Press Clippings
St. Louis Post Dispatch
October 5, 1998

Local Construction Firm Goes Hollywood In A Big Way
By: Christopher Carey, of the Post-Dispatch

McCarthy, the St. Louis-based construction company is going Hollywood in a major way.

McCarthy will break ground soon on a $385 million entertainment center along Hollywood boulevard that will become home to the annual “Oscars” telecast.

“To us, it's a real high-profile project,” said Kevin Lasater, senior vice president. “Every April, for years to come, you'll be seeing the Academy Awards from a theater built by McCarthy.”

McCarthy is the general contractor on the 620,000-square-foot building, which also will include a multi-screen cinema and an abundance of retail, restaurant and entertainment space.

The first Academy Awards telecast is scheduled for 2001.

The project is part of a new wave of development designed to revitalize Hollywood, whose glamour has faded into seediness.

Trizec Hahn Development Corp., the Canadian real estate giant, is building the entertainment center, which will take up two blocks adjacent to Mann's Chinese Theatre.

The project includes a 3,000-space underground parking garage that connects with the region's new mass-transit system.

McCarthy is no stranger to the California market, or to the entertainment industry.

Its Pacific division in Newport Beach, Calif., has done work on a feature-animation facility, studios in Burbank and a parking garage at Warner Brothers.

“I don't think people in our hometown know some of the things we're doing outside St. Louis,” Lasater said.

Although the West Coast operation is making inroads in the entertainment industry, most of its business has come from high-tech, healthcare, retail, office and institutional projects.

McCarthy's division does $300 million to $400 million in business each year.

“That can represent 30 percent of our revenue,” Lasater said.

McCarthy ranked as the nation's 22nd largest general contractor, with revenue of $1.13 billion.

The company was 33rd in 1996.

McCarthy hopes its big break in Hollywood will lead to similar business elsewhere, Lasater said.

“We'll look for ways to leverage off this to do more entertainment projects around the country,” he said.

McCarthy, the nation's oldest privately held construction company, has benefited in recent years from positive word of mouth, Lasater said.

“We work for some pretty demanding clients who have high expectations,” he said.

McCarthy is known for its expertise in ”pre-construction” services, and for maintaining its own army of building trades workers to minimize subcontracting.

McCarthy's transformation into a national company began 25-years ago, when it got into hospital construction in a big way.

At the time, it ranked as only the fourth-biggest contractor in St. Louis.

As a result of its expansion and diversification, McCarthy now has divisional or regional offices in Newport Beach; San Francisco, Calif.; Sacramento, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Austin, Texas; Seattle, Wash; and Portland, Ore.

Health-care projects continue to represent the biggest chunk of the company's business, with contracts equal to 29 percent of projected 1998 revenue.

Commercial projects are next at 20 percent, followed by industrial and manufacturing projects at 18 percent and public-works projects at 15 percent.

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