2 Big Builders of L.A. Landmarks Agree to Merge
Two big Los Angeles construction companies, which have dominated the heavy construction business in Southern California for more than half a century, have agreed to merge in order to fight growing competition from overseas and out-of-state rivals, officials said.
The two firms--C. L. Peck Contractor and Jones Bros. Construction Corp.--have built such well-known Southland landmarks as the Capitol Records building in Hollywood, parts of the Santa Monica Freeway, the new Performing Arts Center of Orange County and First Interstate Bank’s downtown Los Angeles headquarters--the tallest structure west of the Rocky Mountains.
The companies, which said they plan to complete their merger by January, will be known as Peck/Jones and will move to a new headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood. C. L. Peck Jr., will be chairman, and Jerve M. Jones will be chief executive.
“All the financial details have not been worked out,” said Peck’s Victor H. Siegel, who will become executive vice president of Peck/Jones. He said the Peck and Jones families will continue to be the sole stockholders of the merged concern, which is estimated to have annual revenue of about $400 million and a work force of about 500.
“They are good competition,” observed Don Breusike, a vice president at San Francisco-based Dinwiddie Construction Co. “But I’m not sure that grouping them together will make them more competition for us.” After all, Breusike said, the merger will mean that there “will be one less guy we’ll have to worry about.”
Both Peck, the nation’s 53rd-largest construction company, and Jones, ranked No. 117, according to the New York-based industry magazine, Engineering News Record, are privately held.
Despite their size, both Jones and Peck have faced stiff competition in recent years as West German, French and Japanese construction firms have tried to muscle in on the lucrative California construction market, which has grown dramatically as Southern California has emerged as a center of world trade.
J. A. Jones Construction Co., the big Atlanta-based construction firm that is now owned by West German interests, is a frequent bidder on large building contracts in California, for example, industry officials say.
“We are being buffeted by out-of-state and out-of-country firms,” Jerve Jones said in an interview Wednesday. “California is being invaded by just about everyone.” Jones is now president of Jones Bros. Construction Corp.
Started Firm in 1915
That was not the case more than a half century ago when Clair L. Peck Sr., the son of a Indiana lumberman, decided to abandon his father’s pursuits and form a construction company in 1915 in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, the Jones brothers, a partnership of three brothers from Seattle, were also striking out on their own. They came to Southern California in 1923 and opened an office in Beverly Hills.
Almost from the start, both firms concentrated on commercial and industrial structures. As a result, both have had a big hand in shaping Los Angeles into the sprawling metropolis it has become today.
Peck became known for erecting office buildings, classical church structures, warehouses and corporate headquarters.
Jones Bros. was engaged early on in the building of stores. The company was one of the few to prosper in the years of the Great Depression. It was awarded several major contracts to repair and build schools damaged by the massive 1933 Los Angeles earthquake.
Gain Extra Resources
Later, Jones Bros. branched out to become the largest builder of Pacific Telephone facilities as well as a specialist in airport terminal construction.
Over the years, the two firms built such notable Southland landmarks as the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, United Airlines and American Airlines terminals at Los Angeles International Airport, the new Screen Actors Guild building in Burbank and much of South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.
Company officials believe that the merger will give Peck/Jones extra resources to compete more aggressively for projects that may be located further afield from heavily developed downtown Los Angeles.
Jones also suggested that the merger symbolizes how the high-technology and high-finance world of the 20th Century is changing construction pioneers such as Jones and Peck.
Although once symbolized by hard hats and the wooden, tripod mounted telemeter, the construction industry has undergone immense changes.
Computers and management consultants with MBAs have become as important as hammer, saw and nails. Experts in nuts and bolts find that increasingly they are having to share management responsibility with experts in dollars and cents.
“This firm really headed upward when we engaged a management consultant in 1974,” said Jones. “He taught us a lot. We learned about . . . running a business right.”
