Most people don’t even know his name. They wouldn’t recognize him if they passed him on the street. Or know that they should probably thank him for making their lives a little easier.
Whether it is the roads that snake through Corpus Christi, the water that flows through the pipes for morning coffee and shower, the office building that stands straight in the middle of town – chances are Dan Leyendecker and his team at LNV had something to do with it.
His firm of professional engineers, architects and contractors specialize in projects that make every day living more convenient.
“When you turn on the faucet or flush you don’t want to worry about where it goes,” Leyendecker said.
So LNV makes it their business to do the community’s worrying and come up with a plan. With clients such as the Texas Department of Transportation, the City of Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, the Port of Corpus Christi and beyond, LNV has had a part in quality of life issues in the area for nearly 10 years.
Leyendecker and partners Derek Naiser, Eric Trejo and Robert Viera hope to expand LNV’s reach in the next decade throughout Texas and neighboring states. And with Leyendecker—whom the three have dubbed ‘the visionary’—at the helm, they believe they can achieve their goal.
“He thinks outside the box,” said Naiser. “And he is always looking ahead.”
Leyendecker, who grew up in Laredo, wanted to be a contractor like his father. His dad convinced him to go to Texas A&M University for engineering first then decide if he still wanted to follow in his daddy’s footsteps. It was in College Station where Leyendecker met Naiser on the football field and the two became friends.
Later, after graduation, Leyendecker went to work for a firm called John D. Mercer and Associates where he met Viera. The two worked well together and were often partnered on company projects. Naiser, who had worked for the Texas Department of Transportation, later joined them at the firm which was then called Smith, Russo and Mercer. Six months after Naiser made the leap, fate and circumstance presented itself. Leyendecker, Viera and Naiser purchased the firm. On April Fool’s Day 2000 the three officially became LNV.
Leyendecker said he knew the firm would be OK after they completed their first big project—the expansion of McArdle Road from Weber to Everhart. It was a quick turn around and required them to complete a six month job in only six weeks. “It really established our credibility,” he said.
It also helped to reinforce to the partners that they worked well together and under pressure. Not much has changed since then—at least in terms of their cohesiveness. Leyendecker jokes that when they started the business they all had hair. The team has grown from seven employees in one small office to 73 employees in three offices including Austin and San Antonio.
What makes LNV so successful Trejo said is each of the partners is an expert in their respective disciplines from utilities and wastewater to transportation and civil engineering. And each is very hands-on when it comes to projects working day and night along staff to get the job done.
A great deal (the partners estimate 95 percent) of their business comes from repeat customers, which they attribute to quality work delivered on time and on budget, Leyendecker said. “We really have a good team,” he said.
There is so much Leyendecker appreciates about his work. To be able to take an idea from his head, put it on paper and see it be built is like magic.
“From the conceptuality to reality is a really neat thing for me,” he said.
