Benton Kendig: Building a company on Rochester’s history

Listen to this article

Benton Kendig dropped out of high school in the 1960s. But after learning the importance of an education while serving in the military, he became a kindergarten teacher.
Kendig, 56, is a leading developer with properties in three states, and owns some of Rochester’s most-cherished landmarks.
“You couldn’t get better training to handle the construction industry than teaching kindergarten because the basics and fundamentals are the important part in both cases,” says Kendig, president of Kend Enterprises Inc.
The company he founded in 1974 has several hundred real estate investments in New York, Florida and South Carolina, several historic property developments in Western New York, a mortgage lending business in New York and Florida, and a general contracting business in the Rochester market.
Kend Enterprises employs 12 staffers and also markets and manages many of its developments.
While the 1980s were turbulent in the real estate industry, they brought to Kend Enterprises the business Kendig is perhaps best known for, historical-reuse projects.
“I call him the master of redeveloping for old buildings,” says James Martin, a partner in Cavalier & Associates, which has been a partner in many of Kend Enterprises’ projects. “I don’t think there is anyone out there that can do what he does as well as he does.”
John Page, architect at Bero Associates Architects, credits Kendig with saving several key elements of Rochester’s history.
“The thing that I like about Ben is you meet him, but never expect (that) if it wasn’t for him, three important landmarks would be gone,” says Page, who has worked with Kendig on roughly 10 adaptive-reuse projects.
Those three landmarks-the Old Stone Warehouse, Hoyt-Potter House and Gorsline Building-would be gone or still vacant and deteriorating if not for Kendig, Page says. Each site went through more than one cycle of attempted redevelopment until Kendig stepped in.
“I bought all three for $1, but I almost always paid too much,” he says.
It took hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore them.
“(Historical buildings) are very interesting to me and it gives me a chance to give back to the community,” says Kendig, who has been involved with a couple dozen adaptive-reuse projects.
An old building can give people a sense of those who were there before them, he adds.
Kendig did not grow up yearning to be a developer, but the entrepreneur was drawn into the field as he reacted to market conditions.
Today he is known for seeing projects through to the bitter end, but that was not always the case. While in 11th grade he quit attending John Marshall High School in Rochester.
“It wasn’t interesting to me,” says the Rochester native.
But not long after that, in 1963, he found something that interested him-the U.S. Air Force. He enlisted and his unit was deployed in Vietnam.
During his four years in the military, Kendig earned his general equivalency diploma and he started taking college courses in Okinawa through the University of Maryland.
Kendig qualified to enroll in the military’s electronics school. For 18 intensive months, he learned the ins and outs of transistors, a relatively new technology at the time.
The military used transistors to help guide the planes that dropped bombs, he says.
After his Vietnam tour of duty ended, he was stationed in Las Vegas where he taught electricians and television repairmen the equivalent of continuing education courses. It was his first taste of teaching.
“The military was an incredible experience. I don’t regret it a bit,” Kendig says.
In general, he believes that the military benefits young men.
“Most young males are emotionally unsteady. They lack discipline and a sense of direction,” he explains. “The military exposes them to discipline just at the right time. It can help them with focus.”
By the time Kendig left the military, he was focused and had a greater understanding of life.
“No. 1 was education. I knew I wanted an education. No. 2 was that I loved my country-madly; and No. 3 was that it took hard work to get somewhere (in life),” he says.
When he returned to the Rochester area in the late 1960s, he enrolled at SUNY College at Brockport. He sailed through college in less than three years, earning his bachelor of science degree in psychology and English.
The English degree helped make him a more effective communicator, he says.
“No matter what you get into, the ability to communicate is the most important asset,” he says.
Around 1970, Kendig considered going to flight school. He was nearly at the front door when he decided that four years in the military was just the right amount, and a career would be too much.
Instead Kendig took a long plane ride to Sydney, Australia, to become a high school history teacher.
It was relatively easy, he recalls. Education in Australia was far behind the United States in that most teachers had only two years of college.
“I was very struck with the difference of the two cultures as it pertained to getting ahead in the world,” Kendig says.
Over there, people would get ahead depending on how important their fathers were, he says. “(Here) you can travel in any direction on your own merits.”
A year later, the developer returned again to the Rochester area to continue his education. He earned a masters of science degree in early childhood development from the University of Rochester.
He started teaching kindergarten at SUNY Brockport’s campus school. He loved the work but not the pay.
“The pay was terrible and I couldn’t pay my bills to support my family. That’s when I started Kend Enterprises,” he says.
Kend Enterprises’ first venture was installing insulation in homes. Demand for insulation was fueled by fears that the nation might run out of oil. During the 1970s, heating oil prices shot up and people became more aware of the cost-saving benefits of insulating their homes.
“I taught kindergarten days and sold jobs nights … and worked weekends,” he says.
He would send his two-person crew to do the jobs during the day. He kept working seven days a week for some eight years. He taught most of that time until deciding to focus his attention on the company.
Through strong demand, reasonable prices and fair business practices, Kend Enterprises did extremely well from the start, he says. All of his business came by word-of-mouth and the company never ran short on work.
Kendig says he took time to clearly communicate the ins and outs of each project with clients or prospective clients. He would also make sure the crews left each project site cleaner than they found it.
Efficiency was the key to running a successful company. Kendig would get jobs done with the fewest number of people by concentrating on hiring the right people for the jobs and keeping them satisfied, he says.
Later in the 1970s, Kend Enterprises expanded into real estate.
