Courtesy Eastern Heating
By Paul Post
Heating, cooling and ventilation are the unseen components of buildings that house some of the Capital Region’s largest and most important employers, including colleges, hospitals and senior living centers.
Founded 81 years ago, Eastern Heating & Cooling has evolved into a full-service mechanical contractor with $42 million in annual revenue. It specializes in design-build HVAC systems, controls, fabrication and long-term service, with commercial clients within a 100-mile radius of its Albany headquarters.
“We want to be the solution to the problems that keep customers up at night,” company President Buddy Tricarick said. “If we can maintain their equipment, where they don’t have to worry about it, that’s the goal. That’s what exceptional customer service is. Preventive maintenance goes a long way.”
Business Development Manager Luke Schreiber said, “We meet with the customer, talk to them, ask questions and really try to understand what their business and equipment needs are, tailoring an approach that’s better aligned with their business versus a cookie-cutter solution.”
In addition to HVAC, the firm’s highly trained technicians also take care of boilers, chillers, refrigeration and ultra-low-temperature freezers.
Service department maintenance agreements ensure that all types of mechanical equipment are kept running smoothly. “Just like any person is different, one from another, the equipment and business needs are unique to that business or facility,” Schreiber said. “It’s our job to understand what we need to adjust so everything’s running optimally so they get what they need, not what they don’t need.”
Maintenance programs include comprehensive annual servicing.
“We’re putting load on equipment and make sure we look inside and out, at every touch point, to make sure there’s no failure points,” Schreiber said. “If we find an issue that’s out of range of the optimal, we bring that to the customer’s attention and tell them how long it could last and what the best replacement alternatives are. We educate clients so they can make a decision that’s best for them.”
Retrofits for aging equipment account for about 60% of Eastern’s business, with the rest devoted to new construction.
“Our Controls Division is booming because of new construction and existing customers upgrading their systems,” Tricarick said. “Our total company backlog last April was $17 million. This April we were at $26 million and a lot of that is Controls.”
Eastern is the area’s only authorized dealer for Automated Logic building control systems that manage heating, cooling and energy use.
Recent climate change trends have not only presented new challenges but make what Eastern does more critically important to people’s lives and livelihoods.
“We’re seeing more and more extreme heat and cold for longer periods of time than what we’ve seen historically, which puts an exceptional load on equipment within the region,” Schreiber said. “Sometimes this far exceeds what the equipment was designed for, which is especially concerning for older equipment.”
Excessive temperature and humidity could make it difficult for office workers to do their jobs. In a health care setting, it could be potentially dangerous to someone’s life.
“One of our customers controls the grid system for New York state, so if there’s an issue and their system goes out there could be a statewide power outage or blackout,” Schreiber said. “So it’s important that we stay on top of any issues or concerns that we’ve identified.”
At present, Eastern is working on Glens Falls Hospital’s $25 million new emergency department. Other health care clients are Albany Memorial, Ellis (Schenectady), Samaritan (Troy), St. Mary’s (Amsterdam) and Albany Medical Center hospitals.
“And the area is booming with apartments,” Tricarick said. “That’s a big part of what we do, especially on the new construction side. Also, a lot of old warehouses are being converted into apartments in places like Cohoes and Menands.”
Siena College, Coburg Village retirement community in Rexford and Washington County’s municipal complex in Hudson Falls are also significant clients.
Eastern has close working relationships with a variety of contractors, including Munter Enterprises and Pike Construction Services.
As with every project, HVAC is now integrated early in the construction planning process, and Eastern’s in-house sheet metal fabrication division allows tighter scheduling and quality control.
Eastern started as a family-run business in 1945, focused mainly on refrigeration, and continued that way for several decades until former President Fred Giardinelli co-founded Comfort Systems USA, which went public in June 1997 with 12 operating companies.
Houston-based Comfort Systems is now an $8 billion corporation with more than 45 companies in over 170 locations and 18,000 employees.
This relationship gives Eastern a great deal of support and outreach.
Considering the strength of the Capital Region economy, Tricarick said he is quite optimistic about Eastern’s business future.
“We’re adding five to 10 young technicians per year,” Tricarick said. “We have good relationships with colleges and BOCES programs. That’s how we do our recruiting. When we bring a young technician on, just out of school, they do a full year’s training with a senior technician before getting a van on their own.”
Eastern assigns each technician to specific accounts so customers become familiar with the person who provides service, and vice versa. This way, when technicians go to a building they are familiar with its equipment and do not have to be shown around and assess things, like a first-time visitor would.
“Finding experienced technicians is very difficult, so the next best thing is to bring in young people and train them,” Tricarick said. “Sometimes that’s better because they aren’t coming in with bad habits. We’re training them the way we would like them to do things. We’re successful and have a great reputation and it’s because of our talented, well-trained workforce.”