Helix Electric Brochure

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Helix Electric:

Providing Power

Solutions

From Hawaii to

Washington, D.C. Helix Electric is an industry leader in electrical design and construction services with a national portfolio packed with high-profile success stories Written by Kevin Doyle Produced by Stephen Marino

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E

stablished in 1985, it seems Helix Electric has not encountered a job it is unable to handle. The company has long since established itself as an industry leader in electrical design and construction services with a national portfolio packed with high-profile successes.

Headquartered in San Diego, Helix Electric maintains branch locations in Hawaii (Honolulu), California (Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento), Nevada (Las Vegas, Reno) and Washington, D.C. The company is a merit shop contractor that offers preconstruction, BIM/engineering, project management, design/build and prefabrication services across the full spectrum of sectors including commercial and retail, education, government and military, healthcare and biotech, hospitality and entertainment, industrial, multi-family, residential, renewable energy and transportation.

Helix Electric has won numerous national and state safety awards along with nearly 100 national performance awards for excellence presented by The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA).

What separates Helix Electric from its

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Helix Electric | 4 competitors across the country?

“We are very committed to our customers, our quality and our safety which is a huge part of our culture.

Bringing a proven team to the table is a big value. We want to be viewed as a value-adding player. If not, then we are just another guy and that’s not what we want. We want to make sure that we are delivering the best project,” explains Victor Fuchs, president of Helix Electric in Nevada.

The company is a top U.S. electrical contractor and its national scale and recognition are both distinct advantages.

“We’re operating out of multiple offices across the country. We have a

Helix Electric | 5 national traveling group that roams; we have a national distribution group and a national solar group. We all talk and work together and customers really like that. The person they call is their counterpart and they can have an easy conversation,” says Boris Shekhter, president of Helix Electric.

826,000 sq facility and a 1,121,000 sq parking structure. Fort Meade provides support for Department of Defense civilian employees, military family members and retired and active-duty military. Helix is partnered with Clark Construction on this project.

Premier Projects

Kauai Island Utility Cooperative: Helix worked for GC Tesla on the project in Lihue, Hawaii that includes a new 17.318 MW ground mounted solar and 52MWH battery storage system located on 50 acres. It stores energy at night and releases it as needed and is the largest

Fort Meade East Campus Building 2: Construction of a mission-critical

“

We focus on training and

nvesting in our people and we succeed through longevity. We have apprentices that started here and are now running their own projects. We have young people that started here who are now running offices.

We train our champions.

“

IKEA: Located in Las Vegas, the new IKEA is a 350,000sf steel building with retail, restaurant and warehouse areas. Helix designed and installed the 1.2-megawatt solar PV system on the roof, providing 28 percent of the store’s yearly kilowatt usage.

- Boris Shekhter, President www.helixelectric.com

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Helix Electric | 7 dispatcher battery system in the world with more than 55,000 panels and 250+ Tesla battery power packs installed.

Plenty Foods: Helix powered up this unique indoor urban farm project in a warehouse setting. Plenty grows organic food vertically with each plant popping out of the side of a tall, skinny tower. Lights are also arranged vertically rather than pointing down from above. Forza Telecom NPC, Inc. was the GC. UCLA Wasserman Football Performance Center: This four-level building accommodates the UCLA Football program including locker rooms, athletic and weight-training areas, coaches’ offices, and team meeting/viewing rooms. The football performance center is one

of 20 projects Helix has performed at the UCLA campus.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals: This 171,000sf tenant improvement project in San Diego included the build-out of laboratory space doubled the size of the facility’s research center. Helix worked with GC BNBuilders.

Tesla Gigafactory: Helix has been involved in the ongoing construction of the 20+ million square foot Gigafactory located east of Reno, Nevada.

Growing Through STEM Manpower is an industry-wide problem and, as older workers age out, finding capable replacements

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“

Bringing a proven team to the

table is a big value. We want to be viewed as a value-adding player. If we aren’t, then we are just another company and that’s not what we

“

want. We want to make sure that we are delivering the best project.

- Victor Fuchs, President Helix-Nevada www.helixelectric.com

continues to be difficult. Fuchs says the company has embraced the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning model as a way to prepare and inspire the next generation.

“We are very active and a key member of the STEM Program. It’s a big deal where we get schools involved from 8th grade on trying to introduce kids to a construction environment. This is just beginning – we’ll see where it goes,” Fuchs explains.

A Brookings Institute report, “The Hidden STEM Economy”, notes that skilled jobs in construction

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BANK OF NEVADA IS A PROUD SUPPORTER OF HELIX ELECTRIC

MEET YOUR LOCAL BANKING EXPERT:

Rachelle Crupi

President Direct Line: 702.252.6172 RCrupi@bankofnevada.com

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Bank of Nevada, a division of Western Alliance Bank. Member FDIC.

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Helix Electric | 10

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Helix Electric | 11 frequently demand STEM knowledge. These jobs do not require a four-year college degree, and pay 10 percent more than jobs with similar educational requirements.

