Norm Marshall is founding partner of Headwaters Construction, Inc., leading the company from its new offices at 1419 N. Market Blvd., Suite 1, Sacramento, California.

Headwaters Construction, Inc. takes pride in its organized, clean and safe sites, as is evident at the lay-down area next to the construction of the Ross Dress for Less store at Feather River Crossings in Oroville, California.

His father forbade him to go into the movie business. He ventured into the disco nightclub scene for a groovy minute. Today, Norm Marshall has made his mark by building many of the places people in the Sacramento area frequent on a regular basis.

Perhaps there’s no marquee—and definitely no disco ball—but Marshall has led in the construction of numerous industrial warehouses, grocery stores, department stores and restaurants. What’s more, he’s done it with strict attention to client value.

Marshall is head and majority owner of Sacramento-based Headwaters Construction, Inc. (Headwaters). In its 15-year history, the company has built an impressive portfolio of mostly retail addresses every shopper and diner in the Central Valley knows.

They include places like Little Caesars, Trader Joe’s, Fitness Evolution, Ross Dress for Less, Smart & Final and Sprouts Farmers Market. Headwaters excels at achieving the goals of development companies and corporations so that they use the company time after time.

“We proudly say, ‘If you hire us for your project, we’ll work together again,’ ” Marshall says. Indeed, the company’s repeat business is strong. Headwaters has built 12 Fitness Evolution facilities and a whopping 50 Little Caesars franchise locations.

“At one point, it seemed like we were building gyms with all hands,” Marshall says.

While some projects are small—a few thousand square feet with a takeout counter—others are large and worth millions. Marshall says some of the supermarkets that Headwaters builds are 28,000-plus square feet and warehouse projects are 100,000-plus square feet.

Construction of an industrial warehouse, while a departure from usual work, proved the company has the capability to build any scale. The structure was 440,000 square feet in size—the equivalent of seven and a half football fields. The project illustrates another Headwaters specialty: concrete tilt-up in which walls are poured on-site and then raised and hoisted into place.

“They’re big and fun,” Marshall says. “Brings out the little kid in me.”

Most recently, the company was chosen to remodel a former Walmart store. Headwaters turned it into a Smart & Final grocery store, a Ross clothing store and a Harbor Freight, and went on to renovate the property to add a retail strip, including a fitness center.

Secret Sauce

The people at Headwaters think like developers—and developers appreciate that. Marshall has more than 40 years in the business, including development of his own projects at times. His partner, Richard Rumsey, the company’s general superintendent, rounds out the expertise with strengths in design-build arrangements and crew management.

“We bring the owner’s perspective into every project we perform,” Marshall says. One aspect of the owner’s perspective is the company’s self-performing approach. Instead of subcontracting out most of the work, Headwaters has assembled a team of skilled workers for numerous jobs in the construction process.

Its crews do everything from setting concrete to framing, installing doors and storefronts. Marshall says that this ensures that his company always knows what’s going on, guaranteeing high quality and managed costs. Self-performing typically reduces the cost to developers by 5 percent per job.

This type of commitment is especially important because of the increasingly technical aspect of today’s contracted work. During the construction of any project, the coordination of the trades is an integral part of the process, especially with respect to the mechanical and electrical trades.

Stayin’ Alive

Headwaters was founded in 2003 at a time when the building industry was on a downturn. Looking back, Marshall believes it was a proving ground for what the company could become.

Employees became friends, and friends became committed to the young company’s success. Nobody got a raise in five years, but everybody got a paycheck, Marshall recalls.

One big client—a developer who wanted to build four industrial parks—helped the company through the challenging time. At least his employees had work.

“We are quite proud of the team of employees that we have assembled,” Marshall says of the company’s 35 employees. “Many of our employees have been with us since the beginning and are some of the most experienced and talented builders in the region.”

No small advantage, too, was Marshall’s background. He had owned a construction business going back to the 1970s. An interesting set of circumstances helped him to end up in what would be his life’s calling.

His father had already steered him in one direction—away from the movie business, even while teaching him how to be an entrepreneur. His dad, Robert E. Peterson, was an art director for Columbia Pictures who wished that his son would find a career path much less stressful. As art director, he built many sets for movie and TV productions, including films “Arizona” and “Bell, Book and Candle” and TV shows “Bewitched” and “Dennis the Menace.”

Marshall then met new friends in the emerging disco scene that took him another direction. Throughout the mid-1970s, he built discotheques and restaurants across the United States.

One prize project of that time was his renovation of a four-story auto storage building into what became the famed Dillon’s Disco in Westwood Village, California. He finished the job just minutes before the newly minted nightclub hosted the premiere party of the 1976 film “A Star Is Born.”

Marshall worked for other construction companies next. Those years gave him valuable skills in the retail construction business. Working in Costa Mesa, he had a hand in several big projects branded with names like Macy’s and Nordstrom.

Over time, he wanted to be at the helm of his own company again, leading to the eventual creation of Headwaters. Even though the bright lights and glitz and glamour of movies and discotheques are in his past, Marshall’s company still builds places that attract crowds that enjoy the experiences of shopping and dining that they find there.