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Rancho Cordova Independent

Condor Earth Expands Into Rancho Cordova

Aug 17, 2017 12:00AM ● By Story and photos by Jacqueline Fox

President and CEO, Robert Job. Condor's expansion into Rancho Cordova marks the company's first foray into the Sacramento region.

Condor Earth Expands Into Rancho Cordova [2 Images] Click Any Image To Expand

Rancho Cordova, CA (MPG) - The next time you’re walking through a tunnel to reach your seats at a stadium or dropping your kids off at school, take a second to think about what steps were taken to ensure that tunnel you are traversing, or the buildings your kids will learn in are environmentally safe and structurally sound.

These thoughts will land you at the core of what Condor Earth’s business services include, which are simultaneiously varied and technically detailed, to the extent that even the company’s President and CEO, Robert Job, has a hard time sizing up.

“We are a fairly diverse service provider, so it’s really tough to give a two-minute pitch on all we do,” said Job, who got his training as an engineer from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.  He joined the company in 1989 after a stint working as an engineer for the retail gasoline pipeline sector.

To encapsulate, Condor’s team of roughly 50, engineers, geologists, environmental specialists, construction inspectors and management professionals provide a broad range of investigative and compliance-driven services for both public and private entities. This may include evaluation and remediation plans for storm water management and permitting purposes, construction site geotechnical services, such as slope stability evaluations, shoring and retaining wall design, or soil stabilization, as well as environmental services for evaluating, monitoring and mitigating soil and groundwater contamination, chemical security and hazardous waste and materials compliance.

Condor’s expansion into Rancho Cordova marks the company’s first foray into the Sacramento region. Its new 3,344-square foot facility is now home to five full-time employees and will serve primarily as the company’s site for most of its industrial and environmental compliance operations. 

Condor’s headquarters remains in Sonora. Job and other employees work out of both the Sonora office and the new location in Rancho Cordova, which, explains Job, was chosen to both put the company in closer proximity to the offices of state regulatory agencies, with which it must work and meet with regularly, and closer to a wide pool of talented potential workers.  The company also has an office in Stockton.

“Our move was strategic,” says Job. “We were formally operating this division out of Roseville, but since we must meet with and interact with clients closer to the Sacramento area, it made sense. In addition, there is a huge talent pool in the area that is extremely solid.”

Condor Earth is 70 percent owned by its employees through an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), with the remaining 30 percent of the stock owned by senior staff.  The ESOP, established in 2004, serves to give employees roles valued roles as company and project stakeholders, not just service providers.

“We are very proud to be an employee-owned company, empowering our employees to think like owners, advocating for the clients’ best interest and benefiting from a job well done,” said Job.

The company has a long and distinguished client roster that includes Adventist Health Sonora, Mercy Medical Center, Merced, the Manteca and Stockton unified school districts, the California State and Regional Water Quality Control Boards, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the state departments of Health Services and Fish and Game, as well as the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.

Currently, Condor is working with the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) on construction of a 6,000-foot water system tunnel. The $16 million project is roughly half way done, scheduled for completion in early 2018, according to Job.

“We are working to significantly improve the reliability of the main canal system for the OID,” Job said.

Condor’s roots trace back some three decades.  Its original founders came west as employees of Gulf and Western Corp. to develop and manage structural engineering plans for the Jamestown gold mining operation.  Gulf and Western morphed into Paramount Pictures, then Viacom.  The founders eventually formed their own company, which would become Condor Earth, incorporated in 1983 as Condor Minerals Management, focused on providing geologic and permitting services to the mining industry across California and Nevada. 

With a mining support services playing such a key role in the company’s history, it isn’t too difficult to see how Condor has emerged as a leader in the geotechnical/geological evaluation and engineering design of small-to-mid-sized tunnel projects, including water system tunnels.

In fact, says Job, the company’s long-term focus is on storm water systems, whether designing new water tunnel systems or providing engineering expertise for shoring up older systems, for which there is a growing market.

“I would say our long-range, strategic focus is in water resources management and infrastructure feasibility investigations,” said Job. “So, our move into the region (Rancho Cordova, specifically) was to be closer to clients, closer to the agencies we must work very closely with, with respect to our work in water systems analysis and design.”

Condor’s history of tunnel design expertise includes another, slightly more whimsical component. The company has provided engineering design services for more than 200 wine cave projects for several California wineries.  Storing wine below ground makes sense from both an economic and marketing standpoint, says Job.

“Your ROI (return on investment) with a wine cave (barrel storage system) versus a surface warehouse alone is a good reason to store below ground,” says Job.  He says high humidity in wine caves is estimated at between 70 and 90 percent, which is good for the wine.  In addition, gross volume losses through evaporation each year are significantly lower for underground wine barrel storage vs. above ground, and, since the temperature inside a wine cave hovers between the ideal range of between 58 and 62 degrees, the wine is very happy down in a nice, cool cave.

“We don’t build wine caves, but we design them,” says Job.  “And we have a long list of reasons for why you would want to build one.”

Whether its water or wine, Condor is on a trajectory for growth, which will likely lead to an expansion of the employee roster in the Rancho Cordova location over the coming year.

“I’m getting ready to work on our five-year strategic plan,” said Job. “The emphasis is on water, waste water storage and run-off projects, and the growing demand for our services in this area is supporting about a10 percent growth margin.”

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