All News
10-01-2009: Alaska Business Monthly "Top 49ers" Neeser Construction, Inc. comes in at #32
#19 - Neeser Construction, Inc.
Worldwide Employees: 345
Alaska Employees: 339
Year Established: 1975
Rank Previous Year: 22
REVENUE : (Millions $)
2008................................110.00
2007................................130.00
2006................................148.10
2005................................126.70
2004..................................91.30
Change -15.38% from 2007.
TOP EXECUTIVE:
Gerlad Neeser, Pres.
MAIN BUSINESS:
Construction
PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES:
General contracting, commercial, industrial, medical, multifamily, retail and correctional. Design-build fast-track turnkey projects. Hard bid, negotiated and C.M. for fee contracting methods utilized.
SUBSIDIARIES: None
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN 2008:
Won national DBIA Award for Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center. Completed the 188 Northern Lights Building. Broke ground on both new SCF medical building and Target. Was awarded Goose Creek Correctional Center.
April - 2008: Alaska Airlines Magazine "Features: The Alutiiq Center."
April - 2008: Alaska Airlines Magazine "Features: The Alutiiq Center."
10-01-2007: Alaska Business Monthly "Top 49ers" Neeser Construction, Inc. comes in at #19
2007 Alaska's Top 49ers: Economic Piplines to the Future
Every October Alaska Business Monthly salutes the top 49 Alaskan-Owned and operated businesses in the state, based on gross revenues for the previous year. Here we have listed 2006 revenues in millions of dollars.
TOP EXECUTIVE:
Gerlad Neeser, Pres.
MAIN BUSINESS:
Construction
PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES:
General contracting, commercial, industrial, medical, multifamily, retail and correctional. Design-build fast-track turnkey projects. Hard bid, negotiated and C.M. for fee contracting methods utilized.
SUBSIDIARIES:
None
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN 2006:
WonGC " Over $15,000,000 Vertical Award " for Alutiiq Center. Northwest Construction magazinerank No. 19 in Northwest. Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association office building completed in 2007. Groundbreaking of 14-story office tower at 188 W. Northern Lights Blvd. Completion of Alutiiq Center and Orthopedic Physicians Anchorage office. Airport Rental Car Center and Anchorage Civic and Convention Center continuation.
09-25-2007: Construction Today "Neeser Construction, Inc. : Harsh Work, Big Rewards"
09-25-2007: Construction Today "Neeser Construction, Inc. : Harsh Work, Big Rewards"
09-21-2007: Anchorage Daily News "Building Anchorage: Grass Creek Village at Creekside Town Center"
09-21-2007: Anchorage Daily News "Building Anchorage: Grass Creek Village at Creekside Town Center"
Sept. - 2007: Alaska Business Monthly, Articels featuring Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, 188 Northern Lights Blvd Office Building, Anchoreage Rental Car Center, Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc. - Headquarters Building and The Alutiiq Ce
Sept. - 2007: Alaska Business Monthly, Articels featuring Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, 188 Northern Lights Blvd Office Building, Anchoreage Rental Car Center, Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, Inc. - Headquarters Building and The Alutiiq Center - Afognak Native Corp. Headquarters Building.
08-10-2007: Anchorage Daily News "Building Anchorage: 188 W. Northern Lights Blvd."
08-10-2007: Anchorage Daily News "Building Anchorage: 188 W. Northern Lights Blvd."
07-02-2007: Pacific Builder & Engineer "Dynamic Changes In Anchorage"
Pacific Builder & Engineer "Dynamic Changes In Anchorage"
June - 2007: Northwest Construction "Alaska Top Projects", Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center #2
Northwest Construction "Alaska Top Projects", Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center #2
05-21-2007: Engineering News-Record "The Top 400 U.S. Contractors" Neeser Construction, Inc. comes in at #390
Engineering News-Record "The Top 400 U.S. Contractors" Neeser Construction, Inc. comes in at #390
May - 2007: Alaska Business Monthly reports "CONSTRUCTION: $7 Billion Statewide", Featuring Neeser Constuction
Alaska Business Monthly reports "CONSTRUCTION: $7 Billion Statewide", Featuring Neeser Constuction's; Anchroage Rental Car Center and The 188 Northern Lights Office Building projects.
03-11-2007: Anchorage Daily News "Going up" & "New Dena'ina Civic Center numbers"
Going Up
When completed next year, the 215,000-square-foot Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center will provide more than four times the floor space of the existing Egan Covnention Center - and change the Anchorage skiyline. Daily News photographer Marc Lester documents a building on the rise.
New Dena'ina Civic Center numbers
With a price tag that promises to exceed $100 million, the new Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center under construction downtown ranks as the biggest public works project Anchorage has seen in years.
When completed in the fall of 2008, the center will provide more than four times the floor space of the existing Egan Center. It will also change the Anchorage skyline.
In a first glimpse at that change, Daily News photographer Marc Lester today documents a building on the rise.
-- George Bryson, Anchorage Daily News
Dena'ina by the numbers
2006 -- Year construction began
$93 million -- Preliminary cost estimate
215,000 square feet -- Space when completed
4.78 Egan centers -- Number of Egan Convention Centers (by square footage) that would fit inside the new Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center
50,000 square feet -- Size of main exhibit hall alone
2,800 tons -- Amount of structural steel that will be installed when job is done
33 percent -- Amount of structural steel installed so far
1,000 square feet -- Approximate amount of protective plastic film that blew away in the recent wind storm
2008 -- Year construction expected to be completed
$107.6 million -- Current projected cost
March - 2007: Anchorage Daily News "Before you grip about this cold, imagine working in it"
Before you gripe about this cold, imagine working in it
Anchorage civic-center builders find ways to handle chill
By ALEX deMARBAN
As smokers shivered outside buildings and pedestrians hustled to cars Wednesday morning in near-zero temperatures, steel workers building Anchorage's new convention center straddled metal beams 100 windy feet off the ground.
If anyone's got it tough in the city's grueling cold wave that began Feb. 18, it's the guys who swing steel beams into place on the soon-to-be ceiling of the downtown convention center.
"The cold weather sucks," groused Dave Leisner, hood over head, ice crusted in beard, as he ducked into a warm trailer for lunch.
Then there's the new man from Mississippi. It's not that chilly, even when he's sitting on cold metal waiting for a crane to haul up a beam, said Luke Roberts.
Then again, he wears three pairs of long johns beneath his jeans.
"You don't want to sit for too long," he drawled before joining the rest of the crew from Independent Steel Erectors for lunch.
Cold governs the mood at the huge job site, where steel framework rises inside castlelike walls of concrete.
"It's slower and more miserable" in the winter, foreman Terry Sampley said before the lunch break, watching from the ground the high-altitude ballet of men and spinning beams.
At zero and colder, welding can't take place -- welds crack.
Then there's snow. During this winter's big dumps, workers spent a lot of time removing snow from the beams and melting ice plates with propane torches.
"Some days we were just shoveling," Sampley said.
Add a knifing wind and it can get really nasty, he said. Tucked beneath taller buildings, the site is like a canyon where trapped gusts swirl.
Wind and cold teamed up to sink wind chills to more than 20 below for a couple days last week, so crew bosses sent some men home. Gusts tore away plastic sheeting that kept heat around some concrete floors, he said. Beams weighing thousands of pounds would have swung dangerously.
Despite the challenges, most days aren't bad once the sun peeks over the mountains, Sampley said as a man in a hoodie and hard hat attached steel beams to a winch.
