Company puts a new face on general contracting
By Michael Picarella
Acorn Staff Writer

Residential and commercial general contracting has never been easier to use and more professional than at Bagwell Construction Services, according to the company’s Chief Financial Officer and co-owner Jodi Bagwell.

Bagwell Construction Services has been in the business of improving existing structures or providing new building facilities for about a year and a half, but has recently moved to a new location and formally introduced itself to Moorpark last week during a ribbon cutting ceremony. The company is bigger and better than ever, according to David Bagwell, president and co-owner of the company.

"We’ve more than tripled in the last year," David said. The company started with three employees working one job at a given time and now has 10 people on the payroll working on about seven projects at one time, he said.

"The way things are going right now, it looks like we may open another office in about three or four years," David said.

Services offered include pre-construction consulting, program management, construction management, commercial general contracting and residential general contracting.

"I was in the military for a while and enjoyed construction," David said. "When I got out, I got a construction management degree and then I began working for a very large commercial company that built hospitals. But I wanted to be closer to home in Moorpark and my wife and I had been dreaming about starting our own company for several years, so we went back and got our MBAs at night and worked on our business plans and we decided to give up our good salaries and go for it."

The couple and David’s brother, Rob, started up Bagwell Construction Services and have been trying to change the face of general contracting ever since, according to Jodi.

"All of us, with finance, math, business and engineering backgrounds, had pretty good shared skills to put something together," David said.

"I got my graduate’s degree in international business and entrepreneurship and so this is a dream come true because I’ve always wanted to run my own business," Jodi said. "David and I had been planning this business for four or five years and when we finally went live—I started part-time—I was surprised at how quickly I was able to leave the corporate world and come into this business and be able to run it."

Bagwell Construction Services takes on projects all over Ventura County, Southern Santa Barbara County and Northern Los Angeles County. While David may have co-found the company to work in his hometown, a place he loves to be and where he said he’d retire, he’s often out of town on job sites. He visits every project site.

"No matter how large the company gets, I’ll remain involved with every project that we do," David said.

The company began work to mostly do commercial projects, according to David. But it fell into residential work and it’s doing well, he said.

"I think our residential work comes from the fact that houses are selling at $280 a square foot or so and we’re building additions for $200 or less than $200 a square foot and so people are staying at home and adding on," David said.

Bagwell’s customers are proud of the work they’ve received.

"We added onto our home nearly 900 square feet; a game room, a bedroom and a bathroom for my mother," said Janie Smith of Thousand Oaks, a past customer. "It was basically very easy for us. They were great. They gave us a timeline and they came very close to that timeline. The financial line was within reason and they did a great job and I would recommend them to anybody."

Glenn and Julie Weisberger of Moorpark hired Bagwell to build a loft in their home.

"They did a great job," Glenn said. "They cleaned up every day, they did the best they could to keep the work in the area where it was being done and they were great to have in here."

The Bagwell team is proud of their company.

"We’ve put together our own procedures, we’ve handpicked people who are real experts at what they do and I just enjoy construction—the business aspects of it and actually building, even though I don’t get to wear my tools these days," David said.

"We want to make our clients so happy, that by the end of the project they’re telling all their friends about us," Jodi said.