Latest / Mic Hamptons Podcast: Hamptons Real Estate & the People Behind It / Build Outdoor Spaces That Last with Jeff Losquadro

Transcript

Build Outdoor Spaces That Last with Jeff Losquadro · Mic Hamptons Podcast: Hamptons Real Estate & the People Behind It

• 0:00
  Mike Petersohn: Hi, I'm Mike Peterson from Brown Harris Stevens. The Hamptons runs on relationships and over the years, I've built a network of top tier professionals who operate at the highest level. Mike Hamptons is your access point to that world, the people, the insights, and the opportunities behind it all.
• 0:26
  Mike Petersohn: Hi, welcome to another episode of the Mike Hamptons Podcast. My name is Mike Peterson. I'm an agent with Brown Harris Stevens in The Hamptons. I'm also the president of the HNG Hamptons Networking Group or hngli.com. The Hamptons Networking Group is a group of about 30 folks.
• 0:43
  We get together once a week and it's a variety of different services that come together to help each other out, to learn from each other, to help support all things business related in the Hamptons, especially around people's homes. I'm very excited and pleased to invite jazzy Jeff Losquadro from Stasi Design. Good morning, Mike. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming.
• 1:12
  So you guys can't see it on the cameras, but Jeff always shows up with a matching tie, a little pocket square, and his shoes always match as well. He's always the best dressed guy in the group. So thanks for coming out, and we want to learn all about your company, and you do masonry. There are a couple of different conversations about masonry that we're going be having, but the one that's most important is your business. But I think before we get into all that, born and raised, where are you from originally?
• 1:45
  Jeff Losquadro: Mike, born and raised in Nashville County, Minnesota, New York, back in 1960. Attended Herrick's High School, graduated in 1978. Had a business. Was in the oil business for many years, third generation oil business with my dad and my family. Married, divorced, unfortunately, three children, 35, 32, two girls, and a boy, 27 Michael, like you.
• 2:17
  Mike Petersohn: There you go. And I think one of the things that we've talked about before in past, but you've coached a lot of sports in your past.
• 2:25
  Jeff Losquadro: I did. I coached boys lacrosse, Mike. I was inspired. I loved the game. My kid brother went to play, and they couldn't find a coach to coach the team.
• 2:37
  And if they didn't find a coach, they were going to just ban the program for the season, and I wouldn't have it. So I approached the athletic director, who was my coach in high school. He hired me on the spot, and it was just a really wonderful time in my life. It really was.
• 2:55
  Mike Petersohn: And apparently you had some success with it.
• 2:57
  Jeff Losquadro: I did. I had a little success. I was undefeated two years in a row, almost three. And I will tell you, I did swallow a lot of Gatorade, because every one of those wins along the way, I got dumped with Gatorade at the end of the game.
• 3:10
  Mike Petersohn: It's kind of like Ted Lasso going over to not knowing the sport, but knowing how to coach and help kids, which is clutch.
• 3:20
  Jeff Losquadro: But I didn't know how to play the game, too. So I did play and I did coach, so that was my advantage. But it was a great time, really was. Sweet.
• 3:27
  Mike Petersohn: So you also had a world in your life prior to being Astazia. I know you've Astazia about five years. You were commissioner of a couple things?
• 3:40
  Jeff Losquadro: I was I got involved in politics back in the turn of the century, in 2000. I was asked to run for water commissioner to get rid of a problem. And they felt that I was probably the most electrifying, most popular person in the neighborhood that could probably pull it off. And I did. I ran the campaign by myself.
• 4:09
  I knocked on hundreds and hundreds of doors. And I did. I got elected by a landslide victory. And then I continued the next year, and I got another fellow elected to the board. And we made some drastic changes and saved the tax base a ton of money.
• 4:26
  Mike Petersohn: And this was commissioner for Suffolk County?
• 4:28
  Jeff Losquadro: This was a commissioner of a water district, the Oblitsch from Water District.
• 4:31
  Mike Petersohn: Ah, got it. All good. And then, but you're also, you're president of Nassau Suffolk Water Commission.
• 4:39
  Jeff Losquadro: At the time, when I was an elected water commissioner, we had an outside body called the Nassau Suffolk Water Commissioners, and we addressed legislative issues that concern the water community. So I was the president of that association for a year at the time where we were fighting Elliot Spitzer, who was trying to disband the special taxing districts, and he failed miserably.
• 5:03
  Mike Petersohn: Got it. So long have you so now you do masonry and all things masonry. How long have you been in this business?
• 5:13
  Jeff Losquadro: Oh, God. I've been doing this since I was a kid, Mike, probably in my early preteens, 12, 13, mixing concrete as a kid, helping lay brick and carrying them. I've been doing it my whole life. At 65 now, I'm going to say a good fifty plus, fifty five years I've been doing concrete masonry.
