From a kitchen table in Bay Shore, an international engineering firm is born

When the stock market went into a meltdown 15 years ago, Jackman Jeremiah Prescod’s employer had few, if any, engineering projects to assign. Prescod cashed out his 401(k) savings to capture any value his retirement’s “security blanket” had retained before the market plummeted even more, he said.

As the Great Recession took hold, Prescod was out of his job at a most precarious time in his life: his wife was pregnant, and they also had an 18-month-old son. Plus, the job market had evaporated.

“That was a crazy time,” Prescod said.

Left with no choice but to hang out his own shingle, he launched 5D Architecture and Engineering PLLC from the kitchen table of his Bay Shore home. With $250,000 from his 401(k) proceeds, he purchased wide-format printers, a computer and other business supplies; leased a car in hopes of traveling to future projects, including home inspections, and paid himself a salary to support his family.

Today, the company, headquartered in Lynbrook with an office in Jamaica, Queens, has eight employees and handles as many as 15 projects at one time, Prescod said.

A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Prescod came to the United States on a student visa with his mother when he was 15 years old, but they returned home when his visa was about to expire. At 17, after graduating from high school, Prescod returned to the United States with his mother, but after a short time, she went back to their homeland, leaving him alone in a Queens neighborhood rife with drugs and crime.

With his mother serving as a pastor and his father wearing multiple professional hats, including engineer, reverend, doctor of theology and global missionary, Prescod was raised with a “hardcore religious Pentecostal” upbringing that imbued him with honesty and morals, he said. With a green card in hand, courtesy of a family friend sponsoring him, Prescod worked as a bank teller with a singular professional goal: to be an engineer.

“I never got involved and had no peer pressure nor desire to join friends and neighbors in crimes,” said Prescod, 50, who earned his engineering degree at the University at Buffalo and received training in advanced computerized structural and earth simulation from Bentley Systems/Staad, a corporate software company in Yorba Linda, California. “As friends were going to prison or coming out of prison, I knew I’d be going to college.”

Prescod recently spoke to Newsday about his company.

What’s the meaning of your firm’s name, 5D Architecture and Engineering?

It’s those [five] fields our company addresses — construction, construction management, architecture, engineering and inspections.

What’s the biggest business mistake you made?

I should’ve married my wife five years earlier. We’re married 20 years, and when I lost my job, she was my biggest supporter, and with her, I would have started my business earlier.

What is your biggest challenge now?

I need exposure so people know I’m here, because once I get that exposure, they say, "We didn’t know this company is doing cutting-edge stuff."

How do you get customers?

I get referrals from lawyers, other engineers and architects all the time.

I’m also out there with my MBE, LLBE, SBE and DBE certifications. (Minority Business Enterprise, Local Business Enterprise,  Small Business Enterprise and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise)

What are some current and past projects?

At JFK Terminal 4, I’m doing construction management and inspection on the tarmac, and as a licensed drone pilot, I’m getting photos of the construction progress on Terminal 6. So, when a subcontractor wants to get paid, the photos show if the construction is on or behind schedule, done or ongoing.

In Flushing, Queens, for the Emerald Tower Condominium’s underground parking lot, I did the design and inspections for the 60-feet-below-ground excavation’s supportive work.

And on the island of Jamaica, I’m working on several projects, including the retrofit of the Hermitage Dam and, with the island’s national water commission, I’m trying to solve their 50% freshwater loss in their ancient pipes.

What are the advantages of owning a business like yours?

It allows you to dream, think, learn and do different projects.

In 2020, I started a not-for-profit, called Oasis Community Land Charity Inc. to provide workforce training to the disadvantaged, and now I have an official partnership with the Shinnecock Nation. In collaboration with the nation, I'm using my drone technology to trace carbon footprint and animal migration along the Eastern Seaboard to map out offshore wind for environmental permitting.

Through the not-for-profit, I’m getting more diverse and untraditional projects.

How do you get employees?

I get emails for new employees from LinkedIn, Yahoo, job recruiters, other architects, engineers, friends and employees.

How do you retain workers?

I try to offset the rising costs of the economy with food, long-distance travel, gas and phone allowances.

What do you hope your company will look like in five years?

The business will be so big that we’ll have an opportunity to give back with jobs to our communities. We’re doing that now, but it would be on a larger scale. I want to help those people who can’t see their way forward to make enough money to own a home and be part of the American dream.