Real estate was a natural fit because there were huge tax advantages in real estate development, Kendig says. Basically, property owners could write off redeveloping costs in five years compared with 20 years previously or some 30 years currently.
Kendig started buying residential properties in the city, and then added commercial properties.
Kendig did not anticipate several blows to the real estate industry, making it more challenging to be a developer. The tax laws changed in the mid-1980s, taking with it a lot of restoration work.
“It killed the real estate renovation business in the city because there were no more advantages,” he explains.
Another drawback to the real estate industry came in the early 1990s when commercial banks wanted to get out of the real estate business.
“They no longer saw real estate as profitable. (Real estate) used to be profitable with deductions, which were all gone because of the changed laws,” Kendig says.
Kendig describes it as a crisis that affected all developers because banks would not renew real estate loans.
He remembers once a banker had flown into town to meet with him personally about such business. Typical of Kendig’s unorthodox style, he asked the banker to join him on his daily walk around Cobbs Hill Park.
The developer leaned on his communication skills to convince the banker, and others, to continue working with Kend Enterprises.
“I was able to persuade banks that we would pay them back based on previous records of always paying our bills,” he says.
Kend Enterprises overcame those obstacles and continued to grow. Kendig would not disclose the annual revenues or financial performance of Kend Enterprises.
“Focusing strictly on money is so abstract. It is fleeting,” he says. “A life is really measured more in the sense of satisfaction in accomplishments and personal growth.”
In the 1980s, the firm formed a mortgage-lending service for acquisition bridge loans. Kendig also became a general contractor keeping up with all of the city zoning rules and building-code enforcement. Additionally, historical projects became a greater focus.
“The challenge with historical buildings is to make them comply with modern business requirements,” Kendig says.
When renovating historical buildings, the developer has to adapt the mortar mixes, comply with code and zoning requirements and, in many cases, work with non-standard pipes and beams.
“Building new and renovating historics is like the difference between macaroni and cheese and bouillabaisse,” he says. “Energy is the key; you have to have tons of energy.”
One of Kendig’s first restoration projects was converting a large residential property at 275 Plymouth Ave. into condominiums in Corn Hill.
To accomplish the task, Kend Enterprises teamed up with Bero, the only local general practice architecture firm with a preservation department. The two firms have now worked together some 20 years.
Not long after that project, the two firms began work on one of Monroe County’s first buildings at One Mt. Hope Ave., the 1820s grain warehouse known as the Old Stone Warehouse. Today the three-story office building is called One Mt. Hope and it houses Kend Enterprises.
“I think he is an anomaly. He is not a preservationist in the truest sense … but a businessman who sees opportunities and cares about the history of the community,” Bero’s Page says.
The Hoyt-Potter House at 133 South Fitzhugh St. in Corn Hill was a historical restoration project done for and bought by the Landmark Society of Western New York Inc. Kendig is a member of the society.
The 1840 house was a wreck before Kendig got involved, says Henry McCartney, executive director of the society. Kendig started the project in the late 1980s after it sat vacant for at least 20 years. The project cost close to $1 million to restore and furnish.
“I think he is a businessman with tremendous enthusiasm for projects,” McCartney says. “He gets involved and he gets excited, and has the commitment and understanding to make the projects succeed.”
Kendig tackles projects involving derelict buildings and essentially preserves them, creating something positive for the community, McCartney adds.
“It has been tremendously important to have people like Ben look at a project. He is one of the few we think about calling when we come across what seems like an impossible project,” he says.
The past three years, Kendig poured himself into his most recent project-restoring the former Gorsline Building, now the High Falls Building. The office building opened last summer and about one third of the space is still available-some 17,000 square feet out of a total of 51,000.
“(Kendig) has an ability to recognize a problem or situation, assess it and normally provide at least two solutions for it immediately,” says Cavalier’s Martin.
The business partners started working together in 1986 when they developed a shopping center in Batavia. They currently are involved in eight developments and have worked together on some 15 other projects, including shopping centers, office buildings and apartment complexes.
Martin says Kendig develops a game plan and sticks with it until the end-both in work and in play.
He recounts a story that shows his business partner’s characteristics of gambling a little and calculating the risks.
The two were golfing about seven years ago in Mendon. They do not play for money, but for golf balls.
“Ben has a tendency if he loses (a hole) he wants to double the bet to get back to even on the next hole,” Martin says.
This particular day, Kendig had lost the first nine holes and he was down 256 balls. The winner had the right to pick the brand of ball and payment was due immediately after the round. Golf balls cost some $3 at the time.
On the 10th hole, Kendig bet double or nothing again, pushing his potential risk to 512 golf balls or more than $1,500. But Kendig won the hole and set the wager back to zero, Martin says.
In addition to spirited golf games, the developer enjoys daily walks and classic Cadillacs. He owns a 1972 coupe and is looking for a 1960 model.
American history is another of Kendig’s passions.
“From (history) we get a real sense of the good fortune we all have that (the systems that our forefathers put into place) have worked,” he says. “History is one thing where the facts are more interesting than the myths.”
He is reading “Polk’s Folly: An American Family History,” by William Roe Polk. It has him so enthralled that he sometimes awakens in the middle of the night to read 20 pages.
“It’s great,” he describes with a big smile. “It’s like making par on a difficult par four.”

Close-up

Benton Kendig

Title: President, Kend Enterprises Inc.
Age: 56
Home: Rochester
Education: B.S. in psychology and English, SUNY College at Brockport, 1970; M.S. in early childhood development, University of Rochester, 1973
Wife: Michelle
Interests: Reading history, taking walks and golfing
Quote: “The challenge with a historical building is to make them comply with modern business requirements. Building new and renovating historics is like the difference between macaroni and cheese and bouillabaisse.”

1/26/01 (c) Rochester Business Journal