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Kleinfelder Relocates
Professional Services Office to Hacienda
By Nicole Zaro Stahl Kleinfelder, a company that specializes in planning, engineering, scientific, technical, and management solutions, has moved into new offices in Hacienda. After a 15-year presence in a smaller business park at the southern end of Pleasanton, the nationally known professional services firm recently realigned its space for a better fit. Its construction materials testing lab has been centralized with all other Bay Area testing functions in Hayward, and approximately 30 professional services employees settled into a 15,000-square-foot suite at 4670 Willow Road in May. Headquartered in San Diego, today's Kleinfelder is substantially different from the concrete testing outfit founder Jim Kleinfelder established as Stockton Test Labs in 1961. Several expansions, mergers, and acquisitions in the late 1990s helped to build a national presence and knowledge base in three primary areas—water, energy, and transportation—with clients in commercial, industrial, government, and institutional markets. The company now has almost 2,000 employees in 65 offices in 23 states. The Pleasanton office's portfolio includes several projects for local school districts, consulting for the Zone 7 flood control district, the 580 overpass at Fallon Road, and a substantial amount of design work for BART. The Oakland office is participating in the Hunters Point clean-up and the San Pablo Dam seismic retrofit. In its search for new quarters, Kleinfelder found that Hacienda offered many advantages that aligned with its corporate vision. “We wanted to keep our engineering, marketing, and administration staff here in the Tri-Valley. The high quality of the schools always helps to attract the best people,” remarks regional manager Kris Johnson. Proximity to BART was another top consideration, and Johnson cites a recent example highlighting the wisdom of the decision. Last month, John Moosazadeh, the division manager based in San Diego, paid a visit to the new Hacienda office. To simplify his travel, he flew into Oakland, took BART out to Pleasanton, and walked over to 4670 Willow Road. After meetings, he walked back to his hotel, also in the park, and then on to dinner. He returned to San Diego the next day, all without having to worry about a parking space. According to Johnson, Moosazadeh “loved not having to deal with any of the issues associated with renting or driving a car.” Johnson expects that kind of story to become more common at Kleinfelder. “We are currently looking to position our offices close to mass transit throughout the company,” he relates, adding that most of the region's potential new hires consider proximity to BART one of top criteria in selecting a new employer. “We find this not only in our own business model, but in all the transit villages sprouting up around BART throughout the Bay Area, from San Carlos to Pleasanton/Dublin to Oakland and Walnut Creek.” In addition to easy access to mass transit, hotels, and restaurants, the firm also appreciates being close to many professionals in the wider engineering community. “Having our peers nearby makes Hacienda very attractive to us, in addition to the good values currently present in the marketplace,” Johnson notes. For more information about the company's engineering prowess, visit www.kleinfelder.com. Clubspaces Appeals to
Strong, Family-Centric Demographic
By Nicole Zaro Stahl The year is only half over, and already Clubspaces has added some major wins to its list of milestones, including a partnership with the Los Angeles Galaxy professional soccer team and an alliance with Sports Illustrated’s SI Kids magazine. The company also recently surpassed the $100 million mark in fee processing through its online platform. The inspiration of Duncan Jackson and partner Steve Viarengo, Clubspaces is an online hub of integrated tools that automate all aspects of club operation, from creating a website and maintaining a calendar to registering members and making schedules to publishing standings and player profiles. The organizational framework it provides is a phenomenal time-saver, while extra functions like game videos and training tips enrich the experience for all participants. During the youth baseball season this past spring, Clubspaces.com saw some 150,000 players registered, 75,000 games scheduled (complete with maps and driving directions), and 68,000 photos uploaded—“and this is only one sport, one market, one season, so it is just a glimmer of what we do,” says Jackson, the company president. Traffic was up 68 percent in the last six months, an obvious sign of the resilience of the youth-and-family demographic Clubspaces captures. While parents might cancel a vacation or hold back on a major purchase, they are still spending on their kids, and in many households, sports activities are the heart of the family, Jackson points out. “You can put your kids through spring baseball or summer soccer for $200. That’s good economic value for the family and great for the child. “We’re very lucky in this market, with the demographics and the product we’re offering,” he continues. The good news for Clubspaces is that even with its growing numbers, it still has enrolled less than one percent of the 100 million participants in U.S. sports—the proverbial tip of the iceberg. While demand for advertising has softened overall, the company’s ad revenue is up this year, which Jackson attributes both to growth and the fact that the product is so family-centric. “The healthier lifestyle that comes from participating in activities, coupled with getting families out and doing things together—this is a powerful combination,” he emphasizes. It is also one that “is very close to our hearts.” The LA Galaxy partnership offers a way to strengthen the connection between young players and the professional sports teams they follow. Clubspaces management tools allow the LA Galaxy to reach out to the community through local youth sports organizations and their family supporters, offering features like kids clubs, behind-the-scenes blogs, video training, an online box office, and access to merchandise. A cross-promotion with Sports Illustrated launches this month, and later this fall Clubspaces will begin its partnership with the SIKids.com website, serving as a vehicle for nominating outstanding young athletes for the Sportskids of the Month and Year programs. Affiliations with other professional sports teams are on the horizon for 2010, Duncan indicates. Tune into www.clubspaces.com for updates. |
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| Last modified: May 04 2010 06:34:24 Copyright © 2010 HBPOA |
