HELIX ELECTRIC
NEWSFLASH FALL 2021
INDUSTRY
Salt Lake City’s downtown industrial building remodel page 4
LOST SPIRITS
Art meets distillery in this creative project page 10
HELIX TO THE RESCUE
Team members arrived within 48 hours to finish “The View on the Square” Project page 16
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A LETTER FROM VICTOR In a recent discussion someone shared with me a statement about team members that stuck with me; we are lucky to have great employees or team members, but they are extremely hard to find. I thought about it for a moment. Great team members are hard to find… unless you know where to look. And with all due respect to the many great companies in Nevada, or even the great team, our LV Raiders and VGK. If you want to find the best team members in Nevada, you need look no further than Helix Electric! I wanted to take this space this month to say just how very lucky we are at Helix is when it comes to our team members. I am reminded every day that we have privilege of working with some of, if not the most, dedicated team members in our industry (or any other for that matter). Our job may be essential, but it is not easy. Yet our team shows up every day with passion and enthusiasm for those that we serve. Your dedication and commitment in delivering quality work is making a difference in the lives of so many. It is an absolute privilege to have all of you on our team. It is hard to express just how much we value every member of our Helix Family. Thank you. For many contractors right now, employees are leaving faster than they can be replaced and this is having a detrimental effect on jobsites all over the country. The constant change in staff and lack of consistency impacts not only operations, but also the quality of work being done. Luckily, our team members at Helix have leadership and support throughout the organization. Our ability to work as a team and make plays for each other is unparalleled. I know our team is tired. These past 18 months, with the COVID-19 crisis, our team has worked together to help us through a “perceived” worst of times. I say perceived because despite the challenging environment, our team has continued to produce record results. In Las Vegas our team has built our backlog of work stronger than it has ever been. In Reno we have managed our operations to achieve higher margins than ever expected. And finally, Salt Lake City may be the hottest market in the country, and Helix is the hottest electrical contractor in the market. When it is all said and done, Helix is the best at what we do because we have the best team. Whether it is in field, in the office, management, or on the jobsites, we truly have the best of the best.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Northern Nevada
3
Utah
4
Estimating & Design Build 5 Major Projects
6
Special Projects
8
Prefab
11
Training
12
HR
13
IT
14
Safety
15
Service
16
It is one thing to hire people. It is another to hire the right people and keep them; especially those committed to doing our type of complex work and doing it so well. On behalf of myself, the entire management team, and the families of all our team members, we would like to express our gratitude and recognize how valuable every one of you are to the success of Helix Nevada. We look forward to continued growth and building a great team even better! GO HELIX GO!
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NORTHERN N E VA D A DARREN VANDERFORD VICE PRESIDENT We’ve certainly been busy up here and the year is shaping up to be a good one. I’d like to share with everyone the tremendous efforts our team has put forth on the Switch RNO Nap 1 Mod 1 project. For years we pursued Switch as a client without much success. Through a combination of hard work and timing we were successful landing this sizable project with Layton Construction. Certainly, the fire alarm projects we completed in both Vegas and Reno facilities were a factor. The success of our teams on those contracts was a crucial component to winning this job. In addition, we had completed our first project with Layton in 20 years and the relationship was improving. Our estimating team which included William Rubio, Keith Rastberger, and Joe Tremblay who put this bid together as well as several other Switch projects throughout the years. As I stated, it took a complete company effort and I thank all those individuals involved. The project consists of a 68,000 square foot tenant improvement in the existing Nap 1 (Tahoe Reno 1)
building. Switch’s Reno campus, ominously named “The Citadel”, when complete will include 7 buildings totaling 17.5 million square feet. The Nap 1 building we currently are working in is 130-megawatt, 1.3 million square feet, and Switch claims is the largest data center in the world under one roof. In addition, Switch has also crowned it with a Tier 5 Platinum level. Some highlights of our install include: (6) 2500 kw 25 KV Generators (6) 1500 kw, 480V UPS systems (3) Power System Rooms with 12,000ft of overhead EMT 72,000 ‘ of feeder wire Contributing to our success was the efforts of Rodney Miller and his team who provided BIM modeling. Their 3D maps of these power rooms were instrumental in our planning and prefab efforts. Speaking of that, the Eric Opstedahl and the Vegas prefab team produced kits, conduit racks, and pre-bent elbows to allow our team smooth, timely installs to meet the very aggressive schedule. We would like to recognize the following players without whom this project would not be a success: •Brian Sisneros, PM • Michelle Surplice, PE •Bill Culver, General Superintendent •Charlie Wooten, Superintendent •Pete Barreda – Superintendent •Rick Hatfield - Superintendent Of course, none of it would be possible without our talented team of electricians. Thank you to all who worked on this project!
