Fluor Will Relocate HQ to Dallas/Fort Worth

The company said the move is intended to place its executives closer to Texas and East Coast customers and should be complete by early next year.

Fluor Moving to DFW

Fluor Corp., currently headquartered in Aliso Viejo, Calif., recently announced that it will relocate its corporate headquarters from the Southern California area to the DFW Metroplex by early 2006.

Alan L. Boeckmann, chairman and CEO of Fluor, said the relocation will have no effect on the company's Southern California engineering operations in Aliso Viejo and Long Beach.

"Together these operations employ 900 people and have grown by six percent in just the last year," Boeckmann said.

He added that the company's philanthropic foundation will also remain in Southern California.

Boeckmann said part of the decision was based on the DFW Airport, which he said "provides optimal travel connections to customers in all other global locations."

The company currently has 490 headquarters' employees in California. Of those, 210 people will be reassigned or relocated locally. Approximately 80 employees will be reassigned to other Fluor locations. About 100 people will be relocated to the company's new headquarters in Texas. It is anticipated that as many as 100 employees will likely leave the company. The company expects to hire about 70 employees at its new location. A final decision on location in the Dallas/Fort Worth area has not been announced.

Boeckmann said announcement of the relocation was being made now to give those who are laid-off the greatest amount of time possible to seek a position outside the company or locate a new opportunity somewhere within Fluor.

The relocation follows a series of recent moves by Fluor to enhance operating efficiency and become more customer focused. Over the past two years, the company has relocated several of its most senior business unit executives to locations much closer to the customers they serve.

Boeckmann said the company selected the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area not only because of its accessibility to global clients, but also because of its proximity to East Coast financial centers and Washington, D.C.

McGraw-Hill Construction, ReproMAX Announce Alliance

McGraw-Hill Construction, which like Texas Construction is a division of the McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc., recently announced a national agreement with ReproMAX Inc. to develop and market products and services to increase the efficiency of document management and distribution for the construction industry. The agreement will also provide improved collection of project information enabling faster availability to the industry.

The new partnership combines McGraw-Hill Construction's more than 100 regional plan room centers with the more than 200 regional ReproMAX facilities, creating the largest national network for document management and distribution available to the market. The agreement provides customers with the ability to either order plans online for next day availability or visit local plan room centers.

In addition, ReproMAX will provide >> document scanning services to McGraw-Hill Construction enabling document availability via the McGraw-Hill Construction Network sooner.

Both organizations are committed to helping the A/E/C community reduce costs and work more efficiently. As such, ReproMAX will also participate in marketing the all-new McGraw-Hill Construction Network Bid Management Service, helping contractors manage the critical bidding process while saving them time and money by eliminating many, often redundant, manual processes.

McGraw-Hill Construction and ReproMAX have also agreed to explore other areas of potential cooperation in the development of technology, training and services for the construction industry.

Grand Opening in Grand Prairie

United Rentals Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., recently announced the grand opening of its newest contractor supplies distribution center in Grand Prairie. The 50,400-sq.-ft. facility is the fifth of nine regional warehouses planned throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The new distribution center, located in Grand Prairie at 1125 Avenue R, stocks 8,000 contractor supply line items including saw blades, power tools and safety gear. "This facility, integrated with our extensive branch network, is another example of how United Rentals responds to our customers' every jobsite need," said Peter Hofbauer, director-logistics and distribution for United Rentals. "Customers who place orders before 4 p.m. can expect same-day shipment of their supplies."

The Grand Prairie center will fulfill customer orders placed through more than 50 United Rentals locations in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. "We now have an ideal hub from which to service our branches in the Gulf region," said Hofbauer. The company has established similar contractor supplies distribution centers in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California. United Rentals expects to stock 10,000 contractor supply line items at each of its distribution centers by the end of 2005.