It's a busy time for versatile New York City construction co

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 19, 1997

But caring for her newborn is hardly the reason for Barbara's current non-stop schedule - rather, it's her hands-on approach to managing and directing a nine-year-old business that is continuing to capture the attention of an ever broadening base of clients.

Long respected for its professionalism and high quality of workmanship, Anchor's most recent assignments are indicative of the firm's growing reputation as one of the city's most versatile general contractors. They include a new office tenant installation at 667 Madison Avenue; construction of a retail facility at LaGuardia Airport; a new Manhattan assignment from long-time client Sotheby's; and the completion of J. Crew's newest store at the Tanger Factory Outlet Mall in Riverhead, LI.

Just to keep from getting too bored, Kavovit turned builder/developer this past summer, and her stylish $1.5 million spec home on Georgica Road in East Hampton is now nearing completion. She expects to start construction of another Hampton home in the Spring.

Still, her first love remains meeting the challenges of succeeding in the intensely competitive, male-dominated New York construction scene - a feat made all the more remarkable when you consider that she started her business just months after graduating college, with minimal capital, no full-time employees and little background or training in construction.

After successfully taking on small home improvement projects in Westchester, Barbara decided to branch into commercial construction in 1990. She sent a cold letter to IBM, talked her way into an interview, and after several meetings, was awarded what turned into a three-year contract to renovate IBM's corporate headquarters in Armonk, NY.

The success of that project put Anchor on the construction map, and jobs for Polo-Ralph Lauren, Doremus Advertising, Philip-Van Heusen Group, Bloomingdale's, CNBC, and the Riva Pointe luxury residential development in Weehawken, NJ, soon followed.

Today, less than a decade after its first modest home improvement assignment, Anchor Construction has over 30 full-time employees and an annual sales volume in excess of $15 million. Among its broad range of recent and/or current projects is the ongoing renovation of Carnegie Hall Towers, the reconstruction of the Third Street Music School at 235 East 11th Street, the upgrading of a variety of Sotheby facilities, and the expansion of several Greenwich Village townhouses.

Kavovit is a member of the Professional Women in Construction, the New Rochelle College President's Advisory Board, and in 1993 received a New York State Department of Economic Development Award from Governor Mario Cuomo. She will be featured in a soon-to-be-released book entitled "Superstar Entrepreneurs of Small and Large Businesses Reveal Their Secrets."