Sam Artz Blazes His Own Path With Artz Landscape Designs

Sam Artz, president and principal designer of Artz Landscape Designs, uses team and sports metaphors a lot when he speaks. As such, you might hear him talk about having "the right team" or "when each player knows his position." But the origin story of Artz Landscape Designs is more like a rock and roll band member who breaks out and goes solo with wild success. Now, Artz has built his own team and company from the ground up, and the results are visible.

Family Footsteps

A native Texan, Artz is the son of a landscape architect. He grew up in the business, watching his father's work and deciding that he wanted to be in the family business. He studied landscape architecture at the University of Arkansas and returned to his home state to do what he loves to do.

Artz launched Artz Landscape Designs to continue his pursuit of creating exquisite exterior spaces across North Texas. It's an opportunity he says he is both honored and excited to pursue.

"I'm fortunate enough to work with people that are like family," Artz said.

What They Do Best

With numerous national awards under his belt, Artz leads a team of experienced landscaping designers whose specialty is creating beautiful, functional outdoor spaces for residential and commercial properties. Artz and his team of experienced landscape designers work closely with their clients to understand their needs and vision, and use a combination of creative design and horticultural expertise to bring those ideas to life.

A hands-on landscape architect, Artz estimates he's installed around 400 individual projects in both North Texas and the Houston area. And that's no easy feat. His 15 years of experience have taught him how to work with wide temperature fluctuations, soil variety, and other factors that make landscaping especially tough.

"It's pretty challenging," Artz said. "You have to be knowledgeable in every area to do what we do. My staff has decades of combined experience, and we need all their knowledge because you can't read everything in a book."

The Artz Landscape Designs team includes, from left, Sam Artz; Jay Farmer, Senior Project Manager; Bryan Gonzales, Vice President of Operations; Kealon Rolf, Sales and Project Development; Mark Webb, Senior Design Development.

Artz' creative approach has translated into creative, custom, and unique outdoor projects. His Artz Landscape Designs team is not afraid to work on anything from outdoor kitchens to custom dog walks to swimming pool installations to putting greens.

"I get excited about it," he said, "and I care if my clients are happy."

Passion Projects

"We go all in on it, and I get excited about the work," Artz said. "I always wanted to work with homeowners. That's my passion — working with individuals and tailoring their space for their own needs."

One point of pride is his customer service, something Artz said he learned from his father. He likes to get to know his customers, design an outdoor space that looks like an extension of the home, and then come up with a plan for the work. Besides satisfying his customers, he is happy when he gets a call for another project from a previous customer. It's happened many times with customers who have family members they've referred to him or families with multiple houses that need his expertise.

"That's a big win."

Reach out to Artz Landscape Designs for a free estimate or consultation, or visit ArtzLandscape.Com to view galleries of their most impressive projects.

What Today's Shopping Experience Means For The Business Landscape

Occasionally it's good to empty your inbox of meandering messages. Today, I purge my consciousness of random thoughts that take up too much bandwidth.

So, here it goes. As someone famous once opined, they're just opinions but they're all mine.

Generational wealth

Lately, I've encountered several instances of generational wealth created through commercial real estate ownership.

A common thread runs throughout these families, and that is investment in commercial real estate decades ago when it was much cheaper than today.

Generally, there was a workhorse such as a manufacturing company that created excess dollars that were poured into commercial real estate ownership. In some cases, this was raw land held for development in the future.

It's astounding how deep generational wealth runs.

The start of school

Every September, when the school buses crank up and young people leave for college, my thoughts drift toward the trades and how important they are to our economy. In my generation, we were taught a college education was the ticket.

Nowadays, carpenters, electricians, plumbers and handymen start at much higher salary levels than those with college educations. Pair the two – college and a skill – and you're golden!

Additionally, these trades provide a platform for young folks to start their own businesses. Please understand I'm not dissuading anyone from getting a college education, I'm just of the mind that there are many other ways to make a great living in today's economy.

Today's shopping experience

Recently, I decided to replace my iPad. You see since the days of the pandemic lockdown my entire workload has been carried by two Apple devices — my iPad in my iPhone. That's right! No PC in this man's world.

I recall the last time I bought an iPad. It was a bit painful, as passwords had to be recollected, data had to be transferred and inevitably it just didn't work like the old machine.