Several layers of clothes help, including the lined bibs most of the men wear. And there are other tricks.
"They carry these," Sampley said, pulling a hand warmer from a leather glove.
Steel workers aren't the only ones getting cold, said Chris Crabtree with Neeser Construction. You can't get out of the wind when you're driving an open-air forklift like he does.
He keeps six pairs of warm gloves in outbuildings, changing them during breaks to stave off frostbite. He wears three pairs of socks and insulated pads on feet.
"I just know you don't want to put your tongue on that steel," Crabtree said with a laugh, munching on a meaty hoagie.
It's been worse, said Steve Strobbe, safety officer.
He once framed wooden walls in 35-below temperatures. Workers warmed power saws indoors and kept the blade spinning once outside.
The trigger wouldn't click if you removed your finger -- the lubricant inside froze, he said. He spends much of his day checking on the men, making sure they're not too cold. They're hardy, he said.
"It's just part of the job."
12-01-2006: Anchorage Daily News "Aleuts create a home away from home"
Aleuts create a home away from home
What: The design and construction cost for the three-story, 40,770-square-foot Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association building along Campbell Creek is $12.2 million, the association said. The structure will be a steel-braced frame. Exterior finish will be granite tile and insulated vision glass units. There will be a decorative two-story glass atrium and lobby/entry area with a water feature, and one elevator will service the building, said Terry Casdorph, APIA director of development and facilities.
Where: 1131 E. International Airport Road, between the Seward Highway and the Old Seward Highway.
Who: Koonce Pfeffer Bettis designed it, with Neeser Construction as general contractor. Major subcontractors are Klebs Mechanical for the HVAC and plumbing and Megawatt Electric as the electrical subcontractor, said Glen Kohlberg, APIA project superintendent with Neeser Construction.
Why: "Over the years, increasing numbers of our people have, for many reasons, moved out of our region to the Anchorage area, causing a separation from their roots. Our wish is to have our facility provide a long-needed gathering place for the Aleut people to proudly celebrate their heritage, a sense of being home while being away from theirs, a place to visit that feels like home," said Dimitri Philemonof, chief executive of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association. APIA contracts with federal, state and local governments to provide services throughout the Aleutian Pribilof Islands region. These services include health, education, social, behavioral health, employment and vocational training, public safety, environmental and cultural heritage.
When: Planning on a July 2007 completion due to a late-season start, said Glen Kohlberg of Neeser.
11-19-2006: Anchorage Daily News "Construction, safety earn association honors"
Construction, safety earn association honors
The Associated General Contractors recognized its top construction jobs and safety programs in the state at its annual conference that ended Saturday in Anchorage.
Bert Bell of GHEMM Co. in Fairbanks won the building industry trade group's Hard Hat Award. Bell was AGC president in 2001. The award goes to a member that has demonstrated "exemplary service" to the association, the community and the industry.
Neeser Construction Inc. of Anchorage won the "Meeting the Challenge of a Job over $15 million Vertical" award for its work on the Afognak Native Corp.'s Alutiiq Center on Arctic Boulevard in Anchorage.
Other winners were:
CONSTRUCTION AWARDS
• Vertical construction, between $5 million and $15 million: Weldin Construction Inc. of Palmer for the C-17 flight simulator, Elmendorf Air Force Base.
• Vertical construction, under $5 million: West Construction Co. Inc. of Anchorage for Harbor Crown Seafood processing plant, Dutch Harbor.
• Transportation, marine, heavy, earthmoving, over $3 million: Kiewit Pacific Co. of Anchorage for the Glenn-Parks Highway interchange.
• Transportation, marine, heavy, earthmoving, under $3 million: Rockford Corp. of Anchorage for Chester Creek pump station upgrade.
• Specialty contractor -- transportation, marine, heavy, earthmoving: American Marine Corp. of Anchorage for Sitka Blue Lake hydroelectric project.
• Specialty contractor -- vertical: Superior Plumbing and Heating of Anchorage for the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.
SAFETY AWARDS
• Contractor's Safety Program Excellence Award: Interior Alaska Roofing, Fairbanks.
• Safety Leadership Award: Dave Thomas, Alaska Interstate Construction of Anchorage.
• Safety record for building over 100,000 hours: Roger Hickel Contracting of Anchorage.
• Safety record for building under 100,000 hours: Kiewit Building Group of Anchorage.
• Safety record for highway/utility over 100,000 hours: Ahtna Construction and Primary Products of Glennallen.
• Safety record for highway/utility under 100,000 hours: West Construction Co. Inc. of Anchorage.
• Safety record for specialty over 100,000 hours: Alcan Electrical and Engineering Inc. of Anchorage.
• Safety record for specialty 25,000 to 100,000 hours: American Marine Corp. of Anchorage.
• Safety record for specialty under 25,000 hours: Stark-Lewis of Anchorage.
• Safety record, associate with over 100,000 hours: Peninsula Airways Inc. of Anchorage.
• Safety, associate with under 100,000 hours: Dimond Fabricators of Anchorage.
11-18-2006: Neeser Construction wins "2006 AGC Excellence in Contrustion Award - Meeting the Challenge of a Job over$15 million vertical" for Afognak Native Corporation
Neeser Construction wins "2006 AGC Excellence in Contrustion Award - Meeting the Challenge of a Job over$15 million vertical" for Afognak Native Corporation's Alutiiq Center.
11-17-2006: Neeser Constuction featured in Anchorage Daily News "Airport car rental gets its own garage"
Airport car rental gets its own garage
What: The Anchorage Rental Car Center at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The four-story, 618,000-square-foot building is to house the cars and operations of all the rental companies operating at the airport and provide some public parking. The center includes 12 car washes and 16 fueling and cleaning stations. A 20,000-square-foot customer service lobby will be connected to the airport terminal by a tunnel. The total project cost, including design, construction, financing and operating reserves, is $62.8 million, said Louise Lazur of the project's developer, Venture Development Group.
Where: Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Who: Venture Development construction manager Bob O'Neill said the group would build and operate the center. Car rental customers pay fees of about $4 per day, which will buy the building for the state over the next 30 years, O'Neill said.
Eight rental companies will use it, Lazur said. Koonce Pfeffer Bettis is the architect; the general contractor is Neeser Construction Inc. Major subcontractors include Rebar Placement Co., Alaska Professional Construction Inc., Klebs Mechanical Inc., Megawatt Electric and Alaska Quality Fire Protection, said Neeser project manager Neal Bhargava.
Why: The building makes rental companies' operations more efficient, cutting roughly 400,000 trips off the airport campus to wash and fuel vehicles each year, Lazur said. The center is designed to protect customers from the weather as they travel to and from the airport and make car pickup quicker and smoother. Lazur said the center has room for another 30 years of growth. The rental car companies proposed the project and the airport approved it, said airport director Mort Plumb.
When: The center is to open in June, Lazur said.
Oct. - 2006: Neeser Constuction listed at #18 on Alaska Business Monthly "2006 Top 49ers"
Every October Alaska Business Monthly salutes the top 49 Alaskan-Owned and operated businesses in the state, based on gross revenues for the previous year. Here we have listed 2005 - 2006 revenues in millions of dollars.
TOP EXECUTIVE:
Gerald Neeser, Pres.
