Contractor steady in bumpy area economy
Projects are ‘big enough to cross multiple years’
COMMERCIAL general contractor firm D.E. Harvey Builders has been riding a construction wave set in motion from the Texas energy boom for several years, and last year was no different.
Despite slumping oil prices in the second half of last year, chairman and CEO David Harvey Jr. said energy construction projects are continuing to fuel the family-run company into this year.
That’s because many of Houston-based Harvey’s projects are so large they have spanned years. That include includes the massive Exxon Mobil campus south of The Woodlands, a corporate headquarters for FMC Technologies in Generation Park in northeast Houston and the recently completed Southwestern Energy headquarters near the new Exxon Mobil campus.
“Believe it or not, the continued growth in Houston last year was in the energy sector,” said Harvey, whose father founded Harvey Builders with Gerald D. Hines in the 1950s. “We are fortunate enough to be involved with a lot of campus work that is big enough to cross multiple years.”
Harvey’s revenue came in at more than $2 billion last year, up from $1.5 billion in 2013. The company is ranked No. 6 on the Chronicle’s list of private companies, up from No. 10 last year.
Harvey, who shares his leadership role with the president. Joseph A. Cleary Jr., does expects to feel a squeeze from the energy fallout this year.
“We’ve had a few projects put on hold or put on pause,” he said.
In an effort to combat the potential slowdown, Harvey Builders is turning to its decades-long experience in interiors work, which crosses into other industries such as law and accounting.
On the multifamily side, the company recently completed a 38-story residential tower in Austin and is working on the 40-story Market Square Tower in downtown Houston, scheduled for completion in 2017.
In addition, the general contractor’s résumé includes the Strake Jesuit College Preparatory’s science and engineering building, as well as manufacturing and warehouse space in Baytown, a Goodman Manufacturing campus in the Hockley/Waller area and some laboratory buildings in the Freeport/Lake Jackson area.
Offices include towers for Amegy Bank and BHP Billiton in the Galleria/Uptown areas.
Harvey, which has 1,038 employees, also has offices in San Antonio, Austin and Washington, D.C. About 720 of its employees are in the Houston area.