Business of the Week: B.F. Yenny Construction Co., Inc.

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Jul 30, 1999 by J, Casey

SYRACUSE-In the spring of 1990, Bruce Yenny's employer, Melvin Woods, decided he was going to sell his business and retire. In just five weeks, Yenny put together a deal to buy the M.V. Woods Construction Co. He started B.F. Yenny Construction Co., Inc., on July 1, but admits he probably didn't need to hurry because the company didn't have any clients until the fall.

"I sat here and wrote a lot of paychecks without taking one," says Yenny, president of B.F. Yenny.

The company's first project was a fire station for the Moyers Comers Fire District. The job would be the first in a continuing series of public contracts for every level of government.

Every project requires the company to put up a bond to ensure the job is completed on schedule and within its budget. In the early days, recalls Yenny, he had to use his home and business as collateral, so he had ample incentive to meet the demands of the contracts.

"Everything I owned was mortgaged to the bonding company," he says.

B.F. Yenny has done work for several school districts in Central New York, including Fayetteville-Manlius and North Syracuse. Most of the school projects, Yenny says, involve adding and updating school facilities. These days, renovations are often for the addition of computer equipment to classrooms. The company is currently working on school renovations for the Jordan-Elbridge School District and completing a $6-million project at two schools in the Oneida City School District.

Yenny says the company moved into multimillion-dollar projects in 1997 because of the lack of smaller projects. Historically, the company had done projects ranging from $500,000 into the low millions.

Renovation projects require a special combination of construction skill and tact, Yenny says. Most of the company's jobs are done in buildings that are still partially occupied, so workers have to keep disturbances to a minimum. Sometimes those accommodations required Yenny to work at night or on weekends. One project called for covering an entire office in plastic every night so there would be no trace of his presence when workers returned to their desks each morning. Renovation projects are also more complicated than new construction because renovators never know what lies behind the building's walls until they take them apart. Yenny says his experience in construction makes renovation work less difficult.

"You have to know how a building goes together to know how it comes apart," he says.

Yenny is constructing one building that won't come apart even after it's set on fire every day. The company has a contract with the City of Syracuse to construct a firetraining building. The pre-fabricated structure simulates situations firefighters will encounter. One section resembles an office building and another simulates a house. Instructors set a fire in a special "burn room" in order to allow firefighters to train under realistic conditions.

Finding skilled workers with the right attitude is one of the biggest problems in the construction business. Many skilled workers, according to Yenny, have headed for boom markets in the South and West leaving the area with a shortage of skilled and willing workers. Yenny compares his workers to ambassadors for the company who reflect his dedication to performing quality work.

In return for that dedication, Yenny keeps the company's work close to Syracuse so his employees can sleep in their own beds every night. Although keeping the company's work close to home limits his business, keeping his workers happy is more important to Yenny.

"We've never done a job that required overnight travel," he says.