To combat this, I kept my old one around for a while. Now my work space looks a bit like a scene from "Wall-E," where pieces of old devices are strewn about.

However, this latest shopping experience was different. I simply placed my old iPad next to the new one, and voila, the data transferred. The new machine was operational and looked identical to the old one. What an incredible experience.

On my way back to meet my wife, I visited Warby Parker. For those unfamiliar with the brand, Warby Parker is a bit like Chipotle, only for eyeglasses. You simply walk in with your prescription, check out the samples of your glasses, and they magically appear at your house six business days later.

It's difficult for me to imagine how old-line optometrists and computer stores will have a future.

The details matter

Recently, I negotiated a lease on behalf of our client. This is commonplace, however, this lease negotiation took on a whole life of its own.

In addition to making sure the lease reflected the business points, we were asked to opine on certain areas of the lease and their impact on future events. As I reminded our client many times, we are not attorneys and do not dispense legal advice.

But, our client felt comfortable with our laymen's interpretation of certain clauses in the lease. In situations like this, I feel particularly valuable, but at the same time vulnerable. I can't recall being so invested.

The deal is now done and our client has a shiny new home. Best of luck!

Allen C. Buchanan, SIOR, is a principal with Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services in Orange. He can be reached at [email protected] or 714.564.7104.

Colorado Springs' Green Thumb Starts New Chapter: Owner Of Landscape Business Leaves After 47 Years

Green Thumb Commercial Grounds Maintenance Inc., a landscaping company that's flourished in Colorado Springs for nearly a half century, entered a new phase of leadership Saturday as lifelong owner Phyllis Gingerich retired.

After decades operating the administrative side of Green Thumb, Gingerich decided it was time to step away from the company that she and her late husband, Merlin Gingerich, had overseen since 1976 and hand it over to their son Jason Gingerich.

"I'm stepping down and just letting Jason take the whole reins," Phyllis said. "It's just that time ... To move on. I will miss this place because this has been my life for 47 years."

Phyllis and Merlin met at church, but before they had a wedding, they had a name for their business.

"My husband's father had a small mowing company, and my husband kind of took that over from his father," Phyllis said. "So when my husband started out, we renamed it."

Unlike Green Thumb today, which sits on 10 acres with more than 20 workers and roughly 40 commercial clients, Phyllis and Merlin started with less than an acre in the center of the city with one employee — Merlin's sister.

"We have grown a lot, we have changed a lot over the years," Phyllis said, recalling Green Thumb's original location at 2519 E. Saint Vrain St., just north of Platte Avenue and Boulder Street.

"We had to back our trucks and trailers in between trees and houses all the way down," she said.

From mowing yards for homeowners, using hand trimmers and a CB radio system, to keeping up the grounds of commercial properties, using gas trimmers and smart phones, Phyllis said Green Thumb lived out its punny slogan — "every day is a little mower better."

When Phyllis and Merlin's three children were young, her administrative duties were something she tried to squeeze in during her kids' nap time. As the children grew, they also helped with the business during the summer and in their high school years.

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Green Thumb eventually relocated to 7209 Quail Brush Creek Drive near Powers Boulevard and Woodmen Road. Upon moving, the company's offices, landscaping equipment and snowplows bordered open land. Today, they are surrounded by a sea of housing developments.

The growth was evident in previous autumns when Phyllis ran a pumpkin patch on the property.

"We grew from 1,500 people to 15,000 people in those five years," Phyllis said. "It was a wonderful, fun time, but we just outgrew it; it got too big for us."

When Merlin died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2015 at age 59, Jason took on more daily tasks and management responsibilities at the company. And, similar to so many times in the past, Phyllis and her family relied on their faith.

"Not what we expected in life," Phyllis said, choking up. "My late husband was wonderful ... I am proud to say I'm his wife."

More than six years after Merlin died, Phyllis kindled a relationship with a fellow player on the pickle ball court. They married and now hope to spend some time traveling.

"The business, I can say, probably tied us down more than I expected at times," Phyllis said. "There were many times we thought we'd get out, ups and downs all the time ... But then we decided, nope, let's stay right here."

But that was because at the end of the day, Phyllis said she realized the driving purpose.

"It's God's, you know," Phyllis said. "God owns this business."

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