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UTAH NATHAN GOODRICH OPERATIONS MANAGER SALT LAKE CITY If there is one obvious formula for success, it is that we are better off working together as a team than “going it alone”. At Helix, we are fortunate to have so many talented and hardworking people and resources to call on when we need a helping hand. Work and opportunities have been moving much faster in the first half of our first year in Utah than we could have expected. Currently, we have more than 70 people including office, service, and construction working in Utah. We have been able to hire many great people in Salt Lake and we have also had a few that have come up from Las Vegas to help (I think they just like getting out of the heat). Special shout out to Lisa Sharpe and Daniel Desmond. Our Service department, led by Tony Peterson and new Service Administrator Nicole, is up to six service technicians. Amazingly, they all have a van to drive as well. Getting vans and trucks has been no small effort. Thanks to Eboney and team! In the month July, the Service group has done close to $100K in revenue. This is amazing when you think that Tony and his guys have only been doing this for about 3 months. We have recently been awarded several nice design build projects: Bonnyview Apartments $4.5M, 305 Units, 5 Story over 2 Podium. This is with a new client, Rimrock. Industry Stage 5 $900K is a remodel of an old downtown industrial building to house future shared office space. Industry Parking Garage $1.3M, 360,000 sq. ft. 900 plus parking stalls with future retail.
Industry Stage 5 construction (top) and completed Stage 4 offices (bottom)
In addition to these jobs, we have a job in Bozeman Montana and several other small projects in Salt Lake City. Thanks to Andy Bedora and the Design Build group for getting us off to such a great start with the design build effort. It is very rewarding to be able to work with so many people who are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed!
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ESTIMATING & DESIGN BUILD DAVE WOOD | VICE PRESIDENT, ESTIMATING As we are heading toward the end of 2021 it has been a very active year. Our sales are trending a record pace for Helix Nevada. We are seeing heavy action in all three of our markets, Las Vegas, Reno and Salt Lake City. The increased opportunities and additional markets has caused the Helix Estimating and Design Build Department to do some re-structuring.
William Rubio Over in our design build department, we have added William Rubio as our Design Build Operations Manager. William brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the design build team. William will oversee all Military, Hospital and Public Works Design Build. He will provide guidance to our Engineering Group, as well as, our Estimating and Operations teams.
Joe Tremblay has been promoted to Director of Estimating and now oversees the day to day Estimating Operation. Joe has taken well to his new role and has already experienced positive results and success.
We are looking forward to a great Fall Season that will hopefully see our teams soar past their goals.
Greg Mesa Promoted to Estimating Manager and he now oversees our Major Projects Estimating Group.
Will Fletcher Promoted Chief Estimator and now oversees the Special Projects Estimating Groups.
Louis Smith Continues to oversee all of our residential and “heads on beds” construction.
Helix Nevada estimators at the Women’s Refuge Center Charity Tournament. In picture from Left to Right: Devin LeFave, Zach Dunham, Juan Ceballos, Will Fletcher.
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MA JOR PROJECTS BOB JOHNSON | SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MAJOR PROJECTS PROMOTED! Alex Johnson, Assistant Project Manager Alex started working at Helix, in the PreFab department in 2008, until he was accepted in the ABC Electrical Apprenticeship program and started working as an apprentice. After graduation, he continued working as a journeyman, and then became a medium voltage leadman in charge of medium voltage terminations and splicing. Alex worked as MV Lead on multiple solar field projects across Nevada, Idaho, and Texas, gaining multiple certifications along the way, and also became a licensed journeyman electrician in Idaho, and graduating Helix Superintendent training. Alex started his Project Engineer role in 2018, and has now moved into his Assistant Project Manager position. His first official job is Catholic Charities, Phase 2 with Martin Harris, but has been working closely with Marshall Thomson on projects such as World Market Center, Corridor of Hope, Amazon LAS1, and Edwards AFB. Congratulations Alex!!
COMINGS & GOINGS! A very bittersweet goodbye to two of Department 16’s key players, and a warm welcome to our newest team member!
Kirt Svedin, Project Manager Transferred to the Helix Utah Office. Kirt’s been with Department 16 for 6 ½ years, starting as a PE, working his way up to the Project Manager role. Good Luck in Utah!!
Danika Johnson, Project Assistant She completed her Master’s Degree and is pursuing her career as a Clinic Mental Health Counselor. Thanks for all your hard work, best of luck in your new venture!
Donna Rose, Project Assistant The newest member of our team as Project Assistant. We all look forward to a bright future with Donna, and know she’ll be a great asset to our department!
