Take 10 With Cinergy’s CEO Greg Francis
Greg Francis is CEO of Cinergy, a company that seamlessly integrates construction with acoustic design for luxury multi-media theaters, recording studios, and noise control. The firm also designs and builds secure environments and safe rooms for residential and commercial properties. Cinergy recently expanded their Los Angeles millwork and custom fabrication shop to keep up with client demands. The added space allows their master craftsmen and artisans additional architectural millwork and finishing capabilities. With offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Cinergy develops creative solutions for the most challenging projects nationwide.
CC: Your grandfather managed movie theaters in Los Angeles. Did that influence you to build custom theaters and screening rooms?
GF: Growing up, my brother and I would spend summers with my grandfather Harry Francis in the Fox movie theaters that he managed. He started as an usher and went on to management, and of course, he had us sweeping the floors and doing other chores, but it did give me an appreciation for cinema design.
The Crest Theatre Long Beach, one of the theaters that Greg’s grandfather Harry Francis managed
CC: How did you get your start in construction?
GF: My father, aunts, uncles, and cousins were real estate agents and lenders. My first job was selling timeshares in Tahoe at sixteen, and I started as a mortgage broker after college. Joining RPM Mortgage, I was a top producer. That led to real estate development, a real estate license, and eventually construction.
CC: What did you study at the University of Colorado Boulder?
GF: I studied Political Studies. While in college, I co-founded Vertical Addictions, Inc., a pioneer of Bungee Jumping in the United States. The company grew from one location to seven in one year. These locations included three Hot Air Balloons, two cranes, and two bridge jump spots. Even before that, I had an entrepreneurial streak selling Jim Morrison tee shirts at Grateful Dead concerts.
CC: You were with Timberstone Construction for six years; what drew you to work there?
GF: It was a company I started with my father in Lake Tahoe that pioneered the design and construction of highly custom prefabricated homes. We developed systems to reduce the build time of custom homes by 50% and were a Certified Green Builder, creating an innovative waste recycling program for building materials. The company grew from two employees to 45 in two years.
CC: You followed this with ten years as director of G11 Media LLC; what was that company’s focus?
GF: The Great Recession affected Timberstone, so I started a marketing and sales company directed towards the construction, real estate, and mortgage lending industries concentrating in Southern California and Lake Tahoe. I did marketing for my wife, a mortgage lender who now works with my old boss at RPM Mortgage.
CC: What brought you to Cinergy?
GF: Graham Osborne and I were in high school together in Lake Tahoe's Incline Village. As a senior, he remodeled his family's home. After obtaining an engineering degree fromthe University of Nevada at Reno and a California General Contractor license, Graham started Osborne Building Corporation specializing in luxury homes. General construction segued into specialty spaces, and he and I formed Cinergy.
CC: What sets Cinergy apart from other construction companies?
GF: Our niche is specialty acoustic construction, building high-end theaters, screening rooms, and recording studios. In addition, we fabricate secure environments such as safe rooms. We collaborate with designers, architects, general contractors, and subcontractors to give the client high-touch, high-service project management that delivers on time and on budget.
CC: What was your favorite project, and why?
GF: "The Amanda Cinema" for filmmaker Ava DuVernay's ARRAY Creative Campus in Los Angeles' Historic Filipinotown. Paradise Theaters referred Cinergy to the project, and we had to make it ready for its debut of When They See Us in four months flat instead of the standard eight-month lead time. Although it was a challenging project Ava, her organization, and her team were great to work with; they asked for our advice and followed it. As a result, the theater was built on time and under budget.
Ava DuVernay on the Amanda Theater stage of ARRAY
CC: Favorite movie?
GF: Since I was a kid, The Star Wars epic is classic with incredible technology that has evolved with each film.
CC: If you made a documentary, what would it be about?
GF: The history of movie theaters. Architects and builders designed the old movie palaces and drove Hollywood's film industry; this has changed with many theaters now obsolete or demolished like the Crest Theatre that my grandfather managed.
