Jerry Renich.

• Author: Bonham, Nicole A.
• Position: President of South Coast Inc. - Interview

SOUTH COAST INC.

Bringing to the table more than a quarter century in global construction expertise, South Coast Inc. President Jerry Renich says Alaska faces two industry dilemmas right now: a global drop in commodity prices and a struggling Asian economy.

Renich joined the Ketchikan-based South Coast Inc.-a subsidiary of Native village corporation Klukwan Inc.-in October 1998, arriving from a post in Malaysia as a senior manager with the construction and engineering firm Fluor Darnel. Educated in Minnesota, Renich led projects throughout North America and Southeast Asia before opting to return to the Great Land. He'd worked previously with VECO Corp. on Alaska's North Slope.

Renich spoke to Alaska Business Monthly from his Ketchikan office. South Coast Inc. also maintains a permanent facility in Dutch Harbor. The company employs some 250 workers during the peak work season with a revenue picture ranging from $20 million.

ABM: Statewide, analysts have indicated that construction has been up in Alaska overall-is that what you're seeing, also?

RENICH: It's not true for our company. This has been probably the weakest year we've had in perhaps the last 10 years.

ABM: To what do you attribute that?

RENICH: The decline of the timber industry in Southeast. A lot of our work is logging roadwork. As far as the logging industry, it's not going to pick up. It's holding steady. But it's very much a diminished portion of our marketplace. And we're groping to penetrate other markets, other segments of the construction industry.

ABM: What are some current South Coast projects underway?

RENICH: We're doing a new airport for Pilot Point on the Alaska Peninsula. We're doing an irrigation pipeline on the Gila River Reservation in Arizona, which is a fairly substantial project down there. This is a new venture for us to expand into the Lower 48. It's a reaction to a decline of the overall marketplace in Alaska for our work. We're expanding into the Southwest region-California, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona, specifically-road and general, heavy civil construction work.

ABM: What are some of the unique aspects of construction in Alaska?

RENICH: There's really the extreme of the weather. The extremes in distance and the difficulty to reach projects. There's not a road system to a lot of the work. A unique challenge is to get to projects. That leads to heavier swings through the year as far as seasonality for work. The fact that the economy of Alaska is tied so...