Starr Corp., Idaho
Michael Arrington is president of Starr Corp., a third-generation general contractor in Twin Falls, Idaho, that provides design, building and general contracting work. Projects are currently under way at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls and several other regional school districts. Other projects include concrete work for St. Luke’s hospital in Twin Falls and renovation and remodel projects at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Mountain Home, Idaho.

ARRINGTON

Arrington says that they have not been hit as hard as some of our competition, but things are definitely different than they were a few years ago. “I think some folks are going from month to month, and they are not sure they are going to be in business. I believe that it is forcing them to make bad decisions in the way they bid and approach procuring work,” he says.

“On the one side, there is, ‘If I take this for cost or less, at least I’ll have some cash moving through my business,’ but when the job gets done, they have just done it for practice. That has caused the competition to get much fiercer for the jobs that are out there.”

Arrington says their table was set years ago when things were good.

“Several years ago, when things were booming, and it was difficult to find a contractor, we made sure that when our customers had a project, we were there for them,” he says. “That helped instill loyalty.”

The firm also kept its public work license and bonding relationships strong when it didn’t necessarily need them because most jobs were in the private arena. “We kept those relationships strong so we would be ready if and when we needed to shift to public projects,” he says.

Also, Starr did not overextend on equipment purchases or commercial development projects that in the very best of times made financial sense, but if there were a hiccup would no longer pay for themselves.

“I am seeing some of my competitors and the people I rub shoulders with that are hurting because of some of the ventures they got into work out financially only in the very best of times,” he says.

Arrington says he does not think that the worst is over, but the economy will recover sooner rather than later and that a lot of relief will be driven by commercial real estate values. “I’m optimistic that we will get out of this in 2010. I hope that in six to eight months, we’ll be on a solid course back up,” he adds.

NELSON

Engineered Structures Inc., Idaho
Neil Nelson is executive vice president and a partner in Engineered Structures Inc. of Boise. He describes his firm as a $250-million company licensed in 37 states with offices in Boise, Scottsdale, Arizona and Kansas City, Mo., with 175 employees, 100 of whom are professionals with college degrees.

He said the ESI business model has changed a little bit because their volume is down even though they actually increased the number of projects they did last year and probably will do this year. The work has involved primarily renovation, remodel and tenant improvement.

“These definitely are tough time, so we pay attention to our spending,” Nelson says. “There are not a lot of new clients out there, so we tend to take care of our existing clients and foster those relationships as best we can.”

Nelson hopes the worst is over, and he has his own business barometer. “I just look at direct statistics as far as unemployment and track my own industry,” he says. “It appears to have flattened out, and in my opinion our sector will be coming out of this for two or three years. We plan on being in our current mode of operation for several years,” he says.