Ghilotti acquiring North Bay Construction

<p>Ghilotti Construction Co. is acquiring its longtime rival, North Bay Construction, creating a regional construction giant with more than $150 million in annual revenues.</p><p>The transaction, to be completed by the end of 2012, will be in the form of an asset sale, the companies said in a press release Friday.</p><p>“We decided to combine our companies,” said Dick Ghilotti, president and CEO of Santa Rosa-based Ghilotti Construction. “I'm buying his assets.”</p><p>Financial terms were not disclosed.</p><p>The new company will bear the Ghilotti Construction name. Its prominent projects include Sears Point Raceway, Mayacama Golf Club, the Highway 12 undercrossing at Stony Point Road and the Highway 101 widening from Steele Lane to Highway 12.</p><p>Ghilotti, 63, described his nearly 35-year relationship with North Bay founder and CEO John Barella as “fierce competitors” but also good friends.</p><p>“I respect him; he respects me,” Ghilotti said Friday. “We're the same cut, the same age.”</p><p>Ghilotti said he hopes that no jobs will be lost as the firms combine.</p><p>Ghilotti Construction, which has offices in Santa Rosa, San Rafael, American Canyon and Livermore, has between 220 and 300 employees, depending on active projects. It rang up $87 million in revenues last year.</p><p>North Bay, based in Petaluma, has between 200 and 250 employees. Its major current project, the $48 million widening of Highway 101 between Cotati and Petaluma, will be assigned to Ghilotti Construction. North Bay had estimated revenues of $78 million.</p><p>Ghilotti will head the combined company, along with Brian Ongaro, 42, Ghilotti's senior vice president of operations; Ali Yazdi, 53, general manager; and Stacy Magill, 49, chief financial officer. </p><p>Steve Geney, 52, currently president of North Bay Construction, will join the Ghilotti management team. Barella had turned over North Bay's operations to Geney in 2005.</p><p>Barella, 62, will end his day-to-day involvement in the business and turn his attention to local residential and commercial real estate development projects.</p><p>“He wants to slow down a little bit,” Ghilotti said. “I don't want to slow down.”</p><p>Barella could not be reached for comment Friday.</p><p>In a statement, Barella said he contacted Ghilotti when he decided to pursue real estate development full-time.</p><p>“I wanted to be sure the company we had built would stay together and stay local,” Barella said. “I didn't think it would be fair to our people to make them part of an anonymous out-of-town company with no roots in our community.”</p><p>Their negotiations were “straightforward,” Barella said. “I'm very pleased with the result.”</p><p>Projects under contract by North Bay will be completed by North Bay and its existing crews and project teams, the companies said. New projects of both existing companies will be bid as Ghilotti Construction Co.</p><p>Ghilotti Construction has its roots in the company founded in 1914 by James Ghilotti, an Italian immigrant and grandfather of Dick Ghilotti.</p><p>Dick Ghilotti started out working for Ghilotti Bros. Inc., the San Rafael-based company run by his father, Dino Ghilotti, who died in 1990.</p><p>In 1992, Dick Ghilotti started his own company, Ghilotti Construction. He met Barella more than 30 years ago when Barella was a subcontractor for Ghilotti Bros.</p><p>The idea of one man buying the other out had come up over the years “after a few cocktails,” Ghilotti said.</p><p>John and Andrea Barella launched North Bay Construction in 1976 in a dilapidated barn with a backhoe and a dump truck. The company now occupies an eight-acre campus at 431 Payran St. in Petaluma.</p>