Setting the Stage

Valley General’s edge is its cohesive team, cross-trained for success

By David A. James

hen Brian Hooks launched Valley General Construction in 2007, he began with a few pieces of equipment and big dreams.

“We started out with just one little excavator, a dozer, and a dump truck, doing some small Mat-Su [Matanuska-Susitna] Borough road upgrades. We built it up from there,” he says.

Palmer-based Valley General has since grown into a thriving enterprise that prepares sites for commercial building projects, primarily on public sector jobs.

“That’s our specialty,” he says. “That’s where we like to do most of our business.”

The company has the resources and knowhow to provide the basics atop which a structure will be built.

“We found a nice little home in commercial site development,” Hooks says. “We do all the foundation work. It’s not the concrete, but setting all the grades for the foundation and all that kind of stuff.”

Hooks says apartment complexes are among the typical projects that Valley General takes on. Describing how such jobs progress, he says the company ties in the sewer and public utilities and then prepares the ground for pouring the foundation.

It also gets things ready for pavement, sidewalks, lighting, landscaping, and anything else planned for the site.

“We set it all up and get it prepped and ready to go for all the contractors that come after us,” he says. “We’re usually the first in and the last to leave.”

Hooks says his company is able to perform a range of jobs in part because of a crew of mostly longtime employees, whom he says “are well trained on the equipment and technology that the work demands. Basically, everybody can do everything at any given time. That lends itself really well to doing site work.”

Valley General trains its employees in all aspects of the services it provides.

“Everybody knows exactly what to do in any situation,” Hooks says. “If somebody needs to grab the GPS and mark out a line, they can. If anybody needs to jump on that dozer and cut that grade, they can. If anybody needs to get down in that ditch and install that waterline, they can.”

Having such versatile employees keeps costs down while speeding up work. With Alaska’s short construction season, he says, contractors “really depend on you to get your stuff done.”

Hooks had a background in building when he started Valley General. His father operated a construction business when he was young, and he and his brother worked for another Mat-Su contractor before he opened his own business.

Early on, Valley General was a small operation. After a few years delivering road upgrades, the business expanded into site work, something Hooks says is a little more intensive.

“You really have to know what you’re doing. You can get backwards in a hurry,” he says.

It also requires sufficient funds for equipment and technology, he adds.

“It’s a real capital-intensive business. The machines you have to buy are very expensive,” Hooks says.

Additionally, site work requires using GPS units. With these, he says, his team “can do all of our own modeling. We can change on the fly pretty quickly.”

The technology, he adds, is “so integrated now that you can’t compete without doing it.”

Since moving into site work about a decade ago, Valley General has expanded the size of its operation and taken on a handful of additional employees.

“I think we run a total of ten to twelve employees most of the time,” Hooks says.

Those employees are drawn from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302, he says, adding that he is a big supporter of union labor.

“We signed on in the union pretty early. I like the idea of union work. I like the idea of my guys making a living wage. And I like the idea of having healthcare and retirement and things like that,” Hooks says.

He adds that, by employing through the union, “even if our business doesn’t make as much money, we can still provide those things to our employees. Because we have a small group, I like to make sure that small group is taken care of. They’re like family.”

Valley General’s competitive edge begins with a well-trained crew.

“I try to keep everybody that works for us at a really high level,” he says, adding “[Technology] is always advancing and you’ve got to keep your guys up to speed,” he said. “I think that gives us another little bit of efficiency.”

The company has left numerous satisfied customers in its wake. “I really enjoy working with them,” says Sam Brown, president of Burlywood, Inc., a Palmer-based company that focuses on multi-family, light commercial and residential construction. “They’re professional and they know what they’re doing and everything seems to go pretty well.”

Hooks says this is due to Valley General’s team of dedicated employees, whom he continuously praises, saying that when they’re on the job, they make it all happen.

“It’s not just me, man,” he concludes.