FROM THE GROUND DOWN

Communication Hill

Date

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗛𝗶𝗹𝗹, named for the 114-foot microwave tower at the summit, has an interesting history. In the late 1800s, José S. Azevedo emigrated from São Jorge Island in the Azores. He purchased 96 acres of land in the area and created a dairy farm known as the American Dairy Company. In 1916, Manuel Azevedo and Manuel Lewis took over the dairy farm. Manuel Azevedo’s nephew, Manuel Bettencourt, managed the creamery after Manuel Azevedo passed away. After Manuel Bettencourt passed away, control of the dairy went to Bettencourt’s nephew, Anthony Bettencourt. In the 1970s, control of the ranch passed to Anthony Bettencourt’s son, Robert J. Bettencourt, who continues to own land in the area through a family trust known as Mta Land Corporation.

The Azevedo Quarry was actively mined by Raisch Products from 1971 to 2006 (reclamation activity continued until 2009). An aggregate recycling facility remains on the land, but it is also expected to shut down in 2023 and be redeveloped into an office park when the county use permit expires.

In 1984, the City of San Jose began preparing Communications Hill, then largely barren, for development into a mixed-use, high density, urban neighborhood and formalized the Communications Hill Specific Plan in 1992. Mta Land Corporation began the process of residential development in 2002. Cornerstone Earth Group, Inc. and/or its staff has been involved with Site development since the early 2000s.

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Our History

Although Cornerstone Earth Group, Inc. (Cornerstone) officially opened its doors in 2007, the seeds that grew into Cornerstone were planted years earlier. The founders originally met at Lowney Associates, where Cornerstone President and CEO, Ron Helm, had been since the late 1980s, eventually becoming COO, and later, President. But they became unhappy with the direction the company took when they were acquired by a larger public engineering firm in 2003. The future Cornerstone founders found themselves in agreement that the new company placed too much focus on dollars and cents and too little on customer service.

Eventually, the lack of priority given to the client’s needs became unacceptable, and Mr. Helm, along with Barry Butler (retired), Scott Fitinghoff (deceased), Laura Knutson (retired), Danh Tran, John Dye, Peter Langtry and Ron Massone launched the fledgling enterprise. They opened for business in Sunnyvale, California where, although it has since expanded, Cornerstone’s original office is still located today. Soon after, Kurt Soenen came on board. Before long, the company opened a second office in Walnut Creek, California.

In the beginning Cornerstone had no employees; the Principals drew no salary; and the Sunnyvale office was so wide open that they would amuse themselves and release the stress of working long hours by holding chair races on the premises. Who eventually became the chair racing champion remains a subject of contentious debate. The founding Principals generated their own business; performed the field work; performed the engineering analyses; and prepared their own documents.

After a year or two, enough business began to roll in that the first few employees were hired and, although they might not have known it, were actually paid more than the founders in the beginning. Over the next few years, the Principals found themselves happily surprised as some early successes occurred and the amount of business generated significantly increased. As an example, Mr. Helm describes an early meeting he had with Facebook when it was a small privately owned company. Even though at the time Facebook’s projects were small, Cornerstone treated their business the same as they would their largest client, and as a result Facebook remains a loyal client to this day. Eventually, many more Bay Area giants retained the services of Cornerstone Earth Group such as Adobe, Google and LinkedIn, to name a few. 

As the company has increased in size, emphasis was placed on organic growth, with most new customers coming through recommendations and word-of-mouth. It is also a core belief held by Cornerstone that to continue the growth of the company it is critical to follow our four corners of success:  1) Be Exceptional; 2) Add Value; 3) Learn and Improve; and 4) Have Fun. In addition, it was clear that Cornerstone also emphasized providing employees with a clear path forward to success by consistently creating opportunities for employees to grow with the company.

Mr. Helm is quick to point to the selfless teamwork and genuine friendship among the founders, along with their client-first approach and cost-effective practical recommendations, as the primary reasons the company at first survived, and eventually, thrived.