C.C. Myers clan branches out with new consulting venture

A Northern California construction dynasty grows as the wife and son of famed highway and bridge contractor C.C. Myers are tapping their connections and expertise to build a project management, and construction and environmental consulting company.

Co-owners Janelle and Clint Myers are now working on the company's first projects since formally launching Myers Construction Solutions Inc. in September 2008. The company is acting as an environmental consultant to the $324 million Lincoln highway bypass project and it has contracts with the Nevada Irrigation District in Grass Valley.

The self-funded, woman-owned Sacramento business is focused mainly on public works jobs. In addition to project management and consulting, MCS provides storm water management and engineering services.

MCS executive vice president Clint Myers said what sets MCS apart from traditional consulting companies is the principals' experience in the construction industry. Not a lot of consultants have such an expertise, he said. "We're hoping that we can fill that void," he added.

MCS has $100,000 in backlog work. The company expects to be profitable in the first quarter of 2010.

Myers said MCS can help companies that once framed houses — work that has dried up in the region and across the country — explore other opportunities, such as public contracts. The state wants to build more highway rest areas, for example, he said.

Janelle Myers' experience in the industry dates back to 1990 when she helped start a woman-owned highway construction company focused on building barrier rails in California, Nevada and New Mexico. She was on the board of directors until the company was sold to Rancho Cordova-based C.C. Myers Inc., her husband's firm, in 2006.

Clint Myers worked as an engineer and project manager for C.C. Myers before going back to school for a master’s degree in real estate development at the University of Southern California. After receiving his master's, the younger Myers ran Myers Homes Inc. Today, C.C. Myers' homebuilding companies — Myers Homes Inc., Myers Homes of California LLC (licensed in Nevada) and several subsidiaries — are estimated to be worth nothing due to the depressed housing market. C.C. Myers Inc., majority owned by its employees, is a creditor in the Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy filed by C.C. Myers last year.

In these tough economic times, Clint Myers said MCS plans to help companies and government agencies find creative ways to remove "fat" from their budgets and, on the environmental side, come up with "solutions that are more economically friendly while still preserving the quality habitat that California has come to expect." When the economy was strong, a developer looking to get a project approved might, for example, buy expensive mitigation credits to destroy a wetland on a project site in order to speed it up. But Myers said MCS could help such a developer find a less expensive alternative, such as keeping the wetland and working with the city to increase the lot density.

MCS will compete for environmental consulting jobs with companies such as ICF Jones & Stokes, a Sacramento-based subsidiary of ICF International Inc. The company declined to comment on the new venture.

MCS' Web site went live last week, and it has Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, Clint Myers said. "The people you have to appeal to for construction contracts are getting younger and younger," he said. "We're trying to find different ways to connect to those people."

For now, the company has two employees, and a wildlife biologist on contract. MCS plans to hire a business development manager for marketing and preparing proposals.

When it comes to business consulting, MCS will tap people who are retired or semi-retired from the field.

"With the family being in the construction industry for so long, there are a variety of people that we've known over the years who are now retired who are looking for something to do,"" Clint Myers said. "Our experience, combined with people we're able to bring in, can give us the ability to do some fairly high-end consulting for businesses wanting to grow or diversify." Consultants also can assist companies transitioning from one generation to the next.

"A lot of times that's when you'll see businesses fail, when they're handed to a second generation," Myers said. "We can do a little mentoring to improve that success rate."

The company is preparing migratory bird and bat protection plans for the Lincoln bypass project, which would provide a new 11.7-mile thoroughfare for Highway 65 around the west side of Lincoln in Placer County. The plans are being put together for the Federal Highway Administration and the California Department of Transportation.

MCS also has contracted with the Nevada Irrigation District on a project to build a station for environmental scientists to monitor and test water. MCS is conducting surveys for California red-legged frogs, which are federally designated as "threatened," and for special-status flowering plants to assess the project's potential impact on the species.

Gary King, chief engineer for the Nevada Irrigation District, said the district learned of MCS through an associate engineer who knows Clint Myers.

"We are very particular about who does our environmental work," he said. "We want to make sure it's thorough and professional because NID is highly committed to the environment."

He said the district believes in working with small, local companies "as much as possible."