Military background helps Cheboygan construction firm get foothold in region

CHEBOYGAN — When Andrew and Rocky Beydoun began Power Construction Group in 2020, they were focused on providing general contracting services in Northern Michigan. The father and son team bring a military and emergency-services background to the business.

Andrew is a service-disabled veteran, retired from the U.S. Navy, where he was a combat medic who was also involved in military construction. His father Rocky has a background as an emergency medical technician, in law enforcement, along with firefighting and safety instruction.

"After 9/11, I was assigned to Homeland Security and became involved with weapons of mass destruction," said Rocky, who also worked for the Army Corps of Engineers and the Navy as a civilian employee. "The Feds sent me to all kinds of classes for about five years. At age 42 I was able to retire, move to Northern Michigan and got into construction with a Chicago company."

The Chicago company placed Rocky in charge of its program with the U.S. Coast Guard.

"I got to know all of the Coast Guard facilities in Northern Michigan and Wisconsin," he said.

One of those Coast Guard facilities was in Cheboygan, and he took notice of the area.

"I looked at Cheboygan and the buildings were at a reasonable price," Rocky said, and when it came time to start their company, Andrew and Rocky chose one on East State Street.

Another reason they selected Cheboygan is because it is designated an Historically Underutilized Business Zones, or HUBZone, program that helps small businesses in urban and rural communities gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities.

Currently, Power Construction is on pace to do about $30 million of revenue this year, up from $11 million last year.

"We do some projects that are below $1 million. Our sweet spot is something from $500,000 to $5 million and most of the work we get is in that range," said Andrew.

Right now their payroll ranges from 10 to 14 employees and almost all of them live in Cheboygan County, the Beydouns said. Providing jobs and opportunities to local and regional employees and businesses is very important to them.

While completing a project on Mackinac Island, "we noticed that a lot of the contractors there were from Marquette. So most of the subs (subcontractors) they brought in were from that area. We are one of the few companies utilizing subs from the Soo (Sault Ste. Marie) on down to Cheboygan and Petoskey," said Rocky.

"It's important to us to supply work to local firms so we can keep a skilled work force that lives and stays employed right here in Northern Michigan," added Andrew. "We like to keep things local because we don't like outsourcing to downstate or out of state."

A good example of the relationship that Power has with local contractors is Darrow Brothers Excavating of Mackinaw City. Darrow worked with Power on a project to build a retaining wall at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.

"They brought in all of the materials for the $2.8 million project," said Rocky, and that was no easy task since work didn't begin until January in the middle of winter.

Power got the Grand Hotel project after completing work on a comfort station for the DNR on the island.

"One of the things that we were able to accomplish is to bring in 650 cubic yards of sand in about a day and half because we know how to get the barges in there by teaming up with the right people," said Rocky.

Power completed the retaining wall for the Grand Hotel by the end of April after working through the winter.

"(The wall) is the first thing you see when you arrive and it's the last thing you see on the way out," Andrew said.

Power also was involved with the paper mill in Cheboygan both before and after it was shut down by a fire that destroyed a warehouse last September.

Power helped the company to correct Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations and demolished a section of the mill that had become unstable after the fire.

"When the warehouse burned down, the property owner (Thomas Homco) asked me to work with the insurance company to get the remaining structure demolished, including the overhead connecting bridge," Rocky said.

Subscribe Check out our latest offers and read the local news that matters to you

Soon, Power will be starting work on a $5.8 million project for the Cheboygan locks and dam system near Lincoln Avenue. The project has been broken up into two phases and will automate the dam gate using push-button controls, replace the lock butterfly valve and replace the downstream tail rail’s west wall. Other work will include redevelopment of the riverbank gabion baskets using woven steel, wire mesh structures filled with stones, which can be used for things such as river bank protection.

This project was awarded to Coastal Construction, which is a joint venture between Power and Spence Brothers, a commercial construction firm with offices in Ann Arbor, Saginaw and Traverse City..

— Contact Paul Welitzkin at pwelitzkin@gaylordheraldtimes.com.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Military background helps Cheboygan construction firm gain foothold