North Bay Business Journal

SONOMA COUNTY – Sonoma County is set to add a number of new affordable housing units to its roster, with last Friday’s groundbreaking for Burbank Housing’s 66-unit Logan Place in Petaluma the latest in a number of developments occurring around the county’s Affordable Housing Week.

SANTA ROSA – Regulators are cracking down on unlicensed contractors in California, a group that has underbid licensed professionals and slowed down the economic recovery for an industry hit hard by the recession, according to Steve Sands, executive officer and registrar for the state’s Contractors State License Board.

Construction industry column: Napa-based civil engineering, surveying and construction inspection services firm Chaudhary & Associates is bouncing back from the huge slowdown in private construction projects in the past few years, thanks to public works projects rolling forward.

With classes out for the summer at Piner High School in Santa Rosa, Angwin-based general contractor Helmer & Sons has started construction on the school’s Science and Technology Center.

MK2 Engineers relocated its main office from downtown Napa to The Wiseman Co.’s Green Valley Executive Center in Fairfield, but the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering firm intends to retain a small Napa office for meetings with winery clients.

Santa Rosa-based Ygrene Energy Fund, which sets up energy-efficiency retrofit programs for local governments backed by $650 million in financing power from Barclay’s Capital, Lockheed Martin and Energi, was awarded the silver level of the 2012 Edison Award in the innovative services category for social innovation.

Crestron Electronics, a New Jersey-based large integrator of high-tech control and automation systems for homes, schools and businesses, expanded and relocated its Northern California offices.

Novato-based electrical and information-technology contractor W. Bradley Electric Inc. promoted Steve Scannell.