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Bigger Quarters Help
BKF Engineers
Expand Local Presence;
By Nicole Zaro Stahl Having celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2006, BKF (Brian Kangas Foulk) certainly knows its way around northern California. Almost a century’s worth of operation has not only given the civil engineering firm granular familiarity with the terrain; it has also presented the opportunity to participate in many of the landmark projects that have shaped the direction of today’s built environment—from Santana Row and Stanford Shopping Center to Oracle’s world headquarters and the Vasona Light Rail extension. A few months ago, the firm reshaped a piece of its own environment when it moved into expanded quarters at 4670 Willow Road, after roughly seven years in smaller offices elsewhere in Hacienda. The new space boosts capacity to 45, allowing plenty of room for the 32-person Pleasanton staff to grow. BKF headquarters are in Redwood City, and offices in San Jose, Walnut Creek, and Sacramento extend its northern California reach. “In our business it’s important to have a local presence,” observes CEO David LaVelle. “Our multiple offices allow us to be tuned into the needs of the different communities we serve.” With the firm’s long track record, LaVelle is well positioned to cast a seasoned eye on the state of today’s development. It’s always been cyclical in the region, he observes, but certain constants have emerged. For one thing, even though a project might languish on the drawing board for a few years during a downturn, once business activity starts to pick up, the steady influx of new Californians is likely to propel it forward again. “Every year another 350,000 people move into the state. They all have to live, work, and shop somewhere,” he remarks. Appearance is also becoming more and more important. In northern California in particular, “we’re very focused on making sure projects have amenities like landscaping or set-backs to provide the feeling of open space,” he notes. The higher standards do drive up costs, but they also result in a much more attractive product. Part of the trade-off is higher density on other portions of the property, which in turn is giving traction to the new generation of mixed-use environments that combine office and retail space with much-needed housing. “We find cities embrace mixed use,” says LaVelle. It allows them to fulfill their obligation to create more housing, while adding to their revenue-generating retail base. The new projects are also popular among residents. “People like to live close to a place they can walk to for coffee, and perhaps do a little shopping or go to the movies.” Santana Row, with its multiple meeting places, many of them outdoors, serves as a good example of the “destination feel” that attentive mixed-use planning and design can produce. Another example is the development currently under construction around the Dublin Transit Center site in Dublin. “It’s a big project for us in the area, incorporating a lot of new housing densely built around the BART station,” he comments. For more information about the full range of BKF’s civil engineering, master planning, and surveying services, visit the firm’s web site at www.bkf.com. JGPC Law Focuses on
Business and
Corporate Law
By Nicole Zaro Stahl The three attorneys and two paralegals at JGPC Business & Corporate Law started 2008 in a newly purchased office condo on Stoneridge Drive, after a dozen years in rented space in a building outside Hacienda just a few blocks away. “We will be adding a couple of attorneys and a paralegal or two in the near future, and this will give us a little more space,” comments founding partner and long-time Pleasanton booster Jim Gulseth. A Berkeley graduate who earned his JD degree at UC Hastings School of Law in San Francisco, Gulseth has built the practice, with help from his partners, to conform to some very specific parameters. “Most of our time is spent on business transactional work. In transactional law, the parties are not adversaries so much as partners looking for a win-win for everyone,” he explains. “Of course, you make sure your client gets a fair deal, but usually if the deal doesn’t work for all concerned, it is not going to work for anyone. And, if a deal does go sour, our attorney specializing in business litigation, Richard Korb, can secure a judicial remedy.” While the firm represents enterprises of all sizes, from sole proprietors to Fortune 100 companies, most of its clients fall into the category of “under $50 million” in annual revenue. JGPC Law clients are usually privately held, a distinction that dictates a special approach to legal issues. In private companies, “every dollar spent on an attorney comes out of the owners’ pockets, so they are much more cost-conscious than publicly owned companies,” he points out. He and his associates do a lot of work for start-ups, both bricks-and-mortar- and Internet-related. “Information technology and the Internet have changed the business world,” creating tremendous opportunity for innovation, especially when it comes to delivering services with greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Gulseth has seen the benefits of these advances first-hand in his own practice: “Twenty years ago, a small firm like ours couldn’t even think about doing the legal work we do now, but thanks to digital efficiencies we can practice a fairly complicated, sophisticated level of business law without a huge battery of paralegals and secretarial staff.” If there’s a downside to dealing with emerging growth companies, it’s that they ultimately grow into attractive acquisition targets. After handling the sale of a start-up client, usually to a private investment group or a large competitor seeking to expand market share, JGPC Law often sees the client relationship end. The constant cycle of growth and sale generates an ongoing need to seek new clients--“which is why we end up doing a lot of start- ups,” he quips. Word of mouth and referrals from other service providers have kept the attorneys busy, as has the firm’s listing in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. According to Gulseth, “JGPC Law holds the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory ‘AV’ peer rating, the highest rating available to attorneys and law firms, and one held by only a small percentage of California lawyers and law firms.” For more information, visit www.jgpc.com. |
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