Subs Seek Out-of-State Work During Construction Downturn

(To see the lists of the largest subcontractors in Northwest Arkansas, click here.)

When construction comes to a near halt in Northwest Arkansas, local subcontractors rely on work outside of the region to keep them in business.

Mike Belleau, project manager for C&N Masonry in Bentonville, said his company depends on work outside of Northwest Arkansas.

“It’s what makes us survive,” he said.

Belleau said the company is currently working on jobs in Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi and Kansas.

“All of our work right now is out of state, I don’t think we have anything in the state of Arkansas,” he said.

The company will go just about anywhere to get work, Belleau said.

“We’ll make arrangements, get motels and rent local equipment to save on trucking fees,” he said.

Traveling can make it difficult to retain employees.

“You get a lot of people who don’t want to travel, but we also try to hire people in the areas we go into,” Belleau said.

“We’re one of the only masonry contractors in this area who have always reached outside of the area to subsidize our work,” he said.

Bill Kisor, with Fayetteville Mechanical Contractors Inc., said business has slowed down in the region as the amount of new construction has declined, but doing work out of the area has helped his company fare well during the downturn.

Projects such as the Freeman Building in Joplin, Mo., and Lindsey apartment buildings in Maumelle allow the mechanical subcontractor, which reported $13.5 million in revenue in 2007, to find jobs and keep employees.

Brentt Tumey, director of operations at Managed Subcontractors International Inc. in Rogers, said his company goes where the work is, whether large or small, local or out of state.

The drywall and acoustics company works on projects in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas as well as other parts of Arkansas.

Tumey said the company, which also did the drywall work for several casinos in Biloxi, Miss., is working on a church in Little Rock.

“We normally don’t go down there, but we did because work is so slow around here,” he said.

MSI has always done work outside of the region no matter the state of the economy, but pretty much depends on that work when things are slow locally.

There’s less work in Northwest Arkansas, Tumey said, which means projects are going very cheap.

“You almost have to give work away in order to get it,” he said.

Tumey said the company is currently focusing on federal projects because they offer a guaranteed payment. Federal projects, such as veterans’ hospitals and military bases, are going to get built despite the economic crunch, he said.

MSI will look at projects coming up at U.S. Army bases, Fort Riley, Kan., and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., he said, as well as jobs at the Little Rock Air Force Base.

While MSI typically does more private sector work, Tumey said, the company has had to shift its focus as the type of available work has changed.

“There’s no private sector business in this area,” he said. “People don’t want to spend money right now and I completely understand.”