Business Spotlight: Palmerton & Parrish Inc.

Engineers Fred Palmerton and Brad Parrish have been part of big-time southwest Missouri construction projects for two decades, but people rarely see their work.

The duo's company, Palmerton & Parrish Inc., performs geotechnical engineering, materials testing, civil engineering and some environmental services, such as asbestos inspections, spill prevention and control and landfill design, says Mike Foley, the company's materials testing manager.

Tim Rosenbury, executive vice president of Springfield architecture firm Butler, Rosenbury & Partners, says such jobs are unseen essentials for most major projects.

"A lot of what they do, you don't see, and that's the idea," he says.

Rosenbury's company has a long history of working with Palmerton & Parrish, most recently on the $20 million College Station development downtown.

The drill-down

Nearly 80 percent of Palmerton & Parrish's business comes from its geotechnical and materials testing services, Foley says, noting specialization in drilling, concrete testing and foundation and reinforcement steel inspection. The company also performs civil engineering and a small amount of environmental engineering.

President Parrish says the firm is working on projects for the Kansas Department of Transportation, as well as Jack Henry & Associates Inc.'s Springfield campus at U.S. Highway 65 and Battlefield Road.

The company also has performed geotechnical engineering and materials testing for Missouri State University's JQH Arena and the Springfield-Branson National Airport, and Branson Landing is one of the company's most notable recent projects, says Palmerton, the company's vice president.

"Branson Landing was a very good project for us because of the variety of challenges that were presented to us in figuring out how to support buildings in a widely varying type of soil setting," he says.

New market

Palmerton & Parrish was founded with five employees in January 1989, and now employs about 50.

"I don't think there was a time when we thought we would not make it," Parrish says, recalling a time in the early days where the company struggled to keep up with business. "It was a just a lot of hard work to keep it growing - having to start early and stay late - but that's part of growing a business."

Adds Palmerton, "Part of it is we knew the market, and the market knew us. Part of it is that we had some really supportive, early clients."

Foley says the company is affected by poor economic conditions, but it is not in any danger.

"We stay steady," Foley says. "We haven't had any layoffs, but we're feeling the pinch like everybody else right now.

"A lot of projects are on hold right now. They're just waiting for banks to let loose of the money or ... things to get better before they start constructing some projects."

A construction industry slowdown hasn't stopped Palmerton & Parrish from looking toward the future. Earlier this year, the firm added a Tulsa, Okla., office. Other offices outside of Springfield are in Branson and Joplin.

While the Tulsa office is its first venture outside of Missouri, Parrish says he does not plan to expand into other states in the near future.

"We were in Tulsa because there were several big clients that were taking us closer to Tulsa," he notes, declining to disclose company revenues. "We're not as well-known there, and we are having to market."