Cruising
in the Corner Office
Reprinted from Business Week, January 16, 2006
Howard Becker's van conversions make one suite ride.
By Larry Armstrong
From the outside it looks like an airport van, the kind that
whisks you from baggage claim to a hotel. Inside, though, it's
more like a Gulfstream G150 or Dassault Falcon executive jet.
There's a curved ceiling with indirect and pinpoint LED lighting,
sumptuous leather seats with electrically deployed leg rests,
hand-veneered tray tables that stow away in armrests and consoles.
A wide-screen TV pops up in the front of the cabin; another
drops from the ceiling in the rear.
Welcome aboard the Becker JetVan™ , a Dodge Sprinter passenger
van outfitted with the amenities of a private jet and all
the tools of an airborne office, including satellite phones,
a docking station for a laptop, and a high-speed Internet
connection. It's the brainchild of Howard Becker, a veteran
of the custom car business and owner of Becker Automotive
Design Inc. in Oxnard, Calif.
"I call it my stealth limo," says Mitzi Perdue,
who bought one so her favorite charities could ferry guest
speakers and celebs in style from Philadelphia or Washington
airports to fund-raisers in her rural Maryland hometown, a
three-hour trip. "If I can provide them with a mobile
office, that's not wasted time," she says. "They
can get some work done on the way."
The same logic appealed to Eric Holm, who with his wife,
Diane, owns 36 Golden Corral and Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q
restaurants around Atlanta and Orlando. "If I'm driving
myself in traffic, I'm not getting my work done. But if I'm
sitting in the office, I can't visit the restaurants,"
says Holm, who likes to stop by each location at least once
every other week. Holm stores the van in his hangar at the
DeKalb Peachtree Airport north of Atlanta. He likes the $250,000
JetVan™ enough -- "the interior is just like a private
jet," he says -- that he plans to buy a second one to
keep in Florida later this year.
The vans are sleek, six-figure propositions by the time Becker
is finished with them. He starts with the $44,000 long-wheelbase,
high-roof version (a six-footer can stand up in it) of the
Dodge Sprinter passenger van. Built in Düsseldorf, Germany,
it's sold as the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter outside North America.
Becker restores the Mercedes (DCX ) trim, tunes the turbo
diesel engine for more power, and tweaks the suspension for
a softer ride.
From there it's whatever the customer wants. Options can
drive the price into the $200,000-to-$300,000 range. Becker
offers a choice of six "standard" floor plans that
seat from four to seven, not counting the driver and one passenger
up front. Most buyers opt for a partition between the driver
and passenger compartments; when the privacy window is up,
it holds a 30-inch flat-screen TV for entertainment and computer
displays.
But it's the aircraft-style interior, with its extensive
use of lightweight, honeycomb, and composite materials, that
sets the JetVan™ apart from ordinary van conversions. Becker's
newest option takes the private jet look even further: electric
window shades, essentially folding blinds sandwiched between
the outside glass and inside plastic. Depending on the number
of windows you want covered, that can cost up to $40,000 extra.
Becker will also personalize the interior to his customers'
tastes. Perdue, daughter of one of the founders of Sheraton
Hotels & Resorts (HOT ) and widow of Perdue Farms Inc.'s
Frank Perdue, wanted hers to reflect the color scheme of a
bejeweled Fabergé-like egg she designed. Becker obliged,
finding a handmade Pakistani rug with similar colors, refinishing
the Rolls-Royce toggle switches for the lighting controls
to brushed gold instead of the customary silver, and piping
the leather seats in a complementary color. The final touch:
He mounted the egg on a Waterford vase that guests pass by
when they climb into the van.
MOVING ON UP
Becker got his start right out of college working at his father's
car stereo store in Los Angeles. In the '70s he moved to a
storefront half a block south of Beverly Hills and began pitching
upgraded sound systems to Hollywood celebrities and entertainment
moguls. As the business grew, he found himself doing complete
conversions, revamping big SUVs with posh interiors and lots
of electronics. Five years ago he found his customer base
changing, too, from the likes of Barbra Streisand and Eddie
Murphy to businessmen such as Eric Holm and real estate developer
John Scardino, so he decamped Beverly Hills for an industrial
park in Oxnard, 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Scardino appreciates the look and feel of the JetVan™ . He
normally travels in Pilatus PC-12 and Falcon 50 jets and often
commutes from Los Angeles to California's central coast in
his L39 fighter jet. But what he really needed was an office.
"My 'offices' are basically the trailers at all our building
sites," he says. "There's no phone, no water, no
nothing." He prefers to drive himself, so he's having
a sliding door put between the driver's compartment and the
passenger cabin, and he wants a clothes rack and tiny bathroom
in the cargo area behind the rear seats.
Earlier, Scardino tried building an office into a 40-foot mobile
home, but it was so difficult to drive and park, that he sold
it within six months. When he gets his van in January, it will
have a computer, printer, fax, phone, and high-speed Net access.
And it will provide a businesslike environment for meetings
with his bankers and partners. "If you think about it,
it's where I work and where we scout out our properties,"
he adds. "So now I can have my office in the middle of
nowhere, too."
