Today we’d like to introduce you to James Roman.
James, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in southern California in 1987 while my family was stationed there with the Army. We moved several times, including overseas, before setting roots down in Copperas Cove, Texas, a small city in central Texas. I was raised there along with my three siblings. After high school, I studied Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station. It was during the summer break between my sophomore and junior year that I met my now wife, Destinee. We met while working at a restaurant and she was going to Texas A&M too so we were able to continue to get to know each other while in college. After earning my Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in 2009, I found myself facing a tough jobs market due to the financial crisis. Luckily, my parents didn’t mind me couch surfing with them for a few months. I eventually found my way down to Houston to start my career in civil engineering at a small firm that specialized in land and site development. Destinee came down to Houston too once she graduated and we married in 2012.
In 2014, I obtained my Professional Engineer license and starting managing projects for the firm I was working at. In 2016, I joined a young engineering firm headquarter in Austin that wanted to grow their Houston office. During the next three years, I continued to manage projects, gain new clients and eventually, lead the office.
In May 2017, my wife and I welcomed our first child, Gavin.
In April 2019, with the incredible support of my wife (whom was pregnant with our second child), I founded Sandlot Engineering. Our first “office” was a couple of desks in a client’s office in Montrose. We quickly outgrew that space and found a formal office in the Heights. We’ve had three straight years of growing revenue and team members, despite the COVID pandemic.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Starting a business from the ground up is filled with obstacles and challenges. There is a lot of figuring out on the go which, looking back, was actually fun. I put a lot of attention on our internal organization early in the process. From job descriptions, to our computer systems, to our plans and specifications. Everything was carefully thought out with future growth in mind so its easy to scale up. There were a lot of late nights working everything out. A lot of that work has paid dividends over the last couple of years. Setting up the company with a cloud-based server allowed us to seamlessly implement working for home during COVID and continues to be a key aspect of our business. The business was almost a year old when the COVID pandemic started. Obviously, that throws a huge wrench into anyone’s plans. Luckily, we had enough work to continue on our path and even grow our team. Our team has been amazing and really rose to the challenges.
Also, being a new parent is challenging and certainly makes you re-evaluate what is important in life. Overall, not a lot of sleep happening over the past few years. My wife has been amazing throughout everything and I know without a doubt I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her support, love, and encouragement. She is the true star in this story.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Sandlot Engineering is a boutique civil engineering and consulting firm in Houston, Texas. We specialize in private site and land development providing the site work design component for construction. We assist clients through the entire development process, from finding and selecting a potential site, to designing the site layout, to preparing the plans, getting them approved and permitted, then through construction. While we work on a wide variety of projects, our passion is urban developments within the inner core of cities because of the density and direct impact on a large number of people. We are a collection of thinkers and doers filled with optimism, talent, initiative, and motivation. We strive to be proactive and effective and pride ourselves on being great communicators. We are passionate about the Cities we live in and love creating spaces and places that bring people together.
Our team is known for their proactive approach to projects. We strive to be excellent communicators and drive the coordination effort between the design consultants.
We put a lot of emphasis on our brand and marketing. I love that people think of The Sandlot movie when they hear or see our name because it’s an iconic movie that brings back a lot of nostalgia. We are a company that enjoys what we do, has fun while we do it, and delivers a great value to our clients.
One of the things I’m most proud of is our volunteer work with local non-profits. Every quarter we either volunteer or make a donation to a local organization that needs our help. We believe in working together to uplift those in need within our community.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I believe land development will continue to be strong for the next several years. I would like to see more technology implemented within the industry. As we shift into EVs and autonomous vehicles the infrastructure will need to shift as well. I believe the industry is behind the curve when we think about autonomous vehicles and the major impact that will have to our cities and the way we travel. We have to move away from old ways of thinking about roads, traffic, and parking facilities. It’s going to be a fun couple of decades and I look forward to be part of it in a meaningful way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sandlotengineering.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sandlot-engineering-llc/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandlot_engineering/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SandlotEng
Image Credits
Alexa Volchev
Hershey Juneja
Gabe Ortiz
