The Granite Guy, Farmington, N.M.
“I told him I had a side job where the client wanted granite and he hooked me up with a guy he knew – and that’s how I started getting involved with granite.”
Before too long, Marquez hired a couple fabricators and opened a small shop, cutting and finishing granite by hand and installing it for his home clients. Over time, that aspect of his business developed a good word-of-mouth clientele.
Finally, Marquez opted to get out of the construction business entirely and concentrate on stone.
“I noticed there were a lot less headaches than with all the construction I was doing,” he says. “We finished up our contracts and closed that part of the business down and started doing granite only.”
EASTWARD HO!
Still, the Marquezes weren’t happy with their living situation. They’d moved out to their ranch early in the 2000s; while the granite business was fine, they realized they needed to get out of California.
“We just felt that everything had gotten to be too much,” he says, trying to put it in words. “We were busy, but the competition was too much. We thought about moving to Hawaii and starting a business there.”
The Marquezes made a couple trips to the islands, and were almost ready to make the move when Cathy Marquez developed cold feet because of the long distance between Hawaii and the mainland.
Nixing a Hawaiian move didn’t end the drive to go elsewhere, though.
“I started telling buddies that I wanted to move out of California,” Ernie Marquez relates. “One buddy of mine from San Diego had moved to Albuquerque (New Mexico), and at that time (about three years ago), it was booming, so I planned a trip to go out to Albuquerque.”
About the same time, another friend mentioned Farmington — in the northwest corner of New Mexico – because a brother relocated there.
“He said that if I wanted to do granite, there was hardly any competition,” he says.
The couple made the trip to New Mexico, and wasn’t particularly taken with Albuquerque. Marquez says not only was there a lot of competition among granite fabricators, but it’s still a good-sized city.
“I wanted something smaller,” he said.
The Marquezes made their way to Farmington, some 200 miles northwest of Albuquerque. The friend’s brother showed off the community of approximately 40,000 residents, and they liked what they saw.