Michael Curry
NAN, a relative newcomer to the building industry, made a strong first impression and has since expanded into the high-rise sector. Do any valuable surprises lie in wait, or was this simply sheer luck? Let’s go find out!
Nan Inc., established in 1990, is a full-service general contractor that excels in all phases of the building process. Despite just being in business for the last three decades, the Honolulu, Hawaii-based firm has already earned a well-deserved reputation as a leader in the construction sector because to its rigorous standards and extensive list of successes. Nan Inc. has been around for more than 30 years, and during that time it has completed more than 3,000 site engineering, restoration, and new construction projects. The organization’s annual revenue is about $190 million, and it employs more than 600 people.
It is South Korean-born Patrick Shin, the company’s founder, who deserves credit for Nan Inc.’s achievements. But this isn’t the well-known moniker for this person. In an effort to better fit in with American society, he changed his name when he went to Hawaii, thus today he is better known as Patrick Shin. Mr. Shin started his construction firm with little more than a single employee and a dream. His first contract was for the installation of a single road sign. And now fast forward to the present day, and Nan, Inc. has expanded to become the biggest locally owned and run general contractor in the State, having the ability and competence to execute the most complicated projects.
The Beginning, in All Its Humility
It wasn’t simple for him to rise from obscurity to become a prominent figure in Hawaii’s public life. Shin and his family were immigrants to the United States, and they lived in a one-bedroom apartment with all of his siblings. He attended Bowling Green State University after receiving a soccer scholarship there while still a resident of New York. This funding allowed him to concentrate on business administration.
Despite popular belief, construction was not Shin’s initial foray into the business world. After finishing college, he helped his brother run a fish business that, in a single year, attracted over a hundred new customers. But the seafood industry is very volatile. When restaurants in New York refused to repay his company’s loans, Shin learned the hard way what it’s like to do business in a city like New York. He left the fisheries industry to go to Hawaii, where he could wear flip-flops and shorts all year round. Nan Inc Owner Patrick Shin reflected, “I wanted to move as far as I could away from New York City.”
Shin soon understood that he needed money to live in paradise, no matter how pleasant the climate in Hawaii was. He got work as a laborer for a building firm, and then, to further his career prospects, he joined the union representing carpenters. These events inspired Shin to start Ocean House Builders, the forerunner of what is now Nan, Inc., and risk all he had.
