In a 2023 roundup of the best places to retire in the U.S, Lancaster, PA was named number one, knocking the Sunshine State of Florida off its long-standing top spot. To the people of Lancaster who are involved in the development of senior living communities, this came as no surprise, as there are 18 life plan communities (formerly known as CCRC’s) in Lancaster County alone. In recent years, Lancaster County has upped its game significantly in the senior living space, providing residents with facilities that serve not only as homes, but as self-contained communities that offer an enriched living experience. This has created a time of abundance for companies that were already tapped into the senior living space.

One such company is CCS Building Group, a leading commercial design-build firm based in Willow Street, Pennsylvania, and one whose roots began in the senior living space. As Director of Development Ted Gallagher describes it, “CCS Building Group is committed to quality, excellence and creating buildings and spaces where communities thrive and prosper. We deliver creative and sustainable solutions to clients across various markets, such as senior living, retail, hospitality, multi-family and industrial. We change skylines and enhance communities with a proven track record of successful projects, consistently setting new benchmarks in our industry.”

But like all construction companies, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Ted reflects on the past few years which have been particularly turbulent for the construction industry. “The past few years have been unlike any since the inception of our firm. We dealt with shutdowns during the covid pandemic, material shortages, extreme cost increases on labor and materials, and found that this new age has brought with it a shortage of skilled labor. Because we are resilient, we have adapted and overcame these obstacles that otherwise would have stunted our growth. We continue to contract and partner with new clients while maintaining relationships with our existing client base.”

When it comes to navigating the industry during such times of turbulence, it helps to be able to deliver projects using the Design-Build approach. “We specialize in being a true design-build contractor,” says Ted, “where we contract with the architects and even the structural and civil engineers. This means the client only has one point of contact, which is our team, and they’re given a dedicated pre-construction manager to manage the entire pre-construction process. This initial phase of a project is usually the hardest part for the owner – when they’re trying to get a project off the ground. Once a client experiences our true design-build contract, they quickly appreciate how it provides them with more time in their day to focus on their own operations.”

“We specialize in being a true design-build contractor.”

Of the senior living market in Pennsylvania, Ted says that “it’s great for our industry, because there is such a draw for potential residents and there are many options with the number of unique senior living communities in Lancaster County and surround areas.” He talks about Willow Valley Communities and their award-winning buildings which are designed with the resident in mind. These buildings truly cater to the residents with top-of-the-line amenity spaces carefully constructed by CCS Building Group. The Manor Core project, for example, required reimagining an existing building as a dynamic and multifaceted space, in which enjoyment is safe, accessible, and shared by all. “This particular client constantly evaluates their buildings and renovates often to remain an industry leader”, Ted says. “They really maintain a fresh and modern look. But with this project, The Manor Core, they wanted to take it to a whole other level. We created a town center atmosphere, where the residents have multiple dining options and even have several bars they can visit to have a drink with a friend. There is a bakery, sandwich shop and other amenities such as gym and library. We created this core space so that residents can gather and entertain their friends and families in a warm and inviting space.”

Cohesion of social space and a celebration of community is what championed the Manor Core project, and this is reflected in the finished product. The renovation saw the building’s transition in a clever expansion that opened new opportunities without taking away from the reimaged outdoor courtyard space. What we see today at the Manor Core is a diverse offering of dining and leisure facilities that cater to a wide range of preferences. Take the aptly named ‘Perk & Pint’ which serves as a coffee hub by day and a lively bar by night, which exemplifies that clever and flexible use of space to align with the lifestyle needs of the residents. “The project involved a lot of structural steel work,” Ted says. “The entire core of the building was gutted from the slab to the roof. It was an existing three-story with multiple levels. All that was demolished and then put back with a changed roof line, everything’s fresh and new, from plumbing to HVAC.” The before and after pictures of the Manor Core project are impressive, and a tangible reflection of CCS Building Group’s work come to life.

The senior living market constitutes a significant portion of CCS Building Group’s portfolio and will remain a focal point given the strong demand for such developments in Pennsylvania. However, CCS is also witnessing growth in the retail, hospitality, and multifamily sectors. Ted explains, “Since our establishment in 2006, we’ve been recognized for our expertise in constructing and renovating senior living communities. Nevertheless, we’ve broadened our scope to include retail, hospitality, and restaurant ventures, with ongoing expansion in these areas. Additionally, we’ve entered into the multifamily sector, with several potential projects in our pipeline. This sector is thriving, particularly in Central Pennsylvania, where housing shortages are prevalent. Many developers are capitalizing on this demand, resulting in a surge of construction activity.”

This clever pivot, along with its continued involvement in senior living, is CCS Building Group’s recipe for success and longevity in the Pennsylvanian construction industry. “CCS has a strategic vision for sustained yet managed expansion,” Ted tells me. “We recognize the necessity of prudence in our growth given the scarcity of skilled construction professionals that are available.”

“In light of the volatile economy, rising interest rates, and increased material costs, we’re fortunate to maintain a robust backlog. This stability not only ensures our long-term presence for clients but also fosters confidence in our ability to weather market fluctuations. As we venture further into the multifamily and hospitality sectors, we’re dedicated to strengthening our relationships with existing clients while seeking new partnerships with Developers and other partners in the Mid-Atlantic region,” Ted said.

CCS’s meticulous attention to detail, utilization of the design-build process, and dedication to sustainable practices seems to set them apart in such a competitive market. “Our unwavering commitment remains steadfast- to provide our clients with an unmatched experience, cultivating loyalty that goes beyond individual projects,” Ted said.

A company built on good ethics above all else is a company of which you can be proud. This is the case for Heim Construction Co., Inc., a full-service General Contractor, Design Build and Construction Management firm based in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania. Today the story of Heim Construction comes right from the source, that is founder and President Roy Heim. The company was started by Heim back in the early nineties, and though it has evolved over the years in tandem with the construction industry, its core values remain the same today. “We incorporated in 1994 with approximately three employees at that time,” says Heim. “It’s sometimes a little seasonal, but we now have between 65 to 100 wonderful men and women employed with us today. One of the things that we believe contributes to our success is not only making sure we have good employees, but also training them and keeping our core values in place. We hire people with integrity and good ethics, and that keeps us moving forward in the right direction.”

Keeping core values in place is just one of the three keys to construction industry success that Heim candidly reveals throughout our conversation. Recognizing the importance of functionality before aesthetics and adopting a forward-focused mindset are the second two and third, and it is these three keys that capture the true essence of Heim Construction. But before we get into that, Heim talks me through the full range of services that Heim Construction offers to the Pennsylvanian construction market. The General Contracting side of the business sees Heim Construction delivering projects in the traditional way, which involves working with owners, architects, and engineers to get the job done. This involves first bidding on the project, reviewing specifications, and ultimately completing the work at their request.

Heim Construction’s long history of delivering projects through this method has resulted in repeat business and customer satisfaction, both of which contribute in no small part to its thirty years of continued success. Under its General Contracting title Heim Construction operates within the Commercial, Industrial, Institutional, Healthcare, Residential, Educational and Manufacturing sectors, delivering jobs big and small to the highest of standards. “We also have our transportation division where we do heavy highway work and public infrastructure,” Heim says. “We have worked in the past on bridges, dams, wastewater treatment plants. We do concrete slab replacement on roadways, we do a substantial amount of extruded concrete curbs, handicap ramps coupled with the associated sidewalk replacement. , some projects as a general contractor, some as a subcontractor.”

As part of its General Construction title Heim Construction also offers the more modern methods of project delivery that are growing in demand as the industry evolves. This includes, Construction Management, design build and interior design services. “For most of that work, if you’re looking at Construction Management, we would represent the owner,” he says. The Construction Management method of project delivery sees Heim Construction provide both pre-construction and construction phase services. “That includes research evaluations, land development assistance, zoning and building permitting, budget, estimating, RFP and RFQ services, and construction phase coordination and inspections.” Regardless of what shape the job takes in terms of the method through which it is delivered, service is always at the center. “Heim Construction is a service-oriented company,” Heim says, “so we understand whether we’re a general contractor and working for an owner, or we’re a subcontractor working for other general contractors, that service is key to our success.”

“Also key to Heim Construction’s success is its functionality before aesthetics approach, which is simple in theory yet often overlooked in practice.”

Also key to Heim Construction’s success is its functionality before aesthetics approach, which is simple in theory yet often overlooked in practice. A poorly constructed building may be one that is designed to achieve a desired visual appeal, but with less priority given to how it actually functions. This is not to say that buildings cannot be both functional in operation and aesthetically pleasing, in fact the opposite is true for many of Heim Construction’s award-winning projects that we go on to discuss, but Heim Construction only design buildings that look the part once they are satisfied first with both its functionality and practicality. “In the design build our goal first and foremost is to use the best space design for practicality,” Heim says. “Second, is the aesthetics. The number one thing has to be, does the space work and will our customer be able to use it properly? And then, how do we make the area look good after we know it’s going to work for the customer?” The end goal is to strike a balance between the two, ensuring that the building is both fit for its intended use, and easy on the eye.

Though there is no single key to unlock construction industry success, no one-size-fits-all that is guaranteed to yield positive results, a good place to start is a forward-focused mindset. That is, one that sees each new day as a fresh opportunity regardless of yesterday’s achievements. “I’m not big on goals or milestones,” Heim says. “My goal is to get through every single day and be the best we can be. That’s what we talk to our people about, not long-term goals and not big milestones.” To rely too heavily on past achievements when it comes to future success is, in Heim’s opinion, a step in the wrong direction. “There’s one fear in life and that’s becoming content, because the minute you become too content is the minute you start going backwards.” Perhaps this mindset comes with over thirty years’ experience in an industry that does not stand still.

Heim talks about some of the company’s recently completed projects, many of which are award-winning. Though he believes that such achievements are not to be focused on as the measure of Heim Construction’s success, they do give us an insight into the company’s high standards, and therefore cannot go unmentioned in the Heim Construction story. “There’s the 90,000 square foot new addition and renovation of the corporate offices at Empire Beauty School,” Heim says, “and the 88,500 square foot, five-story academic building for the Westchester University Business School.” The third project Heim highlights is a two and a half story, 250-space car parking garage along with a 45,000 square foot Regional Traffic Management Centre (RTMC) and Parking Garage in King of Prussia, PA. “That was a Class 4 building, meaning that it was designed to withstand all kinds of environmental elements, hurricanes and so on.”

