HispanicBusiness

What unlocks the door to business success?

The answer lies in retention of customers and education, say two entrepreneurs – a former punk/heavy metal band manager and the son of a former grape picker – who are operating a multimillion-dollar construction company in the competitive Los Angeles area.

"It takes a lot of years to climb the corporate ladder in the construction industry," said Alex Guerrero, executive vice-president of Sun Valley, Calif.-based Tower General Contractors. "We've always been vigilant about doing good work and have grown inch by inch."

Led by Nato Flores since it was founded in 1985, the construction company, which specializes in projects in education, health care/biomedical, entertainment, retail, industrial, government and defense industries, raked in $50 million in revenues in 2006. As a result of the company's vigilance, it was named by Los Angeles Business Journal as the fastest-growing minority-owned company in Los Angeles and the No. 1 minority-owned construction company.

Amid the accolades, Tower General Contractors was recently awarded a project it deems most significant – to build the Columbia Memorial Space Science and Learning Center in Downey, Calif.



"It means that we're trusted to champion the memory of astronauts who lost their lives," Mr. Guerrero (left) said.

The center will serve as a tribute to the Space Shuttle Columbia crew (bottom left) that died on Feb. 1, 2003, when the shuttle was destroyed as it re-entered the atmosphere.

Tower General has won contracts with various companies and institutions such as the UCLA Astronomy Center, the Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the American Red Cross office in Los Angeles. Tower General Contractors says it has retained 70 percent of its customers, including Lockheed Martin, USC, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Occidental College, among others.



Mr. Guerrero, a USC alumnus, also points to education as a key ingredient to success.

"The more educated and articulate you are, the more successful you'll be," he said.

Mr. Guerrero took his first job at Tower when he was 15 years old and worked for the company until he began college at USC. After earning his degree in business, he entered the music industry and worked as the manager for The Misfits, a punk/heavy metal band, for 12 years. While working in the music industry, Mr. Guerrero learned about budgeting and scheduling. After he "got tired of touring the world," he returned to Tower and began applying the skills he fine-tuned in the music industry.

Mr. Flores, whose father was a grape picker, wanted to attend college when he was younger, but his parents didn't have the money to fund his education. He applied for a scholarship and received a $5,000 grant from Rockwell International. The scholarship helped Mr. Flores attend Cal Poly Pomona and earn a mechanical engineering degree, which allowed him to work internationally and, eventually, start Tower in 1985.

Links to this scholarship have come back to Mr. Flores in the company's current high-profile project – the Columbia Memorial Space Science and Learning Center. The project is personally significant to Mr. Flores. The scholarship he received came from Rockwell International, which was the original prime contractor for the shuttle craft in Downey.

Because Downey has a 70-year history in the aviation and aerospace industry, the facility will serve multiple purposes. It will honor the memory of the astronauts, serve as a tribute to the people who have worked in the industry in Downey for the past 70 years and be an educational center for visitors. The center will feature simulated space mission, a "Space Discovery Zone" that will include interactive exhibits, a Mars robotics lab where visitors will design and program robots that will explore Mars and historical pieces such as an old space capsule and photographs.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the 18,000-square-foot learning center will be held at 4:30 p.m. today in Downey. The astronauts' widows will attend the ceremony along with Mr. Flores, Mr. Guererro, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, who wrote the measure that named and funded the center, and Downey Mayor Rick Trejo.

Construction is slated to begin next month and is estimated to be ready by early 2008, marking the five-year anniversary of the tragedy.

NAME: Tower General Contractors
INDUSTRY: Construction
RANK on Hispanic Business Fastest Growing 100: n/a
REVENUES (2006): $50 million
FOUNDED: 1985
OWNERSHIP: Privately owned