Twinning! The Danika/Donna transition is complete, down to the same outfit on Danika’s last day!
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C
L L E N N HA I C R E M COM
N O I T A R E AL CORP
Channell is a design/build project for renovation and expansion of existing electrical distribution system, feeders and connections to all processing/auxiliary equipment and general lighting/power for production facilities and office tenant improvements. It is an injection molding manufacturing plant comprising of 87,000sq ft of production floor and 10,000 sq ft of office improvements (corporate, human resources, shipping). Helix was engaged directly by the client based on recommendation of a mutual acquaintance and the project went into construction with much of the main processing equipment already on order and being fabricated. This has been a challenging project due to numerous factors including the short schedule and working with only the availability of existing NVE services, and sizes. The first challenge introduced the requirement for the installation of a 2000A temporary service to be able to energize the first machines to come on-line and the subsequent removal and replacement with the permanent board when available while keeping the plant in operation. The restriction to using the existing NVE services required the re-configuration of the existing distribution system which incorporated the demolition and replacement of one of the three existing services (3000A) to align with the requirements of the Client’s processing equipment. Project Manager | Wade Brasuell Project Assistant | Danika Johnson/Donna Rose Superintendent | Ed Seward
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SPECIAL PROJECTS MIKE VITA
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, SPECIAL PROJECTS
Construction has taken a step back to pre-pandemic scheduling levels. Department 46 has 21 projects active in 2021 so far and awaiting several new contracts. On a positive note, construction is looks promising far into 2023. Training has become vital to Helix Electric. Be sure to check out the training calendar on cornerstone and sign up. I appreciate all of you and thank you for being a great TEAM member.
New happenings in 46: •Nick Carrera graduated from College of Southern Nevada with an Associate’s degree in Construction Management • Michael Humphrey Jr. graduated from High School. • Woosik Yang Project Engineer moved to Bern Switzerland to complete his Master’s degree in Bio Medical Engineering. •Danyual Zaratiegui has joined our team as a Project Engineer. • Lisa Sharpe relocated to our Utah office. •Jesus Frias has rejoined Team Helix after a short stint in retirement. •Congratulations to Matt and Chelsea Lowenstein, baby to arrive Jan. 2022
Congratulations ABC graduates! • Bryan Crespo • Aaron Godoy • Joshua Salayich • Grant Estes • Charles Harrison • Albert Cleto • Devin Penman • Rogelio Robles • Jorge Zacarias • Daniel Santana • Tyler Skelton
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Project Manager: Eduardo Alcaraz Superintendent: Terry Hatfield
VIRGIN TOWERS Virgin Towers consisted of 1503 room remodels in (3) separate towers. The first tower would be “Casino Tower”, this tower had a total of 640 rooms within 11 floors with suites located on the 7th, 8th, and 11th floor. The Harmon Tower has a total of 373 rooms within 16 floors, the 16th floor of this tower is dedicated to (6) suites and a gaming salon. The Paradise Tower has a total of 490 rooms within 18 floors with suites located on the 1st, 2nd, and 18th floor. The guestrooms consisted of relocating and adding power, bringing the electrical up to code, the installation of Inncom devices and other items requested by the GC. The Marquee suites consisted of newly added and relocated power, replacing fixtures throughout the rooms, the installation of a Crestron system, the rough in of framed pony walls within the bedrooms, and colored trim to add to the redesigned rooms. The Gaming Salon located on the 16th floor of the Harmon Tower featured newly added and relocated power, as well as custom light fixtures. All the corridors in the (3) towers received new light fixtures furnished by the owner. There were other items performed within the (3) towers such as troubleshooting and installing thermostats on the existing air conditioning units, troubleshooting drapery systems, and installing door contacts in the 1st and 2nd floor suites of the Paradise Tower.
A view from above
Virgin tower hallway
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Project Manager: Janiel Jensen-Yep Superintendent: Kenny Hergert
LOST SPIRITS
DISTILLERY Project Location: Two locations - 3208 W. Desert Inn Rd & 3215 S. Rancho Dr. both in Las Vegas, NV 89102 Project Size & Features: •Area15 TI 4,580 sq ft – Customers start at the Area15 location, where stage filled with hologram machines create entertainers. The customer then gets into an electrical rickshaw type of vehicle for a ride to the main distillery across the parking lot.