MAIN BUSINESS:
Construction
PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES:
General contracting, commercial, industrial, medical, multifamily, retail and correctional. Design-build fast-track turnkey projects. Hard bid, negotiated and C.M. for fee contracting methods utilized.
SUBSIDIARIES:
None
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN 2005:
Awards for the following projects: ALutiiq Center for Afognak Native Corp., Home Depot, Anchroage Rental Car Center, Anchorage Civic and Convention Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers whole barracks renewal and company operations.
08-30-2006: Anchorage Daily News "Building Mat-Su: Wasilla Creek Commons"
Building Mat-Su: Wasilla creek commons
WHAT: A two-phase development made up of about 150 lots on 110 acres along Trunk Road. The first phase is 77 lots, unbuilt, with roads, water and on-site septic, developer Jerry Neeser said. The subdivision has a water theme due to its creek-front location, Neeser said: Entry is on Tributary Avenue, there's a Downstream Drive and an Upstream Avenue. That proximity to water also means the subdivision falls under new local requirements regarding flood hazard mitigation. Lots range from 30,000 square feet to 3.5 acres and from $60,000 to $150,000.
WHO: Developer is Neeser Construction Inc., an Anchorage firm. Neeser is doing all the work, cheif executive Jerry Neeser said. The firm has worked on various school, military and public works projects and is working on the Anchorage Civic and Convention Center construction.
WHERE: Just south of North Marcell Loop, along Trunk Road.
WHY: The subdivision is near a planned intersection under the state's Trunk Road realignment proposal, Neeser said. It's also "right in the center of what's going on" in the Valley -- within a mile and a half of Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, close to Eagle River and Anchorage as well as Wasilla and Palmer, he said.
WHEN: Phase one is expected to hit the market in late October, Neeser said.
08-29-2006: Anchorage Daily News "Aleut-Pribilof group to get new digs"
Aleut-Pribilof group to get new digs
The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association is constructing a new headquarters building on East International Airport Road between the Seward Highway and the Old Seward Highway. The design and construction costs for the three-story, 40,770-square-foot building along Campbell Creek is $12.2 million, the agency said. Koonce Pfeffer Bettis designed it, with Neeser Construction Inc. as general contractor, the association said.
The building will have a look that incorporates features of the Aleutian-Pribilof region, said Dimitri Philemonof, chief executive: "Over the years, increasing numbers of our people have, for many reasons, transitioned out of our region to the Anchorage area, causing a separation from their roots. Our wish is to have our facility provide a long-needed gathering place for the Aleut people to proudly celebrate their heritage, a sense of being home while being away from theirs, a place to visit that feels like home." The project should be done late next year, the agency said.
06-19-2006: Pacfic Builder & Engineer writes "Gateway Garage Latest for AIA", Featuring Neeser Constuction
Pacific Builder & Engineer
June 16, 2006 Issue
Gateway Garage
Story and Photos by Gene Storm
Anchorage Rental Car Center Continues Airport Growth
The Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is a global, national and regional transportation hub that has experienced substantial growth over the past few years. That growth has fueled a continuous stream of construction projects, with the latest being the new $50-million Anchorage Rental Car Center that is taking shape at the busy airport.
Anchorage-based Neeser Construction Inc. is building the 464,000-square-foot concrete, four-story parking structure with an additional 30,000 square feet of structural steel office and lobby space as a design-build project. The design-build process has been ongoing for years, according to Wayne Anderson, project superintendent.
"The planning and development of this project has taken five years," said Anderson. Using the design-build approach gives all of the parties involved more flexibility in making design changes along the way, he noted, adding, "As construction proceeds, the design-build team is available to expedite unforeseen changes quickly, which is essential to meeting construction milestones."
The firms participating in the project with Neeser as the lead are EDS, structural engineer; Koonce Pfeffer Bettis, architects; EIC Engineers, electrical; Jenstrom Engineering, mechanical; and Dowl Engineers, providing the civil engineering.
Early Spring Start
Neeser hit the ground on the project in the fall of 2005 by
relocating water, sewer and gas lines and the electrical/telecommunication
ducts that bisected the site. Last fall's civil work was critical
to achieving a workable construction schedule, according to
Anderson.
"This was a key to the early spring start, which will allow us to complete major concrete work before freeze-up in the fall of 2006," Anderson said. Work on the 1,200-car parking structure is scheduled for completion in June 2007.
Work resumed early this year with the excavation of approximately 190,000 cubic yards of material, of which 150,000 cubic yards was hauled off-site and 40,000 cubic yards was saved as useable backfill. The large parking structure rising from the excavation will feature five ramps, including three helix ovals that will enter and exit the building. The building will include on-site fueling and car wash facilities to service the rental car fleets. An underground tunnel will take customers from the airport's main terminal to the rental car facility.
Some 25,000 cubic yards of concrete will go into the structure. The foundation consists of 72 spread footings, each containing more than 50 yards of concrete. Retaining walls and ramps will bring the total to 15,000 yards, with the remainder going into tension slabs and beams in the top three floors. More than 2,000 tons of rebar will go into the project.
The gang forms used to shape the concrete walls are from EFCO Corp. of Des Moines, Iowa. The post-tensioning Symons Garage Beam System will be used for the post-tensioned decks and beams. This is a method of reinforcing concrete with high-strength steel strands typically referred to as tendons.
The building will come together under strict seismic guidelines that are in place for Anchorage's seismic designation, the maximum within the rating system. As designed, the structure is considered a special ductile concrete moment frame.
Project Challenges
Alaska's weather has been a factor in the early spring concrete
work.
"With the weather staying colder longer than anticipated, we have more heat and cover costs than normally expected," Anderson said. The other side of the weather coin is the savings realized on another project phase.
"The colder and dryer weather has been an advantage for the civil side in that we have less maintenance on airport dump sites, and road cleanup is not as much of an issue at this high-traffic area," Anderson added.
The project's constrained site presents a unique challenge for construction crews. The site is ringed on three sides by different airport facilities. The FAA tower is just to the north, the Alaska Railroad Station is on the south perimeter, and Concourse C is close by on the west.
"With all the various activities that are associated with these facilities, the challenge has been to keep these folks from being disrupted yet still keep an aggressive schedule on track," Anderson noted. "The surprise has been how small a large job site can become in such a restricted environment."
To help meet the constrained site challenge, Neeser has carefully planned daily jobsite activities and coordinated weekly shipping schedules for materials like rebar and forms that arrive from Seattle. By project completion, more than 110 trailer loads of rebar and 50 loads of rental form materials will have been delivered to the site.
A variety of earthmoving and lifting equipment also is working on-site. The fleet includes two 175-ton cranes, articulated dump trucks, and several excavators and dozers. That equipment moves in and about the site in limited space that also houses construction office trailers and very tight parking for workers.
Neeser's peak construction workforce will consist of 180 employees, including carpenters, laborers and operators. The major subcontractors, ReBar Placement, MegaWatt Electric and Klebs Mechanical, will bring another 60 workers on-site.
Many of the projects that have fueled growth at the airport were part of a 10-year, $350-million "Gateway Alaska" plan announced by the state of Alaska in 1997. The plan included nearby highway improvements in addition to airport expansion and renovations.
The busy airport serves as a major air crossroads for air freight carriers. It is also the primary entry point for many visitors to the state and for other Alaskans coming to Anchorage for business and shopping opportunities. This combination of travelers makes for a vibrant rental car market. The new Anchorage Rental Car Center will bring those services into a convenient, central facility from disparate locations currently located more distant from the airport.
