DOT PreQualified Civil & Site Work Contractor, Southeast & Gulf Coast

$7.9M

Revenue

$1.7M

SDE

3.0x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a civil and site work contractor operating across the Southeast and Gulf Coast, doing the unglamorous but essential work that keeps roads, utilities, and commercial sites functioning. Its service mix covers site clearing and grading, underground utilities, sub-grade prep, curbing, asphalt paving, concrete, and DOT maintenance and emergency response. Roughly 60% of revenue is governmental and 40% private-sector, which gives the business a rare blend of public-funding stability and commercial upside.

The headline asset here is the recently achieved DOT pre-qualification, which is not just a credential but a genuine barrier to entry. The company carries bonding capacity of up to $10 million per project and can bid up to $18 million of DOT work concurrently, with additional qualifications for hot mix asphalt and underground utilities. That bonding and pre-qual stack is exactly what keeps smaller competitors out of the higher-dollar contract universe.

Operations run on about 30 employees and roughly $500,000 of GPS-enabled equipment that reduces reliance on outside surveyors and improves field efficiency. The business generates $7.87M in revenue and $1.69M in cash flow (a healthy 21.5% margin for civil work), supported by recurring DOT maintenance, repeat commercial customers, and at least one key private client generating multiple projects a year. At $5M asking, that is a 2.95x cash flow multiple, and the deal is flagged SBA loan eligible.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is strong for the trade, with $1.69M of cash flow on $7.87M revenue, a 21.5% margin that beats typical civil contractors who often live in the low-to-mid teens. The 60% governmental revenue mix means a meaningful slice of the top line is backed by public budgets and DOT contracts rather than cyclical commercial demand.
The DOT pre-qualification plus $10M per-project bonding and $18M concurrent bidding capacity is a real moat. These credentials take years and clean financials to build, they wall off smaller competitors from the largest contracts, and they were only recently obtained, meaning the addressable market just expanded before the growth has fully flowed through.
Infrastructure and DOT road/utility spending is durable and politically protected, with federal and state funding cycles that continue through recessions. Recurring DOT maintenance and emergency response work adds a repeat-revenue layer on top of one-off project wins, smoothing the classic lumpiness of a project-based construction business.
The operator advantage is straightforward: the constraints on this business are working capital, estimating, and PM capacity, not demand. A well-capitalized buyer can immediately bid larger and more concurrent jobs against the same bonding line, and the seller is willing to stay on in a project management or customer-facing role to protect relationships during the transition.

How to improve it

Build out estimating and project management capacity in the first 90 days, since the listing explicitly names this as the bottleneck. More qualified estimators lets the company chase the concurrent $18M DOT bidding ceiling it is currently underutilizing, directly converting existing bonding capacity into revenue.
Inject working capital to fund more concurrent projects. Civil work ties up cash in mobilization, materials, and progress-billing lag, so a buyer who solves the cash constraint can run several large jobs simultaneously instead of sequencing them, expanding revenue without new bonding.
Formalize and grow the DOT maintenance and emergency response line, which is inherently recurring and higher-margin than competitive-bid new construction. Locking in more standing maintenance agreements creates predictable baseline revenue that stabilizes the P&L between large project wins.
Deepen the private-sector relationships that already produce repeat work, including the key customer that recently added a $600,000 contract. A dedicated business development effort on the commercial side can rebalance the mix and add higher-margin private jobs that are less bid-driven than DOT work.
Push GPS-enabled equipment and technology further into the workflow to squeeze more field efficiency and reduce reliance on subcontracted survey and layout. Every point of margin gained on labor and rework drops straight to cash flow on jobs already won.
Evaluate targeted equipment additions or a small tuck-in to raise self-perform capability, reducing dependence on outside crews or rental fleets on larger jobs. Owning more of the work stack improves margin and schedule control on the bigger DOT contracts now within reach.
Institute disciplined job costing and bid margin tracking by project type so the company knows exactly which work (grading, paving, utilities, maintenance) earns its keep. This lets the buyer allocate bidding effort toward the highest-return categories and walk away from margin-thin work.

Diligence notes

Scrutinize revenue concentration on both sides of the mix. Confirm how much of the 60% government revenue depends on a handful of DOT contracts up for rebid, and quantify dependence on the single key private customer that drives multiple projects a year, since losing either would materially dent cash flow.
Verify the DOT pre-qualification and bonding capacity in writing, including whether they transfer or must be re-earned under new ownership. The entire moat thesis rests on these credentials, and bonding lines are often tied to the current owner's personal guarantee and balance sheet.
Examine work-in-progress and the backlog schedule closely. Understand committed contracts, percentage-of-completion accounting, retainage owed, and whether the $1.69M cash flow reflects a normalized year or an unusually strong project cycle that may not repeat.
Assess the $500,000 equipment fleet age, condition, and any associated financing or leases, and confirm what capex is deferred. Civil contractors carry real maintenance and replacement costs, and an underinvested fleet could turn into a surprise cash drain post-close.
Pressure-test the owner transition and the depth of the 30-person team. Since the seller is willing to stay, map exactly which customer and DOT relationships live with him personally versus the organization, and identify the key field and estimating staff whose departure would hurt.
Confirm the location and the leased real estate terms, since the listing shows real estate as leased and gives no state. Lease assignability, remaining term, and yard/equipment storage adequacy all affect operations and the SBA financing path.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →