General flexibility allows contractor towering gain

San Fernando Valley Business Journal,  Nov 12, 2007  by Jeff Weiss

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With construction booming over the past several years, it'd be easy to ascribe Tower General Contractor's fast growth to being the end result of this nation-wide trend. But to credit the building boom for their recent success is to ignore the foresight and long-term planning that went on behind the scenes.

Founded in 1985, Sun Valley-based Tower made its name for itself as a health care general contractor before realizing the changing market dynamics of the health care industry over a decade ago.

"When hospitals began experiencing a financial crunch, we felt the pinch and decided we didn't want to have to go through that anymore," Alex Guerrero, Tower's executive vice president said. "Accordingly, we identified defense as a new area to break into. Pretty soon after, we landed clients like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Our experience in health care certainly helped open other doors because an understanding of infectious control and containment of clean rooms in hospitals helped us understand the concept of top secret rooms for defense contractors."

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With a steady foothold in both defense and health care, Tower began moving into a variety of fields including industrial, entertainment, retail and, banks, with the firm recently inking a deal to construct five banks for Union Bank of California. The expansion and evolution has paid large dividends for Tower, as revenues have increased exponentially, going from $26.5 million in 2005 to $50 million in 2006. According to Guerrero, the firm's success has to do with the intense focus that the company devotes to individual projects.

"Last week, the City Council of Beverly Hills awarded us a remodel of city hall. We'll have four managers dedicated strictly to that one project," Guerrero said. "Not everyone does it that way but if just one project doesn't go according to schedule our reputation goes down the drain."

As for the future, expect Tower to make an acquisition or two sooner than later, as the company has recently begun to have the conversation about non-organic expansion. While Guerrero maintains that acquisitions weren't in their original 10-year plan, the company's faster than expected growth has put a lot of opportunities on the table, with banks lining up to give the firm more money to devote to even bigger projects.

By JEFF WEISS

Contributing Reporter

TOWER GENERAL CONTRACTORS
Sun Valley
Fastest Growing Company
$25 Million to $99.9 Million
(88.6%)
No. 4 Fastest Growing Company Overall

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