03-01-2006: Liberty Northwest, Business Insurance News reports "Alaska Contractor Nets Big Returns", Featuring Neeser Constuction
Last summer, Neeser Construction Inc. received the largest retro-return check Liberty Northwest has issued to a workers' compensation policyholder in Alaska.
Contributing to the '03-'04 policy-year return is the Anchorage-based company's solid safety performance. Key there is its direct job-site management.
To each project Neeser assigns a project supervisor, who designates a safety representative on each job site, and a project manager, who ultimately assumes full project responsibility.
"All of Neeser Construction's project managers are professional, receptive to my safety suggestions, and committed to eliminating workplace hazards," says Nick Payovich, Liberty Northwest senior loss prevention consultant. "They also work proactively with Alaska OSHA, taking full advantage of its consultation and training services, and invites OSHA to visit each new project site."
Additionally, the Company separates its workers' compensation costs into a per-project basis, which has created positive competition between projects and reduced the number of injuries.
Neeser Construction Inc. works on all project phases from inception through completion. Its construction projects include schools, hotels, retail stores, public-works facilities, special-housing projects, and specialized constructions such as jails and hospitals. The company has also completed projects on most of Alaska's Military bases.
11-11-2005: Alaska Business Monthly reports "Fairbanks Sees Near Record Construction Season", Featuring Neeser Constuction
Commercial and government work fuel economy.
MILITARY PROJECTS PROSPEROUS
The increase in military spending
in the Interior can be attributed to
development of a Stryker brigade in
the U.S. Army Alaska, with most of
those quick-response soldiers based
at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. A
number of Army housing projects,
linked with that change in troop designation
and its resulting increase in
soldiers in Alaska, contribute to the
military construction budget increase,
according to Greg Smith, chief of the
military program and project management
branch for the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers in Alaska.
Neeser Construction, based in Anchorage, is working on several Stryker related construction projects at Fort Wainwright this year, employing up to 90 people at a time, according to project superintendent Bill Williams. One project consists of building 30 houses, each with about 2,500 square feet of living space, to be used for non-commissioned officer housing.
“They’re real nice units–very well built with a nice design … as far as military housing goes, they’re right at the top. I would be happy to live in them,” Williams said.
The two-story homes are part of a new subdivision being built on Fort Wainwright, part of the post’s efforts to expand and accommodate the new Stryker brigade. In addition, Neeser is working on three other construction contracts at Fort Wainwright, part of the firm’s first work in the Fairbanks area, Williams said.
Those military construction contracts include construction of a 100,000-plus-square-foot palletprocessing building, part of the Stryker brigade’s infrastructure, allowing rapid deployment of the specialized equipment.
Neeser also is working to construct a headquarters building and also a large barracks project at Fort Wainwright. The four contracts total more than $50 million in work for Neeser at the Interior Alaska military post, Williams said.
11-10-2005: Alaska Business Monthly reports on Neeser Construction in "Alaska Construction Industry Still Holds Strong."
About $6 billion was spent on construction in 2005, and that figure is expected to rise by 5 percent to 8 percent in 2006.
As the summer of 2005 came to a close, Neeser Construction wrapped up the new Alaska Psychiatric Institute building, the Fort Richardson Community Learning Center, and the Bristol Bay Native Corp. headquarters building. Projects in process as 2005 comes to a close include the Afognak Native Corp.’s Alutiiq Center and a new medical office building, both in Anchorage. These two projects, approximately $34 million in work, should be complete by the end of summer 2006, according to Gary Donnelly, Neeser’s project administrator.
Neeser’s construction of the Home Depot in South Anchorage was also scheduled for completion in the late fall of 2005, as were teacher housing units and the demolition of the school in Manokotak, and the City of Fairbanks’ downtown fire station and headquarters. Projects on Fort Wainwright, awarded under a MATOC, currently total more than $80 million.
“One of the projects,” Donnelly said, “is the Alert Holding/Pallet
Processing Facility, which will be finished before winter this year. The
Junior NCO housing project will finish up in February of ’06, and
we just started the Whole Barracks Renewal Phase 4A and a Company Operations
Facility. Those should be complete by the end of September next year.”
Looking ahead into next summer’s season, Donnelly counted nearly
$145 million in projects–the new Hooper Bay school and the new rental
car parking facility for the Anchorage
airport. Donnelly speculated that Neeser may be able to break ground on
the parking facility in late 2005, and said completion of this project
is set for September of 2006. He also added the Salvation Army’s
Safe Campus, between C and A streets just south of 15th Avenue in Anchorage,
to his project list.
“We’re working together with them,” Donnelly said, “so
that as they raise their funding, we can begin construction. We’ve
already done the utility infrastructure, and we may be able to break ground
next spring.”
One of the largest projects facing Neeser in the near future is the design and construction of Anchorage’s new convention center. Donnelly said that project is currently in the design process, and he anticipates groundbreaking to take place next spring.
10-18-2005: Alaska Business Monthly listed Neeser Construction, Inc. as #15 of the top 49 Alaska Businesses.
This spring, Neeser Construction Inc. will begin work on Anchor-age’s new 193,000-square-foot civic and convention center downtown. The estimated $93 million center is one of several projects the Alaska general contractor has planned.
“We have two years’ worth of work on the books,” said company President Jerry Neeser. The achievement is rare since most construction companies typically have just one season of work lined up, Neeser said. “We’re not doctors or lawyers with a continuous flow of clients. We have to recreate ourselves regularly.”
The Anchorage-based company has successfully built up its business, posting consistent growth since opening in 1975. “Every year has been better than the last,” Neeser said.
In 2004, revenue climbed to $91 million, up from $65 million in 2003. The company’s employee totals range from 240 in winter months to 500 during the busy summer construction season, Neeser said.
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS
The general contractor has handled various projects, including commercial, industrial, medical, multi-family and retail projects. One specialty is design-build projects, often with an abbreviated timeline. Neeser has been handling design-build projects since 1969 when he worked on California concrete high-rises and parking garages with his brothers. He believes his Alaska company handles more design-build projects than other instate general contractors.
Another signature asset for Neeser Construction is an ability to serve as developer on a project. Neeser is one of four developers on the Anchorage convention center, along with Anchorage businessmen Leonard Hyde, Mark Pfeffer and Jon Rubini.
Dozens of long-time employees also set the company apart in an age of job-hopping. About 30 employees have worked at Neeser Construction between 10 and 30 years, and up to 75 carpenters also have logged decades of service there, Neeser said. The company is sensitive to employees’ needs in a crisis, for example, which generates long-term loyalty, Neeser said.
“I think we are a family friendly company,” he said. “It pays off to be good to your people. Everyone is treated like family.”
MILESTONE PAST PROJECTS
Several major construction efforts mark Neeser Construction’s history. The company president cited renovation work on Anchorage City Hall, which was completed in late 1993. The $12.9 million project required complete gutting, renovating and upgrading, which included electrical and mechanical systems, lighting and elevators. The 144,000-square-foot building was reborn in less than nine months.
Neeser Construction also has built 33 rural Alaska school projects. Careful planning and logistical work constitutes a major portion of Bush projects due to extreme weather and soil conditions, short building seasons and remoteness. The company has devised methods to overcome the obstacles. One project required building ice roads on the Yukon River to move equipment 36 miles to the construction site. Also, hovercrafts have been used to transport materials and equipment from barges to beachheads.
