Specialty Contractor SPOTLIGHT


By the Bootstraps: Marina Landscape Carved out Unconventional Path to Success


By Carol Eaton T


he story of how AGC of California 2015 Specialty Contractor Award winner,


Marina Landscape, Inc., got its start – and then grew to become one of the state’s largest independent specialty contractors – is a classic, pull-yourself- up-by-your-bootstraps tale if there ever was one. It started in 1971 when Bob Cowan


was just 12 years old and his brother, Richard, was 16. Determined to get their family off welfare following their parents’ divorce a few years earlier, the two brothers began mowing lawns to earn some cash. Teir ingenuity and determination led to more work and, as Bob Cowan recalls, he and his brother were running two and three-man crews when he was just 13 or 14 years old. “I remember hiring people to drive me around until I was 16 and got my license,” he notes. “We learned through trial and error and were just able to figure the business out early on.”


Te brothers incorporated in 1974,


initially as Cowan Landscape Mainte- nance. In 1983, Richard Cowan went back to school to get his business degree. Tey then applied his newly acquired professional business skills to growing and running the company, which by the early ‘80s had about 20 or so employees. Also in the early 1980s, the


company branched out into the public works arena, which offered more steady and reliable pay than some of the private developer work they had been doing. Around that time, Marina made the pivotal decision to unionize, becoming one of just a few landscape companies signatory to all three of the


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perform on a job and never had a claim on a bond,” says Cowan. Privately held and run by Bob


Cowan since his brother moved on about 20 years ago, Marina now boasts six offices throughout the state and a total of about 750 employees. Many of them have been there for the duration of the career; Marina is a company that hires from within and puts high value on employee retention and devel- opment, Cowan points out. “Watching our employees grow,


Bob Cowan, Founder of Marina Landscape, accepts the 2015 Specialty Contractor Achievement Awards at the AGC Awards event last October.


Pipefitters, Laborers, and Operating Engineers unions. “I think one thing that sets us apart


is our pro-union outlook,” Cowan says. “We’re proud to be a union contractor, and it allows us to staff our jobs better. We’re one of just a handful of landscape companies in California that is signatory to the Operating Engineers.”


Standing Out Through Performance


Over the years, Marina continued


to grow in the breadth and scope of its business ventures, taking on increas- ingly complex jobs and building a strong reputation for performance, competitive pricing, quality work, and service. “We’ve always worked hard to find out what the contractor or owner needs, to be competitive in price, and most importantly, we’ve never failed to


develop, and take on more responsi- bility is the best part of this company for me,” comments Cowan. “Just one example is our General Super- intendent of Construction, Antonio Hernandez, who has been with us 22 years. He went from sweeping floors to becoming a tradesman to becoming an apprentice, journeyman, assistant superintendent, superintendent, and then general superintendent. He is just a great guy.” Cowan estimates there are at


least 80 employees who have worked for Marina for their entire career, with an average employee tenure of about 19 years. Tere are a handful of third-generation family members now employed at the 45-year-old firm.


Construction Market Fuels Growth


While landscape maintenance


work was the company’s initial focus, Marina long ago diversified into construction projects, which account for about 60 percent of company revenue today. Landscape maintenance projects currently account for about 30 percent of revenue, and erosion control and design-build projects share the remaining 10 percent of their portfolio. Although Cowan prefers not


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