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CONSTRUCTION NEWS The Industry’s Newspaper
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www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 20 H Number 12 H December 2020
Working with valor
Celebrating 35 years
L-R: Valor Commercial is a new venture (and adventure) for Fernando Villareal and Craig Fuller.
PWI Construction celebrates 35 years of project excellence and philanthropy.
W
hen Craig Fuller met Fernando Villareal, the two immediately clicked. Fuller, a former Marine whose began his construction career as an assistant superintendent on a 1 million sf job, was working at a coatings company. Villareal, who was a subcontractor, had long worked in the wall coatings industry. The two never ran out of things to talk about, but their conversation kept circling back to mental notes each had made over the years of what they wish they could improve in the industry. Fuller moved on to another company and Villareal established Villareal Commercial Coatings, but the two friends kept in touch. After a COVID-related layoff, Fuller started estimating with Villareal as a side job. That’s when Fuller saw for himself
C
ity Electric Supply (CES)’s Nathan Jefferson started as a driver at CES’s Kyle location, and it was alongside the road that he met one of the branches’ biggest customers. Seeing a customer digging a ditch and running conduit, Jefferson stopped and asked if the man needed any materials to finish his work. The customer gave him a list of what he needed, and Jefferson dutifully drove back to the shop, grabbed everything on the list and drove the supplies back out to the man. That person has been a CES customer for 12 years now, and one of its biggest commercial customers. Jefferson went on to become a Regional Manager for CES’ South Texas markets, covering Austin, San Antonio and both groups in Houston. “His is a great story exemplifying what City Electric Supply is all about,” CES District Manager Mehs Ess says.
the crew Villareal had built, and how much they respected their boss. “I saw how they looked at him, and I said, ‘Fernando, I want to work for you,” Fuller says. “I’ve seen what you’ve built, you’re implementing all of the things we had talked about and I don’t want to do this on the side anymore.’” The discussion soon turned to the two creating a partnership in a new company instead. “We said, ‘Why don’t we do this the right way and go all in on this?’” Fuller says. “We both believed in it. I felt so strongly in our plan, our relationship and the ideologies that Fernando and I agreed upon.” Two months ago, Fuller and Villareal continued on Page 14
F
ounded in 1985 as Price Woods Homes, commercial general contractor PWI Construction got its start as a residential builder in Arizona. The firm quickly became a well-known and desired builder in the area. After building a reputation for quality work and precision, PWI Construction was selected for large-scale housing development which signified their presence as an emerging leader in the Scottsdale custom home category. As demand increased and markets shifted, PWI Construction entered the commercial construction market and built a robust portfolio of retail, restaurant, hospitality, and specialty construction projects across the nation. Las Vegas-headquartered PWI Construction now has regional offices in San
Marcos, TX, Scottsdale, AZ and Boca Raton, FL and employs nearly 100 full-time employees nationwide. Rather than employing Business Development staff, the company has dedicated Client Experience Directors at each office who are responsible for strengthening PWI Construction’s relationship network and improving the client experience throughout the construction process. The San Marcos office houses seven full-time employees: Director of Client Experience James Reigle, Talent Culture Manager Kristin Price, Marketing and Communications Manager Dominica Garza, Senior Estimator Priyanka Kansal, Senior Estimating Coordinator Linnea Bennet, Project Manager Julio Sepulveda continued on Page 14
Electric avenue
City Electric Supply in Kyle is one of seven Austin-area branches, and one of 39 Texas locations.
“And that’s giving our people the opportunity to succeed and rewarding them for doing their job.” “I think CES does a good job of promoting from within,” says Ess. “I think a lot of my people started in a lesser role. I started in operations in downtown San Antonio branch, became a branch manager two years later. Five years after that, they made me the district manager in Austin. The company is full of stories of people moving up from within. “It’s not just personally to employees at CES branches, as far as moving up in their career,” Ess adds. “CES affords the branches a tremendous amount of freedom to buy from whom they want to buy from, stock what they’d like to stock, and to make deals with their customers that other distributors don’t allow: price flexibility and setting up terms with contractors and vendors.” continued on Page 14