The company designed and built the $35 million Army and Air Force Exchange Service Joint Military Malla seven-acre facility tackled in less than 17 months. It’s the world’s largest joint AAFES & Defense Commissary Agency. The shopping center, completed in October 1999, includes a supermarket, a retail store, optical clinic and food court.
Neeser Construction also has handled nearly $50 million in projects at Alaska Regional Hospital’s campus from 1998 to 2001. The company constructed two medical office buildings, the heart center, water pipe mechanical upgrades and a lobby renovation.
Anchorage residents may be familiar with Neeser Construction’s work building Anchorage Downtown Fire Station No. 1 in 2001. The gleaming, modern 30,000-square-foot fire house cost $7 million and includes a hose-drying tower and a separate administration building. Neeser Construction also built the 1,600-student South Anchorage High School, which opened in 2004. Its opening marked the city’s first new high school in 30 years.
Earlier this year, Neeser Construction completed the Alaska Psychiatric Institute replacement facility. API staff relocated there in mid-July, said Mark Welker, facility manager. Welker praised Neeser Construction’s design, which met numerous requirements regarding patient safety and maximizing natural lighting.
“They did an extremely nice job,” Welker said.
CURRENT AND UPCOMING PROJECTS
In September, Neeser Construction began underground utility work on the rental car parking garage at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Concrete work will begin this spring on the 1,800-vehicle structure. Neeser expects completion in 2008.
The company started construction in early summer on a new South Anchorage Home Depot. Neeser Construction spent three years negotiating with the retailer and neighboring businesses near Abbott Road and the New Seward Highway. Home Depot is scheduled to open in December, Neeser said.
CHARTING THE FUTURE
Neeser noted his company’s litigation-free historya major accomplishment in the construction industry. He hopes to maintain that record and see further steady revenue growth for the company.
“I think there’s a bright future in Alaska. There’s plenty of work here” requiring focus and drive, he said.
10-08-2005: Anchorage Daily News "Building Anchorage: Alutiiq design is a tribute to optimism".
Building Anchorage: Alutiiq design is a tribute to optimism
What: Afognak Native Corp.'s Alutiiq Center. The five-story Class A office building is 71,200 square feet and is valued at $11.4 million, according to an Anchorage permitting official.
Where: 3909 Arctic Boulevard, in Midtown.
Who: Venture Development Group is organizing construction. The architect is Anchorage firm Koonce Pfeffer Bettis. Neeser Construction Inc. is the general contractor. Engineers are Dowl Engineers, RBA Engineers and EDS, said Neil Bhargava, project manager with Neeser. He said major subcontractors include Anchorage companies Last Frontier Mechanical, Megawatt Electric, Alaska Glazing Inc., Industrial Roofing and Wasilla-based Alaska Quality Fire Protection.
Why: The center is to house the Anchorage staff of Afognak, the Native corporation for Alutiiq shareholders from the Kodiak islands. The building is also to be the headquarters of ANC's Anchorage-based subsidiary, Alutiiq. The Native corporation and Alutiiq together employ 3,800 people nationwide; about 200 are in Alaska, 80 in Anchorage. The building's contemporary design aims to reflect Afognak's optimism toward the future, said chief executive Jim Erickson. Images of ancient Alutiiq designs carved in stone are planned for the outside of the building. More modern Alutiiq art is slated for the atrium and museum inside.
When: The building is scheduled to be finished next May.
05-11-2005: Anchorage Daily News "Brother Francis Shelter builds new facility".
Brother Francis shelter builds new facility
Old mural ties modern building to stories of past
Two homeless men at Brother Francis Shelter painted an enormous, engaging and stylized mural right on the dining room wall 17 years ago. It showed Jesus standing with Alaskans in a breadline.
Construction workers recently cut out that hunk of wall. They built a thick frame for the "Christ of the Breadline" mural out of golden birch. Now it hangs in a brand new Brother Francis, an artifact of the past welcomed by the future.
The city's refuge for people with nowhere else to go is scheduled to open later this week. The new shelter will replace a drafty, converted equipment barn that opened as a "temporary" shelter in 1983.
The new shelter is 18,500 square feet, about 7,000 square feet bigger than the old building. Still, it's not designed to sleep more people. The cap remains at 240, and most nights far fewer check in, 130 on average last fiscal year and even fewer during warm weather.
Instead, the extra room will allow more privacy for social services and health care, more office space, room for showers and storage.
As volunteers and shelter staff members scurried to unpack boxes and check essentials like phone lines, a few regulars sat one day last week on benches outside Bean's Cafe, the soup kitchen across the parking lot from both shelters. From their open air seats they could see only the outside of the new place: stark gray concrete blocks framing a covered porch, where clients will be able to wait while checking in instead of lining up in the elements.
The porch, with its bay-like openings, "looks like a car wash!" said Dale Bradley, who has settled into his own room at the Mush Inn but periodically needs the shelter. Not that looks matter. "If it wasn't for this place," he said, "I wouldn't be alive."
John Maillelle, 40, said he's living in his car but is glad to see the new building because "it's helping out the homeless." He uses crutches to get around. He said he was hit by a car a couple of years ago and needs a new hip.
To Travis Barnes, 25, a visitor, the shelter looks like "a high school mixed with a prison." Barnes, a 1998 West High graduate, checked it out when he did his laundry. He makes $8 an hour setting up tables at the Egan Center and hopes to get his own place before too long. But it's tough to come up with rent. He decided to spend some of his wages recently on a hotel room and a video game system.
Shiny blue lockers that line the wide hallways inside give the appearance of a school, Barnes said. So do all the bathrooms and the windows. "Nice," he said.
But Barnes thinks "prison" when he sees the gray concrete blocks and dark metal gates that loom about 10 feet tall at one end of the covered porch. "That part kind of freaked me out," he said.
The shelter's managers wanted a durable, easy to clean building, and it is intended to blend in with the industrial neighborhood, said Tom Livingston of the architectural firm that designed it.
"It is an institution," said Livingston, who spent a night there during the design phase. "The shelter management is devoted to getting these folks homes. While this has all the amenities of home, they don't want it to be so welcoming that people don't want to leave." Landscaping to come will soften it some.
The center of each metal gate is a tall, terra-cotta-colored cross. Maybe that suggests church doors to some, but Livingston said that's not the intent.
When the old shelter is torn down, the gates will be visible from the street and can be latched shut during the day, when homeless people are not allowed in. Though people can enter another way, "the gates are there as a symbol of being open for business or not being open for business," Livingston said.
The shelter staff is reusing what it can from the old building, such as mattresses, computers, phones and supplies. A long, wooden park bench will make the move too. People too drunk to stay in the old shelter would sit there waiting for the Community Service Patrol to take them to the city sleep-off center.
Gregory Jack, 50, spent time on the old bench over the past 20 years. A little rest there often gave Jack time to reflect on his options and figure out he'd rather go back outside than be taken to sleep-off.
The bench won't be a hot seat in the new building. It has a small room where clients can wait.
But "it's a good, sturdy bench," said Dewayne Harris of Catholic Social Services, which runs the shelter. It can provide a spot for people to wait to talk to their case managers, who help them plan for independence, he said.
The old shelter is cold, with its 30-foot ceilings and plywood floors covered with rubber that has rotted after so long. The sleeping area in the new place has radiant in-floor heat and, for easy cleaning, a drain.
