Doors are Opening

San Francisco construction firm evolves from local mentoring program

By Robert Carlsen

Because of some significant contracting changes instituted by local governments in the past few years, minority-owned construction firms are finding previously closed doors now opening a little wider.

advertisement

In fact, one San Francisco-based company has found that taking advantage of government support and doing good work can equal success.

Miguel Galarza, president and owner of Yerba Buena Engineering & Construction, Inc., was honored earlier this year with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2006 Minority Small Business Person of the Year Award.

Yerba Buena Engineering provides general engineering and construction services with a focus on roads, pipelines and other infrastructure. Galarza, a native of San Francisco’s Mission District, started the company in 2002 with six employees and $350,000 in sales. Today, he employs 35 and expects to generate $14.9 million in sales for 2007.

In 2003, Galarza entered SBA’s 8(a) program, a business development program created to help small disadvantaged businesses compete in the economy and access the federal procurement market. Since then, he’s landed federal contracts from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Air Force, National Park Service, Department of Veterans Affairs and the General Services Administration.

In addition to city contracts, Yerba Buena Engineering was recently involved in stabilizing the landslide-prone cliffs at Devil’s Slide on Highway 1 for Caltrans. 

Galarza got his business smarts by utilizing Caltrans’ Calmentor program six to seven years ago. Calmentor is a local program created from a partnership between Caltrans and the private consulting industry to promote and increase the participation of small businesses on Caltrans professional architectural and engineering contracts. Galarza was teamed with San Francisco-based engineering contractor Gordon N. Ball Inc.

As chairman of the Associated General Contractors’ San Francisco district, Galarza says he is working to expand Caltrans’ Calmentor program statewide.

“You really learn how to be a contractor,” he says. “You learn how to deal with certain city agencies, how to negotiate. Our goal is to create an environment whereby larger primes would share their knowledge with those minority contractors just getting started.”

Galarza is putting his volunteer time where his mouth is because he sees the trades lagging behind in new recruits. “There’s a brain drain, and look who’s coming into the industry – Hispanics, Asians, African Americans,” he says. “Somebody has to step up and train them. This mentoring program is a benefit to local governments who need the competition for projects.”

When Galarza started Yerba Buena Construction, he set up shop in the Hunters Point area.

“Bayview-Hunters Point had been talked about for years as a key redevelopment focus,” he says. “That is where the future was and we wanted to be in the right place at the right time.”

Tetra Tech is leading the base-wide cleanup while Lennar Urban is leading an infrastructure phase for the former Hunters Point shipyard at Parcel A prime. Yerba Buena has been very successful biding on and performing work in the area. Galarza also applied for the federal SBA HUBZone or Historical Underutilized Business Zone race-neutral program that helps connects businesses in economically distressed areas with hires from the community (up to 35% of the company’s staff must live in that area). These firms receive a 10% price evaluation pricing advantage, he says.

Besides running his business, Galarza serves on the board of directors for the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He’s helped high school students learn about career paths in the construction and engineering fields. He’s also a volunteer instructor at California State University, East Bay, for disadvantaged businesses that want to learn how to manage, estimate and operate a small company. In past years, Galarza has been honored by the U.S. departments of defense and transportation, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Click here for next Feature Story >>