A view from the inside
•Bldg 1 27,050 sq ft – There is an actual distillery on the premises with a lounge area that provides the illusion of being under sea with windows shaped like the portals from “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. View from the hallway
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P R E FA B D E PA R T M E N T ERIC OPSTEDAHL | PREFAB MANAGER We are pleased to introduce to you, our amazing Warehouse Team: Garrett Light, Warehouse Supervisor Garrett has been with Helix for about a year and half and is responsible for overseeing all shipping & receiving operations as well as contributing to the development of processes and procedures to improve safety, quality, and productivity. What attracted Garrett to Helix was the culture and the challenge of building a more sustainable warehouse. Lyndsey Gillette, Shipping & Receiving Operator Lyndsey, although new to the warehouse, has taken on the responsibility of data entry and inventory validation. Lyndsey enjoys working with her peers and taking on new and challenging duties.
Lyndsey
(left), Gillette
Garrett
ht)
Light (rig
Dale Venable, Warehouse Receiver Dale has been with Helix for 6 ½ years and is responsible for vehicle maintenance, unloading delivery trucks and verifying material accuracy. He also maintains all yard and warehouse organization all while maintaining an award-winning attitude. Dale came to us from the culinary world by way of his lovely wife, Laura. Crystal Hurst, Shipping & Receiving Coordinator Crystal started at Helix in 2018 as an apprentice, took a brief break and returned a little over a year ago as a Warehouse Driver. She has since moved into the role of Warehouse Coordinator and is responsible for scheduling, paperwork, communication and back up to the Warehouse Supervisor. Crystal chose Helix for its growth opportunities, company history, and her amazing boss.
n
Dale Ve
t (right)
stal Hurs
ft), Cry able (le
Michael Roeder, Senior Project Manager Mike has signed on to the be liaison between the Prefab department and Superintendents for all divisions. He will be assisting with removing all road blocks from either side. Doing so, Mike will be actively collaborating with Prefab and Superintendents for job kick offs as well as a variety of different areas of focus.
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CORNERSTONE
YOUR ONE STOP SHOP!
T R A I N I N G D E PA R T M E N T JEFF SATTERFIELD | TRAINING MANAGER We are still pushing to get Cornerstone use up. Remind your crews that they can enroll in classes and upload any certifications or licenses from their dashboard’s. We are in the process of scheduling Safety Saturdays for each of the regions. We will get the dates out once they are confirmed. We are going to be scheduling multiple safety classes, you will be receiving an email if your certification will be expiring soon. Take advantage of the training for both yourself and your crews.
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H R D E PA R T M E N T PETRA ARMIJO | HUMAN RESOURCES BUSINESS PARTNER Human resources has had a very busy year. From dealing with closings & reopenings it has been a very unusual year for everyone. We have added new members to the team here in Las Vegas and up north in Utah to help with the growth we are experiencing. We would like to remind everyone that we have a $5K bonus for helping to hire local Las Vegas superintendents. If you need more information on this reach out to the HR department. We are working on improving our onboarding process. We will be reaching out to various individuals with questions on their experience with onboarding. Let us know how we can improve this process.
EMPLOYEE REFERRAL BONUS
RULES FOR REWARD
$5,000
1. Referred candidate must apply to an open position through www. helixelectric.com/careers and list referring employee’s First and Last name under “Employee Referral” as the source.
$3,000
2. Referring employee must be a current employee to receive referral bonus payout.
Local Las Vegas Superintendents*
Superintendents & Project Managers*
$2,000
Estimators & Designers*
$1,000
Licensed Journeyman & Service Techs
$250
3. There is no limit on the amount of referrals an employee can make! Rewards are paid out 50% within 10 days of new hire’s start date and 50% within 6 months of new hire’s start date! Note: Monetary Rewards are subject to taxation. *Must be Senior Level. Entry level/Junior level positions will be paid out at “All Other” rate.
All Other Field & Office Roles
www.helixelectric.com/careers FALL 2021
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I T D E PA R T M E N T MARK MANDARELLI | CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Helix has operated with two distinct IT groups that worked together and supported each other when necessary, but otherwise operated independently (one for Company 1 and the other for Company 16). So we can serve you better, I am happy to share that effective immediately these two groups are now one. This consolidated IT group will be made up of the Service Desk, Infrastructure, and Applications teams.
Have an IT Request? Reach out to the Service Desk at itsupport@helixelectric.com. Use the ServiceDesk app on your Okta homepage to track your request
Here are the highlights: Frank Farina (based in Las Vegas) now reports to me and moving forward will be responsible and accountable for the Service Desk team for all of Helix. The Service Desk will now collectively service any employee, regardless of location. We will of course look to leverage local team members when that makes sense for a given request/issue. This change will allow Glenn Cousins (based in San Diego), along with his team of Scott and Carlos, to focus on IT infrastructure for all of Helix. This focus is very important as we undertake many initiatives to standardize, unify, improve, and deliver the infrastructure to secure and support the entire organization. What does this mean for you?: You will continue to reach out to the Service Desk at itsupport@helixelectric.com. You will experience an improvement in responsiveness and effectiveness
in servicing you. This impact will not necessarily be immediate but will continuously improve over the coming weeks and months as we make additional changes and refinements. I am sure that there will be a few initial bumps, but we appreciate your patience as we work through implementing the changes. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns.