Once people check in, they are supposed to stay. A covered smoking area was incorporated into the new design, surrounded by durable glass block walls, so people can't pass booze in.
Then there's the mural, moved over by a crew from Neeser Construction, which built the shelter. Harris in particular wanted to keep this piece of shelter history.
The artists painted real people. A woman who looks like a Yuppie backpacker is, Harris said, a former social services director at Bean's. Others in the bread line are real homeless from the 1980s.
None of the people from the mural was sitting outside Bean's on a cloudy morning last week. So many years have passed that most presumably have moved on. One of the artists lives on the Kenai now. It's easy to imagine them all scattered to the four winds, settled somewhere else in a new life
12-03-2002: Alaska Business Monthly reports on Neeser Construction's Winning team, quality, and recent projects.
In nearly 30 years of operations, Neeser Construction Inc. has never gone over budget nor has it ever been late on a project, according to President Jerry Neeser. The company has never been taken to court for poor quality nor has a lien ever been taken out on the group.
It is a boast few contractors in the nation can proclaim. It is what has made Neeser Construction one of the most preeminent contractors around, whether it’s for putting up a 40,000-square-foot school in the remote, cold village of Stebbins or building a 330,000-square-foot shopping complex on an Air Force base. Neeser can work on up to eight major projects at any one time, in just about any combination of urban and rural sites.
"I’ve worked very hard to stay focused on the company and what can get it in trouble,” Neeser said. “The economy in Alaska has gone up and down, but we haven’t; we’ve been in a steady growth spiral. I think because of our excellent standing, we’re sought out.”
Jerry Neeser entered the industry in the early 1960s, working with his
father on projects throughout the Pacific Northwest. In 1969, the young
Neeser moved to California to put up high-rises and parking garages. Five
years later, he moved to Alaska and began to build the quality team that
has put Neeser Construction on the contractor A-list.
Gary Donnelly was among the first to team up with Jerry Neeser, joining
the company in 1977.
“Jerry has kept people who have worked well for him,” Donnelly
said. “Everything he’s done, he’s done a quality job
so that people come back. And he’s been wise at forecasting what
would sustain the business, not necessarily growth, but staying alive
through the leaner times.”
Neeser knew when it was time to switch from residential to commercial
building. In the early 1980s, he foresaw the economic downturn, suspecting
it would hit urban construction especially hard. He turned the company
to building schools in the Bush, Donnelly said.
“That carried us through those years,” he said. “Over the past 20 years, I could tick off 20 contractors that started business with a bang, out of the gate, and then they’re gone. He’s taken his, and our, adult lives to grow the company to where it is.”
Another essential element in the company is working closely with everyone involved in the project-owners, architects and engineers-to ensure the building’s quality meets expectations.
“That’s something I’ve noticed with Neeser,” said George Tuckness, a project manager who has been with Neeser for 11 years, “there is a level of service that you don’t normally get from other contractors. Anyone can satisfy an RFP (request for proposal), but can you make the person using the room happy?”
Neeser Construction and its crews have some hefty challenges on the list for the coming years. They are about to start work on a 70,000-square-foot, K-12 school in the village of Togiak, near Dillingham, and will start next spring on an assisted living facility in east Anchorage, called Cornerstone Senior Campus. This facility will have a notable dementia care unit.
The company was recently awarded part of a $400 million contract-it is shared among four contractors-with the Army Corps of Engineers. Work includes primarily upgrades and new construction on the state’s Army bases.
Neeser was recently awarded a $35 million contract to design and build the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and is working with the city of Juneau discussing additions to the Bartlett Regional Hospital.
TRADEMARK: QUALITY
Wherever they work, Neeser crews put up their trademark NCI signs-signs
that have become nearly as prominent in number as those of political candidates
at election time. During the construction season, around 450 people are
on the payroll, but the company hasn’t gone below 200 employees
in the past five years, Neeser said.
Their determination for quality is what brings customers back, and is what keeps them bragging on their buildings.
Bob Dickens, the maintenance and facilities director for the Bering Straits School District, first worked with Neeser crews in the early 1990s, when the company was hired to design and build the K-12 school in Stebbins. He has since coordinated with the company in building schools in Wales and in Grimbell.
“They certainly made an impression on me,” he said. “We found Neeser to be an excellent contractor for rural conditions and for having a good understanding of what it takes to work here. Like the Wales school; that was working in extreme conditions and was a basic challenge where some have no idea to go about it.”
Wales is located on the tip of the Seward Peninsula, about 100 miles north of Nome. The school burned just after Thanksgiving in 1995. The community lost its main gathering point and the kids lost their classrooms, as well as their favorite place to shower (most homes in the region don’t have running water).
The district rented space in a local church and in the National Guard Armory for classes while Neeser crews scrambled to barge equipment and materials to the site before the water froze. The entire project-which included a gym, locker rooms and shops-was put on a fast track.
Construction began before the final design was completed, said Donnelly, a project administrator at Neeser.
“Rather than sit and wait for plans to develop, we worked with the architect and structural engineer from the beginning,” he said. “We basically know what we need, and if we can get some information, we can order the materials and get started.
“Like in Wales, as miserable as the weather is, sometimes the piling system has to be put in in the winter. And it’s beastly.” Temperatures are well below zero, and often are accompanied by a fierce wind.
“Exactly 11 months from the day it burned, the new school was ready to occupy,” Dickens said. “They did it in record time and in adverse conditions.” And the $5 million project was completed ahead of schedule.
Despite the years of harsh conditions-both from the weather and being full of active children all day-Dickens said the Neeser-built schools at Wales, Stebbins and Gambell are still holding together well, almost new.
“We’ve got a good maintenance crew, but that also really says a lot about the quality of the construction,” he said.
An added bonus: the cost of heating the facilities has decreased by about 30 percent in each new school, Dickens said.
Neeser has a range of repeat customers, including Southcentral Foundation, the Alaska Regional Hospital and several school districts around the state.
“They have really done an excellent job in all cases,” said Larry Mathis, of Pan American Consulting Engineers and the owner-representative for Southcentral Foundation’s clinics that operate in conjunction with the Alaska Native Medical Center.
In 1997, Neeser worked with Mathis-representing Cook Inlet Tribal Council-on the medical office building at ANMC. Neeser also worked with Mathis and Southcentral Foundation in building the primary care center, which was completed in February, and on the upcoming clinic that will house dental, optometry and behavioral health facilities, due to be completed in May 2003. (Cook Inlet Tribal and Southcentral are both nonprofit organizations that operate under the umbrella of the Alaska regional corporation Cook Inlet Region Inc.)
During the original design, the architect firm NBBJ, based in Seattle, told Southcentral representatives that some features desired for the clinic must be omitted because they didn’t have the budget to do it all. Neeser worked closely with the firm to simplify the structural design and adjust a few other features, saving enough money to allow designers to reincorporate many of those thrown-out-ideas-about $2 million worth, Donnelly said.
“We gave them the same project, maybe even a better one, and we saved them money,” he said. The final cost came in about $500,000 under budget of roughly $15 million.
Neeser has completely reformed the Alaska Regional Hospital over the last decade, starting with the building of the Veteran’s Affairs regional offices and the health care clinic. The contractor company was hired to design and build the two new medical office buildings and an operating room used exclusively for heart surgery, as well as complete a major renovation throughout the facility.