• 5:33
  Mike Petersohn: Cool. And so it's not just concrete and masonry. I guess I know a fair amount of what you guys do, but you have a very broad range of products that you put out there. I was wondering maybe you could talk a little bit about educate folks.
• 5:52
  Jeff Losquadro: Well, there's multiple products now available for homeowners and property owners to cover their land, or hardscape, what we call it. Besides asphalt and concrete and gravel, your typical. Now, the big thing is paving stones. We have porcelain. We have granite.
• 6:12
  There's multiple choices in what homeowners can choose. And we have adapted to that change, and we do it very well.
• 6:27
  Mike Petersohn: And you guys have a showroom here in Southampton. It's really literally just right around the corner from these studios. Right, we do. It's pretty sizable. If I go there, if I'm a homeowner or a business owner, I'm going to go there and I'm going to see what?
• 6:47
  Jeff Losquadro: You're going to see a multitude of products, Mike. From the veneers, you're going to see our porcelains, you're going to see our pavers, You're going to see the granite. You're going to see roofing things. We have multiple materials for you to look at and get an idea, different types of gravel samples for your driveway, along with the Pampers brochures and everything else that we have, you can walk out of there with a fair amount of information and choice to do your project.
• 7:27
  Mike Petersohn: I'm thinking that you and Christaci, think, well, I kind of joined the group, I'm going say a little over a year ago. Can't remember exactly.
• 7:34
  Jeff Losquadro: All But
• 7:37
  Mike Petersohn: what's amazing to me, and this is my fault, sometimes people walk into the room and I just don't always know who's going to be a fit and how it's all going to work out, and I'm constantly surprised. And it seems like your group has been not only a huge beneficiary of what, you know, the way that we all connect with each other and being brought into projects, but also that you've passed so much business around the room, tying in Andre's been helping with some restoration and sheet rocking, and then you've got Jason doing electrical work, and Brian helping with plumbing, etcetera. So just a shout out to you. Thank you for just supporting the group as much as you guys It makes me feel good that we're there.
• 8:27
  Jeff Losquadro: Well, that's what we're all about at HNG, Mike. You know that. And again, thanks to your stewardship and your leadership, we're able to grow. You're helping all of us grow.
• 8:37
  Mike Petersohn: So it's cool that last year we finished the year with 24 people, and now we're suddenly at 33 and a few more knocking on the door. We always invite guests, and I invite competitors, but to come and speak. At the end of the day, we are one seat per profession, so I always want to remind people of that. I thought one of the things that was really interesting, I know you work with a lot of municipalities. You recently did, it's not really applicable to the Hamptons, but it's not too far away.
• 9:09
  You guys, could you talk a little bit about the project on Fishers Island?
• 9:12
  Jeff Losquadro: Yeah, that was a lot of fun. So I don't know if most folks know if Fishers Island even is on Long Island. It's hard to believe it's even part of Long Island, because the only way you can get to Fishers Island is by a ferry. From Connecticut. And from Connecticut.
• 9:27
  That's the only way you can access it. Or you can take the Orient ferry and go to Connecticut and then the ferry from Connecticut pull over to Fishers Island. But that was a project from almost near the main ferry terminal going into the center of town. It was half a mile of sidewalks and some drainage to address some water issues and ponding in the roadways. But that was very challenging.
• 9:59
  Logistically, it was a nightmare.
• 10:00
  Mike Petersohn: I would imagine so.
• 10:01
  Jeff Losquadro: You know? First, we had to, make sure that we had, you know, we set up camp for the guys. We actually found a house where the guy, we lived on the island while we worked. Otherwise, to commute back and forth, it would have been a nonproductive project for us. So it actually worked out.
• 10:21
  But very challenging. I mean, the project was done basically a lot quicker than everyone had anticipated. We would have gotten it done a lot faster, but believe it or not, a concrete truck is the only truck that they will not allow on the Fishers Island Ferry when the water is a little unstable or rough seas.
• 10:41
  Mike Petersohn: Can't really blame them?
• 10:42
  Jeff Losquadro: The old no. Yeah. But the only one, not many people know why. Okay. Because in a barrel of concrete, it has to spin continuously.
• 10:55
  Not fast, but it still has to spin to rotate to stop the process or slow down the process of the concrete starting to hard So as that barrel is moving, it makes the load unstable. So they can't predict shift in the truck and the boat. Makes
• 11:15
  Mike Petersohn: sense. Have
• 11:16
  Jeff Losquadro: Some mornings I walk up
• 11:16
  Mike Petersohn: and up by hand. No concrete.
• 11:19
  Mike Petersohn: Oh, And you have a crew of men waiting and you so real quick on that, Another so it's one thing to get the concrete out there, but then Chris, for one of his houses, brought back a huge number of boulders from there, which are just and then put them on, it's one of the most impressive backyards I've seen, truly.
• 11:44
  Jeff Losquadro: A lot of them did come from Fish's Island. I got to tell you, there's a lot of rocks in Fish's Island.