Class 4 buildings are constructed using durable building methods, for example with non-combustible materials, and are naturally growing in demand as the climate crisis grows in urgency. “The project was the first Design Build done in the State of Pennsylvania with the PA Department of General Services (DGS) and the PA Department of Transportation (PennDOT) as partners,” he tells me. “We were picked as the contractor through a Request for Proposal (RFP). There were two sections to that proposal, one technical and the other monetary, which was a bid. The Department of General Services and PennDOT took all the bids and reviewed the technical section first, and then opened up the low bids, and we were fortunate enough to be awarded the project.” While price is always a factor when awarding jobs through this method, RFPs often allow companies the opportunity to take a quality-first approach and win on that basis instead. “The Design Build team we put together is partly how we got that project. We went for quality versus pricing and made sure we had the best team we could have.”

That team included Schrader Group Architecture, Philadelphia, PA. ,Benesch Engineers out of Allentown PA, and Vistacom Technology Consultants, also out of Allentown. Also on the job was Revision Architecture, Philadelphia, Pa.as LEED Consultants. That is Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), which is the world’s most widely used green building rating system. Together they designed and built a highly efficient Regional Transportation Management Center that is fully equipped, through the implementation of innovative technology, to monitor, manage, and improve the flow of state-wide traffic. “From the very first day our job was to start the design and work with two of the owner’s reps, which were Jacobs Engineering representing PennDOT and Urban Engineering representing the Department of General Services. It was a three-year project, completed on time and under budget, which is something to be said in in our industry today. It was done during the COVID period when there were major shutdowns throughout the state of Pennsylvania as well as major price increases and lack of supplies and material. That makes it a little bit more special in our opinion. Our team and our subcontractors did a wonderful job in making sure everything was procured properly and done correctly. The building is LEED Certified, functional, and is in our opinion one of the best Department of Transport owed buildings in Pennsylvania today.”

But it is not only Heim and the team at Heim Construction that hold this project in such high regard. The project went on to win an ABC Excellence in Construction Award for Institutional Project in the $10 Million & Up category, which honors the region’s most inventive and well-constructed buildings16. I ask Heim about his future outlook for the company, and he answers with the same forward-focused mindset that has guided our conversation thus far. “I believe there’s definitely a future in Pennsylvania infrastructure,” he says, “which is where we work 99% of the time. Pennsylvania is very low on the scale in terms of quality of infrastructure, so we have a major investment through the federal government and the state government, and that in my opinion will continue for the next 20 years. It’s going to have to in order for Pennsylvania to get back to where they need to be. So, infrastructure wise we see growth and we see continuous work on the general construction side. We do a lot of healthcare work and that’s very prominent. The commercial market is going to be economy based and right now that has slowed down a little bit, but I do see a future enhancement as we go forward, and I think it will grow eventually.”

But in the background of all these industry changes that fluctuate in line with state budgets and construction trends, the team at Heim Construction will continue to take each day as it comes and strive to be the best that they can be. That is the key to unlocking thirty more years of construction industry success.

Professional Excavators is a mid-sized construction company operating in the greater Calgary area since 1975. Its main line of work is on large tower building developments and earthworks projects in downtown Calgary. The mid-nineties saw this work expand into sewer and water work as well as concrete and asphalt paving, but always at the core of the company, if you can forgive the pun, is earthworks. It is this side of the business that remains consistent as Professional Excavators adapts, as construction companies must do, along with changing market trends. “Over the past ten years we’ve come in and out of the marketplace through those avenues,” says President Darryl Conroy, “always settling back in with the earthworks side of the business. In the past two to three years the underground side has taken more of a predominant role, not only within the company, but also within the market in the greater Calgary area.”

The ever-evolving Calgary market is a driving force behind my conversation with Conroy, who understands from twenty-seven years in the industry that it is the market that ultimately calls the shots. “So, we keep on diversifying that way,” Conroy says. “And in terms of where the market is in Calgary, it’s very buoyant. There’s lots of opportunity. Net migration is driving single family residential sales and multifamily sales. There’s new tech business filling the shoes of previous oil and gas sector companies that might have been here, or that have adjusted because of the marketplace they’re in. It’s a good time to be at Professional, it’s a good time to be a part of the team, and it’s a good time to take a good look at where our avenues of business are moving forward.”

Construction industry success does not come without a market that fosters it, and so Professional Excavators has the Calgary marketplace to thank for a lot of its achievements over its life to date. But a thriving marketplace teeming with opportunity does not in itself propagate success. There is work to be done on the company’s part to take that opportunity and run with it. Professional Excavators today comes with almost five decades’ experience of doing just that, while establishing that all-important balance between dreaming big and being realistic. For Professional Excavators that means understanding that the market can only be controlled so much, and as a company you must prepare to ride the wave. “One of the things about Calgary is that the market is very volatile,” Conroy says. “When it’s high it’s high, and then it comes down and it’s almost like a reset. It’s like you’re riding a wave and then it crashes, so you could say we’re cautious. We recognize the market that we’re in and we are strategic. We’re not just about roses and sunshine.”

Patterns of net migration are sweeping the greater Calgary area, and this particular market trend continues to have a direct and positive impact on Professional Excavators. This is evident in some of the multifamily developments that the company is involved in. “We’re doing 2 projects for Truman, a multifamily builder in the Greater Calgary area. They’re taking great strides and making sure that their product gets to market in some of the brownfield areas in Calgary. We’re doing primarily earthworks, with some underground concrete and asphalt to come in the spring of 2024.”

Then there’s East Hills, a multifamily development located off 17th Avenue and Stoney Trail in the southeast part of Calgary, and a project for which Professional Excavators provided earthworks and underground services. The project included the installation of a stormceptor system, which is a treatment system that effectively removes pollutants from stormwater and snowmelt runoff. This is just one of the many environmental solutions that Professional Excavators offers to manage its clients and its own environmental impacts. The East Hills project was for Minto Developments and Unitii, a multifamily builder in the greater Calgary area. “It’s a relationship that we’re looking to grow and embrace with all levels of our business. A good relationship with the Minto Unitii team when it comes to competitive pricing, timely construction schedules, and how that aligns with their business from a from a field and operations perspective. It’s just under $700,000 worth of work for us,” Conroy says, “and it all-encompasses everything that we do internally. It was a four-and-a-half-week program in 2023, and with the economy the way it is there’s going to be future opportunities up in Airdrie and all the inner-city lands in the greater Calgary area. That’s what we’re focusing on going into 2024.”

“Always in the background of the work that Professional Excavators does is both environmental solutions and community engagement.”

Another project that highlights Professional Excavators’ strengths as a company is the Calgary Zoo. “We were working as a subtrade to Chandos Construction, who are the General Contractor on site. The structure of the contract is called IPD, which is a performance-based construction process where all the subtrades at every layer of the project come together, have very transparent meetings, talk about changes, cost controls and schedules, to make sure that they deliver the most cost effective, efficient project on behalf of the client. The Polar bear exhibit was the kind of mainstay of the project, and that’s what we call the Canadian Shield portion of the zoo.” The project saw huge volumes of dirt moved and pipe installed, and included earthworks, underground concrete, and asphalt paving. “And of course, being a zoo, it’s a very high-profile project. Very detailed. It was important that the project was delivered on a scheduled basis with the expected arrival of the polar bears. It went through the winter of 2022 to 2023, making sure that we kept our schedule and our commitments as per the contract and as per the group.”

As I speak with Conroy I reminisce on my own travels to Alberta, in particular the Highway 93 route between Banff and Jasper, which is accessible via Calgary. He tells me that such attractions are part of why business in Calgary is where it is. “It’s because of those offsite attractions,” he says. “In my opinion if we were to ever adopt a European style of transport to and from those destinations, if we had the ability to move people in that way, Calgary would be world class. Right now, it’s still quite a challenge.” A challenge, perhaps, that will in time become an opportunity for companies such as Professional Excavators, who Conroy describes as “a team with a lot of strength when it comes to tenure, and with a good history in the Greater Calgary market.” Speaking of opportunity, Conroy tells me about Professional Excavator’s recent move to Java Group which places them under the umbrella of Java Holdings alongside seven subsidiaries. “It’s a great opportunity to reintroduce ourselves to the Calgary market. As part of that we’ll be updating our website, talking about all of our projects, and just doing a good refresh of everything we do. With the Java Group coming on board, it’s opened up a new avenue of business on the power transmission side of the of the industry, which we’ve never dabbled in before. Where we see Professional today may drastically change again with the Java Group. The overall arching umbrella for our seven subsidiaries, that’s going to be a big opportunity for growth and expansion. It’s a new lens, and as the market allows, we will grow in accordance with it.”

Always in the background of the work that Professional Excavators does is both environmental solutions and community engagement. It specializes in evaluating and monitoring potential environmental risks, maintaining environmental awareness, and pollution prevention, while also offering services such as remediation, recycling, haulage, and disposal. As Conroy says, “environmental solutions are all-encompassing in all of the business units we have.” As for community engagement, this comes in many forms such as local charity donations like the CJAY92 Secret Wish. “Involvement with the community comes from every single team member, top to bottom and across all divisions of our business. We are a part of our community’s development, part of the establishment of it, and so we feel it’s our duty to give back support by donating our time, equipment and tools when required.”

For Professional Excavators, the plans for future prosperity in the Calgary market are very clear. “We want to make sure that we find partnerships that are long term invested, not only in Professional Excavators but in the greater Calgary market, and we reciprocate that back to them. We’re focused on making sure there’s a great level of trust and transparency, so when our field team goes out and performs the work, we are adding value. We have great relationships with our stakeholders, vendors, and suppliers and that’s what’s going to allow us to take further steps in the future, to grow in different marketplaces and make sure we’re competitive. We want to have the highest quality and the safest work procedures in the industry, and to push ourselves to be leaders in the marketplace regardless of where we are or what we’re doing. This is what will allow Professional to take the next steps for the next fifty years in the Calgary market.”

