THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, January 30, 1995               TAG: 9501280215
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY          PAGE: 11   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Cover Story 
SOURCE: Mylene Mangalindan 
        
                                             LENGTH: Short :   34 lines

NORTH CAROLINA IS FERTILE GROUND FOR BAY MECHANICAL

Bay Mechanical opened an office in Raleigh in 1991 to capitalize on the North Carolina building boom.

However, maintaining a good labor force has plagued Bay Mechanical in North Carolina.

With all the building activity and commerce in Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham - rated No. 1 in Money magazine's poll last year of best places to live - other contractors often lure Bay Mechanical's laborers, supervisors and foremen.

Rod Rodriguez and partner David Sparks, Bay Mechanical vice president, hope to prevent future labor shortages and cut costs by fashioning their new corporate headquarters into a computerized prefabrication warehouse.

By building restroom facilities, air conditioning units and assembling piping in-house instead of on site, Bay Mechanical can eliminate the number of subcontractors it needs in its North Carolina operations.

Eighty-five percent of Bay Mechanical's work comes out of North Carolina.

``Labor's the biggest problem you have in construction,'' Rodriguez said. ``I want to get to the point someday where we don't have those personnel problems.'' MEMO: Main story on page 10 and related story on page 16 by CNB