Construction company follows regional growth waves

Mike Becker built a start-up company with two employees into a 300-employee organization with annual sales of $20 million in barely more than five years.

But markets change, and Becker is moving quickly to change the direction of his Reno-based Becker General Contractors Inc.

The company that grew quickly as a subcontractor for production homebuilders Becker handled framing, finish carpentry and painting is moving upstream to handle more general contracting and construction management.

At the same time, Becker has assembled a portfolio of land throughout northern Nevada and is moving development proposals through the entitlements process.

The common theme between the focus on general contracting and the plans to do development? "We want to control our own destiny," says Becker.

On the development front, the company has acquired land for residential and commercial projects much of it in fast-growing Fallon and Fernley along with industrial property at Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and in-fill lots for multi-family housing in the Reno-Sparks area.

That fits with Mike Becker's guess that northern Nevada will develop with Reno and Sparks at its hub with thriving business and residential communities growing along its spokes.

"I've been doing it the old-fashioned way," he says of his land purchases. "We just look. We drive around."

The downturn in the residential construction market Becker General Contractors is down to 200 employees from its peak of 300 has spurred the company's search for new places to use its skills in the building industry.

In some instances, Becker says, the company has found success in teaming with large regional general contractors. Becker General Contractors handles large subsystems a complicated storefront, for instance that require multiple construction skills.

The company's management and skilled workforce, Becker says, are well prepared to make the transition from residential subcontracting into general contracting.

"If we've chosen the right people, and if they're trained by right-minded people, then management becomes easy," he says.

The company keeps its values in front of employees with weekly meeting of its management team, quarterly meetings of its supervisors and twice-a-year meetings of all hands.

Another strength that Becker General Contractors brings to its new role, says Vice President Devon Reese, is a deeply felt understanding of the challenges faced by subcontractors.

While the slowing of the residential market dictated a strategic shift for the company, Becker acknowledges it didn't come easily.

"It definitely had been our comfort zone," he says. "But we had to find ways to adapt to the change."

He has no misgivings about the new course.

"No matter what happens," Becker says, "we will find a way to will our way through it."