by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Bill Prescott has one of the area’s most important jobs: as Senior Vice President of Stadium Operations and CFO for the Jacksonville Jaguars, he’s in the middle of decision-making for the National Football League team.
Job No. 2 is important, too: Prescott and wife Kim own the Beaches Design Center.
“I’m the money man,” said Bill Prescott, only half-joking.
“He’s much better at marketing and we both have financial backgrounds,” said Kim Prescott, who used to work for the Jaguars before getting into the interior design business. “We use him for a lot of marketing and our Web site and for morale.”
The Prescott business originally opened in the St. Johns Town Center in March 2005 where the business stayed until late last summer. On Oct. 15, the retail business reopened as Beaches Design Center in South Jacksonville Beach in the 3200 block of Third Street.
Both said the big mall was a great location but the opportunity to move to the beach was a chance to get closer to their primary client base. It was also a chance to move into a larger space, allowing the store’s designers to create entire rooms.
“We wanted to showcase what is available,” said Bill Prescott. “We have access to over 300 vendors. The beach is more of our demographic.”
The Design Center allows customers to see virtually what rooms in their homes would look like. The possibilities are endless due to the nature of the process. Customers don’t pick out a sofa, art and drapes, take then home and hope they like what they see. Instead, the designers work with customers to create virtual spaces, which combine all of the design elements and are easy to interchange.
“We are a full-service interior design studio,” said Jean Howell, who has been in the business for over 20 years.
Howell said the benefit of using Beaches Design Center is the team concept. She and the other designers work with the builders and the architects and the potential homeowner — or the current homeowner — on every facet of the interior design process.
“The builder, the architect and the design team are on the same page,” said Howell.
Prescott said his involvement in the interior design business isn’t as far from pro football as it may seem.
“All businesses have common elements,” he said. “You have to have vision.”
Part of that vision occurs of the front end of a design project. While some of the clientele comes in the front door, many of the initial contacts are face-to-face in the home.
“We meet with the client on a complementary basis in their home for a consultation,” said Bill Prescott.
If the client chooses, they pay a small retainer and the design team and the client move to the next stage. Kim Prescott said it may take 10 hours to complete a room and some jobs take two weeks start to finish.
“What separates us is once you go through the design phase and order your upholstery and window treatments, you get a credit for the retainer,” said Bill Prescott.