The work has been a real learning experience for Project Manager Tuckness. “We’re merging medicine with construction,” he said. “The facility is based on patient care, and the challenge has been keeping them operating on 100 percent status through the entire operation. Then there’s learning to deal with people used to dealing with things microscopic and not thinking that a quarter-inch is good enough; it’s getting to a level of perfection that the doctors here expect.”
While Tuckness’ work at Alaska Regional is nearly complete, his next challenge may be just as staggering. Neeser was recently awarded the contract for the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, a $35 million design/build project.
“The trick here is to make it secure but not look secure,” he said, “and to have impact-resistant walls but not put up something that will hurt patients.”
Work also will be done in a relatively tight space, squeezed between the old facility and several acres of old-growth forest that must be preserved. And it all must be done in a way that least disturbs the patients housed in the current building.
For so many tough projects built in so many unyielding sites, always being on time and on budget is pretty impressive, Donnelly said.
“When Jerry started, it was almost like being on a football team and wanting to be on the winning team,” he said. “We developed that attitude, then it became the pride of the organization. And it’s a fun challenge to get it right.”
10-01-2002: Alaska Business Monthly listed Neeser Construction, Inc. as #11 of the top 49 Alaska Businesses.
Every October Alaska Business Monthly salutes the top 49 Alaskan-Owned and operated businesses in the state, based on gross revenues for the previous year. Here we have listed 2001 - 2002 revenues in millions of dollars.
#11 - Neeser Construction, Inc.
Employees: 445
Year Established: 1975
Rank Previous Year: 19
Change 31.01% from 2000.
MAIN BUSINESS:
Construction
PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES:
General contracting, commercial, industrial, medical, multifamily, retail and correctional. Design-build fast-track turnkey projects. Hard bid, negotiated and C.M. for fee contracting methods utilized.
SUBSIDIARIES:
None
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN 2001:
Ranked 19th of the top 49 Alaska businesses by Alaska Business Monthly. Ranked Alaska's largest contractor in Alaska Journal of Commerce 2002 Book of Lists. Started work on the UAA parking garage, Pilot Station School, Strawberry Meadows housing project and GCI customer service center. Completed work on SOA Public Health Lab & Medical Examiners Facility, phase 1 of Primary Care Center II, Alaska Regional Hospital lobby renovation project, and more.
4-16-2002: Jerry Neeser of Neeser Construction was featured in an article for Alaska Men in Business, 2002 edition.
Jerry Neeser
President
Neeser Construction Inc.
Anchorage
TYPE OF BUSINESS:
General contractor
EDUCATION:
High School, U.S. Marine Corps, various construction courses, knocks
of life
COMMUNITY/CIVIC ACTIVITIES:
Associated General Contractors of Alaska member
MARITAL/FAMILY STATUS:
Divorced; two grown children, two adolescent children
BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
Guiding principle in business:
Be honest and KIS (keep it simple).
Best way to keep a competitive edge:
Stay lean and keep the thinking young.
How I measure success:
One day at a time
LOOKING BACK
Motivation for taking career path:
Working with my father in his business.
Biggest professional challenge to date:
Educating owners and clients about the benefits of design/build
contracting.
Best business decision:
Moving to Alaska
Worst business decision:
All decisions eventually prove out to be the best.
Most influential person:
My father and the Nuns.
Most important lesson learned in business:
Always find the new niche.
LOOKING FORWARD
Biggest professional challenge ahead:
Staying competitive within the industry.
Industry changes over the next 5-10 years:
Design/build should emerge as the leading form of contracting.
Advice for someone starting out on a similar career path:
Work hard, stay focused, put together a good team and stick with
them. And remember to take time out for your personal life while
growing your business.
Goal yet to achieve:
Maintaining the balance between my professional life and personal
life.
What I hope to leave as my legacy:
Quality buildings standing after the next quake.
TRUE CONFESSIONS
One word that best describes me:
Tenacious
Strongest business skills:
Cutting through the "chaff".
Like most about my job:
It is continually changing.
Like least about my job:
Constant risk and responsibility.
Childhood career aspiration:
To be a contractor — truly!
What may surprise you to know about me:
I'm really not "Mr. Big".
Best way to spend $50:
Donate it to someone who really needs it.
Favorite diversion from work:
My cabin and my children.
10-01-2001: Alaska Business Monthly listed Neeser Construction, Inc. as #19 of the top 49 Alaska Businesses.
Every October Alaska Business Monthly salutes the top 49 Alaskan-Owned and operated businesses in the state, based on gross revenues for the previous year. Here we have listed 2000 - 2001 revenues in millions of dollars.
#19 - Neeser Construction, Inc.
Employees: 155
Year Established: 1975
Rank Previous Year: 24
Change 22% from 1999.
9-14-2000: Neeser Construction was featured in Alaska Under Construction's September 2000 issue featuring an interview with Jerry Neeser, CEO of Neeser Construction.
An interview with Jerry Neeser of Neeser Construction
Jerry Neeser’s competitors have courted his workers on occasion. But his employees aren’t about to defect. Neeser Construction Inc., which employs between 50 and 200 workers, has been around too long while so many others have gone bust over the years. "No one can promise them the same longevity," Neeser says of his profit-sharing company.
What’s more, the 25 year old Anchorage company has won some of the most visible — and lucrative — projects around, including the new military mall at Elmendorf Air Force Base, the Anchorage jail, Eagle River Wal-Mart and an upcoming commercial development at Muldoon and DeBarr road. Success, however, is no surprise, considering that Neeser has been in construction since childhood.
BNA contributing writer Rachel D’Oro recently interviewed Neeser about his life’s work and the special challenges of building in Alaska.
BNA: Let’s start with a personal history of you.
Neeser: I’m one of 14 children. My dad was a developer, a general contractor and an artist. He built schools and churches and commercial buildings. And he moved us from town to town in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, started us working as boys; I was 9 years old. We worked seven days a week, 16, 18 hours a day.
BNA: How did you wind up in Alaska?
Neeser: I finished high school in ’67 and I started my own business in Washington just prior to that. So when I got out of the Marines, I decided to get my business going again and went to Los Angeles, where an older brother was a structural engineer and had his own engineering firm. We built parking structures and high rises, and in just three years we grew from nothing to doing tens of millions of dollars of work, to 400 employees. We were working 18 hours a day, seven days a week, just like we did when we were young. And we looked at each other and said, "Do we really want to be doing this?" We decided to shut it down and then everybody went back to doing their own thing. I went to Spokane to see if I could get things going up there. My brother Tom ended up in Anchorage on Vacation. He needed a little money so he started working. This was the fall of ’74, when they needed qualified people. He called me and he said, ‘I know how you like to work. You belong here.’ The next day, I flew up and started working on a custom home.
BNA: When did you start working yourself?
Neeser: The next spring, I decided to build a business from the ground up and began hiring key people. Those same core people are still here. In the early days, sometimes they got checks when I didn’t get checks.
BNA: So you’ve had some lean times.
Neeser: Oh, we have. This industry has boomed and bust in Alaska. I’m one of the few contractors that still has the same name as when I started. It’s a very harsh industry and if you don’t plan for the lean times you’re not going to make it. My father went broke probably three times while I was growing up. That helped me know which turns to take. The development is what usually took him down. So I’m a developer but I’m first a contractor. I only risk what I can afford to lose in the development part of the business. When the oil downturn hit in the mid-‘80s, so many contractors were spread too thin. You’ve probably seen the bumper sticker that says, ‘Please God, just give me one more boom and I promise not to piss it away.’ But we’ve been out of the boom for awhile.
