When the parent cuts the ties that bind, the child often is forced to become creative and inventive as he attempts to sustain his lifestyle while seeking his fortune.

And so it was for the Maryland division of Norwood Industrial Construction Co. which abandoned its offspring at Thanksgiving 1992 – not long after the construction market started into its devastating dive.

"There was no business to be had," remembers John F. Eyring III, a former employee of Norwood’s Maryland office. "Most certainly in Baltimore, we were struggling."

When the word came down from the powers that be in Pennsylvania to disband the Norwood office, Eyring and his colleagues tried to fight the decision. "We didn’t feel it was the proper step for them to make. But they were not committed to the Baltimore and Washington areas."

All the rationalizations in the world, however, would not convince Norwood that this glitch in the economy would eventually fall by the wayside, just as other bumps along the road have smoothed themselves out.

In the end Norwood, which had operated in Maryland for 12 years, just wasn’t committed. Eyring and friends, however, had an emotional attachment that was strong enough to give them the courage to strike out on their own.

"Leaving the Norwood relationship [of 12 years] was an emotional break I hadn’t expected, like losing an old friend to being jilted by a girlfriend," Eyring said.

The beginning
Operating under the name Waverly Construction and Management Co. Jan. 3, 1993, the new entity had to find work. One day it was successful division turning over $20 million in volume, and the next it was back to ground zero – with only the reputation of the management going for it.

Taking that "leap of faith," Eyring said the former Norwood employees, including project manager Edward Audy and carpenter Edward Brnich, finally decided that maybe their time had come to fulfill that longtime dream of having a company of their own. "We never really considered doing it together, but each of us wanted our own business," Eyring said.

The overhead expenses of starting out were eye-openers for the Waverly team. "At times it seemed enormous," Eyring said. "But when we look back, it really was affordable."

They tried to replicate the benefits they had received from the parent company. So what suffered was the box – the roof and the walls – while Waverly set about investing its money in people and computers.

From the sidelines, meanwhile, friends and professional acquaintances kept telling them not to do it. "One of the biggest factors in creating Waverly was we just really felt we had the resources and we knew we were not going to stay together if we didn’t do it then," Eyring said.

Helping hands
Despite an economy that was biting at the heels of most construction and real estate firms, Eyring said he was "pleasantly surprised" to discover there were people out there interested in helping his new business.

"These were former customers. They’re the reason we survived, excelled," he said. "We were very fortunate to have a relationship with people along the way."

That was eight years ago, and since then, Waverly has put a collection of photographs of projects on its wall in its space on Lansdowne Road in Baltimore County.

Among them: Wheels Skate Center, a 28,000-square-foot recreational facility in Odenton; Whiskey Bottom Office and Warehouse, a 60,000-square-foot research and development office and warehouse in Laurel; The Shelter Group, 19,999 square feet of Class A office space in Baltimore; Logsdon Pavilion, an ice skating facility in Laurel; and 54 units of affordable housing in Baltimore known as Landmark Apartments.

"We tried to focus on goals and tried to move toward them," he said of the group’s five-year plans. The first goal was to become financially stable – or to attain a level at which the company could be bonded for a $10 million project. "We did that."

During the second five years, the goal was to grow in terms of volume. Last year, Waverly did about $11 million in the United States.

The third five-year plan "will be interesting" as the company looks at operating a company with revenues well in excess of the $20 million realized as a division of Norwood with divisions 4,000 miles apart, he said.

"Once we have experience operating two $18 million companies 4,000 miles apart, once we get this done, this group will have what it takes for the next five years," he said.

Overseas savior

That overseas venture a half a world away came about as Waverly was grasping for anything to bankroll the fledging business. Today, it has outdone its U.S. sibling, bringing in $15 million in revenue from its ventures in Poland.

"We were looking for ways to pay our bills," Eyring said.

A developer with whom they had had a previous relationship was looking at a deal in Poland. But he needed some help with pricing, "Knowing we had big box experience, he asked if we could negotiate with the Polish contractor.

"We were such a young business, we felt it would distract us from our business in the United States. But we needed the money," Eyring said. So he set off for Poland Jan. 3, 1994.

The problem was that, in the past, contractors in Poland were assigned work. Now that they were able to operate under a freer business climate, no one knew what to charge.

Eventually, Waverly discovered it could help out with the pricing by bidding the portions of the project in the United States and exporting the work to Poland. "We approached it that way until the Polish contractor became familiar with the issues," he said.

"I stared out as a hired gun," he said. But by the time Waverly was involved with its third building in Poland, Eyring said it made sense to his partners to start a new business – EastWave Building Co. "We would build a comparable organization in Poland and adjust for culture."

Nothing’s easy
It wasn’t an easy maneuver. The Poles, Eyring said, are skeptical of Americans and find them pushing and overbearing. Plus, although most Poles spoke conversations English, few, if any, conversed in technical jargon.

Suddenly, this small company that had been floundering to keep its head above water at the U.S. office was an international concern. It has 250,000 square feet under construction for Mitsubishi and has broken ground on 170,000 square feet of space outside Warsaw.

As time goes on, however, Eyring would like to let go of EastWave and give it a chance to mature on its own. "What differentiates us from a quote international business unquote is one day I’d like to see this business not need us. I would like to see them stand on their own. It will be because it is what it is."