In a post-pandemic North America, there are two things we know to be in abundance; a pipeline of construction work and a bright and promising young generation. The two are not only necessary ingredients for a positive future for the built environment, but a clear pathway that leads one to the other is very much needed. In California and Nevada, and in the case of precast and prestressed concrete, PCI West is that pathway. A regional chapter of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI), PCI West is a non-profit organization that is committed to promoting the value and quality of precast and prestressed concrete through California and Nevada. PCI West represents 15 producer members (20 plants) and 30 associate member companies, to whom it provides funding, technical resources, a certification program for fabrication, and perhaps most significantly, continuous education. It is PCI West’s commitment to education that provides North America’s next generation of Architects, Engineers, and Construction workers with a direct pathway to a successful career in the precast/prestressed concrete industry.

Behind PCI West’s mission to advance the design, manufacture and use of precast and prestressed concrete products throughout the region, is Executive Director and licensed Civil Engineer, Ruth Lehmann. Lehmann comes with a background in architecture and engineering, and is therefore well equipped to guide both disciplines towards industry success. Precast and prestressed concrete continues to trend upwards in popularity as a building solution of choice in North America, and career opportunities trend upwards along with it. The promotion of this message throughout California and Nevada is at the core of PCI West’s mission. “PCI West is about promoting and educating our architectural, engineering and construction community on precast and prestressed concrete products,” says Lehmann. “That includes reaching out to university students in university programs to inform how they might add precast and prestressed concrete design solutions to their professional tool belt.”

To understand the importance of educating the next generation on precast and prestressed concrete, we must first understand the ever-changing demands of the construction industry and the place of precast and prestressed concrete within it. Accelerated Bridge Construction, for example, is a major market trend and growth opportunity for the industry. “The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is very much about accelerated bridge construction,” Lehmann says, “and the Department of Transportation here has told us that they want to see 30% of bridge construction or bridge projects to be accelerated bridge construction.” I ask her where PCI West fits into all of this, and she says that there is a lot of motivation to build quickly, efficiently, and safely. “Because PCI West producers are producing bridge girders, columns and other elements for bridges that are cast off-site, we have an opportunity to deliver them when needed and potentially accelerate the project schedule.” With bridge construction booming, California is motivated to really invest in the improvement of state infrastructure, which means funding is available once you know how to secure it. That’s where PCI West plays a part. “We have the State of California “1B” funding and many sources of transportation funding at our ports and on the county level, not to mention federal funding that is available for transportation.”

Also trending upwards in the industry is the demand for structurally secure and environmentally sound buildings that are climate-ready. That is, buildings and structures that will not crumble under the pressure of the climate emergency. The role of precast and prestressed concrete in this instance is obvious, given that it can have two to three times the compressive strength of regular concrete. “With precast and prestressed concrete, we can create environmentally sound skins for buildings, if you will. Whether it’s moisture infiltration or air temperature infiltration of the building envelope, we have great opportunities in the cladding market to create solid, secure building systems, and our industry is responding to that. We’re also looking at many different ways to improve our systems in terms of global warming potential,” Lehmann says, giving the example of Portland Limestone (PLC), a blended cement with a higher limestone content that performs the same while reducing the carbon footprint by an average of 10%. “We also try to encourage that our member plants are using renewable energy resources such as wind or solar, which helps us be good stewards of our environment. This is a huge growth area, that we take very seriously and want to be part of our community’s solution to combat global warming.”

“Although we have many things that we do at PCI West, working with students and educating the next generation is probably what my members are most passionate about.”

When Lehmann joined PCI West seven years ago, she recalls an industry-wide buzz around the value of establishing connections with universities, working with students one to one, having them visit precast plants and getting them more involved in the design of precast and prestressed concrete. “And so, we embarked on a journey to develop design studios,” Lehmann says. “We have one at USC School of Architecture which we are continuing with, and we have a long-time studio at Cal Poly Pomona Architecture Department which is a one semester class.” What’s interesting about the Cal Poly Pomona studio is its recent partnership with the University of Hawaii, Manoa, which was born out of a joint research venture on the potential of precast and prestressed concrete to withstand natural disasters. “The students started off looking at tsunamis, the risk for which is heightened in Hawaii but also a problem in California. They’re also looking at other natural disasters, like the wildfires we experience in California and that which were recently experienced in Maui. So, the students from the two campuses have differences and commonalities, and we have them working on a studio together using remote technology.”

Lehmann works alongside many industry professionals with interested in the future of the precast and prestressed concrete industry, including Architects, Engineers, and Professors. “PCI West dedicates over $30,000 annually toward the development of studios and educational interactions with the students,” Lehmann says. “Although we have many things that we do at PCI West, working with students and educating the next generation is probably what my members are most passionate about.” Handpicked by Lehmann because of their commitment to educating the future generation are Brent Koch, Eric Matsumoto, and Doug Noble, all of whom contribute to PCI West’s mission in a significant way.

Brent Koch is licensed California Civil Engineer and the Chief Engineer of Con-Fab California LLC, one of PCI West’s producers. Brent also serves on PCI’s parent board of directors on behalf of PCI West, as well as taking an active role in working with universities. One of the newer studios that has been developed since Lehmann came on board is a bridge design studio at Sacramento State. The Precast Bridge Studio is being operated under a grant from the national PCI Foundation, and with funding directly from PCI West. Brent, a strong supporter of the studio, tells me about the semester-long intensive program. “It’s a combination of mostly civil engineering students and construction management students,” Brent says. “Incredible entors from the bridge design world and Caltrans work with the students over the course of the term to design their project to establish a budget and prepare a construction schedule. Design software is available to them, and they are trained how to use it by one of the authors.”

After lectures and demonstrations, students are given precast plant and jobsite tours to deepen their understanding of the design, plant fabrication and jobsite construction processes as well as their inter-relationships. “This program is a comprehensive immersive experience where the students plan and design real-world bridge structures utilizing precast prestressed concrete members,” Koch says, “then they visit our production facility where they can see first-hand how precast is fabricated, and finally we tour a jobsite to observe and discuss the nuances of precast girder transportation and installation.” Doctor Eric Matsumoto is a Professor of Structural Engineering at Sacramento State University in the Civil Engineering department, and he matches Brent’s enthusiasm when he chimes in on the bridge studio. “It’s the first program in the country that prepares civil engineering and construction manager students in bridge design and construction to collaborate under direct industry mentorship. It’s a rare and very challenging task for undergraduate students to actually design a multi-span precast prestressed bridge and perform the preconstruction services. PCI West has supported us in multiple ways to provide this immersive industry experience. Our students not only achieve in the classroom, but interact with industry in the classroom, on plants tours, and through the entire mentorship process. Then they’ll get job offers, some of them directly with the precast industry, but the majority in the transportation industry based on their knowledge of precast/prestressed concrete.” PCI West’s approach to education is all about this immersive learning experience that is evident in the studios that they operate. “You only get truly educated and become the industry’s next generation by hands-on experiences,” Matsumoto says.

From a yearly convention where organization members showcase their tools and equipment, to an intense 2-day multi-disciplinary design competition called Project Precast, PCI West’s reach in terms of education spans way beyond the classroom. “With the assistance of professors, PCI West sends an army of students to national and regional precast meetings, especially the PCI National Convention,” Matsumoto adds. “And this, in a sense, seals the deal for them, because they start to see the many industry members, including legends, at work in both formal technical sessions and social events, and they think “This is cool, I want to get involved.” Matsumoto also talks of midnight field trips where students observe the installation of girders on bridges. “It’s an unveiling experience for them when they get to see it up close. We’re not only educating them in a theoretical way, we’re combining their theoretical understanding with this practical industry understanding and experience.”

Doug Noble, Architect and USC Professor, reflects on a particular project out in Joshua Tree which was made with precast concrete by USC students. “The project is called Carapace, like the shell of a turtle. It’s a full-size project we did out in Joshua Tree National Park, which is a little bit inland in California, just north of Palm Springs. We did this ultra-high-performance concrete, we had 36 or 37 really challenging goals that we set for ourselves and we installed it last year. It has now won six major awards.” Work continues out in Joshua Tree for Doug and the team, in the form of a new project making tiny homes for rangers. “We call them pocket lodges. Tiny homes that can be prefabricated offsite out of precast concrete. These are for seasonal Park Rangers, like college students. They get 250 square feet, so a super tiny home. That project got underway about a year ago and were making progress with it.”

The success of PCI West and its pioneering approach to educating the next generation is powered first and foremost by equal engagement from students, educators, and the PCI Foundation, all of whom share a passion for the precast and prestressed concrete industry and a drive to succeed within it. “PCI West brings together many disciplines that otherwise would not collaborate,” says Matsumoto, “and so it’s become a real synergy. This is a real unique aspect of what PCI West has been able to spearhead.” This unique connection between different disciplines is evident even in the small sample of PCI West members that join me today. You’ve got Eric Matsumoto, professor and Civil Engineer, Brent, one of the many fabricators, and Doug, representing the Architecture side of things. Each have their own unique working relationship with the foundation and with each other, with PCI West as the common ground and Lehmann leading the charge. Ruth Lehmann, as Noble describes her, is an incredible source of knowledge who takes an active role in the activities and projects of PCI West’s members. “And she is there for everything no matter what we’re doing or how far she has to travel,” he says, backing up Matsumoto’s and Koch’s statements about the indispensable support that comes from PCI West.

Before providing some final reflections on PCI West, Matsumoto tells me that he could talk all day about the stories of success, collaboration, and inspiration that he has experienced throughout his involvement with the non-profit organization. “There’s a spark there,” he says. “They provide resources, they provide connections between students and industry, because there’s a big shortage of bridge engineers, especially ones who are trained and who have knowledge coming into the office. I recently spoke with AASHTO, the American Association for State Highway Transportation Officials, which is the transportation representatives for the whole country. One of the high-level Department of Transportation bridge engineers said that the whole industry needs more students like what we’re developing. And he asked, is there a way we can extend what you’re doing at Sacramento State University to a national model? It’s a major discussion about the next generation, and PCI West has supported our grant to get the funding for it.” It seems there is industry-wide appetite for PCI West’s education model to grow and expand, in the interest of educating the next generation and inspiring a bright future for the precast and prestressed concrete industry.

