A family business, right from the start
In 1991, Shawn Griswold moved to Fresno from the Bay Area to be closer to family. In addition to his young family, he brought his experience in the backhoe industry to the Valley. In 1994, he started LASAR Construction, specializing in dry utilities (power, telephone and cable TV).
Having worked in the field since age 18, Shawn saw a land of opportunity in Fresno where LASAR took on work as a subcontractor for Irish Construction and handled other small jobs. Seeing a next-level opportunity for the business, Shawn incorporated 1999 under a new name, LASAR Underground Construction Inc., allowing the firm to get on the bid list for AT&T. Shawn became president and his wife, Lorrie, was named treasurer/secretary.
In 2005, Dennis Gregory, a longtime employee of Irish Construction, became a partner in our business. Like Shawn, Dennis had worked in the backhoe industry since his teen years and had moved to Fresno in the 1990s. With Dennis on board LASAR won a series of maintenance contracts with AT&T adding the Fresno area in 2007 then Hanford and Visalia in 2009.
In 2009, Shawn stepped down from daily operations and Lorrie became our president. By 2015, LASAR had earned maintenance contracts for the Bakersfield area, and in 2017, Modesto was added. LASAR grew to handle a wide range of other projects, including work for high-speed rail, renewable energy plants for several utility companies and work for new home builders.
Today, we service and support customers from the top of the Grapevine to the Sacramento County line and from the coastal mountains to the national parks in the east.
LASAR Underground Construction is not just owned and operated by two families and their adult children, we also employ multiple people from families up and down the Valley, including father-son teams and brothers from the same family.
Family and community go hand in hand and we support a number of community-based nonprofits and of course, family-focused nonprofits like Little League.
Family isn’t just part of the LASAR story, it’s a key ingredient to our success!