Tim McCoy
GCW’s recent acquisition of Headway Transportation of Reno — the company’s first acquisition in its more than 50-year history — vastly increases the scope of services GCW is able to offer Northern Nevada customers, President Tim McCoy said.
Headway Transportation, founded in 2010 by Loren Chilson, specialized in traffic engineering and transportation planning consulting services for public agencies such as the Regional Transportation Commission and Washoe County, as well as various private-sector clients. Las Vegas-based GCW, meanwhile, offers a much broader scope of services and had been seeking a way to expand its business in Northern Nevada.
“We offer many different disciplines – transportation, water and wastewater management, land development, flood control, surveying, airports, structural,” McCoy said. “We really wanted to provide more complementary services in Northern Nevada for some of our home builder clients and others who would benefit from the different services we provide.
“It was a chance to increase our footprint and accelerate the services that our private clients want,” he added. “Our clients in Reno were looking for us to provide the same services in Northern Nevada that we do in Southern Nevada.”
GCW was founded in 1969 by Scott Wallace. Prior to the economic downturn of the late 2000s, the company had offices in Reno and Sacramento and employed more than 480 people. At the time, the bulk of GCW’s work was in land development, McCoy said, but after the housing market crash the company’s workforce shrunk to about 60. Its Southern Nevada office currently employs about 150.
GCW had a small staff working out of an office on East Plumb Lane, but those employees were folded into the former Headway Transportation staff of eight that are located at 5482 Longley Lane, Suite B.
Northern Nevada’s robust economy was a primary driver of the acquisition.
“We are a small local company in Las Vegas, and we always wanted to get back into the Reno market because the economics (of Northern Nevada) are different,” McCoy said. “We wanted to diversify our work with the different economies that are Reno and Las Vegas.
“We have been trying to grow our Reno office throughout the years,” he added. “We know a lot of people in Northern Nevada, and through networking we found the opportunity to merge Headway with our company. Loren and I think alike, and we have the same goals in mind of providing sustainable work for our employees and continuing to grow our business at a sustainable rate.”
Chilson’s title transitioned from principal and owner of Headway Transportation to principal with GCW. He will continue to run the company’s Reno office. GCW is an employee-owned company, McCoy noted, and the acquisition allows the Reno office to provide a much wider range of engineering and surveying work across the northern half of the state.
“We are about relationships and teamwork,” McCoy said. “GCW has a long-established presence in Nevada, and we are looking to continue that as an employee-owned organization. We are looking at growing on a smart, sustainable path, keeping our employees in mind, and giving our clients an option to the large national companies. They benefit from our services and our ability to be flexible and provide efficient solutions for their projects.”