Dan Schmidt started to think differently about lighting after a relamping job he completed for regional retailer Meijer back in 1997. There were almost ten thousand light bulbs in that one store, all of which needed to be replaced from time to time in the same way that the bulbs in our homes do. North America is flooded with retail units with similar lightbulb footprints, and in this Schmidt spotted an opportunity. He quit his job to commit fully to his mission, which was to light up the Midwest, one retail store at a time. “I started out just changing light bulbs for Meijer and then they added service work into it for interior and exterior lighting services,” says Schmidt, CEO of Reliable Relamping. Soon he had taken over their whole chain and, under the Reliable Relamping name, set out to grow their other national accounts.

In the case of Reliable Relamping, business expansion came organically as a result of a job well done. “Work expanded out of just lighting into full electrical services and anything that a facility needs from a repair standpoint,” Schmidt tells me. “We do repair calls for a number of clients, with over thirteen hundred locations that we’re servicing in twelve States. Anything from the utility all the way into the light bulb, we’re dispatching the team to repair it. If a retailer is going to add new outlets, new services, or do a new display that needs power, they’ll send work orders through us for those as well.” To its valued network of clients, Reliable Relamping is a go-to for on-demand lighting services, scheduled maintenance programs and lighting inspections, all of which are critical in keeping stores lit, which is to keep them operational. “We primarily focus on retail based on how we started with a major retailer, but we’ve also done industrial, medical, hospitality, warehousing – pretty much all sectors. If you’ve got lighting and you’ve got electrical needs, it’s something that that we do.” It has also done some work with Arc Flash Analysis, an engineered incident energy analysis that establishes a safety protocol for staff exposed to heat, light, and blast associated with an arc flash incident.

This service work has naturally evolved along with changing industry demands, particularly in recent years around the global push for sustainability. Retrofitting conventional lighting systems with LEDs can significantly reduce energy consumption, and as a result energy retrofit initiatives have become a big part of Reliable Relamping’s business today. “We’ve completed thousands and thousands of retrofit projects saving millions of kilowatt hours from the energy consumption from our customers,” Schmidt tells me. “We do retrofits across the country for companies like Party City and Foot Locker. A lot of the retrofit projects have come in phases where they may have started with the sales floor only and then later added the rest of the store, whether it’s the offices in the stock room or the exterior. We’ve been to so many of these locations multiple times because they often focus on the customer experience first. It’s kind of interesting to be involved with the projects as the technologies evolve.”

Well established now in the industry, Reliable Relamping has completed some major national rollouts for customers across the country. “One of our recent ones that we are just wrapping up now is 380 locations for Lowe’s stores from California to Delaware. It was a pretty big initiative with that geographic spread. Because of the number of locations there were challenges with the different municipalities, licensing and permitting and those types of challenges. We’ve done a super-center chain who wanted to have their refrigerated fresh pet food displays on their end caps, and we had to add outlets for that. We had one big electrical roll out project for another retailer who wanted to add a bunch of refrigerated coolers closer to their front doors for online grocery orders.” Reliable Relamping rolled this out across 270 stores in just over a month, catering for the growing demand for e-commerce in this post-pandemic and digitally aware society.

“Reliable Relamping also provides a 24/7 emergency response service.”

What may not be seen on the surface of these projects and in the day-to-day customer experience in these stores, is the important work that Reliable Relamping does behind the scenes to keep essential services up and running. “One of the larger things we’ve been doing for the last few years is replacing the standby generators for Home Depot. In most cases we’re increasing the size of the generator and adding different services, which basically requires us to rework the electrical system. We’re doing our own concrete for the generator pad, new fencing, a kind of complete construction project with us as far as a lot of that goes. Part of the reason stores like Home Depot are expanding their services is because they’re kind of a forward base during natural disasters,” Schmidt says. “Like when a hurricane comes through and wipes out entire communities, Home Depot and Lowe’s are often the first stop for many of the residents of the community to come and try to get the hardware and tools they need to put their homes and lives back together. Our services allow them to have better systems that are up and running, as well as keeping their forklifts charged, keeping their store lit safely, adding their paint desks so that they are able to produce paint. Having their store fully operational even in a time of disaster, so that the communities can rely on them to be there for them.”

Reliable Relamping also provides a 24/7 emergency response service, which includes connecting standby generators during power outages to keep its customers operational and prevent a loss of product. By its very nature, Reliable Relamping is a company that essential services can rely on. “One of the Generator projects that we did recently was for a senior care facility,” Schmidt tells me, providing another example of the essential services that form part of the Reliable Relamping portfolio. “We were approached kind of late in the game to replace their generator because there’s some new regulations that require care facilities to have a GCC Generator Connection Cabinet. This means that if their standby generator goes down, they’re back online much quicker with power by having portable generators brought in that can plug into their electrical system.” Reliable Relamping was able to come in on relatively short notice and get the replacement done in time. This allowed the client to maintain its federal funding and its ability to continue with its Medicare patients, which it had been at risk of losing.

“Another major project we’ve been working on is complete upgrades to parking lot lighting, not just new LED fixtures but also the replacement of light poles and concrete bases as they reach their end of useful life. In some instances, we changed the layouts significantly and had to add new pole locations, underground circuiting, and directional boring.” As Schmidt takes me through these projects and services, it’s evident that Reliable Relamping is much more than a lighting contractor. “We’re way past due for a rebranding because the relamping name kind of pigeonholes us into just being a lighting contractor,” he says. “There’s a lot of focus for us on the electrical side of it now, which we’ve been doing for a long time. We’ve got a big emphasis on generator projects, Electric Vehicle charging, remodels. We’re working on increasing that scope and trying to focus on that. A rebranding will allow us to really encompass that electrical side of our business as well.”

Reliable Relamping’s commitment to customer service is evident in its long-term relationships, and as Schmidt tells me, it all started with Meijer. “We’re still a vendor and a value-added partner with them. I had a conference call with them today about updating their produce spotlighting. I also suggested some possible projects to protect their investments in their LED lighting by adding transient Volt surge suppressors to their electrical panels.” This partnership alone represents Reliable Relamping’s journey from that first relamping job back in the nineties, to providing it with a wide range of LED lighting and electrical services today. “So, we’re twenty-seven years with Meyer, and we’ve been with Home Depot since 2001. Having those long-term relationships says a lot about our approach to customer service and our commitment to doing what’s right for the customer. And being a valued partner for them for such long periods of time – that’s a kind of a desirable position to be in.”

With thousands of projects on the go for customers nationwide, Reliable Relamping is investing in technology that will allow it to maintain the high-quality service efficiency its customers have come to rely on it for. “We do over 15,000 service work orders annually, so we’re implementing some new work order management software to help us with our dispatching. The industry is all about service level agreements and SLA requirements. Accept the work order within such a time, dispatch the work order by such a time, turn your quotes around, turn your invoice around. Because of the remote nature of facility departments and all these multi-site locations, they really rely on the metrics from these work order management portals to provide a scorecard on your services.” This scorecard is ultimately how efficiencies are measured against expectations, and the investment in this software is a commitment to maintaining these service level agreements as demand increases. “The new software will allow us to automate some processes and turn things around faster, helping us support our customers’ technology initiatives.”

Reliable Relamping has its sights set on future expansion, with plans to embrace growth opportunities as they present themselves. “I think we’ve probably worked in every state by now, self-performing in a lot of them, but we’re always looking to increase our geographic footprint for our self-performing and service territory. We currently have employees in the major markets throughout twelve States and we’re on the lookout for opportunities to expand beyond those. We’ve got employees based out of Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, and some other project teams out of Louisiana, Texas, and Tennessee.” Reliable Relamping’s footprint continues to spread across the nation, lighting the way to a bright future in the electrical contracting industry. “We’ve got a great team of people and a long tenure,” Schmidt says. “We’re very thankful for our organization and the people we have here that are committed to our mission. Our motto is to ‘do what’s right for the customer.’ We try to live and breathe that.”

From its 95,000 square foot plant in Davison, Michigan, Bristol Steel & Conveyor Corp has been providing structural steel solutions to the surrounding area since 1979. Davison is located within the environs of Detroit, the Automobile Capital of the World, and so it makes sense that automotive industrial work is, as Estimate & Sales Manager Matt Payne says, “our bread and butter.” Owned and operated by Ray Oliver, Bristol Steel is fully equipped to deliver large, labor-intensive projects that are anywhere up to 10,000 tons in scale. However, as Payne explains, they are more than just an automotive company.
“We’re starting to do a lot more commercial and institutional work. We are currently expanding the company’s capabilities as far as fabrication goes. We have recently purchased two new beam lines for our fabrication shop and put on a 200- foot addition to our plant.”

Payne joins me to talk about where the company now sits after almost 45 years in business, but also about where it all began. The company was started he says, by current Chairman, Ray Oliver. “A journeyman and an ironworker, Ray Oliver got into the trade industry in the sixties where he started working in automotive plants. He was somebody who saw an opportunity and took it,” says Payne. The opportunity he speaks of is the exponential growth of the Automotive Industry in Flint, Michigan back in the seventies and eighties. This boom allowed Oliver to not only start his own company but to set it up for success long into the future. “Here in Davison, we’re about fifteen miles from Flint, and that’s where the opportunity really presented itself. There was a lot of work taking place in the area back then. In the mid to late seventies Ray saw the opportunity to open his own fabrication and erection company, and in 1979 that’s what he did.” Propelled forward by hard work and an ability to spot an opportunity and run with it, Oliver evolved from tradesperson to owner of a company that remains viable and profitable today.

“You go where the work is and where the market takes you.” For Bristol Steel, this was evident back in the seventies during the growth of the automotive industry in the same way that it is now with the rise of the Electrical Vehicle. “These EV plants are really creating a boom for our sector,” Payne explains. He gives the example of the BlueOval City in Kentucky which is an automotive assembly complex that will be operated by Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation. “The Blue Oval project was about a 40- 42-hundred-ton project,” he says. “It’s a single-story truss and column manufacturing plant addition for the battery buildup of the building.”

