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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Contractor With A Conscience

martha diaz aszkenazy stays nearly as busy with community affairs as with running her san fernando construction firm, pueblo contracting Written on the invitations for the groundbreaking to Pueblo Contracting Services Inc.’s newest development is a quote from the late African-American leader and activist Malcolm X: “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” Neither the author nor the quote are typically attached to enterprises like real estate development. But Pueblo is no typical developer. Martha Diaz Aszkenazy and her husband Severyn have been guided as much by social conscience and civic responsibility as the desire to build a profitable business since they founded the company in 1984. The San Fernando-based company’s projects have included the renovation of the historic Angel’s Flight, a railway that once connected the downtown shopping district with the tony Victorian homes on Bunker Hill, and the remodeling that transformed Bullock’s Wilshire into the law library for Southwestern University. The company has also done a number of housing developments for seniors and other low-income groups. Pueblo’s current project, set to break ground on Aug. 2, is Library Plaza, a $2.7 million development in the city of San Fernando. It will combine a public library and meeting place with an entertainment and business center, including a fitness center, coffee shop, restaurants, barber and florist and a Mail Boxes Etc. Question: How do you decide what kinds of projects your company takes on? Answer: We like to build and develop projects that are good for a community. I have a deep belief in karma, that what you put out there you get back, so therefore Pueblo will never build any prisons. There are certain things we’ll never get involved with. Q: How did you get into the business of restoring historic landmarks? A: It was a business strategy to begin with, because working on landmarks is not an easy skill to acquire, so when you do have it, you want to employ your strengths. But it was also a love for history. I’ve always loved to see these old buildings. To me, when we were doing Angel’s Flight, I felt like I was doing something very important, saving history. So many people’s lives had touched it and I think that maybe some of their auras or whatever might have been left behind. So we see it as a business opportunity and an opportunity to make history. Q: Where did the idea for Library Plaza come from? A: My husband and I are firm believers in education, that education is really the way to get access to opportunity. Without a library, without a beautiful library, we feel you’re really not valuing education. The other thing was that this community is also lacking (facilities for) lifestyle and entertainment. We’ve included a beautiful plaza and a stage so it can be utilized for different occasions. If a school wants to do something, or we want to have a reading, or if they want to celebrate something, whether it’s Dia de Los Muertos or St. Patty’s Day or whatever, it can be utilized for that, because there really aren’t any areas for people to gather at this point. Q: How did you finance the project? A: We purchased the property this is all on. We were able to amass the land and then we went to the city and said, “We think the city deserves a nice library.” We were able to find some interesting financing mechanisms that include federal, local and private funds, and we feel it will be a case study of how to get things done in a community that developers shy away from. So I think it will set a new standard. Q: What is it like to have your husband also be your business partner? A: One of the beauties of this whole thing is that, number one, I found my soul mate and I found him in high school. We’re probably extraordinary in that many couples don’t make it that long. We’ve gone through a lot together, and we’ve grown together. We challenge ourselves all the time. We really do work well together. We’re two different people and I think that because we don’t think the same, we’re able to challenge one another to do a little bit more. We do have lines of distinction, which I think is what keeps our business going and what keeps our marriage together. Q: Who wins when you get into arguments? A: Usually it’s not a matter of winning. I think in a situation like this, you don’t want to win because that can leave long-lasting wounds. Usually we talk it through and we come to the same conclusion at the end or we find a way to make it better. I don’t discount his thoughts and opinions because I respect him as a businessman and I respect him as a developer, and I think he’s got some really good ideas. He looks at me the same way. So we may initially disagree and walk away for a little bit and then we try to come together and make it better. Q: How did you come to start Pueblo? A: Like most people, I didn’t know what I wanted to do (when I graduated from college). And so when an opportunity came up that sounded like a money-making opportunity, I said I’m going to take it. I was for a short period of time a financial planner. But I found out it wasn’t my passion. It wasn’t something I loved, and when you do something you don’t love, you don’t stay long with it. I’ve always been a bit of a risk taker, so I decided I should just have my own business and be my own boss. Q: What was it like for you starting out as a woman, showing up at a work site in what is essentially a man’s world? A: If I was sitting down and speaking to management, it was fine, but when you get lower down, meaning the superintendents, the workers or whatever, the first thing is, they question your ability. Many times they thought I was the decorator. And they’d ask, “Are you licensed?” They wouldn’t ask a man that, but they had no problem asking me. Q: How did that make you feel? A: I didn’t really care. I knew I was in a man’s world. I try not to let things get under my skin. I think you choose your reality, and I didn’t want to come down to (other people’s) reality. If they wanted to question my ability, that was fine. I knew what I wanted to do, and I didn’t have anything to prove to these particular people. Q: How did your family feel about the career you chose, particularly coming from a Latino culture where your path wasn’t the norm? A: My parents were also risk takers. They left their families in Mexico to come for a better opportunity in the United States. So the expectations of my parents were never that I would grow up and get married and have children. My mother always told me the reason why I wanted an education was that I would never be dependent on anybody for a living. She wanted me to be able to take care of myself. Because of our culture, young women don’t usually leave their home until they’re married. I went away to college, which was a big deal in my family. My mother had to convince my father that it would be OK. And we struck a deal that I would go to Loyola Marymount, and I would come home on the weekends. Q: You’ve been instrumental in the new Greater Northeast San Fernando Valley Chamber, created from the merger of the San Fernando and Mission Hills chambers. How do you think that new entity will affect the community? A: I believe it’s going to help the business community to have a voice and to have access to resources, access to legislators, all of those very important things. We also want to get involved in education because you have to have an educated workforce, and we feel there are some really bright kids here that will make wonderful employees somewhere along the line. So we feel that by being involved we can complement the effort that is happening in the Northeast Valley, because I think that business has been absent to a certain extent. Business’ voice has not been heard in this end of the Valley. Q: Do you see the chamber stepping into a redevelopment role now that the Community Redevelopment Agency has postponed the Northeast Valley effort? A: We have not been asked to work on such a project at this point, but we are open to working as a team with other organizations. I don’t think it’s something we would spearhead at this time. If there is an overall plan and someone is leading that, we’re happy to be involved. If not, we’ll continue to do what we do.

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