Business owner builds contracting company with versatility in mind

Monkarsh is a third-generation builder whose father and uncle founded EJM Development, a major Southwestern developer of commercial real estate. Monkarsh spent his childhood, as well as the first three years of his career, on EJM job sites, learning the industry’s ropes. But he quickly set out on his own, ultimately going into business for himself in 1996, when he opened LM Construction Co. in Las Vegas.

Today, LM Construction has more than 1 million square feet of commercial space under way, including buildings at EJM’s The Arroyo, a 450-acre, mixed-use development in southwest Las Vegas, and projects in Utah and Arizona. From finding land to drawing up designs in-house — and even placing ads to help clients find tenants — Monkarsh has emphasized building a multidisciplinary contracting company.

Question: Why did you want to own a business?

Answer: I moved to Sun Valley, Idaho, to work at a resort managing condos. I had the opportunity to take the condo-management pool from 38 units to about 180 condos. It was almost like my own business. In the off-season at ski resorts, there’s no activity. I found a way to make money in the off-season: Some of these condos hadn’t been remodeled in 20 years, so we could remodel units and make money that way. We’d deep-clean units and charge housekeeping fees. We became the only division within the resort that actually made money in the spring and fall. That gave me a taste of what I could accomplish.

Question: What gave you that revenue idea?

Answer: Survival. Employees, if they have a conscience, are worried about justifying their existence. That was my main concern. If every division loses money, and I lose money, too, what makes me different from the next guy? If I could show the boss I could perform when nobody else could, I could increase my worth with the company.

Question: What’s been the toughest part of owning a business?

Answer: Learning to manage money. Originally, it was just me and a bookkeeper doing two buildings a year. Now, we have 40 people in the office and up to 100 in the field. My weekly payroll is more than what I used to make in a year. Up until four or five years ago, we didn’t have credit lines, because I was able to manage the money, and I had good-paying clients who didn’t stretch payment past 40 or 45 days. You get bigger, you take on more clients, and you’re getting people who don’t pay you for 90 to 120 days. I don’t know if you really ever know what you’re getting into until you just jump in the pool.

Question: What’s been the biggest growing pain?

Answer: Learning to say no. A potential client might say, "Hey, I have a $50,000 job to start, but it could lead to a $50 million project later." We could handle a $50,000 job for a client we’re working for, but if it’s the one-time guy who’s promising you that carrot in the future, you know you’re not going to get that $50 million job. So you have to learn to go with your gut and not just buy into pie-in-the-sky promises.

Question: What have been your biggest obstacles?

Answer: Every day there’s a new hurdle. As soon as I solve one thing, the next thing comes up. You never get that respite. You never get the breather. And when we do get the breather, I get worried. "OK, we’re not as busy as we were. Who’s bringing in the work? What’s happening?"

The biggest help in getting over worrying about peril is really feeling confident you know what’s going on with your business. If you don’t have a good grasp of what’s happening, you’re always going to be a little scared.

Question: How much of a challenge is the local economy right now?

Answer: With my family’s business in development and construction since the 1970s, I’ve seen two or three downturns like this. Typically, when times like these happen, there are great opportunities. We have a lot of work going right now, the most we’ve ever had in our history. We had a very difficult 2007 because we were feeling the pain of absorbing all the cost increases of 2005 and 2006. We were just getting back into the swing of things in 2007, but we had a lot of projects pushed off into 2008. So we had overhead for work, and the work didn’t come in. Now, we have the work.

Question: How have you managed to have more business now than ever?

Answer: EJM just broke ground on some large projects. Coincidentally, a couple of other large projects came in recently. Things have fallen into place for us. The banks are hesitant, but people want to build buildings. It may not be as fervent as it used to be, but this town will add tens of thousands of hotel rooms in the next three to four years. I like to build big-box warehouses, and they’re going to get absorbed. You need places to store the dishes, the food. Where do those chocolate mints they put on hotel pillows get stored? They get stored at warehouses just off the Strip. Think about that: We could have 50,000 more hotel rooms in the next five years. At two mints per pillow, that’s a lot of chocolate. Where does it get stored? We’re already running out of room for places like that.

Question: You’re working with green building techniques. Why is eco-friendly building important to you?

Answer: My dad’s been a developer and contractor for many years. Back in the day, he used to orient his houses to the sun. He would call out a guy to study the sun’s angles so you could orient windows to save energy. He’d put air-conditioner units in the shade — basic stuff that was just common sense. Today, my biggest thing is waste. We’re doing a seminar May 9 where we’re going to install a new foam panel that will save 45 days on a schedule and that will be put up with no waste. Through the framing, until we get cement product going, we won’t need a trash bin. On a normal job site, you’d have Dumpsters full of waste.

You can hire recyclers, but that takes diesel fuel to bring bins to you, and to haul it from the site. It has to go to a landfill or be shipped off as scrap. I like to design and build structures with minimal waste. To me, that’s the ultimate green: You don’t have to throw anything away.

Question: You’ve also mentored seven or eight students at UNLV’s Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies. Why?

Answer: It’s important to help students understand what our industry is all about and how many different aspects it has. Typically, students know they’re interested in some sort of position in real estate, construction or development, but they don’t know what specifically they want to do. I want to help guide people into a field of real estate or development that really makes them happy.

One student asked me what it takes to own a company. I told him it took me $10,000 to pay rent, buy a computer and pay myself a month’s salary. That’s what you have to tell people. You have to tell them they can do those things. It’s not just some story you see in a book. It happens every day. It just takes that leap of faith and the confidence in yourself to get it done.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.