Among construction-related STEM professions that require an associate’s degree, electricians rank in the top five.

Safety First and Always When it comes to safety, Helix means business. The company employs a full-time Safety Director and numerous safety officers charged with developing and enforcing a zero tolerance mandate.

Since 1999 the company has won the ABC’s prestigious Platinum STEP

Award 17 times. It has garnered five California/OSHA Golden Gate Recognition Awards since 2010 and earned the State of Nevada Safety Consultation Training Section’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program Award in 2017.

“We don’t compromise on safety.

Zero tolerance is a top priority for us.

We recently won a Safest Residential Contractor Award nominated by the World Wide Safety for zero lost man hours in 2017/18,” Fuchs notes.

Shekhter and Fuchs sit on the company’s Senior Safety Committee and Shekhter says: “We walk the walk. Safety has to be a culture from top to bottom. We are all focused on safety on-site and our

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Day to Day The company employs in excess of 2,000 people and generates annual revenue of $600M. Helix Electric was founded in 1985 by Ukrainian immigrant Gary Shekhter in a leased two-room garage in El Cajon, a suburb of San Diego, California.

Fuchs emigrated from the Ukraine as a 14-year-old with his parents.

He joined the company in 1997 and has been with Helix Nevada since it formed in 2001.

“We are the largest non-union electrical contractor in the state of Nevada. We have the most experienced team and a long outstanding track record,” he says, adding “our financial strength and our dedicated group of partners are central to the company’s success.”

“

We walk the walk.

Safety has to be a culture from top to bottom. We are all focused on safety.

“

Safety Director used to be a Superintendent and a Project Manager. We discuss any safety issue in the industry. We look at every incident and leading indicators.”

- Boris Shekhter, President

Building Protection.

Building Relationships.

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3/9/18 12:54 PM

Helix Electric | 13 The company incorporates LEAN methodology in a number of projects.

“We have a hospital that is going LEAN right now and a local contractor totally committed to LEAN. We feel it is a big deal and we have several people in our organization that are LEAN certified,” Fuchs says.

The company’s select core group of subcontractors has been carefully cultivated through the years.

Fuchs says it is hard to crack the Helix lineup.

“We have a select group of subcontractors and we believe in total partnership. We consider

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suppliers and subs to be strategic partners. We believe in supporting local businesses and giving back to the community,” he says.

“We choose our clients carefully. We want to develop a relationship. We truly partner with them so we can help them and they can help us,” adds Shekhter, who joined the company in 2004.

The company belongs to a number of industry associations.

Helix is a lifetime member of the ABC and has employees that are members of the board of AGC. “There are tons of benefits. We are

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working for the rights of members, trying to protect our business model and making sure everyone is on a level playing field,” he explains.

Fuchs describes himself as a hands-on manager involved in every aspect of operations. “I am involved in procurement and marketing and oversee operations and keep everything on track with everything we do.”

That approach complements Shekhter’s role.

“I think my job is to help people reach their potential. I consider

Helix Electric | 15 myself a steward to the success of the company. We have 2,000 employees and if they have a spouse and two kids – that’s 8,000 people.

We are aware of very low unemployment, so we know that each person makes a choice to work at Helix every day,” he says.

Training and Recruitment The company’s Helix University provides employees access to top-shelf training and professional development. Helix employs a full-time Education Director and craft training professionals who focus on both career development and hands on field training.

“We have a full curriculum and classes going on a weekly basis. We invest in education and a lot of our team members dedicate their time to instructing people and building our future,” Fuchs says.

The company’s Talent Acquisition Team scours colleges for candidates and has partnered with schools such as the University of Cincinnati, San Diego State, CalPoly San Luis Obispo, Purdue, Chico State, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Nevada, Reno.

“We focus on training and investing in our people and we succeed through longevity. We have

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apprentices that started here and are now running their own projects. We have young people that started here who are now running offices. We train our champions,� says Shekhter, adding the company especially likes to hire veterans and students right out of high school.

Looking Ahead Helix Electric is constantly striving to achieve extraordinary results.

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Given the scope of its operations, the depth of its experience, the consistently high quality of its work, and its willingness to challenge itself, the company projects as a prime-time player for years to come. “I love to be able to take challenging projects and figuring out how to show the customers how it will work. I love being part of a great team and I think we have the best team in the industry. And I love the

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COMPANY INFORMATION

Company Name: Helix Electric responsibility of making lives better, of making sure all of our team members are employed,” Fuchs says.

“We hire the right people. If you do that and set the right vision and follow your goals, it gets things done when you have the people with a sense of urgency and when you treat those people right. Also, you always need to be learning and to be humble – never think you know it all because there is always so much to learn,” Shekhter concludes.

Country: United States

Industry: Construction

Est: 1985

Website: www.helixelectric.com

www.helixelectric.com

CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS 6795 Flanders Drive San Diego, CA 92121 P: 858.535.0505 F: 858.535.0757 E: ContactUs@HelixElectric.com