‘well they’re a lot easier to install.'”
How has COVID-19 affected the market and your day-to-day?
“It’s been a challenging 18 months of business. In January of 2019, one of our vendors put out an open letter saying that everything in their catalog would ship from their factory in three weeks or less, and I was floored! Recently, someone called me and said they wanted to open a casino bar and small kitchen, and we want it open for New Years. Under more normal circumstances, a 4-month lead time would be doable. But, now, those same companies that were promising three weeks are up to 11 or 12 – may be getting here by December at the earliest.
So, what COVID has done is an incredible roller coaster. From March to October 2020, I was putting in four or five hours a week. And then it started to build up, now, from what I see, this country is on a spending spree that is unprecedented. These vendors have been in business for 50 years and now they just can’t keep up with the volume.
So, now, I’m in this crazy scenario where we’ve gone from having no work for six months to possibly turning down projects; we cannot keep up with the volume in a normal workweek. So, we’ll have to see what happens over the next month, six months, year.”
Are there any recent projects that you’re really excited about?
“We just wrapped up on the Maryland Live! Casino Hotel in Hanover, MD. It was an awesome project and we’re really happy with how it turned out.”
Thanks for taking the time to sit down and chat with us, Jon! Check out a photo of the Maryland Live! project below.
