Son takes over contractor, hopes to build on father’s success

Not yet 30 years old and without a speck of gray, Chris Beard realizes he will have to earn respect taking over JMB Construction in Las Vegas.

His father, John, established the general contractor business in 1994 and built a reputation for cost-efficient commercial building. Now he's handing it down to Chris and his younger brother Walter.

Chris Beard tossed around the idea of perhaps creating a separate maintenance division with a different name, but he decided against it.

"My father built such a name with JMB, it would be a shame to leave that behind," he said. "People have seen his signs all over and that goes a long way, especially in this town."

The Las Vegas native started as a construction site "gofer" when he was a student at Cimarron-Memorial High School. He worked his way up from pushing brooms and cleaning up debris to laborer, supervisor, estimator and now JMB's project manager.

Beard, who is studying business management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said JMB's main focus is still as a full-service general contractor doing tenant improvements, but most of the work today is remodeling and restoration.

That's how things have changed in Las Vegas construction. Whereas JMB once had a five-year backlog of commercial and industrial projects, developers now seem afraid to build, Beard said.

"When I first started, it was still a boom time in the late '90s," he said. "We didn't even have to worry about marketing. People were beating down your doors.

"These days, it's quite different. There's hardly any construction. We've got big $100 million companies coming down and competing with us, a whole slew of competition."

Beard said his dad still accompanies him to contract meetings because some clients want to see someone with gray hair.

Question: What are your company's biggest challenges today?

Answer: Competition is huge today. The government has few public works projects and you're bidding against 20 contractors instead of five in the past. Lack of building -- private building has dried up almost completely. The slowdown in growth. People can't even afford rent and can't pay their mortgage, let alone build a new house or buy a new house. The challenge for us is just the marketing because we had word-of-mouth and that was enough. Marketing was not a priority for us.

Question: How can you improve upon what your father accomplished with the business?

Answer: My dad is an excellent contractor and knows contracting inside and out. He's had 35 years in construction. Where I hope to improve is with my business management and get investment into the company and put ourselves in a better position so when the economy turns around, we'll be ready to build and ready to go.

Question: Has the federal stimulus program helped your business, and if so, how?

Answer: In all honesty, I haven't seen any benefits from the federal stimulus. I've heard rumblings that most of it goes to road construction, but it hasn't trickled down to us.

Question: Where does most of your business come from?

Answer: Our main source of projects is medical office and medical imaging. That's our bread and butter. We did the Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging Centers and Desert Radiologists. We built a lot of medical relationships with GE (General Electric) and Toshiba, so we get calls from those guys when a hospital needs to put in new equipment. We did two X-ray change-outs at Michael O'Callaghan Hospital at Nellis Air Force Base. Then our architect contacts, when they get selected for a bid ... we just got a referral for a Catholic church in Mesquite.

Question: What's your revenue projection for this year versus 2009?

Answer: We're projecting $1.2 million in 2010, which is less than 50 percent of what we did in 2009. We did $3.1 million in '09. It's fighting and scratching for every bit of that $1.2 million. There's not easy work out there. We're chasing everything twice as hard for half as much.

Question: What can you do to grow the business?

Answer: We're hoping to do more remodels and expand our client base and get in front of building owners and show them what we can provide, our services to benefit them.

Question: You're inheriting JMB Construction from your dad. Where does your experience come from?

Answer: I grew up around construction. I started working when I was 15. I couldn't even drive. I was riding my bike. I've done nothing but dedicate my life the last 14 years to construction. I took courses and contract law to expand my knowledge base and then hung around my dad to soak up as much as I could. He's got a wealth of knowledge that he's divulging to me day by day.

Question: Did you buy him out? Or does he still have controlling interest in the company?

Answer: Both my dad and my mom (Susan) have controlling interest. They're 50-50 shareholders. She's actually the president and he's vice president. My mom does the accounting. She's probably going to be the last one to leave between her and dad.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at
hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.