When Peter Lasensky decided to start a new construction company 15 years ago, his very first purchase was a Sperry 8088 computer.
“I had owned a residential construction business in Philadelphia that had grown to 65 people and things had gotten totally out of control,” Lasensky said. “I had decided that when I built a company again, I was going to have a better management system and that computers were going to help me do it.”
He also decided to focus his new business on commercial construction projects, since they are usually bigger than residential developments. There’s also the opportunity for repeat business that usually isn’t there when a contractor builds a home for someone, he said.
Lasensky, 40, is CEO and chief financial officer of Peterbuilt Corp., which is the 17th-largest construction company in San Diego County, according to the 2000 edition of the San Diego Business Journal’s Book of Lists. The company’s 1999 gross revenues were $24 million.
It’s also the 12th-fastest growing privately held company in the county, according to the book.
In addition to making computers an integral part of the company’s operation, Lasensky also adopted the production management and quality control theories of W. Edward Deming.
It was the tremendous economic growth of Japanese industry, which adopted Deming’s ideas while rebuilding from the ashes of World War II, that prompted Lasensky to make Deming’s teaching a crucial part of Peterbuilt’s operational philosophy.
Four Divisions
Lasensky attributes part of the success of his company, which has 55 different jobs big and small under way, to the establishment of different divisions to handle various aspects of business.
The company has four separate divisions that operate out of its 5,600-square-foot Lusk Boulevard office, all of which are under the direction of Rick Hill, who has been president of the company for the past 18 months.
The service division is run by Jim Weiman Jr. and handles small tenant improvement and building construction projects up to a value of $300,000.
“When we started, we started out doing small projects and we have this division to stay responsive to the clients who come to us for service on the jobs,” Lasensky said.
Joseph A. Weaver Jr. runs the retail, banking and medical facilities division. Before working for Peterbuilt, he was project manager for another company where he was responsible for coordinating construction for Wells Fargo Bank, North County Bank and Great Western Bank.
He’s been involved in more than 250 automated teller machine installations and bank vault construction projects, Lasensky said.
Tilt-Up And Steel Frame
Mike Stephenson is the manager in charge of new building shell projects for the company, such as tilt-up and steel-frame industrial and office buildings.
Executive Vice President Judith Kreisberg is responsible for business development and human resource management. She has prior experience in commercial real estate brokerage and construction management, Lasensky said.
Projects just completed by the company include a 50,000-square-foot, two-story concrete tilt-up building at 8310 Miramar Mall and grading, concrete and rebar work for Wateridge Engineering at 10420 Wateridge Circle, Lasensky said.
Peterbuilt’s crews are working on the site and building remodeling for National University’s Mission Valley campus at 414 Camino Del Rio South and for a $1.9 million tenant improvement project at 9890 Towne Centre Drive that will house Ensemble Communications Inc. when completed next month.
The company will also go out of town for work. It just completed a 7,000-square-foot tenant improvement project for the FDSW Dialysis North Orange Center in Anaheim and has also done work in Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee and Texas, Lasensky said.
Communications
In addition to an extensive collection of personal computers in the main office, the company also has fax machines and laptop computers at every job site.
Nearly every employee carries a cell phone with two-way radio capacity so Lasensky or his managers can communicate with all of them at the same time if necessary. Digital cameras are also used.
Lasensky’s almost evangelical fervor for computers led him in 1996 to found Pacific DataVision, a software and Internet company that operates out of the Peterbuilt office. Its main product is Profitrack for Contractors, a real-time report and management program for both general contractors and subcontractors.
“Profitrack manages the details of a construction company so the owner doesn’t have to,” Lasensky said.
The 2-inch-thick Peterbuilt operations manual is now being put on CD-ROM disk for sale to contractors through the computer company.
“Everything I learned the hard way is in the operations manual,” Lasensky said. “Eight years ago, I saw a need to integrate various business and construction software to get rid of the Tower of Babel that existed with different programs unable to communicate with each other. That’s why we developed the construction management programs.”
Responsive Customer Service
He now spends about 90 percent of his time working on Pacific DataVision projects.
“My own software has allowed me to be in the software business now,” Lasensky said.
Peterbuilt’s responsive customer service ethic has won praise from other construction industry professionals.
Chris Veum, a principal in the Downtown architectural firm of Austin Veum Robbins Parshalle, has been working with Peterbuilt for more than a decade.
He’s done five building shell designs that Peterbuilt erected and about double that number of tenant improvement projects. The most recent shell building project was at Allied Plaza in La Mesa. It was a two-story, 24,000-square-foot, build-to-suit project that National University moved into in November 1999.
“One of the most difficult components of the project was the trolley line was supposed to go right through the middle of the building,” Veum said. “Peter Lasensky was right in there with us along with Mike Stephenson, and they were resourceful in coming up with solutions to the architectural issues that developed.”
The knowledge of the tilt-up construction type by Peterbuilt’s executives was crucial in helping the client achieve his budget goal, Veum said.
“They were very interactive with our project architect and we could always get hold of them quickly,” Veum said. “They are an integral part of the team with the architect and the client and can show how to do things more economically.”
Douglas Wutschke, construction manager for New York-based property management company Insignia/ESG, has worked with Peterbuilt on tenant improvement projects for his company’s clients in San Diego.
The construction company’s ability to meet a deadline on one project impressed Wutschke.
“It was a challenge because we had 12 weeks to build out 63,000 square feet of space, which included close to 12,000 square feet of computer lab with raised floor, cooling units and pressurized room environment,” Wutschke said.
“They met the schedule and one of the things I like about them is if there is a deadline or a problem, they don’t come back and say ‘We’ve got a problem;’ they say, ‘We have a challenge and here’s what we’ll do to solve it.'”
Peterbuild Corp.
CEO
: Peter C. Lasersky
President
: Rick Hill
Year Established
:1985
Employees
: 40
Revenues
: $24 million
Headquarters
: 6235 Lusk Blvd.
Business
: Commercial construction
