Growth Causes Koll Construction to Split Firm : Senior Vice Presidents to Head South and North Regions of Newport Company

Koll Construction has become so large that it is dividing itself.

The Newport Beach-based company, with construction volume of $650 million this fiscal year, said Monday that it has created two regions under the supervision of two new senior vice presidents.

Victor D. Laidlaw was promoted to senior vice president in charge of a new southern region with offices in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, San Diego and Phoenix.

Andrew J. Ball was promoted to senior vice president of the northern region, with offices in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and San Jose.

Laidlaw had been vice president in charge of the construction company’s Newport Beach division, which includes Orange County as well as San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Ball was vice president in charge of the San Francisco division. Until now all the division offices reported directly to John L. Wills, president of Koll Construction. The two new senior vice presidents will continue to report to him.

A new Texas division of the construction company with headquarters in Dallas and an international division working on projects in Mexico will continue to report to Wills.

The company was founded in 1962 and builds office buildings, hotels, hospitals, shopping centers and business parks. It is one of the largest general construction companies on the West Coast.

The construction company is a subsidiary of Newport Beach’s Koll Co., an enormous West Coast developer that recently made a move into the depressed Texas real estate market.

The parent company has also had a busy year: It bought $300 million worth of buildings from the Wells Fargo Mortgage & Equity Trust in July. In May the company said it would develop and buy shopping centers, its first move into the shopping center business.

Also in May, Koll said it was moving into the distressed Texas market for the first time and would buy offices and other properties while prices are still low.

KOLL CONSTRUCTION

Founded: 1962

Employees: 400

Revenues: $650 million

President: John L. Wills

Offices: Newport Beach (headquarters), Dallas, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix

Parent Company: The Koll Co., Newport Beach real estate developer with 1,000 employees (including Koll Construction), 12 regional offices and a real estate portfolio valued at $4 billion.

Source: The Koll Co.