Tony Moayed is CEO of Tricorp Group, Inc., a general contractor based in Sacramento, California.

One of the company’s signature projects is the Hyatt Place at Sunrise Hotel in Vacaville, California—a four-story, 72,249-square-foot hotel with 136 rooms.

Legendary hockey player Wayne Gretsky once said the key to success in hockey was to follow the puck. That’s the lesson Tony Moayed, CEO of Tricorp Group, Inc., has taken to heart in business, building his company’s success as a general contractor and pre-construction resource for private and public construction projects in California.

“Gretsky’s advice is what I look at as a company,” Tony says. “I look at where the market’s going next. I’ve been trying to be ahead of that. In the ‘90s, it was health care. Then it became hospitality. Now it’s multifamily. We follow the cycles, the markets, and the clients in those markets. It’s a focus on following the market.”

Gretsky’s advice has proven to be just as good for business as it is for hockey.

Tony graduated from California State University, Fresno in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science degree in construction management (with a specialization in heavy building construction) and a minor in business administration. Afterward, he went to work for some of the state’s civil contractors who were building hydroelectric power plants. As California began moving away from hydroelectric, he switched gears to go into building construction.

In 2004, Tony and several partners started Tricorp Construction in Sacramento, California. The company was a quick success, Tony says. In fact, it may have been too much of a success for its own good.

“We were the fastest-growing company within Sacramento County and the four surrounding counties in 2007,” Tony says. “Tricorp Construction had tremendous growth over three years, which set a record. We went from zero employees to 40 employees in three years. It was crazy. We had just $60,000 in [sales] volume the first year, but over $25 million after three. It was too much, too fast.”

The Right Speed

In 2014, Tony bought his partners out of Tricorp Construction and founded Tricorp Group, Inc. in Sacramento. He had an eye on managed growth and more careful control of the company.

“It was the birth of a new company,” Tony says. “I didn’t like the explosive growth. There were some lessons learned. It becomes a quality-control issue. Eventually, growth at that explosive pace affects the morale of the employees and the bottom-line profitability. Everyone is stretched to the limit just trying to keep up.”

He continues, “With Tricorp Group, we’re trying to keep the growth steady. We’re aiming for growth of about 25 percent every year. Last year, we had $58 million under contract. We’re under contract this year for $79 million. In 2020, it will be over $90 million. That year we have some large projects coming up in the Bay Area.”

Currently, Tricorp Group employs 50 people and works with an extensive network of about 3,000 subcontractors in Northern California.

Finding the Market

Tricorp Group’s business is a mix of public and private clients, with projects both large and small. On average, about 10 to 12 projects per year go through the company’s books, Tony says. About half of those are small projects, such as select tenant improvement work. The other half are larger projects, such as a student housing construction contract to build The Academy on 65th in Sacramento. Geared toward serving students attending the city’s California State University (CSU) campus, this privately developed, 104,445-square-foot living space will have room for more than 300 beds and feature student amenities and retail space. Other major projects include Hyatt Place at Sunrise Hotel in Vacaville, California, a four-story, 72,249-square-foot hotel offering 136 rooms; and EVIVA Midtown in Sacramento, a six-story, 176,521-square-foot building with 118 residential units and available retail space.

“Multifamily has been a cornerstone of the market since 2011,” Tony says. “It’s had a seven-year run since the recession. It’s a national trend, not just local. It’ll continue for the next few years.” He adds, “Millennials are not buying; they’d rather rent. Baby Boomers are looking to leave their houses behind to go into senior living.”

On one of its key historical projects, Tricorp Group completed a remodel of the California state Capitol building, which required reroofing and replacement of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units positioned on the roof. The team also provided seismic upgrades for the rotunda and installed a new steel rotunda catwalk. According to Tony, the work had to be done during hours the state Senate was not in session—which could be difficult, as the Senate could meet in special sessions at any time. Tricorp Group had to work around the Senate schedule—often in second- and third-shift hours—and heating and air conditioning had to be available whenever the Senate met.

It was a difficult contract, but through collaboration, Tony and his team were able to complete it on schedule and within budget.

“We provide full construction management services,” Tony adds. “We come in as a partner from the beginning. We’re keeping up with the design cost and collaborating on viability from beginning through completion. We do it in a meaningful way, collaborating with designers to make sure we use the most efficient and cost-effective methods and materials.”

He continues, “It’s our goal to keep quality up and costs down. It’s easy for anyone to say that, but by the end of the project it’s clear to the owners the difference we make. If you can do that, you end up with satisfied clients who become repeat clients. Right now, about 90 percent of our work is negotiated with repeat clients.”

Eye on the Future

Keeping an eye on the future means more than just an eye on the market. For Tony, this understanding has been vital to the success of his business. He also spent five years as a professor at CSU Sacramento. While he was there in 2005, he helped found the Sacramento Construction Management Education Foundation (SCMEF), a group charged with expanding and improving the school’s construction management program. The department has grown from 30 students to more than 200, and Tricorp Group benefits from a steady supply of interns from this university.

There are now employees at Tricorp Group who started as interns at Tricorp Construction in 2004. Tricorp Group offers training and mentorship programs for all employees; but Tony believes the interns are the ones who benefit most from that program. Several of his managers initially joined the company as interns through the CSU Sacramento program.

When discussing Tricorp Group’s success, Tony is quick to point to the company’s people and culture, and how the two work together.

“Our culture is based on supporting each other,” he says. “We call it ‘I got your back.’ We use that terminology all the time to promote teamwork. When someone’s workload is too much or they make a mistake, we correct each other and look out for each other. It goes back to quality control, to giving it all we can [on both internal and external] processes.” He says this quality-control measure helps ensure the company delivers maximum service to clients.

He mentions another of his team’s concepts called “Dig Deep.” Tony explains, “It’s about going over and above to do the best we can for each other, our processes and our clients. I would say [this is] a challenging company to work for because we expect a lot from ourselves and each other. But it’s very gratifying as well.”

“I’ve been doing this for 40 years,” he adds. “Right now, it’s about making things manageable and having fun doing it. I don’t want to turn my company into a large corporate atmosphere. I’m trying to keep it well-managed with moderate growth.”