Subcontractor Revenue Lagging Market Pickup
The Syracuse Lakeview Amphitheater on the western shore of Onondaga Lake in Geddes, N.Y., provides an outdoor event venue with seating for 17,500 people and a theater space that can seat 300.
Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of John Miller, O'Connell Electric Co.
OConnell Electric is working with Parsons on the design and building of the Five Mile substation in Allegany, N.Y., for National Grid. The station includes a four breaker, 345-kV ring bus that feeds three bays of 115-kV breakers through a 400-MVa transformer.
Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of Parsons and O'Connell Electric Co.
So far this year, however, O’Connell’s sales are up about 6%, he says, and “it looks like 2015 will be our biggest year ever.”
O’Connell is just finishing some large projects, such as a $6-million contract for the electrical work for an amphitheater in Syracuse, N.Y., for Onondaga County that had to be done in 12 weeks to be ready for a con- cert in early September.
In general, the outlook for western New York is good, Salerno says. O’Connell recently won a project to expand an aggregates production plant in upstate New York being done by newly enlarged materials firm LafargeHolcim.
O’Connell also is expanding by acquisition. Late last year it purchased Clifford R. Gray, a capital region electrical and communications contractor, for an undisclosed sum.
“2016 should be a good year,” Salerno says, adding that his goal is to build the company to $250 million in revenue in the next several years, up from about $129 million reported last year that total landed O’Connell in fifth place in the 2015 regional ranking, an increase over its $120.7 million in 2013, and up from sixth place in the 2014 rankings.
EMCOR Group Inc., the top ranked specialty contractor in 2015, with regional revenue of $660.4 million in 2014, noted in the first quarter that its “uneven” earnings results were affected by extreme cold weather that reduced workdays, particularly in the Northeast. In the same earnings report, EM COR said it is beginning to see overall growth in its order backlog for 2015 and 2016 in the commercial and transportation sectors.
In its second-quarter earnings, the company reported a 6.4% increase in organic revenue growth with increases in U.S. electrical and mechanical sectors.