Bristol Steel’s involvement in the BlueOval project, which aims to reimagine how electric vehicles and batteries are designed, built, and recycled, places the company as a significant element of the electric revolution. “It’s all local contractors managing these facilities,” Payne says. “These are $6 billion campuses that go on for six square miles. We already have relationships with these contractors and are in a position where we have been working with some of them for 25 years. So, we’re going to be employing anywhere between 5 to 6000 people at these plants, on these campuses. Sometimes business is about being in the right place at the right time.”

“We are a turnkey company when it comes to fabrication and erection of structural miscellaneous steel.”

Since the beginning, Bristol Steel has evolved. This ability to diversify, develop, and pivot when required has transformed Bristol Steel into a company that, as Payne says, is “one stop shopping when it comes to steel fabrication and erection.” Over the years it has become one of the largest steel fabricators in the state of Michigan, employing about 50 to 60 people in office and about 70 people in fabrication facilities, depending on the workload at a given time. “We are a turnkey company when it comes to fabrication and erection of structural miscellaneous steel. And like I said, we’ll do projects up to 10,000 tons in size, whether it be industrial, commercial, institutional, all types of the industry work.” Payne takes me through the three different divisions that form the building blocks of Bristol Steel.

“So, we have our Bristol Steel division, which is our fabrication and erection facility where we fabricate structural miscellaneous steel.” This division, known as Bristol Steel & Conveyor Corporation, consists of Fabricators and Erectors of small to mega sized structural steel projects, with an organic fabrication capacity in excess of 1500 ton per month. “We have our manufacturing division which fabricates “Rigger Special” high lows, which are specialized rigging equipment that are used all over the country. They’re heavy-duty fork trucks with all types of different weight capacities, and they’re used in the plants for rigging equipment, tooling, things like that.” The Bristol Manufacturing division provides a flexible service by which clients can choose from standardized products or custom designed units tailored to fit individual applications.

Finally, there is Bristol Steel Equipment Rental, which boasts the largest selection of cranes, forklifts, vertical manlifts and specialized heavy lift apparatuses in the mid-west. “We have an extensive array of cranes and all kinds of equipment at our plant that we subcontract rent out to clients all over the country,” says Payne. “And we also do our own trucking, mostly in state, some out-of-state.”

Each of these three divisions is experiencing growth in tandem with the growth of the structural steel industry as a whole, and as business expands rapidly it is important to understand how quality is maintained across the board. “We are an AISC Certified Fabricator and Erector,” Payne says proudly, speaking of the American governing body of the steel industry. “We have high quality standards that we have to maintain, and we get audited every year. A lot of our projects now require these certifications and we have been certified for the past 10 years. Quality standards are high, especially in the automotive industry. They want the best of the best, right?”

Speaking of its commitment to quality service, Payne tells me about some of the high-class projects Bristol Steel has worked on over the years. “We like larger projects, obviously. We don’t want to do 50 jobs a year to do 30 million. We want to do 10 jobs a year to do 30 million. We want quality, not necessarily quantity, and we don’t aspire to make our profit up on volume.” Bristol Steel ensures that at each phase of fabrication there’s a dedicated full-time Quality Control Person that reports directly to each shop Manager, checking that each piece of steel is dimensionally correct with the appropriate finish. Another method by which high quality is upheld is through Chairman Ray Oliver, who continues to play a significant role in the day-to-day running of the business. One of the keys to success, Payne believes.

“A job we’ve done recently is the Ford Rouge project down in Dearborn, MI on the main plant, which is where everything started for Henry Ford. That’s a turnkey plant where they started building up Model T’s back in the early 1900s. They had a waterway that ran through that plant there, the freighters would come through and dump raw materials right there. Ford would process them on his own at his own smelting, he did everything there start to finish back in the early days.” In this way, Bristol Steel has been connected to the Michigan automotive industry throughout the entirety of its lifecycle, from Henry Ford’s beginnings at Ford Rouge to the introduction, and no doubt imminent takeover, of the electric vehicle. “We’re doing a multi-story building in Lansing, Michigan, a testing facility for Neogen Corporation. We’re in the field right now erecting that job out. We’ve done a lot of University of Michigan work including new structures like Ross School of Business down at the U of M campus in Ann Arbor. We’ve also done joist and deck work for Toyota. Whatever our clients want or need, that’s what we do. We really don’t have any limitations.”

Bristol Steel has its eyes firmly set on expansion, and that includes not only in its square footage, but also its equipment and their facilities. “Our new equipment is going to make us 30-40% more efficient, and in turn our ability to take on more work is expanded by 30-40% too.” With the Electric Vehicle acting as a catalyst for a fresh boom in the automotive industry, the company sees no signs of slowing down on that front. Still though, it also plans to build on new relationships in different markets including commercial and industrial. As Payne explains, there is no limit to the smart building solutions that steel, and in particular Bristol Steel, can provide. “You’ve got to grow. You’ve got to adapt. You’ve got to expand your sales and your philosophies all the time,” he says. This is a philosophy in and of itself, and a pathway to success, innovation, and longevity in the industry. “We’ve been around for almost 45 years, and I don’t see anything stopping us from being around for another 45.”

Every day, products are transported all over the globe from warehouse to shipping container to delivery van, and then carried around the country in pursuit of their final destination. More often than not, they arrive at their endpoint in the same perfect condition they left the warehouse in. This is not a result of the product’s own ability to endure these journeys unscathed, but rather of the packaging that protects it at every twist and turn along the way. Protective is a key word in Alleguard’s story and one that extends beyond its high-quality protective packaging solutions. “We’re protecting products, we’re protecting people, and we’re protecting the earth through sustainability,” says Laura Catalan, Alleguard’s Director of Marketing.

Alleguard’s name is a combination of Allegiance – that is to its employees, companies, and suppliers – and Guarding, or protecting, which is at the root of its offering. “Whether it be a refrigerator being shipped, a life-saving vaccine, or a home from a hurricane, our products can bring a sense of security that other products can’t provide.” Alleguard is the result of an ongoing rebrand which sees the amalgamation of six legacy companies, each leading manufacturers in their respective industries, under one umbrella and in the name of collective success. “All the legacy companies bring in different aspects of the business,” says Catalan, “giving Alleguard a combined 60-year company history that has allowed us to penetrate new market segments and expand our footprint.” A market leader in the engineering, delivery, and service of foam solutions, Alleguard covers three major product categories for North America: Construction, Protective Packaging, and Cold-Chain. “We can really produce any type of custom foam product to suit our customer’s needs,” Catalan says, before taking me through the three product categories that form Alleguard’s portfolio.

“For construction products we serve multiple applications offering a complete building envelope for residential and commercial,” she says. “That includes wall installation, roofing installation, radiant floor heating and insulated concrete forms.” Alleguard’s EPS construction products are cost efficient in their ability to speed up installation time and reducing the total cost of install. The end-product provides superior moisture control and long-term R-value retention, which makes it high-performing and energy-efficient in operation too.

Cold-chain EPS solutions are safe, reliable, and economical, and are the perfect foam solution to serve temperature-sensitive products for industries such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. “Any kind of product that needs to be temperature controlled,” says Kurt Arbeen, VP of Sales and Marketing for Shape Mold. “We have molded cold coolers and 6-panel liners, which are six pieces of foam that would fit into, say, a type of box as a protection. It’s a critical sector to ensure that our products can maintain temperature requirements and product integrity.”

Alleguard’s Protective Packaging Products are designed to cushion, protect, and maintain products during the shipping, handling, and storage stages of their lifecycle. From sensitive electronics to medical products, Alleguard provides OEM, Custom, and Flexible Foam Solutions that are fit for the level of protection required. “EPS, EPP, and Arcel each have tremendous value propositions across the protective packaging sectors, solving a diverse platform of issues shipping undamaged product. Protective packaging can use multiple types of materials and create solutions for automotive packaging, TVs, appliances,” Arbeen says. “There’s multiple ways that our products protect different things.”

“Through its commitment to sustainability, Alleguard is safeguarding more than just the products it protects.”

As we move through different phases of the climate emergency, we are no longer satiated by simple recycling initiatives that, while important, fail to make waves in a movement that is rapidly growing in urgency. With this, it is the companies that truly commit to the cause that will make a significant difference. Catalan explains how Alleguard is exploring sustainability “through benchmarking and driving improvements with our utility footprint, community work, and partnerships to explore EPS in a circular system. We have been working towards creating metrics and sustainability reports that we can provide corporately and to our company as a whole, with multiple plans across North America. We really engage in recycling and reusing clean scrap or clean waste into our products, so a cradle-to-cradle approach. We also sell densified material overseas to create new products, and so our entire manufacturing process is also sustainable and energy efficient.”

In this way Alleguard’s sustainable initiatives extend beyond its line of foam production and into the community it serves. The company is becoming increasingly involved with community outreach programs that support sustainability and reduce waste to landfill. “Our corporate sustainability message is continuing to grow,” says Dusty McNab, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Block and Fabrication. “We are working with the public to be able to take back their waste, depending on what type of waste it is, so that we can use it in different ways.” In further support of a full-circle approach to sustainability, Alleguard ensures that the raw materials it uses, the procurement of its products, and the components of the final products it provides are all sustainably sourced. “It’s important to partner with people who have the same goals as us in terms of corporate sustainability,” McNab says. Through its commitment to sustainability, Alleguard is safeguarding more than just the products it protects.

“We’ve really ramped up our ESG strategy,” says McNab, speaking about the framework used to assess an organization’s business practices and performance on various sustainability and ethical issues. The Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) framework aims to limit negative impact and enhance positive impact on the environment, society, and governance bodies. A decision to follow ESG principles is a commitment to behave in a responsible, ethical, and community-minded manner in the three designated areas. “We’re looking at every aspect of environmental, social and governance within the company, including employee and turnover rates, culture, community outreach, recycling programs, customer partnerships and manufacturing processes. There’s definitely a lot of growth potential in this space for us, but we are pretty proud of where we’re at right now.”

