Work record / Development / Carroll Shelby International, Gardena

Carroll Shelby International, Gardena: we painted the mural first

We were hired to paint one wall. I priced only that wall, and I never asked for a master agreement, so each later phase had to be earned on finished work.

The seat

I was Chief Executive Officer of Tellus Design and Build. We came in at the end of 2012 on a personal referral and stayed through 2017.

Sector	Automotive brand and retail
Type of work	Phased design-build and city entitlement
Where	Gardena, California
Years	2013 to 2017
How long	Four years
Through	Tellus Design and Build
Credits	Common Ground Jesse Fowler, Chief Executive Officer, Tellus Design and Build

What I was brought in to decide

Carroll Shelby International holds the licensing rights to the Shelby name. Shelby American in Las Vegas made the actual cars. Carroll Shelby died in May 2012, and afterward the South Figueroa Street building with a Gardena address became the brand's California hub. He had kept an apartment there for thirty years. A retail store was planned and a museum was being discussed. M. Neil Cummings, Esq., the co-CEO who signed for the company, was a lawyer. No one on their side had ever built anything with Tellus.

The job on the table was one mural. Nothing past the wall was on offer.

What we did

I priced the mural by itself and did not pitch a program. I never proposed a master agreement, then or later. That meant every phase after it was a new decision made on finished work, and the client could leave after any of them. The mural was 15 by 40 feet. It showed Carroll Shelby's signature and the Shelby insignia, with blue racing stripes wrapping around.
We painted the wall first. When the city saw it, it said it would not have approved it and that it should stay.
On the ground floor of the working office, Tellus built the retail store. That started our standing relationship with the planning staff at the City of Carson.
In the gap, October 2014 to March 2015, Tellus acted as owner-side lead for the sister company, Shelby American, on its relocation to a new Las Vegas property. It was a separate entity and a separate seat, covered on its own page.
The Snake Pit's first phase was a VIP lounge meant as stage one of a museum. We made display models of the building, the museum and the lounge, put up temporary walls to show the path visitors would take, and ran contracts and construction for the foundation. In the foundation's own words in the release, that management saved it a significant amount of money.
In 2016 the City of Carson froze all new construction and left no exception clause. I put together a packet on what Shelby brought to Carson. That meant a recognized name, press, and a yearly car show along a route the city wanted drivers to take. I backed it with the city's own record of Tellus's work and delivered it in person.
Early in 2017 we delivered phase two of the Snake Pit: 3,000 square feet of VIP lounge and event space where Carroll Shelby's apartment had been. The scope covered structural changes, roll-up doors and finishes, a commercial kitchen, pool tables, indoor and outdoor event space, and a bar stocked with Shelby-branded beer and wine. It was ready for the annual Carroll Shelby Tribute and Car Show.
Every phase was bid separately, and each was won because of the one before it.

Results

Four phases across four years for one client, each won on the strength of the last.
We were among the few the City of Carson exempted from its 2016 construction freeze.
The mural the city said it would not have approved, then asked us to keep. A retail store open for business. The 3,000-square-foot Snake Pit lounge, finished across two phases.
In the January 2017 release, the client's co-CEO, M. Neil Cummings, Esq., said the Tellus Design Build team "earned our trust" and reflected the "true spirit of competition and hard work" of Carroll Shelby and of America.
The packet showing value to the city became a method I used again in Costa Mesa for AXT.

The lesson

Price the one piece on the table and never propose the program. Then each next phase stays a fresh decision made on finished work.

Public record

PRWeb, January 2017: Tellus Design + Build partners with American automobile icon for event space construction in Gardena

Stories from this work

From one mural to a four-year relationshipA single wall mural for a performance car brand's California hub became a store build-out and then a VIP lounge, one job at a time.A sealed wall, not a sheet of plasticBuilding the Shelby store next to a garage of valuable cars, I chose a real wall over plastic sheeting.Cut the hole before the plan is approvedI opened the ceilings of the Snake Pit lounge before approval and found what the design had been missing.Sixty days to the car showCarroll Shelby International wanted its Gardena store open for the annual car show, about four months out.The mural we painted without askingThe Shelby relationship began with a wall painting done before anyone gave permission.

Questions about Carroll Shelby International, Gardena, answered

Firm record

Common Ground keeps its own account of this engagement: Carroll Shelby International, Gardena on the Common Ground wiki.

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