Newco Welcomes Construction Industry Veteran as New VP
MONCTON – After a quarter-century with another big, regional construction firm, Nick Bird is the new vice president of Newco Construction.
“It was an opportunity for a partnership and ownership stake in the company,” said Bird of joining the Moncton-based firm.
Bird has worked as a general manager and vice president with Avondale Construction Ltd., working on construction projects across New Brunswick and P.E.I. for 26 years.
Bird joins Newco at a busy time for the general contracting company, which is currently working on four apartment developments across Greater Moncton – including John McManaman’s The Tides in Riverview.
Bird told Huddle he plans to help scale the company and brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles. He said his combination of designing and building, along with lump-sum bidding expertise, will allow him to help Newco grow.
“It’s easier to manage when you did all the roles yourself,” he said.
With the previous company he worked for, Bird worked alone for the first three years.
“I estimated at night, project-managed during the day, opened the mail, coated the invoices and managed the jobs,” he said.
“For the first six years, it was just me, basically running all the work. We grew to around 40 employees and the benefit of that is being able to understand everybody’s role.
“If the estimator had a problem I understood, and if a project manager had a problem, I could handle that as well. Even if the accounting girl had a problem with an invoice, I knew how to help her to do it.”
Bird told Huddle he’s looking forward to working with Newco, specifically because of its broader specialization.
“Their expertise has been design-build-work, working with clients to provide the design, as well as the construction. My background is mostly been tendering on private and public projects that have already been designed – everything from hospital work to McDonald’s to schools and restaurants,” Bird said.
Bird anticipates working on many commercial projects, noting that with interest rates up, residential projects will start to potentially slow in the coming months, while commercial demand remains strong.
“The numbers have to make sense for these owners that want to build these apartment buildings,” he said.
“There’s projects out every day, and warehouse spacing for Moncton is almost tapped-out, as well.”
Newco, established in 1976, does planning, designing, budgeting, scheduling and maintaining quality management for projects in Atlantic Canada and Ontario, in both commercial and industrial projects.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].