On the ongoing rebrand, of which sustainability is just one element, McNab says that the company “needed a unified name, to share our story and our vision, for both our internal teams and customers. What’s important to us is how we put all of the legacy companies under this Alleguard umbrella, and make sure we don’t lose sight of the legacy customers that we bring with us.” Though the rebrand is still ongoing and expected to take the balance of a year, Alleguard has already started to see the positive outcomes of it. “We now have 17 locations with our Headquarters in Nashville,” he says. “That footprint has allowed us to capture new business, because of lead times and logistically, just being so close in proximity for freight and things like that. There are times when we have pulled from multiple locations to fulfil customer orders, and the ability to do that is key. Our footprint is really important to be competitive in the industry and our multiple locations have definitely allowed us the room to grow.” Being able to shift assets between locations depending on where the demand is higher gives Alleguard a unique advantage – the Alleguard Advantage.

With the positive changes it continues to implement as part of the recent acquisitions, Alleguard has found itself in a position where its geographical footprint is wide and its customer base strong, all the while benefiting from a fresh and exciting rebrand along with a commitment to a sustainable future. “Going forward it’s all about taking advantage of our footprint to grow our product manufacturing in different regions, penetrating new markets, and continuing our sustainability message internally and to the public,” says Catalan. “The rebrand is definitely a challenge because we’re putting a brand-new name out there, but it’s a good challenge because there are so many positives that come with it. “Change, as we know, does not come without challenge, but nor does success. Alleguard plans to embrace change and the challenges that come with it, with the end-goal of becoming the ultimate foam solutions provider. With all the company has to offer and the combined experience of its six legacy companies, it’s a path well carved, well threaded, and well within reach.

Barsplice Products Inc. is a company built on simple but effective values – treat others with respect, never intentionally lie or mislead customers, and maintain a family-feel in both its ownership structure and its approach to doing business. While the company is committed to upholding these values equally, the third is one that comes easy. Barsplice is a family-owned company that has been in business for 40 years. In December 1983, Frank Casella acquired Dayton Barsplice from Dayton Sure Grip & Shore Company. This acquisition saw a team of 10 people operating out of a 20,000 square foot building, introducing new products, one by one, to the Dayton area. Since these formative years, Barsplice has upgraded to a 330,000 square foot building that is considerably better suited to the 150 plus employees it now has on board.

One of the five companies under parent company FC Industries Inc., Barsplice Products is a designer and manufacturer of mechanical splices and anchoring systems for reinforcing steel. It’s a company with a footprint that extends far beyond its headquarters in Dayton Ohio. Barsplice serves customers across all 50 states, as well as internationally. “It’s the true American dream,” says David Casella, Regional Sales Manager of Barsplice Products, and part of the tightly woven fabric that awards the company it’s true, family-owned status. The significant growth Barsplice has experienced over time is what has propelled it forward to 2023, celebrating its 40th year in business.

Reflecting on the last 40 years and the milestones achieved along the way, Casella talks proudly of a company that holds high the value of sustainable growth, which it has been fortunate to experience in tandem with the growth of the steel reinforcement industry. “We are really proud of our growth in the Dayton area. It has allowed us to give our employees the opportunity to have a better life.” For Casella, talk of company success does not come without mention of the employees at Barsplice, establishing clearly from the outset a ‘shared-success’ mindset. He tells me of a quote from Frank Casella, the man responsible for setting things in motion: “You cannot have good customers without good employees, and we have both.” As Casella explains, this belief is something that Barsplice Products still lives by today.

With a product list that is ever-evolving in line with new technology and innovations, Barsplice offers a wide variety of solutions to its customers. As Casella explains, this is due to the varied nature and demands of the concrete reinforcing industry. “There is not one coupler or anchorage system that fits all,” he says, “so it depends on the project and the application its being used in.” Barsplice prides itself on its ability to adapt and customize its offering depending on the intricate details of the project at hand. “We really try to be at the forefront so we can understand what our customers’ needs are, and what the industries needs are.”

Casella talks me through some of Barsplice’s most popular products, a mix of old reliables and newer innovations. This list, resonant and far-reaching, is a testament to the company’s vast wealth of experience in delivering mechanical splicing solutions. “The ZAP Screwlok® is one of our most popular products,” Casella says, speaking of the shear screw mechanical splice designed for connecting existing bars or patch and repair applications. “It’s widely used in the field.”

“The NC-PC system helps customers with freight because they are not shipping longer or heavier rebar and that way it’s less weight, so in this way we can help from a cost-savings standpoint.”

Problem solvers by nature, Barsplice also offers solutions to freight concerns that inevitably come with supplying the global market. “We’ve recently come out with a new system called the NC-PC BPI Precast NC Panel Connector which is used in the precast industry when putting one panel of a parking garage onto another.” This system eliminates risks associated with protruding rebar and is therefore safer in transit. “It’s safer on the job site too because nothing is sticking out. When you set another panel down our rebar can be screwed into it and it is then flush with the panel. It’s a much safer method. The NC-PC system helps customers with freight because they are not shipping longer or heavier rebar and that way it’s less weight, so in this way we can help from a cost-savings standpoint.”

What is evident from speaking to Casella, is the wide impact that Barsplice has had on the industry. He references products that are now considered to be industry standards, giving an insight into the continuous innovation and skill that the company has demonstrated for decades. “Another is the BPI Barsplicer threaded rebar splicing system which has been used for decades. It’s called a ‘form saver’ and it is a simple concept where customers can nail the flange of the coupler onto the form when they’re doing a street or a bridge. This allows them to pour one lane, pull the wood form away, and repeat the process when pouring the 2nd lane. That way, they don’t take out a whole entire bridge. With this system we can do roughly up to 140,000 threads in a month. Having the capability to do multiple sizes and high volumes really helps us to service our customers and keep their projects on time,” Casella says. “That product is one of the most versatile with all the different grades of rebar that are offered; Grade 60, Grade 75, Grade 80, Grade 100. The product is available uncoated, epoxy coated, galvanized or stainless steel. Like all of our products, it is very versatile, probably the most versatile of them all.”

When discussing headed reinforcement, Barsplice offers a headed bar product known as the BPI FITT®. As Casella explains, the product is highly beneficial in the field and is something that demonstrates Barsplice’s ability to listen to the needs of its industry, then react appropriately. “In a column or a structure where rebar is coming straight up, a lot of the time they’ll have a 90-degree bend or 180-degree hook. With the BPI FITT, we can eliminate the hooks by taking our coupler which just slides over the straight bar end and tightens down onto the rebar to terminate the end of the column. Not only does this help with congestion, but also with the Design Build phase of the industry which is the direction things are going. Customers can put the product onto the rebar and then cut it where they need it, which allows them to continue on track and to keep progressing with their projects.”

When Casella gets to talking about the projects Barsplice has been involved with over the years, I think back to the company’s humble beginning as a small, Dayton based operation. As big names like the Allegiant Stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders and the Hard Rock Hotel in Miami are casually mentioned, it is evident that the American dream –in the context of construction industry success—is alive and well. Further afield, Barsplice has also provided mechanical splicing and anchoring solutions for the Butterfly high-rise in Vancouver, and the Intel Manufacturing Center in Israel. “It’s remarkable to see the endless projects we work on every day,” he says. “To think a small, family-owned company has grown into what it is now, and to be trusted on these projects that are known around the world.”

Casella wraps things up by driving home the values of Barsplice Products and its plans for future growth. Employee, customer, vendor, or supplier – the golden rule applies across the board when it comes to the company’s commitment to its people. “We treat everyone with the same Gold Star standard. It’s not always about a business transaction.” In theme with the previous forty years, Barsplice is remaining focused on international growth and has big plans to extend its reach into new corners of the globe. “The industry is looking good and things are coming down the pipeline.” What things these are, exactly, we can’t be sure. What is clear is that by keeping a firm focus on the values that have helped it achieve an incredible four decades in business, Barsplice Products Inc. has garnered a reputation that will see it well into the next few decades too. In keeping with the calm, measured approach that comes with running a family-owned business, Casella is more prosaic in his assessment. “We’re very proud of the reputation we have,” he says, “and we have been very blessed and fortunate along the way too.”

WellDone Inc. is an Ontario-based general contractor specializing in high rise building envelope restoration. This includes the replacement or repairing of windows, glass, caulking, balconies, concrete, brick masonry, cladding, or as company owner Alexander puts it, “basically anything that needs to be done on the exterior of existing high-rise buildings.”

Alexander started his career on the frontline of the construction industry as a window installer. This proved to be a deeply formative time and he gained a wealth of industry experience and identified opportunities for growth and development. By adding to his personal skill-set, he was equipped to create a successful business. “I hired two people who were new to the industry, and we were successful in winning small projects, providing window installation services for window manufacturers,” he tells me from the company’s HQ in Toronto. “I trained the employees and, by having a high level of skill on staff, and we started growing. Eventually we were hiring and teaching more and more people and we reached a point where we had three or four window installation crews.”

Today WellDone Inc. is sixty employees strong with seven project managers, two of which are the original employees that Alexander first hired and trained twelve years ago.

While skill and hard work are important facets of a successful business, strategic decision-making at just the right moment can be pivotal. At the request of a client the company branched out from window installation into the many different specialties it now offers to the market. “A client was happy with our work and asked if we could also do balcony railings installation. We started doing that and after some time they said they had some balcony concrete they needed to repair, and asked if we could do that too.” As Alexander puts it, much of the work his company currently completes stems from those initial requests. “The decision to develop new skills, incorporate new services, and move into new areas has proven to be an integral part of why we have reached the position we are now in.” It’s that traditional way of doing business that stands the test of time – do an exceptional job, build a long-term relationship based on trust, and the rest is history. Since the beginning and guided always by a commitment to a job well done, WellDone Inc. has been on a consistent path of steady growth, much of which came during the turbulent year that was 2020. This in itself is a testament to the company’s ability to deliver the highest quality of service, even in the most testing of industry conditions.

“The job is not done until it’s well done.”

Window installation is at the root of the company and the craft from which all others grew. Within this market sector, WellDone Inc. Inc specializes in the replacement of aluminum punched windows and window walls, in-swing and out-swing balcony doors, storefront windows, and doors, building entrances, and sliding and revolving doors. “We do window replacement, wall frames, weather stripping, gaskets – all types of maintenance to the existing windows,” Alexander says. “We have completed some large projects with many different Engineering Consultancy firms and clients.” By way of example, Alexander points to WellDone Inc. providing a full entrance replacement on the Scotiabank building in Scarborough, Ontario. “A large, and very successful, project” he says, and one in which the company’s precision of craft can be seen in the finished product. “In terms of building restoration, we do balcony and concrete work including waterproofing, metal flashing, cladding, siding, masonry, and stucco which is exterior insulation and finish systems (EIFS). Replace or repair,” Alexander says, “that’s our specialty.”

