Santa Cruz Sentinel article — January 2, 2002
By MICHAEL IACUESSA
Victor Bogard Sr. remembers the day when you could buy a piece of land in Santa Cruz for a mere $2,100 and building permits were just $50. Homes cost around $22,500 back then, less than securing some permits now. That was 1947, when Bogard moved to Santa Cruz and began building a house for his family. The effort caught the eye of a neighbor and soon more requests followed.
Such was the era 54 years ago, a simple time Bogard refers to as the “happy days” of construction. With help from land temporarily donated by property owners, Bogard Construction was able to expand rapidly, building homes, selling them and paying the owner later.
“It didn’t take a lot of capital to sell the houses, so it allowed us to get going,” he said. “We just always hired capable craftsmen. We didn’t use any real-estate agents. We just sold them ourselves.” A half-century later, Bogard Construction is a $35 million-a-year business, employing 15 people in its office and 50 to 150 in the field. Combined with its construction management division, Strategic Construction Management, and a joint venture partnership, Bogard+Kitchell, it has posted $200 million in managed revenues in the past five years.
Yet call the company and chances are you will be dealing with a Bogard. Victor Sr., now 86, has three sons and two grandsons running the company. Victor Jr., 62, is the chairman of the board, Brad, 54, is chief operating officer, and Jim, 51, is executive vice president. Victor Jr.’s son Chip is president, and Jim’s son Jared is vice president.
“They haven’t gotten so corporate as to lose the touch of family,” said David Robison, who heads Strategic Construction Management. “As close as they are as a family, they treat everyone who works here the same way.” “It’s the only thing I’ve ever known,” said Chip Bogaard. “Only recently have I known how nice a thing it is. We have breakfast every day, have lunch together, take some vacations together and go to the same church.” The Bogard family and Bogard Construction have grown with Santa Cruz. Their work is everywhere: from UC Santa Cruz to the McPherson Center for Art and History to Seagate Technologies, the main Santa Cruz Medical Clinic office and Dominican Hospital. Schools, churches and entire residential neighborhoods bear its labor.
When a local lawyer, Louis Rittenhouse, offered his land in the Westlake area “on spec,” he got the company rolling, leading to the construction of 500 homes by the mid-1960s.
In the early 1950s, Bogard donated Westlake Pond and the park around it to the city. He originally wanted conditions attached on how the city would maintain it, but the city refused. He said now the city has done a “good” job, though not “great.” Other early homes were around Opal Cliffs, land which had been available cheap in the early 1940s because of fear the Japanese would land on the beaches during the war.
Street names such as Sheldon (the city Victor was born in), Roger (the name of his brother-in-law), Bradley (his son), Iowa (his home state) and Archer (where he went to school) come from Victor Bogard Sr.’s past. The university’s arrival got the company into commercial work, which is now its main focus.
The Applied Sciences building was the firm’s first sole commercial job and the terrain made it one of its most challenging. Victor Sr. remembers having to dig 104 pier holes, some 40 inches wide, extending 100 feet.
“There were a lot of caves down there,” he said. “Drills sometimes would fall into them.” The challenge proved a boon in some ways. Every time they encountered a cave, it meant pouring more concrete.
Bogard Construction has since developed strip malls from Riverside and Ventura counties to Colorado. It has built Albertsons, Luckys and Safeways up and down the coast as well as 54 Longs Drugs stores.
In 1990, it was ranked 390th in the country in construction square footage. In 1989 the company ranked 26th in retail shopping center construction.
Five years ago, the Bogards created Strategic Construction Management, to provide preconstruction and construction management services.
Robison said diversification has kept the company strong even when the economy is not.
“There isn’t much that has been built that Bogard hasn’t been a part of” locally, he said.
Some of the projects include the Chestnut Street apartments, Twin Lakes Church, Long Marine Lab and under Bogard+Kitchell, and several new projects at Cabrillo College. They are building a gymnasium at the Carmel Mission and working on a $6 million house in Carmel Valley.
“We’ve been busy the last couple of years,” said Jim Bogard. “A lot of it has been the direct expansion of the Silicon Valley area. Most of our work is in Northern California so we are impacted by that.” The construction industry, as run by the second generation of Bogards, is vastly different than when Victor Sr. was conducting most of it. The elder Bogard said he never took much to computers.
“You can bid a job much more accurately now,” he said. “We did it the hard way. Now they just push some buttons and get a readout.” However, in most other areas, business does take longer.
Brad Bogard swears he still comes across people who have contracts with his father written on the back of business cards. Contracts today can run 150 pages.
“The kinds of things we do that are necessary today were not necessary 20 or 30 years ago,” said Victor Jr. “My dad used to go down and get permits in an hour. Now it can take three years for some projects.” All the Bogards agree most of the regulations exist for good reasons, but they do add time and money, they say.
Another change is a more team-oriented approach between owner, architects and contractors, a relationship which was more adversarial in the past, Jim Bogard said.
“Clients are also more sophisticated now than they used to be and demand a lot more from a general contractor in way of service,” said Victor Jr.
The Bogards recently added a fourth generation to their payroll. Chip’s son, Rex, an eighth-grader, works summers and holidays at the office.
The younger generation is taking on its own personality as well. Chip and Jared have added an extra letter “a” to the Bogaard name, something their grandfather dropped because of frequent misspellings years ago. The change is a source of confusion for some people, but Chip hints it was instigated by his grandfather.
Victor Sr. said it is exciting to watch his family continue the business.
“You think after 40 years I would be able to contribute something, but I think they’re doing better than their old man,” he said.
Contact Michael Lacuessa at jcopeland@santa-cruz.com.
Bogard Construction
SERVICES: Has built 500 homes in the Santa Cruz area, including many near Westlake Pond, and commercial buildings such as the McPherson Center for Art and History, Seagate Technologies, Twin Lakes Church and the Applied Sciences building at UCSC.
MANAGEMENT: Founded by Victor Bogard Sr. in 1947. Now run by his three sons: Chairman of the Board Victor Bogard Jr., Chief Operating Officer Brad Bogard and Executive Vice President James Bogard; and two grandsons: President Chip Bogaard and Vice President Jared Bogaard.
BACKGROUND: $35 million annual business, employing 15 people in its office and 50 to 150 in the field. Combined with its construction management division, Strategic Construction Management, and a joint-venture partnership, Bogard+Kitchell, it has had $200 million in managed revenues in the past five years.
ADDRESS: 350-A Coral St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060
PHONE: 426-4921
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