times been rocky, Denice Lucy of the Point San Pedro Coalition said that, in recent years, the neighborhoods and the quarry have gotten along well. Lucy, the co-chair of the coalition and a business professor at Dominican University in San Rafael, said the quarry hasn’t been as busy and has done a better job of communicating with its neighbors. A 27-year resident, Lucy said that there are three areas of ongoing importance where the quarry is concerned: air quality, road condition and wetland restoration. She said all three areas are subject to continuing work, but the coalition and the quarry have “reached cooperation.” Lucy said that Dutra had briefed the coalition on the CRH deal early, though she wasn’t sure exactly when the discussion took place. She did say, however, the company talked to the coalition before it briefed its quarry crew. “We didn’t want [the coalition] hearing about it by reading the newspaper,” Dutra said. After a rocky history, Dutra is aware the CRH transaction could raise some eyebrows, and some suspicions, but Aimi Dutra has been doing public relations for a long time. “We still live in this community. This needs to work for all of us. And it does take time to build trust.” Lucy said the coalition had no official contact with CRH, just a quick meet and greet at the annual holiday party held by Dutra. There may be a meeting in March, according to Dutra, where the coalition can meet with CRH. Aimi Dutra said she feels that CRH taking the quarry over will be a good fit for San Rafael and for the quarry neighbors. “Their (CRH) culture and ours are very similar.”
The future with CRH Lucy doesn’t seem concerned with the sale of Dutra to CRH, though she is not well versed in CRH. When she was told that CRH had almost $35 billion in revenues in 2023, she was surprised. She takes comfort in the fact that Dutra is still involved at the quarry on behalf of CRH. The reality is, there aren’t many large businesses in Marin. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. is of course huge in San Rafael and Novato, but its share price was “only” $68.25 on Feb. 21. Its market capitalization (the value of all of its public stock) was $13 billion. Autodesk used to be in Marin before it moved its headquarters to San Francisco. For comparison it traded at $285 a share Feb. 21 with a market cap of $61.2 billion. CRH traded that same day at $100.34 and carried a market cap of $68 billion. The company is majority owned by institutional investors to the tune of almost 78% of its shares. In the real world that means that hedge funds and Wall Street types will have more than a small influence on the company going forward. In keeping with the idea of pleasing investors the company has been involved in a share buyback program looking to bump its stock price by purchasing and retiring $300 million in company shares. With more than 50 subsidiaries, including the Dutra operation, that’s a lot of moving parts and part of the challenge facing CRH. Under the current agreement with the county, CRH can operate the quarry until 2044. The deal between Dutra and CRH allowed Dutra to profit from the quarry resource sale, and the company will continue to own the quarry property itself. At present, the property is zoned for future use that could include mixed use, which is commercial and residential.
In the end, there is nothing about the deal or the quarry for that matter, that is business as usual. Quarries are simply not located in residential neighborhoods, but that’s precisely the case here. CRH is a mammoth company, which for many makes it automatically suspect. Add to that the fact it produces literally billions and billions of dollars, Deutch marks and yen, and now you have the ingredients for mistrust, whether that’s fair or not. Aimi Dutra swears she believes CRH will be a good neighbor. And that’s exactly what she should say. I get the feeling her sentiment goes beyond parroting the company line, veering into that area known as belief. And for the good of the neighborhood, let’s hope she’s right. But in the time of Trump, a new bedrock belief is being mined on a daily basis, all puns intended. These days it pays to invest heavily in observing actions taken, and disregard words that sound like lip service. g Bill Meagher is a contributing editor at NorthBay biz and writes the monthly column Only in Marin. He is also a senior reporter at The Deal, a digital financial news outlet based in Manhattan. He covers small cap equity, alternative investment, SPACs and the SEC.
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26 NorthBaybiz
March 2025
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