Much of WellDone Inc.’s work can be seen on its website through impressive drone footage that captures the scale and complexity of the projects it has come to specialize in. The company is fully bonded with full liability insurance which means it is set up to work on big, high-rise jobs. “We just finished a project where we did full building envelope rehabilitation including balconies, windows – everything you see from the outside is all new. It was a ten-story building and we had to do all types of different work – a huge transformation. We also did sloped glazing on a building that had more than thirty stories. On top, there were five floors of sloped glazing and we had to provide all the access.”

WellDone Inc.has the expertise to assess a building’s envelope and provide preventative maintenance to avoid hidden damage, and this is what makes it niche in its ability to solve otherwise undetected problems. “We have a lot of consultants using us now to investigate potential projects – leakage investigations, water penetration investigations. They hire us to assist with all kinds of building investigations when they are preparing the scope of work and the tender for potential projects. We have a bosun chair crew so we can provide some services on a bosun chair and not just on the swing stage. Sometimes it is very difficult to set up a swing stage on the roof for many different reasons, so we can save the client money by providing investigation assistance or even small repairs on a bosun chair. We also do concrete repairs for underground parking garages and decks including waterproofing, coating, painting.”

WellDone Inc. carries out building restoration from inception to completion, always ensuring there is minimal disruption, timely execution of work, quality results, and above all else, a safe working environment. Alongside its people and its level of quality, it is WellDone Inc’s commitment to safety that truly sets it apart from the rest. This next-level commitment can be understood through its recent COR Certification which solidifies its 12 years of experience delivering quality projects safely.

COR Certification recognizes employers that implement occupational health and safety protocols that exceed current legal requirements and is rewarded after a strict assessment manual is followed and certification audit passed. “Our certificate number is 744, which means that at the time of certification there were only that number of companies certified across, not only construction, but all industries. It was a big achievement for us. It demonstrated that by developing a strategy, prioritizing safety, and working hard to improve safety standards, we could strengthen the already solid relationships we have built across the industry. We were going through the process for almost three years.”

COR Certification has changed the approach and mentality of WellDone Inc. as it is now led by the highest level of safety recognition that exists in the field. The company now has a full-time Safety Coordinator, something which is not the norm among general contractors. “In addition to that we work with a safety consultant,” says Alexander. “We work on a retainer basis, but if needed, they can work with us full time.” The practices put in place as part of COR certification are cognizant of WellDone Inc.’s commitment to safety that goes above and beyond tick-box exercises and legal requirements.

In the same way that WellDone Inc’s growth came from word of mouth, so too does most of its project pipeline today. The market-wide hum of satisfied customers across the GTA is what has established WellDone Inc. as a company that champions reliability, quality, and safety. “We like the approach where clients are referring us through word of mouth and saying these guys know what they’re doing.” Because the construction industry is competitive, it can often be tempting for companies to set themselves apart by simply providing the lowest price. However, this ultimately comes with some level of sacrificing, whether that be on service, product, or efficiency. Alexander says that by being the best deal for the client, his company may not necessarily be the cheapest.

Under Alexander’s leadership WellDone Inc. has built a workforce who share the same vision, putting it on a collective path towards growth and longevity. “I am committed to my clients and my employees. A lot of our staff are working with us a long time, and like I said earlier the two workers I hired first are still here today. I have a responsibility and a commitment to keep moving forward because everyone here wants to grow,” he says. This company-wide growth mindset is what propels WellDone Inc. forward into a bright future in high-rise building restoration, but above all else, the goal is to grow smart. “My goal is to grow without jeopardizing the quality, approach, and safety standards of the company we have right now. From the outset my goal has been to build and develop and dedicated and highly skilled workforce. For me, this will ensure that we grow in a smart way. Risk is part of operating a successful business, but it needs to be a controlled, smart risk. My goal for the company is that we achieve growth through developing a reputation for quality. The feedback we receive is evidence that we are doing this which only motivates the team and I even further.”

“When I chose ‘WellDone Inc.’ as the name for our company, I was making a promise – a guarantee of excellence in every job we undertake. The name in itself carries a weight of expectation, and we fully embrace it. It’s a constant reminder that we need to go beyond just getting the job done; we strive to get it done really well. This isn’t just a clever branding strategy – it’s a reflection of everything we stand for as a company. We’re committed to delivering work that doesn’t just meet, but exceeds, the standards implied by our name. A project is only completed when it’s ‘well done’ to the truest sense of the word.”

CONTACT INFORMATION
Alexander Ivanov
President, WellDone Inc.
welldoneinc.ca

Northeast Precast LLC is a precast concrete manufacturer specializing in commercial products and residential foundation wall systems. Operating out of New Jersey in the Residential, Commercial, and Transportation markets, it provides top-quality construction materials that are built to last. As Mark Gorgas puts it: “We’re turning construction into manufacturing and combining the two. This gives customers the quality and precision of manufacturing combined with construction. Operating in a controlled environment where you can train the employees from the ground up helps add additional long-term value.” Gorgas speaks to me today during Northeast Precast’s 20th year in business and as the company’s newly appointed President.

Reflecting on the early days, Gorgas tells me that the company has developed hugely and, equally importantly, in an organic way. “Northeast Precast owners John and Lorie Ruga built a 25,000 square foot plant from the ground up and began operations there in late 2003. They had recently branched out from residential home remodeling into precast manufacturing, starting with a single product called Superior Walls.” As Gorgas goes on to explain, even 20 years on that product, durable and abiding in character, remains the foundation on which the company is built. “For the first few years we focused on the residential market, doing basements predominantly in the South Jersey region in close proximity to the plant.”

However, once Northeast Precast’s production plant was established, business took off quickly. Less than two years later, the company found itself doubling in size to a 50,000 square foot plant. “Business continued to grow,” says Gorgas, “but in 2007 we met the challenges of the recession which forced us to rethink how we went about things.” For Northeast Precast, the recession and the financial and operational restraints that came with it were ultimately the catalyst that pushed it into new markets. “We came to realize that we were part of a much bigger industry than we realized – that being the precast concrete industry – and started pursuing Department of Transportation and commercial building type projects.”

As a result of its willingness to adapt under difficult circumstances, Northeast Precast quickly got back on track post-recession and managed to fill its production plant to capacity. Fast forward another 10 years and the company took the opportunity to pivot strategically, opening a second 50,000 square foot plant in tandem with the development of a new commercial division to focus on commercial building projects. “I think we learned from the recession that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and we are never going to live off past successes,” Gorgas says. “You can celebrate success but, to think that what you did in the past is going to be enough for your future, you’re going to find yourself a stagnant organization, and then you’ll start to trend in the wrong direction. Choosing to reinvent yourself even when you feel comfortable is a critical part of continuing to create opportunity for your employees.”

As was the trend that carried it through its first decade, Northeast Precast continued to grow. It soon found itself in need of more space to conquer new markets, and thus began the development of a new 300-acre headquarter property in Vineland. Further expansion continued in the form of a new 125,000 square foot precast plant and steel fabrication shop in Vineland, and later a 225,000 square foot plant on the same property. In early 2023, during an already significant year for the company, Northeast Precast completed its move to the new HQ. As Gorgas explains, this move has had an incredibly positive impact on the company. “Today, hundreds of skilled craftsman work on the same 300-acre facility which has been the ownership’s dream – having this new headquarters and consolidating everything to be more efficient. We now have 350,000 square feet of indoor manufacturing space and 2 batch plants, pouring about 700 yards of concrete a day.”

“We now have 350,000 square feet of indoor manufacturing space and 2 batch plants, pouring about 700 yards of concrete a day.”

A powerhouse now in both scope and scale, Northeast Precast still relies heavily on its roots by continuing to work in single-family home construction. “I think it’s rather unique that we erect four or five precast structures per day in the New Jersey market for single-family homes,” says Gorgas. However, the next project he highlights is a long way from a single-family home, and the contrast between the two points to the wide range of services Northeast Precast offers. “Recently, we erected our first precast parking structure, a 583-car garage for Lifetime Athletic in Middletown, New Jersey. Adjacent to that we also built a total precast building for the gym facility, 120,000 square foot and 4- stories tall.”

At the beginning of our conversation, Gorgas mentioned the company’s early involvement with the Department of Transport as a result of its post-recession expansion, and this pipeline of highway and infrastructure work remains a strong part of Northeast Precast’s future. “We’ve been working for the past several years on the 42-295 project for the New Jersey Department of Transportation which includes retaining walls, noise walls, and segmental bridge products including hammerhead piers that go on top of segmental piers.” On the commercial front, he says: “We’re just wrapping up a 400,000 square foot retail facility in Elmont, New York, at the Belmont Park Retail Village which is comprised of boutique shops and restaurants as well as special event space.”

Underlying each of Northeast Precast’s projects and embedded into the company’s vision, is a drive towards sustainability. For Gorgas, it is important on an environmental level but also, it makes good business sense. “We like to think about sustainability from the standpoint of being good stewards of all the resources we’ve been entrusted with, including customers, employees, and the environment. All those resources support each other, and anytime you have waste in that chain, one of the shareholders is paying for that waste. We’ve always thought about it from that perspective.”

Within that chain of resources, the most tangible of Northeast Precast’s responsibilities, when it comes to sustainability, is the product that it makes. For Gorgas, it is vital that the company works towards achieving something many companies strive and fail to achieve, balance. “We’re very aware of the fact that cement has a negative perspective from the outside world,” he says. “It really is a carbon heavy product, but we work hard to reduce the impact of that with our panel design. Our current panel design reduces the cement and concrete usage by 33% by using a composite insulated panel design. We try to design our panels with continuous edge-to-edge insulation to make a high-quality building envelope, that plays really well into sustainability. And at our facility we recently installed a concrete reclaimer system that allows us to take waste concrete and wastewater and turn it into reusable product. This allows the cement, sand, stone, and water to be reused after they go through the reclaimer system.”

