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NMSU grad ready for term as LCHBA president
By Brook Stockberger
Sun-News Business Editor
LAS CRUCES—Gabriel Sandoval never intended to become a business owner.
“It just kind of, sort of happened,” he said with a chuckle.
A decade after he started Sandoval Construction, though, the Albuquerque native is very pleased that fate has brought him to this point in his life.
“It takes a lot of discipline,” he said. “But I love what I do. There’s nothing else I’d rather do than to be in the construction business.”
On Jan. 1, Sandoval will begin a one-year term as president of the Las Cruces Home Builders Association. It is a position he was unsure he would ever attain.
Four years ago he was president-elect of the organization, but problems with a large, out-of-town job required too much of his attention. Sandoval had to step aside from his duties with the builders’ group.
“It was hard for me,” he said. “They were very understanding, but, at that point, I thought I’d never be involved in the (LCHBA) again. I felt I let them down.”
Instead, many colleagues supported him. They told him some of their own experiences with the highs and lows of owning a business.
“They are an amazing group of people,” he said. “A year and a half ago, they asked me to get back on the board. I began and then became president-elect.”
The LCHBA, which has more than 650 members, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and an open house last week for its new facility at 2825 N. Main St.
Sandoval said the new space allows for more training opportunities and classes.
“One of the big steps of having this building is to be able to have room for education,” he said. “That’s a huge step. To be able to educate the construction industry people. There are a lot of new rules and we’ll be able to educate more people.”
As for his company Sandoval started it as a side project while he worked for the state. He graduated from New Mexico State University with a degree in civil engineering and took a job with the New Mexico Highway and Transportation Department.”
“My job brought me back town to Cruces,” he said. “I decided to bet my (contractor) license and started doing small concrete landscaping jobs. I started in concrete work. I built a few houses in the beginning.”
Then he was informed that the highway department wanted to transfer him to Lordsburg, but he had already decided to build a house in Las Cruces.
“Right before they were going to send me to Lordsburg, I asked for a few weeks of vacation so I could get my house started,” he said. “While I was out there, a neighbor asked me to do some concrete work.”
Before long, Sandoval had stopped working for the highway department and began to work for himself.
“It was just me and one employee for about a year and a half,” he said. “Now, we’ve got over 30 employees.”
Much of the work his company performs is with residential building, but it also does a lot of road work as well.
As for the future of construction in Las Cruces, he said, despite the fact the number of building permits fell this year, he believes the industry will survive. The decrease is more of a correction than a drop.
“I think we were so hot at one time that we are probably down now at normal,” he said “(Las Cruces) is still growing and it’s going to continue to grow.”
GABRIEL SANDOVAL
-Position: Owner of Sandoval Construction and incoming president of the Las Cruces Home Builders Association.
-Outside the office: Gabriel Sandoval is married to a teacher, Minerva Sandoval, and the couple has two children: Gabriella 9 and Nicholas 8. He said that, when he is away from the office, he is usually spending his free time with his family.
“Outside of work, it’s my family,” he said. “Whether we’re going to Ruidoso for the weekend or just going to the park.”
-On the Net: www.lchba.com
Brook Stockberger can be reached at bstockberger@lcsun-news.com.