By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—Naylor & Breen (NB) is one of the largest and most successful firms of its kind in Vermont. Since 1978, when the company was founded by Rob Naylor and Peter Breen, NB has been involved in major residential and business construction throughout New England. NB has constructed dorms for Middlebury College, multimillion-dollar homes, and event spaces for landmarks like Hildene in Manchester, for example. The firm is currently overseeing the renovation of the Brandon Library.
By 2016, the company was seeing more than $40 million in annual revenues. A success by any measure, the triumph is even sweeter as a local company founded by locals and now run by Tanner Romano, an Otter Valley grad who worked his way up from carpenter to owner.
Romano grew up in the profession.
“My father was a residential builder in Brandon,” Mr. Romano said at NB’s yellow-painted offices overlooking Route 7 just south of Brandon village. “I grew up in Brandon and the surrounding towns. My dad would buy and renovate houses all around the area. We lived in a lot of them, too.”
“Dad brought us to work sites when we were very young. I worked with him in high school,” Romano recalled.
But like many young men, Romano often clashed with his father—“We didn’t work well together,” he laughed. “We both have very strong personalities”—and he left his father’s business to attend Vermont Technical College (VTC) in Rochester, where he studied construction management.
When he graduated from VTC in 2003, he applied to several construction firms but felt an immediate connection with Rob Naylor of NB.
“Rob was incredibly sincere and different from other folks,” said Romano. “He told me ‘You can take this job as far as you want.’ I graduated VTC on Sunday and started work at NB on Monday.”
Starting out as a carpenter, Romano worked on buildings throughout the area. His first project was the medical clinic on Stratton Road in Rutland. Once promoted to supervisor, he oversaw the construction of the Heritage Family Credit Union drive-thru on Route 7 in Brandon.
The experience in the field was invaluable preparation for the next step in Romano’s career: after 5 years working on site, Rob Naylor asked him to join the office team as an operations supervisor, managing the company’s extensive slate of projects.
“This was just before the 2008 recession,” Romano said. “Everything was crashing. The housing market was crazy. But Pete Breen had retired in 2006 and Rob and I started talking about my eventually taking ownership of NB.”
It didn’t happen overnight. Romano and Naylor worked out a 10-year plan for Romano to gradually increase his stake in the company until he achieved complete ownership.
“I plan to maintain who we are,” said Romano. “We’ve always grown at a steady, controlled pace and I will continue that. I’ll also continue bringing on good people.”
However, a major challenge in finding good people these days is housing. Vermont just does not have enough of it to accommodate the population it needs to sustain its economy. And the lack of suitable housing has affected NB’s ability to attract and retain workers.
“This is something near and dear to my heart,” said Romano. “We’re losing our workforce because we aren’t building enough housing for them. There’s been a lot of money going into low-income housing. We’re starting to see more being invested in workforce housing, but it’s still not enough. The state is putting $40 million into it, but when a single unit of housing costs $400k to $500k, that money goes extremely fast.”
NB hasn’t sat by and waited for a solution. The firm has been active in providing affordable housing for its employees, buying and renovating houses that it then rents or sells to its workers. NB has completed 6 of these projects so far.
“Our employees can’t compete with buyers who are coming into our housing market with all-cash offers,” said Romano. “Outside of Chittenden County, there’s not a lot of development. The middle of the market really is missing. We tried to hire a great prospect from New Jersey. It looked like it was all set, but he couldn’t find housing and ended up not taking the job. Vermont is losing out.”
“It’s tough to do business here,” Romano continued. “The regulatory process here is very strict and labor is expensive here because the number of workers is limited. It’s a perfect storm of factors making things tough in Vermont.”
But Romano and NB are committed to their home. Many of NB’s 125 employees are Vermont natives and roughly 30% are Otter Valley grads.
Miles Krans, NB’s Senior Estimator (responsible for determining the projected costs of projects), is an OV grad, for example.
“I really love seeing people I went to school with having kids and building families in this community,” said Krans. “It’s amazing seeing everyone growing up together.”
Josh Letourneau is a 2018 OV grad, just beginning his career at NB. “I grew up in Brandon and started working at NB during my final semester at Castleton,” he said. “There are great opportunities here and that’s something I wanted to be part of. My advice to current OV students is to soak up as much as you can and learn from the ‘old guys.’ They have a wealth of knowledge to share. Work hard.”
Now a father of three (Aleah, Jackson, and Connor), Romano lives with his wife, Lindsay, in Brandon and still maintains a strong connection to Otter Valley. He coaches 5th and 6th grade basketball as well as the AU Valley Elite basketball team.
“Sports were huge for me at OV,” he said. “It taught me leadership and teamwork, skills that I use every day at NB and that I try to foster in the office and in the field.”
Romano believes it’s important for kids to know that there are good career paths that don’t require college. NB works with Hannaford Career Center in Middlebury and the Stafford Technical Center in Rutland to show local kids that success is possible with or without a college degree.
“We’re committed to our community,” he said. “We’re trying to contribute and held right the ship.”
