One take on construction outlook for North Bay health care, offices, restaurants
Sacramento-based Unger Construction Co. is putting down roots in the North Bay after having undertaken multiple large health care projects in the past few years.
The 93-year-old general contracting firm contractor plans to open a 2,400-square-foot regional office at 737 Southpoint Blvd., Suite G, in Petaluma in mid-December to base four project managers, according to President Mike Mencarini. Kathy Sherry is the North Bay project executive, and the lead local manager is Chris Maxwell.
“Sutter Health asked us in 2008 to come over there and get involved in the hospital,” he said, referring to Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Medical Center. “We finished four years later and never left.”
The contractor just finished the medical office building and parking structure across from Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for St. Joseph Health. And the company has undertaken projects in Santa Rosa and San Rafael for Kaiser Permanente.
Construction contract portal Levelset ranked Unger among the top 30 most active general contractors with California health care project this year. But the company also builds office buildings, parking structures and tenant improvements such as restaurants. Year-round staff totals 50, with administrative, accounting and support services handled in the main office.
The Business Journal talked with Mencarini about the future of local health care, office and retail construction.
What is the outlook for the types of projects that you do?
Mike Mencarini: Medical has obviously been infected with pandemic. The revenues are off in their space. But we are seeing that it's going to be coming back. Technology's always changing. And we've actually got a handful of projects going right now with Kaiser over in the North Bay, in the San Rafael and Santa Rosa area. So we're really seeing the medical market continuing. It's weak, but it's going to be picking up steam.
In the office-building sector, people are still trying to figure out what the new norm is going to look like and how many people are going to be coming back to the office approach to business. We're hearing some companies are talking about maybe going into more of a permanent office at home but have “hotel” (office) spaces and conference rooms when you need it — you book them ahead of time. We're anticipating a little reshuffling in the office market, maybe with repurposing some of those spaces.
Restaurants: Your guess is as good as mine right now. They're really been hit hard. It's going to be a while to see much coming back there. What may happen is as the pandemic moves through, you can see new restaurants opening up, but they'll probably go into existing spaces. So (we're) anticipating some renovation work, to customize it for whatever that theme is for that restaurant.
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Brian Keegan of Keegan & Coppin Co. Inc. represented Unger in the lease deal, signed Sept. 23. Sara Wann and Rhonda Deringer of the same brokerage represented property owner Merrill Switzer Trust.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before the Business Journal, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. He has a degree from Walla Walla University. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