• 11:49
  Mike Petersohn: Well, dates back to the ice age, and everything got scooped up Right. Can then drop down air. What a beautiful that to me really blew me away, that work. Hopefully, we'll get that featured on this. And now you're doing a project for East Hampton Township?
• 12:09
  Jeff Losquadro: For the town of East Hampton. We have multiple projects. We're doing some streetscaping on Main Street. One of the big projects that we're going to start next week is concrete sidewalks from Gurneys Inn. It's about a mile, a little over a mile and a tenth in concrete.
• 12:29
  They're going do it in three phases. So from Gurneys Inn To town. Back a mile and a tenth. Okay. Okay?
• 12:38
  Beautiful. So we're going to make nice five foot sidewalks.
• 12:42
  Mike Petersohn: Safer that because Old Mount Alkaiwa can be a little dodgy for, you know Yeah,
• 12:46
  Jeff Losquadro: especially down there.
• 12:47
  Mike Petersohn: Yeah, it just gets Especially in summertime, it gets really I know,
• 12:50
  Jeff Losquadro: we've gotten quite a bit of work. We've gotten some purchase orders right now waiting for after the holidays now, then we're going to begin. So we'll be here. Stasia will be here.
• 13:02
  Mike Petersohn: Beautiful. And a little I always wanted to ask you about this. Apparently, you've always wanted to get into comedy. You know something? I
• 13:13
  Jeff Losquadro: graduated high school in 1978. Back in 1978, there was a comedian you all know about who was really popular back then, and that was Steve Martin. Okay? At my high school prom, I actually got up and I sang a song that he did. Got a condo made of stoner, King Tut.
• 13:35
  But no, I've always wanted to get into stand up comedy. If I'm at a function, an event, and you see people crowding around somebody or somebody, they're all laughing, I'm usually in the center of that pile. I've noticed. So, yeah, I enjoy comedy. I enjoy making people laugh.
• 13:53
  It's a short life. I Be
• 13:56
  Mike Petersohn: couldn't agree with you more.
• 13:58
  Jeff Losquadro: Dress jazzy as be happy.
• 13:59
  Mike Petersohn: And be yourself. So I guess I'm going to say thank you for coming in and seeing us today and sharing some time with us. Thanks for having me. My pleasure. And another nice thing real quickly that I want to touch on is I found out recently that you're actually a Freemason as well, so I love that.
• 14:19
  Won't give the secret handshake on camera, though. And that's fun. And there are a couple more folks in our group doing that as well. So if I'm a homeowner, if I'm a business owner in the Hamptons, on Long Island, because I think you guys go from Montauk to Manhattan, not to steal tagline. But how do I get in touch with you?
• 14:42
  Well, you
• 14:42
  Jeff Losquadro: can call me direct. My phone number is (516) 250-4282. Yeah, we would love to hear from you. We've been in business for over sixteen years. Our company president and owner, Crecenzo Stasi, has had a history and a family history.
• 15:04
  He's third generation. He's landscape designer by trade. He's educated in plants. And he's very gifted and very talented. Give us a call.
• 15:17
  We'll set up a time. Chris will come down. I'll come down. We'll look at your project. We'll lay it out for you.
• 15:22
  We'll give you a nice cost analysis and an estimate. And we'd like to make your dreams come true because we can do it. We're very talented. And we're based here also in the Hamptons now. We're not just in Nassau County.
• 15:34
  And what is the address? It's the old Kupinski Building. It's on the Smithtown Bypass. I believe it's Number 870?
• 15:43
  Mike Petersohn: Okay.
• 15:44
  Jeff Losquadro: I believe. Sorry for traffic lights. It's traffic lights. Resends on the southeast corner of the bypass.
• 15:51
  Mike Petersohn: The old Ben Kropinsky building.
• 15:52
  Jeff Losquadro: Right,
• 15:53
  Mike Petersohn: correct. All right, well thank you again, and I'm going to say thank you again for tuning into another episode of the Mike Hamptons Podcast where deals get done in The Hamptons. I'm Michael Peterson, and thanks again, a shout out to Flying Point Studios for having us. They're located here in Southampton as well. And if you ever need any work done in The Hamptons, have questions, comments, we're here to help.
• 16:19
  So thank you for tuning in and keep in mind that I know a guy. See you on the next one.
• 16:24
  Mike Petersohn: Hey, this is Michael. Thanks for listening to Mike Hamptons, powered by the Hamptons Networking Group, where the right people make the right things happen. If you're planning anything in The Hamptons, buying, selling, building, hosting, or investing, don't do it alone. Tap into our network of vetted top tier service providers who get things done at the highest level. And if real estate is part of your plan, I bring deep knowledge, strong network, and a track record of getting deals done the right way.
• 16:56
  Reach out anytime. We'll see you on the next one. You can call, text, or DM me right now or visit my website to get connected. I work with the Titan Network and the best deals go to the people who move first. Don't forget to subscribe.
• 17:10
  I'll see you on the next deal. Keep making moves.