Le Grand Executif: Growth lays ground for FARA's new HQ: Part II

The gleaming modern structure towering over West Causeway Approach in Mandeville is unlike any other building in St. Tammany Parish.

It is a 52,000-square-foot testament to FARA's growth under the leadership of Todd Richard. Known as F.A. Richard and Associates prior to 1998, the company started using the acronym FARA once Todd Richard took over.

In the past two years, revenues for FARA, an insurance services provider, have nearly doubled from $23.3 million in 2002 to $45.7 million in 2004. To accommodate the 96 percent expansion, Richard thought the company needed a new setting.

The old office, a 24,000-square-foot, two-story building at 2360 5th St. in Mandeville was no longer representative of FARA, Richard said.

We looked at the space we had and the space we needed to handle our new workload. We went for something that is very traditional in the front but extremely modern and employer friendly on the inside. When people walk in they are just blown away.

The $8.5 million building took two and a half years for DonahueFavret Contractors Inc. in Mandeville to complete. It opened July 1, 2004.

Jack Donahue, DonahueFavret chief executive, said FARA's headquarters broke new ground for his company.

There is nothing like this on the North Shore, he said. It's the nicest building we've ever built. It's sensational. Everything about it is a little different. It's not all 90-degree angles like most office buildings. There is an atrium, exposed wood, a waterfall and fountain, and high ceilings with exposed steelwork like in a loft. The shape is just completely different.

Richard said the new building was made as employee friendly as possible. An outdoor seating area is in back while casual meeting and dining rooms are dotted throughout the inside.

The new offices have the latest technology, which allows employees to work on the Internet anywhere.

Conceivably, someone could be halfway around the world and still get their work done, Richard said. People expect you to be as efficient as possible and this has allowed us to completely move our core operations and the way we do business all to the Web. It's become the backbone of our organization.

The new building is a far cry from the first office Richard's father, Francis Richard, opened when he founded FARA in 1978.

It's like night and day, Todd Richard said. We were in the back of a dental office building off of Veterans (Memorial Boulevard in Metairie). It was a one-story building and as we grew we had to bust out the walls and create new doorways. It was very Spartan.

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