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Schilling ParadiSe C o r p o r a t i o n

S chilling Paradise Corporation is a 2009 merger of two prominent

Southern California contractors, Schilling Corp and Paradise Electric. Both companies have been operating since the mid-1980s. The Schilling team has been and continues to be the premier utility contractor in San Diego. The Paradise team has an equally stellar reputation having completed the electrical on more than 20,000 residential units during the past decade. Schilling Paradise Corporation can act as both a prime and subcontractor for wet and dry underground utility construction and electrical contracting services. Headquartered in El Cajon, Schilling Paradise is positioned to serve all of San Diego, Orange,

Riverside, Imperial and San Bernardino counties.

Jeff Platt is the CEO and co-owner of Schilling Paradise Corporation. Jeff has been with the company for the past eight years, having served as the CFO for Penhall International and Nielsen Construction Company. “We have more than 185 hard working team members working throughout both divisions right now. I am very fortunate to have such great employees. But it is not by accident. We look at individual’s character and look much deeper than just their past work experience,” says Platt. “Our company grew at a rate of around 20 percent this year and we are looking at another 20 percent accrued growth in 2014.”

The company operates from two separate divisions: Engineering and Electrical Contracting. The Engineering division specializes in underground utilities in both commercial and residential construction. Their wet utility experience includes water, storm drains and sewer construction projects for various area water districts and general contractors including: Pacific Coast Communities of San Diego, Standard Pacific, Cal West Homes, Hazard Construction, Verizon, Pardee Homes, Pulte Homes, Shea Homes, McMillin Construction and Lennar Homes. The dry utilities team has a long history of satisfying clients’ needs in telecommunications; gas and electrical underground.

Providing Superior General Engineering Services Including Wet & Dry Utilities and Electrical Contracting Services

Left: Cat 320 and Cat 330 working side by side to beat a tight summer schedule at San Marcos High School.

Below: Placing filter fabric around “pipe zone” at San Marcos High School.

Written By: Brian Hoover

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Schilling Paradise Corp’s electrical division has been setting the standard for quality service since 1987. They offer value to their builders from pre-project planning, including value engineering and code evaluation; to quality execution; and exceptional customer service after product close. Per California law, all of their electricians are certified, or are in the certification process. Further, their electricians are regularly trained in OSHA requirements, First Aid and CPR. In 2006, Schillling Paradise’s electrical division was selected as the winner of the Building Industry’s award for best Sub Contractor, attesting to their proven record for quality service. Some of their current electrical customers include Shea Homes, Colrich, Davidson Homes, City Ventures and Pardee Homes.

Schilling Paradise Corporation will many times bid on and win both the wet and dry utilities work on a project. An example of this is the work they are currently doing for Standard Pacific out at the Harmony Grove Village Project located between San Marcos and

Escondido. Standard Pacific’s Harmony Grove Village Project is a new 737-home community located on 468 acres that will include 2 miles of multi-use public trails and a public equestrian facility, as well as a fire station and sewage treatment plant. Additionally, later construction will include space for retail stores to serve the community.

Much thought and discussion has gone into the design and development of this development in order to preserve the community’s rural character and scenery. The construction at Harmony Grove is being done in phases, as are the wet and dry utilities. Schilling Paradise Corporation has won the majority of the wet utilities and has picked up all of the dry utilities to date. Joe Larson is the Project Manager for Schilling Paradise Corporation on the Harmony Grove project. “Harmony Grove is broken down into eleven separate phases and the portion we are working on now includes some 35,000 linear feet of 8” to 16” ductile iron, another 30,000 linear feet of 6” to 12” sewer main,” says Larson.

Dan Shay is the Chief Estimator for the dry utilities division and he recently celebrated his 27th year with the company. “We recently installed and backfilled around 3,000 feet of mainline at Harmony Grove and have moved over to a new section where we will put in another 2,000 feet and then move on to a 1,800 linear feet mainline section,” says Shay.

Schilling Paradises’ portion began back in June 2013 and they should complete this work by the end of 2014. In addition to the wet utilities, Schilling Paradise is also performing approximately 5,000 linear feet of dry utility work on Citracado Parkway and Country Club Drive where they are reworking the existing dry utilities. Sukut Construction, Inc. is performing the mass grading on the project and according to Joe Larson working around this work has been a challenge at times. “Coordinating our operations with those of the mass grading company’s has been a challenge. What is best for them is not always what is the most efficient for our working environment,” says Larson.

Above: Jeff Platt, Owner & CEO, Schilling Paradise Corporation.

Above Right: Placing 48” RCP pipe in Citricado Parkway in Escondido.

