Even with the shrinking of engineering heavyweight Fluor Corp., Orange County’s engineering sector posted healthy growth due to demand for public works projects and planning for major real estate developments.
Fluor, long the dominant engineering company on the Business Journal’s annual list, moved its headquarters to the Dallas area this year. The company’s departure has been felt on this year’s list, though it retains substantial local operations and remains in the No. 1 spot.
Excluding Fluor, the 30 biggest engineering companies saw OC billings climb 7% to $883.2 million for the 12 months ended June 30, according to this week’s Business Journal list. Counting Fluor, billings fell 66% to $1.4 billion from last year’s $4 billion in billings.
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In 2005, engineering companies posted an 8% climb in billings, a reversal of the 4% decline seen in the previous year. Five of the companies on this year’s list didn’t report figures and are Business Journal estimates.
Backlog,an indicator of future billings,was 10% higher than a year ago.
Fluor’s Case
The biggest change on the list came from Fluor.
This past spring, Fluor finally moved its headquarters from 1 Enterprise Drive in Aliso Viejo to Irving, Texas, taking with it the billions in global revenue formerly counted by the Business Journal in compiling its list. The engineering services company nevertheless still raked in an estimated $500 million in billings from its local operations this year, with a majority of the OC engineering work related to oil and natural gas construction projects, according to Fluor spokesman Steve C. Roth.
Fluor’s Texas base has about 200 employees. It kept about 1,100 workers in Aliso Viejo and about 200 in Long Beach. Fluor not only won’t be off the list anytime soon, it likely won’t be bumped from No. 1 either.
Workers staying in OC primarily are engineers, with some salespeople.
Locally, Fluor’s biggest project is at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where it is the construction manager for the center’s $200 million expansion. The 2,000-seat Ren & #233;e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall recently opened (see related story, page 70). It also includes the smaller Samueli Theater and education center.
Fluor’s Roth said the company is wrapping up work there.
Following Fluor, the Santa Ana office of Denver-based CH2M Hill Cos. had the second-most billings with $239.2 million, up 12% from a year ago.
Its No. 2 spot, unchanged from a year ago, was fueled by growth in OC, said John Caldwell, vice president and area office manager of CH2M Hill in Santa Ana, in an earlier interview.
“Our growth is all related to growth in Orange County,” Caldwell said. “Our work forecast remains strong.”
The company sees opportunities on projects to build roads, private toll roads, water and wastewater projects, and expansion of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. CH2M Hill also is heavily involved in remedial cleanup and investigations, and a considerable amount of compliance work for air and ground water issues.
“The economy is still pretty good for what we are doing,” said Caldwell of its public works business.
One of the biggest gainers on the list was No. 10 Fuscoe Engineering Inc. in Irvine. It moved up nine spots.
Fuscoe Engineering has been working on some of OC’s high-profile projects, including redevelopment of the former El Toro Marine base, restoration at Laguna Beach’s Bluebird Canyon after a landslide and residential work for The Irvine Company.
The company posted $23.8 million in billings, up 54% from a year earlier.
At El Toro, Fuscoe Engineering has been tapped to do early development cost estimates, design a wildlife corridor, streets, graphics and a framework for development, map the area and evaluate water quality, among other environmental work.
“The projects we have are the best we’ve ever had,” said Patrick Fuscoe, chief executive of Fuscoe Engineering.
No. 15 HDR Engineering Inc. of Lake Forest saw a 20% jump in billings to $18 million.
William Bennett, senior vice president in charge of Southern California business for the Omaha, Neb.-based parent HDR Inc., sees the same pace of growth in 2007.
Since he joined the office more than two years ago, Bennett has pushed for expansion into Riverside and Los Angeles. “We are really focused on delivering our skills,” Bennett said.
In recent months, HDR has been selected to do design work for the Michelson Water Reclamation Plant owned by the Irvine Ranch Water District, and to conduct a solid waste integrated management plan for the city of Los Angeles.
HDR also has high political connections.
Last month, President Bush tapped HDR’s national director for transportation policy and consulting to become the next Transportation Secretary. Mary Peters, a former administrator with the Federal Highway Administration, was based in HDR’s Phoenix office.
Big Gainer
The biggest percentage gainer on the list was No. 27 VA Consulting Inc., an Irvine-based company that was unranked last year.
Max Vahid, chief executive of VA Consulting, attributed the growth to how the business is run.
Earlier this year, it changed its name from Vandell and Associates, and began a training program for all of its new engineers as well as assigning experienced engineers to oversee its projects.
“A good business climate, especially in real estate, also helped,” Vahid said.
The company has offices in Corona, Rancho Mirage and Irvine. Growth has come from work on the Quail Hill development of 1,400 homes in Irvine and Portola Springs, a 2,600-acre development along Portola Parkway near the Laguna Canyon (133) Freeway and Foothill (241) Toll Road, Vahid said.
Falling off the list this year was Newport Beach-based Boyle Engineering Corp. A year ago, the company said it purchased Los Banos-based Stoddard & Associates for undisclosed terms.
Its billings have fallen steadily in recent years, dropping from No. 16 on the list in 2004 to No. 29 last year.