BNA: What’s the climate now? You’ve got a lot of the important projects around town.
Neeser: We’ve got most of the important projects in town right now. But we’ve been all over the state, including probably 20 Bush villages. Mostly now we’re in town.
BNA: Let’s talk about your latest venture, the controversial bid-box project in Muldoon that would replace the Alaskan Village Mobile Home Court.
Neeser: Obviously their first concern is they have to move. But what I told them is the owner could shut the park down and then go for a rezone. He has the legal right to give them 30- day notice and tell them all to move. It’s a private property. But he’s sensitive enough to want to allow people to stay there as long as they could because the zoning action will take at least a year …. I’m a reasonable developer. (The owner and I) are looking to assist them in moving when we don’t have to, financially (with a $2,500 allowance per unit).
BNA: What stage is the project in?
Neeser: It’s been approved by the zoning board and now it goes to the Assembly sometime in September. We’ve told everyone in the community that they can anticipate the movement in the spring. We’re not going to ask anybody to move in the middle of winter. A number of people are already moving, though.
BNA: What do you envision at the site?
Neeser: A Sam’s Club, which is using 14 acres of 68 acres, placed at the rear of the first half of the property. Out front will be restaurants, bank, video, and a Laundromat. We’re trying to get a 24-hour health care clinic out there, which there are none that side of town.
BNA: What other projects are you involved in?
Neeser: We’re doing the new state medical examiner’s laboratory out on Tudor and Boniface. It’s a beautiful facility. We’ll be done in November. It’s probably one of the most intricate projects that we’ve ever done.
BNA: I’ll bet your experience contributes to your ability to complete projects in Alaska’s harsh conditions.
Neeser: Sure. A lot of our abilities came from out early years in Bush construction. When you do a Bush school, everything you need has to be thought of beforehand. It has to go on the barge. There are no stores. And then you have the logistics problem of getting the product to the site. Some have been 5-day sailing down the Yukon River on small barges in the fall with the river freezing up. Some have been ice runways to land (cargo planes). We had to flood the end of the runway and create an extra thousand feet on time, pumping water out of the lake and froze the tundra flat. Most of the foundation systems on the Bush schools need to be done in the winter because you can only drill when the ground is frozen. In the summertime your equipment will fall through the tundra and into the muskeg and into the mud and muck.
BNA: What about building in Anchorage?
Neeser: You just keep going. Years ago, people stopped in Anchorage. But people saw the pipeline working in the dead of winter. And there also was the need not to stop. They’re as a lot of infrastructure here that needed to be built and if you only did it four months out of the year you weren’t going to get in done.
BNA: How would you sum up your Alaska career?
Neeser: Alaska has treated me incredibly well. It’s a harsh place to live but if you’re willing and eager to work it will give back to you. We’re still a pioneer state. You can come here and get farther faster than anywhere in the country. It’s still raw here. There are still things to be done.
3-01-1999: The Elmendorf / Fort Richardson Community Center Mall was featured in Northwest Construction magazine as the #2 Alaska construction project in their top 10 listing.
The Elmendorf/Fort Richardson Community Center Mall is a design/build, fast-track project at the Elemendorf Air Force Base. The 300,000 sq.-ft. community shopping center brings several services from Fort Richardson and Elmendorf AFB under one roof to serve both the Army and the Air Force. Services will include AAFES Exchange, DeCA Commissary, Military Clothing Supply Services, and a mall that will provide services similar to those in most military or private sector malls.
Koonce Pfeffer, Inc. was the premier designer on the project, and civil design was provided by Dowl Engineers. Structural design was provided by Engineering Development Mechanical and electrical systems were developed by PDC, Inc. Consulting Engineers.
The project's ground braking took place in May of 1998, and the structure was dried in and heated by mid-October. Neeser/Veco worked closely with AAFES and URS Greiner Woodward Clyde — the owner's representative — to coordinate and interpret the vast amount of information that comes from AAFES, DeCA and the various vendors that will occupy the mall to keep the project on schedule and within budget.
Major subcontractors include: Crootch & Harris, Independent Steel Erectors, Inc., GMC Cantracting, Inc., Oilfield Services, Inc., Summit Paving, and Udelhoven.
10-01-1998: Alaska Business Monthly had a short article on Neeser Construction in their October 1998 issue. The article covers some points on projects and the roots of Neeser Construction, Inc.
With 1997 gross annual revenues of $16.8 million, Neeser Construction, Inc. of Anchorage is a newcomer to the 49ers list this year, but certainly isn't a newcomer to Alaskan business.
The company, which specializes in design-build construction, does work statewide, averaging three to five major projects and several dozen smaller projects annually. Currently crews are working on the Elmendorf AFB/Fort Richardson Army Base joint commissary, a 350,000 square foot, $32 million undertaking. Other projects include dozens of schools (in Anchorage and rural communities), Anchorage's Veterans Administration outpatient clinic and regional office building, Anchorage's City Hall (design and renovation), Cook Inlet Region's medical office building, and low-income housing. Neeser also does work in Nevada and Washington, and just finished a 185-unit housing complex in Reno.
"Our largest volume, dollar-wise, is in Anchorage," said Gerald "Jerry" Neeser, president and CEO of Neeser Construction. "But most of our work is in rural villages. We're busy 365 days a year, and have to find time to give people time off. I just went three years without going on vacation."
Neeser, one of 13 siblings, learned the carpentry trade in the 1960's from his father. The father/son team traveled throughout Idaho, Oregon and Washington building schools, churches and commercial buildings. In 1969, Neeser moved to California where he spent five years building concrete high-rise structures and underground parking garages, It was in 1974, the then 23-year-old Neeser found himself making some tough decisions.
"The recession hit," recalled Neeser. "I had $15 million worth of work and 200 employees."
With prospects looking potentially grim, Neeser decided to shut down operations. One of him brothers, a partner in the business, headed north to Alaska on vacation. Neeser followed and decided to stay. Two years later, he officially opened his Anchorage business.
"I went back to my roots and built from the ground up," he said. "It was an absolutely great decision."
Neeser credits his success to the company's strength in the design-build arena, the longevity of its employees, and its satisfied return customers. In the past 22 years, Neeser has seen many companies come and go not able to handle the demands of the business, especially the logistical challenges of getting materials into rural and roadless communities.
“We are a fast-tract design building business. But we try not to become volume contractors so that we continue to enjoy what we do. We take care of the work that we have and we service the client well.”
Gerald "Jerry" Neeser,
president and CEO of Neeser Construction
"We're one of the few contractors who still has the same name since 1976," he said. "It's a harsh climate and a hard place to survive."
Neeser said his philosophy of never missing a completion date and never exceeding a budget has also served him well. (Not once for either in 30 years, he said.) Another factor that makes the company unique, he said, is its change order rate, which runs less than one percent. He also appoints one superintendent and one manager exclusively to each project.
And he is flexible. When a school burned down on Prince of Wales Island two years ago, Neeser got word in March that he was selected to rebuild it. He redesigned the school, began construction in May, and completed it, on schedule, before the fall opening.
"We are a fast-tract design building business," he said. "But we try not to become volume contractors so that we continue to enjoy what we do. We take care of the work that we have and we service the client well."
"It's in my blood," he said. "It's so much a part of me, it's second nature."
Thank you for your interest in our company.