Right: Installing sewer piping as grading progress at Harmony Grove.

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“However managing conflict is something that we are very good at, and our crew is doing an excellent job of managing both their time and space efficiently. They are also doing a great job remaining compliant and keeping the noise, dust and traffic under control.

Schilling Paradise Corporation has a variety of Caterpillar equipment working out at the Harmony Grove project including numerous excavators ranging from Cat 320s to Cat 330s. These excavators are digging trenches up to 20 feet deep on down to just 42 inches depending on the existing grade and whether or not they are in a cut or fill area. ”Right now we are running pretty lean out there with around five Cat excavators, four Cat wheel loaders, a couple of 10-wheel dump trucks and some water trucks. We maintain a large fleet of equipment and it is all Caterpillar,” says owner, Jeff Platt. “We have been working with Hawthorne Cat for more than 20 years and they have always bent over backwards to help us in

good and bad times. Even though Cat is the Tiffany name out there, they have always provided us with competitive pricing. They are very much team players and we are fortunate to have them as our heavy equipment partner.”

Schilling Paradise Corporation has also been busy working out on the Stanford Green Project in La Mesa on Normandy Road. This is a much smaller wet utility project in comparison to Harmony Grove, but is challenging due to the fact that Schilling is required to work under existing overhead electrical lines. “We are bringing in approximately 600 linear feet of storm drain ranging in size from 4 inch PVC to 24 inch RCP concrete pipe and C900 PVC water lines to a 6-unit subdivision. In addition we are installing seven concrete structures including curb inlets, headwalls and inlet aprons, says Larson. “We are utilizing Cat 420 backhoes where excavators would normally be the choice due to the overhead power lines. Sometimes you have to make adjustments to get the job done

and the backhoes have worked out well.”

Schilling Paradise Corp is also working on several dry utility projects right now. “Schilling started out as a dry company and this has been our claim to fame for many years,” says Shay. “I worked as a foreman, a superintendent and now as chief estimator. Although dry and wet utilities are clearly two separate areas of expertise, we see a lot of overlap, particularly in the use of heavy equipment,” says Shay. “Whenever possible, we like to bid and win both the wet and dry portions of a job. The synergy that is achieved by this is good for everyone and helps prevent potential conflicts when two separate contractors are involved.”

Schilling Paradise has been working for Lusardi Construction out at San Marcos High School for the past year and a half providing dry utilities for the new and existing campus. “In the summer of 2012, we put improvements in for a temporary campus so that they could move students into temporary modular

Above: Navigating low overhead clearance in La Mesa.

Left: Using a Cat 938 in public right of way.

Right: Using a Cat 420 backhoe instead of an excavator due to limiting circumstances.

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class rooms. We put in 50,000 linear feet of pipe in just a four month time frame, says Larson. “That was Phase 1 and now we have moved on to Phase 2 where we are putting down close to 75,000 linear feet of pipe on the new main campus.”

The Schilling dry utility division is also working out at the Sycuan reservation moving overhead utilities to underground. The overall job will last a year and a half and they have now been out on the job for just more than four months. “This job includes around 14,000 linear feet of trench with the added installation of vaults, transformers and individual trenching to each individual home,” says Shay. “We are putting in new cable, electric, phone and natural gas lines to 53 homes on the reservation. We

have a lot more work scheduled for McMillin Land Development. This is on a mixed-use facility in Chula Vista, where we will be installing all the dry utilities, new electrical vaults and basically an entirely new backbone system that will support residential homes, apartment complexes and new retail centers. This will include 12,000 feet of trenching and new natural gas lines will be installed as well.”

Owner and CEO, Jeff Platt concludes, “The business model of our electrical contracting division is very different from that of the wet and dry utility divisions. Although I oversee every segment of our company, I have extremely competent teams in every area and I maintain a very inclusive management style,” says Platt.

“Many of our decisions are made as a group and all of our divisions are growing at a nice steady pace. We search out quality individuals and train them to do it the right way. We have one of the top safety programs in the industry and received the Cal/OSHA Golden Gate status in 2011. Keeping our team members safe is the most important thing we do. All of this keeps everything running smoothly and I look forward to the continued growth and future of our company.” Schilling Paradise Corp is located in El Cajon. For more information please visit them online at www.schillingcorp.com or call (619) 579-6500. Cc

Top Left: CEO Jeff Platt congratulates Dan Shay on 27th anniversary with Schilling.

Left: Cat 320 placing backfill around sewer manhole.

Top Right: Officers and support staff.

Above: Schilling Paradise’s new Cat 950 disburses site generated aggregate at Harmony Grove.