By: Catie Clark September 15, 2020
The Shane Building in downtown Idaho Falls, home to the new office of GEM Technologies Inc. Photo courtesy of GEM Technologies
GEM Technologies Inc. has opened an office in downtown Idaho Falls. The company is a growing federal contractor that started in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in 1994 and has expanded ever since.
“We have more than 250 employees throughout the country,” remarked Susanna Waters, GEM’s business development manager. “The office in Idaho Falls is very fresh. We just opened the doors last month, and we’re excited that we already have contracts in place as we’re opening up the new office.”
Those contracts are with Fluor Idaho, which does a lot of work at the Idaho National Laboratory. Because GEM already provides engineering and environmental services to DOE and its many of its contractors, expanding into Idaho Falls is a natural fit for the company.
“We made the decision to open an Idaho Falls office six months ago,” Waters said. “We’re here for the long haul and intend to have over 40 staff locally.”
GEM plans to grow the Idaho Falls office into a standalone, full-service engineering and environmental contractor. The company’s focus is environmental remediation, facility and infrastructure management, construction and technical services. Technical services include multiple aspects of nuclear, mechanical and civil engineering and environmental science.
GEM is experienced in cradle-to-grave projects and has an aggregate bonding capability of up to $40,000,000. Its quality, safety, and health programs are supported by a better-than-industry average 0.64 Experience Modification Rate.
GEM’s customers include the DOE and other federal agencies, state and municipal governments, universities and an assortment of private industry enterprises. The firm is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. Besides the new office in Idaho Falls, it has branch offices in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.; Albany, Georgia; Amarillo, Texas; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Portsmouth, Ohio.
It has received numerous awards, including the 2016 and 2018 Y-12 Small Business of the Year, 2017 & 2018 Perfect Record Award from the National Safety Council, a regional Top Workplace Award in 2019, an NA-50 Excellence Award from the National Nuclear Security Administration in 2019, and the Minority Business Excellence Award from the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce in 2020.
Rick Ginther
So far, the opening of the Idaho Falls office has gone a bit more slowly than GEM originally anticipated.
“If you walk into our offices right now, we have pictures on the walls, but COVID really impacted our furniture delivery,” explained Rick Ginther, GEM’s vice president, environmental & infrastructure support services. “We just were notified that our furniture is going to arrive on Wednesday (Sept. 16) so we’re getting there.”
The new office has three full-time employees for now. It also has two managers working to get the office up and running, who split their time between Idaho Falls and GEM’s headquarters: Ginther plus Ryan Overton, vice president of environmental & technical services.
Ryan Overton
“GEM is delighted to establish a new office in Idaho Falls,” said Michael Evans, president and CEO. “We are not only grateful but humbled that we can expand and continue doing great work during this time of uncertainty. We look forward to investing in the local community as we continue to grow.”
GEM’s Idaho Falls office is located at 381 Shoup Ave, Suite 211A, across the hall from the Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corporation office.