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SAFET Y LAWRENCE FRY | REGIONAL SAFETY MANAGER What is Your “Why”? Please join me in welcoming Bryan Mitchell as our new Helix Area Safety Manager to the team. Bryan worked for Helix on a solar project way back in 2014. He brings a wealth of experience from his professional safety career working for General Contractors and Sub-Contractors. Bryan is also a 20-year retired Air Force veteran. We are excited to have Bryan re-join the Helix family. What does safety mean to you? What is your “why” to work safely? We all have our different reasons and many of them overlap. We hear a lot of safety slogans in the construction industry. Some include, safety is our #1 priority, safety is no accident, our goal is zero accidents, safety first, and safety is our culture. What do those slogans really mean to you? More importantly do they truly motivate you? When I facilitate safety classes, often the term safety culture comes up and the class discusses what safety culture means to them. More times than not, I hear a lot of responses that sound great, but the descriptions are of an ideal safety culture and do not represent the realities of what we encounter on the jobs every day. Remember a safety culture is simply what we do consistently every day regarding how we incorporate or do not incorporate safety into our daily activities. A safety culture can be great, mediocre, or even bad. In my time with Helix, I have come to believe we have a very strong safety culture. I see it every day on the jobs. However, if our safety culture was as amazing as the descriptions I hear in safety classes, I’d be out of a job. We have room for improvement. Otherwise, I would not be necessary. Let us go back to the “why” you personally work safely. Is it because we have policies, and you are going to follow them? Is it because you do not want to lose your job? Is it because you do not want to put your family through the stress and agony if you were to get hurt? Is it a combination of those reasons or something that was not mentioned? I would like you to reflect on that and truly think about what your reason is for working safely. Think about why you fill out a PTP before each task, buckle up, wear your PPE, and just as important, why you do those things when no one else is around. If you do not always do those things or take shortcuts when no one is around, what would it take to get you to change? The one thing I have learned in my 20-years as a safety professional is no matter how severe or minor an injury is, when someone gets hurt and calls their loved ones to tell them about it a couple of emotions immediately take over the family member. The emotions are stress and worry. Ultimately the people we value the most pay the emotional price. So, forget about catchy safety slogans and focus on your values. Focus on the safety values we share at Helix and help us improve our safety culture even more. Find your “why”, understand it, and make any necessary adjustments so you can enjoy the time with those you love most without the annoyance or hindrance of pain.
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SERVICE LAS VEGAS SCOTT ROBERTSON | SERVICE MANAGER Helix Electric Service Department received a call requesting help from a General Contractor in San Marcos, TX. The existing Electrical Contractor was failing were basically kicked off the project. Within 48hrs Project Manager Tom Gallagher and General Superintendent Jared Ward were
“on-site” to Survey and Strategize on how to complete the project within the customers deadline. We had a crew “on site” the next working day.
The Project “The View on the Square” is a 173,000 sq ft Apartment complex with a 5,900 sq ft Clubhouse and a 101,000 sq ft Parking Garage and at the time we arrived the project was less than 60% complete with a completion date in August.
“
Helix Electric brought together what was a chaotic and unorganized project and became a driving force.
”
Project Superintendent Andrew Necas and the Helix Team worked over 6,000 hours between May and August to meet the Customers deadline. The Service Team’s sense of urgency, understanding and Team dedication is what made the difference and showed why Helix Electric is a Leader in the Service Industry. According to the owner and the GC, the arrival of Helix Electric brought together what was a chaotic and unorganized project and became a driving force. Congratulations: Andrew Necas and his Team: Ilde Elizalde, Angel Jimenez, Benjamen Altheide, David Herbal, Anthony De La Cruz, Tony Mosley, Amilcar Lopez, David Elizalde, Daniel Munoz, Nick Sawyer and Zach Mekeel.
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MONTHLY
PHOTO CONTEST
ENTER FOR A CHANCE
TO WIN UP TO $50 If you see something that you think represents Helix just snap it on your phone! We want all kinds of different pictures (job sites, office events, etc.) Must be a photo taken by YOU All employees working at Helix can participate! However, keep in mind there may be regulations in place at jobsites.
Snap. Send. Win!
nvphotos@helixelectric.com
Victor giving the two-time winner, Travis Lacovara, his prize money.
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