Page 7 - DCA - Construction Excellence Awards 2019

By Roger Morris
Contributing writer
MIKE PEET’S MODERNCONTROLS CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF GROWTH
In 1989, Mike Peet decided he wanted to start his own business rather than continue working as a service technician for someone else. Today, 30 years later, Peet has seen his business, ModernControls, grow to 103 employees, a fleet of 70 service vehicles, operations
in four states and 2018 sales of $23 million.
“It’s been quite a ride,” Peet notes. “Early on, I could see what clients needed and just decided to focus on that, service and technology,
and our focus hasn’t changed throughout all these years.”
And Peet expects his company’s growth to continue. “We’re working on a new headquarters in New Castle,” Peet said on a call from Canada, where he and his son were taking a fall fishing trip to the
Bay of Fundy. “We’re tearing down the old building and will start constructing the new one this spring.”
It’s a process Peet knows well, as ModernControl’s primary business is installing, servicing and handling emergency repairs for HVAC – heating, ventilation and air conditioning – in public and commercial
Photo by Ron Dubick
buildings. “We’re 100% commercial customers with no consumer business,” Peet says. ModernControls specializes in Johnson Controls building automation systems (BAS), which also integrates other
key building functions. It also equips facilities with secure access
to a remote monitoring system that helps manage and track core building systems – HVAC, lighting and energy monitoring – from any location as well as responding quickly in the event of an emergency.
“After 30 years, we still are doing a lot of marketing, but we want our growth to continue to be organic.”
Some of the buildings Peet’s company has recently helped outfit include those on the STAR Campus at the University of Delaware plus the Incyte pharmaceuticals office headquarters in Wilmington. ModernControls has also outfitted several schools, including two in Cape Henlopen as well as a renovation of Caesar Rodney High School in Camden. On such large projects, the company appoints a project manager whose job it is not only to oversee systems installation but also to work with tenants, where remodeling is involved, to minimize their downtime while construction and installation are underway.
Efficiency standards require that HVAC systems be properly balanced and commissioned, functions which ModernControls is certified to perform. That includes air and water system balancing and building system commissioning according to the standards of the National Environmental Balancing Bureau (NEBB).
“We’ve been very busy downstate, especially in Sussex County, where we have worked on hospitals, schools and office buildings. That’s where the growth is,” Peet says, noting there is less going on at the present north of the Canal. In fact, until recently ModernControls had a second location in Ocean City, Maryland, but now it is relocating that business to Salisbury, Maryland. “Salisbury is a smaller city than Wilmington, but there is a
lot of business in the area,” he continues.
ModernControls does business in four states – throughout Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey – and Peet sees a possible expansion soon
in South Jersey. “We do installation and servicing from Atlantic
City south – about five counties altogether,” Peet says, “so we’re studying whether we need to put an office in there as well. We’ve always decided not to work in Philadelphia.”
So far, ModernControls has not seen any hints of an economic slowdown, he says. Tariffs on goods from other countries imposed by the Trump administration have not caused any supply problems directly or indirectly through his suppliers, Peet says. Finding trained employees is a large problem, however, as it is with many businesses in Delaware. “Our growth is limited in finding qualified technicians,” he says,
Peet says his company works closely with local technical training schools to help prepare students for the workplace. “While technical training is a necessity, having a college education is not generally needed,” he says, while noting that the work is nevertheless very exacting.
“After 30 years, we still are doing a lot of marketing,” Peet says, “but we want our growth to continue to be organic.”
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