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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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Isle firms soak up national ink
Hawaii companies took no break from the spotlight while TheBuzz was on assignment last week.
Two made an internationally renowned Top 500 list -- while another may be anticipating the pitter patter of little feet, since it made a different list.
Engineering News-Record's annual list of Top 500 Design firms showed
Belt Collins Hawaii Ltd. moving up to No. 212 from its ranking last year of No. 248.
WATG, formerly Wimberly, Allison, Tong & Goo, slipped to No. 120 from No. 112 last year.
The publication, more currently known as ENR, shows how the locally based companies stack up against -- or more accurately, amidst -- gargantuan global players.
San Francisco-based URS Corp. tops the list with total 2007 revenue at just under $4.9 billion. At No. 120, WATG's total 2007 revenue was $97.9 million, $58.8 of which came from international markets.
Belt Collins' revenue for the year was $59.4 million, with the lions' share, $41.3 million, coming from international markets.
ENR magazine may not have household-name status with the general public, but it gets to the audience that is important to firms like WATG and Belt Collins.
"For us it's really important, adding to our credibility ... for the local market, maybe not as much, but for us getting work internationally and on the mainland," said Mark Tawara, Belt Collins marketing director.
"We do know that owners and developers do look at that list," he said. "We've gotten leads and projects as a result of being listed in there."
Belt Collins is known locally for planning, design and engineering work but it is listed as a landscape architecture company in the magazine.
The way the survey was set up, the company could only list one discipline, and landscape architecture, "corporate-wide ... has the greatest revenues for Belt Collins," he said.
ENR's list of 50 top designers in international markets places WATG at No. 35, and Belt Collins at No. 39.
Meanwhile, Hilton Hawaiian Village is no stranger to national accolades but this time its ink is in Parents magazine.
It is No. 7 among the Parents' Top 10 Beach Resorts for Families, the only Hawaii resort on the list following a review of 200 U.S. and Caribbean beach resorts based on room rates and other costs. It appears somebody missed geography class, though, as the writer says, "Oahu is the easiest (and usually cheapest) Hawaiian Island to get to from the States." Sigh.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4747, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com