About Us

Our Story

Star Electrical Contractors was founded on March 31, 1999, by John Espenan, Jr., in partnership with his wife Tina. John started the company after obtaining his state contractor’s license following a long career as a maintenance electrician with companies like Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

The company’s first contract was a refit and remodeling job at the 488-unit Magnolia Ridge Apartment Homes in Metairie, LA. The success of this project soon led to residential work with a dozen different general contractors throughout the New Orleans area.

In the early 2000s, Star first expanded into the industrial sector with a contract to build and install the electrical for a creosote retrieval plant constructed to remediate contaminated ground at a former lumber yard in Madisonville, LA. Soon after, Star obtained its first offshore job with a subcontract under White Electric to install all the conduit and wiring for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Platform (LOOP), the nation’s first and only deep-water port.

The company’s finest hours would likely come in the wake of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and the devastation that that storm wreaked on the Gulf Coast. The long road of recovery from that storm provided Star with the opportunity to showcase not just the company’s commitment to its work, but more importantly its commitment to the community. Easily one of the smallest companies contracted to hook up thousands of FEMA trailers across some of the most affected areas, Star’s were the only trailers to pass the initial round of inspections from the New Orleans Permitting Office, making Star’s work an example to the industry. When Robért’s Fresh Market, a small local chain of grocery stores, was told by another contractor that one of its key locations wouldn’t be able to open for Thanksgiving 2007, Star was called in to bring the job in on time – a feat that was said by the chain’s founder to have saved his entire business.

Star Electric’s commitment to the community during its darkest hours earned the company the trust of state and local governments, which in turn earned Star such contracts as maintenance of the lighting on New Orleans’ arterial Crescent City Connection and Baton Rouge’s Horace Wilkinson Bridge. With Star’s contract to install all the screw jacks on every ferry landing in Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines Parishes, it became nearly impossible to cross the Mississippi River in Southern Louisiana without relying on the company’s work.

In more recent years, Star Electric has turned to a more boutique business model. We currently maintain a small portfolio of valued clients that includes local and state agencies, as well as industry leaders in the fields of oil and gas, construction, maritime services, and manufacturing. We are currently in the somewhat enviable position of being able to choose our clients. Star receives many solicitations for our services, but only accepts the few that we believe we can execute on at the highest level and in the safest manner possible. We have had no recordable incidents in our almost 25-year history and strive every day to keep it that way.

Since late 2021, we have worked under various contractors at the largest new construction project in the world – Venture Global’s Plaquemines Liquid Natural Gas project just north of Port Sulphur, LA. In fall of 2023, our main subcontract on the site ended and we were invited to join the project under the general contractor, Kellogg-Zachry Joint Venture (KZJV).

Meet The Team