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T.J. Barnes, vice president of Manhattan Maintenance, in Fairfield, saw early warning signs in 2006 that the economy was headed for a rough patch. The company his father started in 1984 provided office-cleaning services to major corporations, including banks and retailers — and these clients were switching to big national contractors to cut costs.
"It just didn't feel right — there was a change in the wind," Barnes said.
So he looked for new clients in sectors like pharmaceuticals, which pay a premium for a higher level of service, and he also diversified into property management services and began bidding on government contracts. In 2009, Barnes completed a master's degree in real estate finance and investment at New York University, and is now looking to acquire his company's first multifamily apartment building, which his company will clean, maintain and manage.
Manhattan Maintenance, which operates in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, has grown from about $4 million in revenue in 2006 to about $10 million this year, Barnes said. The company directly employs about 250, but including subcontractors, he figures he puts about 600 people to work.
"If you compete on price, you will always lose, because there is always someone who will do it cheaper," Barnes said. In 2006, he began cleaning GlaxoSmithKline facilities in Clifton and Parsippany, and now has four pharmaceutical clients. Manhattan Maintenance has a government contract to maintain and manage properties at Fort Indiantown Gap, a National Guard training center near Harrisburg, Pa., and earlier this year landed a Transportation Safety Administration contract to provide maintenance services at TSA and U.S. Customs areas at Philadelphia International Airport.
The company cleans and maintains several New York hospitals. Barnes said his company did work at a Veterans Administration health care facility, and when one of his VA contacts went to work at a New York hospital, "he called me and asked me to do some work there." Establishing a reputation in the hospital sector led to more work: "this is a very small community."
In August, the company was awarded a three-year contract to maintain the city-owned North General Hospital, in Harlem, which is being redeveloped as a long-term-care facility and is scheduled to reopen in 2014. While the facility is closed and the work is being done, "our job is to maintain the systems — the chiller that cools the building, the boilers that heat it, the water treatment plants for both pieces of equipment," Barnes said. That project employs more than 35 people, including 18 engineers. The hospital will need that equipment when it reopens; his job it to keep it working in the meantime.
In March 2010, the company did a $600,000 loan refinancing and increased its credit line with Provident Bank, in a deal backed by the state Economic Development Authority's Main Street program.
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