Northeast Precast is a company with a clear success story told through its project portfolio and growth succession. More than anything though, it’s people-first approach is what ultimately keeps it on a sustainable path. “For people to be engaged they have to understand the vision, and if the vision is simply a certain amount of revenue, the energy around that eventually runs out,” says Gorgas. “But if they understand that the vision is taking care of people – that’s something everyone can get behind.”

As somebody who has been with the company since the beginning, Gorgas is able to truly reflect on the past 20 years that have led Northeast Precast to where it is today. “Looking back over our history it’s easy to see that customers appreciate when you do the right thing,” he says. “That alone – investing in your customers and employees – really propels you forward. I think we are tapping into something by building a culture that’s focused on customers and employees. We’re building something that people want to be a part of, and that tends to organically grow itself.”

Several years ago, Conewago Manufacturing, LLC provided custom precast panels and steel for Ag-Com’s new 3-story, state-of-the-art milling operation in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. On completion of the project the client was able to see their vision come to life in the form of a real, tangible building that had previously only lived in their minds. When the client shared their satisfaction with Conewago Manufacturing in an email, they captured the essence of what the company has been doing all along and what it continues to do today – help their clients turn visions into reality.

Conewago is a manufacturing company based out of Hanover, PA, specializing in precast concrete, steel fabrication and erection along with ready mix concrete. The company approaches its work with clients with commitment, creativity, and a can-do attitude that has placed it at the forefront of the precast concrete industry in Pennsylvania, Maryland and throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Representing Conewago today in a conversation that takes me through over six decades of service is President Jason Blasé and VP of Operations Eric Smith.

“There was a small stretch of time in the seventies where our sister company, Conewago Enterprises, started in precast concrete, making septic tanks and stormwater culverts,” says Smith of Conewago Manufacturing’s beginnings into the world of precast. “We ventured out from our general contractor side into our own company, Conewago Manufacturing, LLC to offer ready-mix, steel fabrication and erection, and then finally precast concrete.”

Interestingly, many of Conewago Manufacturing’s clients are general contractors who are competitors of its sister company. Those GC clients have come to value Conewago Manufacturing for not only the quality of their work, but also the fact they can purchase precast and steel from a single vendor, which offers numerous efficiencies.

“Our clients know that managing two different subs in the steel and precast trades can present numerous challenges and cause administrative and production delays,” says Smith. “Our model offers them a one-stop-shop and helps control the critical path of the project, and helps our GC clients keep projects on time and on budget.”

“We are AISC-certified fabricators and erectors,” Blase says with regard to the steel side of Conewago’s offering. “We make our own columns and beams, and we also do some miscellaneous metals like stairs, dock angles, items like that. We also have a small group that makes retaining walls.”

When it comes to precast concrete, insulated wall panels are, as Blase explains, “our bread and butter.” He continues: “One of our specialties is cold storage facilities. Instead of traditional cold storage buildings that are fragile and easily damaged, we can provide a concrete alternative where wear and tear on the structure is a lot less. If a worker accidentally backs into the wall with a forklift, they are going to hit concrete, it’s not going to be a metal panel that they’re gonna blow out.”

It goes without saying that the company has accrued a vast amount of experience in the sector. With a rich general contracting history from its sister company, Conewago Enterprises, behind it and with a keen eye on industry developments, it is no surprise that Conewago Manufacturing has experienced significant growth in the precast side of its business. “We produced 3 million square feet of wall panel last year. It was one of our shining moments where we produced in some months more than what we produced in previous years,” adds Smith. “That was exciting for us, and we’re very fortunate for that tremendous growth.”

While the company clearly maintains a forward-thinking approach to growth, it is perhaps more significant that this translates to a commitment to safeguarding the environment in which it operates. For example, Conewago has adopted innovative technologies that reduce environmental impacts and applied them to its processes. The result is to take a carbon-heavy material like cement and transform it into a sustainable building solution. “For our ready mix and precast operations, we have a system in place called Carbon Cure. We replace 5% of the cement in the concrete with carbon so that we can reduce how much carbon we are putting into the air,” adds Smith. Throughout Conewago Manufacturing’s usage of Carbon Cure to date, which is just over 3 years, the company has saved 16,000 tons of CO2, which equates to the amount of CO2 1,900 acres of forest can absorb in a year. In keeping with its innovative reputation, Conewago was the first company in Pennsylvania to implement Carbon Cure, a move which solidifies the commitment to sustainability that underlies its service. In addition to this, the company uses a technology that allows for 12% limestone replacement in the cement from its producer, and it has recently purchased a new reclamation process system that will enable it to take excess concrete and put it back into new concrete. “If there’s an environmentally friendly technology that makes sense, we are either on board, or we’re on the leading edge of trying to experiment with it and see if we can incorporate it into our process,” says Blasé.

Today, precast concrete is so much more than a grey and carbon-heavy cement fit strictly for big distribution centers and industrial warehouses. As a material it has evolved over time, rapidly in recent years, to become a building solution that is not just cost-effective and durable, but also aesthetically pleasing and easily maintained.

“Conewago was the first company in Pennsylvania to implement Carbon Cure, a move which solidifies the commitment to sustainability that underlies its service.”

“We are able to incorporate more attractive form liners and different patterns into the concrete, so they don’t just look like big plain boxes,” Smith says. “We can do all different colors, finishes and applications.”

The benefits of using precast materials have been proven over time and as such are widely known and accepted throughout the construction industry. There is further benefit, as Smith explains, to buying those materials from Conewago. “We’re AISC certified on the steel side and PCI certified on the precast side. They’re the two gold standards when it comes to certification in those respective industries. Whether we are working with our sister GC company or another GC on a project, we don’t want to just work one time for a customer, we want to make sure that every customer is a repeat customer, and we want to build a relationship with them. What that means is we are going to produce products with the utmost quality, we’re going to stand behind them with integrity, and we are going to do our best to be part of your vision and turn it into reality. When you buy the Conewago brand that’s what you get.”

To back up Smith’s comment on quality, Blase tells me how it has invested substantially into the automation of its process. “We have a plotter that takes our CAD files and lays everything out for precast production workers. There’s very little measuring going on, it’s all automated, and we have CNC machines for our insulation as well.”

Conewago strives more than ever for efficiency of service and the streamlining of processes. This is true of the construction industry in particular, where deadlines are often tight and where the involvement of too many parties can result in delays. Talking about Conewago’s ‘one-stop-shop’ approach, Blase says that it has a unique combination of services that it can offer its clients and contractors.

“All under one roof we can produce the structural steel and fabricate and erect the wall panels, so for large distribution and industrial manufacturing facilities we can truly be a one-stop-shop. When you walk away you basically have a full structure waiting for all your MEP subs and all the finishing trades. Depending on the size of the project we also have mobile concrete plants that we can put out for ready-mix concrete slabs and foundations.”

The unique quality and level of service that comes with the Conewago brand can be better understood through its project portfolio, of which Smith takes me through some of the highlights. “Bell and Evans is one of the flagship projects we have worked on recently. That had over 1,000 wall panels – just about every wall in the facility was precast concrete.” Smith explains how the owner of Bell and Evans, a visionary named Scott Sechler, Sr., toured different agricultural processing facilities around Europe and returned with a vision. “The facility, which is based in Fredericksburg PA, has a very unique, high-quality look and feel to it.
It has a very attractive façade and it’s all precast with different form liners and different color brick. Inside, the walls are poured with white concrete so they never need to be painted again, they can just be washed down. In other food production facilities that’s a big maintenance headache. All of these white concrete panels have reflective properties that increase the lighting in the building, you walk in and its extremely bright and a good working environment for their employees. The project had everything from traditional warehouse storage, freezers and coolers. It is one of three projects we’ve done for them and we have another one in the works.” As such, Bell and Evans are now repeat customers who have come to really value Conewago’s work. “They are quality driven, and they really appreciate the fact that we can be consistent with our quality,” says Smith.

Next in the spotlight is a project for local agricultural company, Ag-Com. Ag-Com is a family-owned mill located about ten minutes north of the Conewago Manufacturing facilities. “We toured their existing facility, and they had this historic traditional mill off the creek that used to be water driven. We built a 3-story tall precast structure with concrete floors, roofs, and wall panels. It stands seventy-foot tall, so we actually had to stack wall panels on top of each other. At the time, we went in and did this project with them they were working towards the future of a top-of-the line world-class milling operation. In an agriculture setting it really stands out and pushes Ag-Com into the future.

In fact, it was Matt Sharrer, General Manager of Ag-Com who famously inspired Conewago’s core purpose when explaining that the company had turned his team’s vision into reality. “Matt initially wanted to try and match the old historic look of the original mill, so we were going down a path of trying to make it look more historical. Then he came to see our office and decided he wanted to make it look more modern instead, so that’s what we strived to achieve.”

Like Scott Sechler, Sr. of Bell and Evans, Matt Sharrer of Ag-Com had also toured and explored facilities of similar companies throughout the U.S. and Europe to fine tune their vision for their new buildings. As Smith explains, these projects, while different on the face of it, share one common theme. “There you’ve got two totally different companies who travelled the globe to find the best international practices from a design and aesthetics perspective, and Conewago Manufacturing was able to provide the materials and services needed to translate those top-level standards and design requirements into a final finished building that meets their needs.”

The wide range of products and services Conewago offers and their diverse applications exemplifies the far-reaching potential of precast concrete. While already offering much to the industry, those working with the material feel that this is only the beginning. There is agreement industry-wide that precast concrete can reach much further than the large distribution centers and industrial facilities it typically serves. Along with PCI and based on its first-hand experience in the industry, Conewago is pushing for the use of precast concrete in smaller buildings too. “We’ve done schools in the past and a lot of churches, data centers, and healthcare facilities,” says Smith. We do everything from 1.2 million square foot warehouses to something that’s 20,000 square feet. It’s a really scalable product. And sometimes precast is incorporated into certain sections only. We’ve built lots of garages for car dealerships, for example, where the showroom is built using a different type of construction. We understand that people utilize our products differently.”

Looking to the future, Conewago remains focused on growth, albeit in the different business landscape that comes with new challenges and market segments. “As the needs of our clients and the industry in general shift and change,” says Smith, “we need to remain nimble company to take on smaller projects or look to different market segments to serve. We’re very cost-effective at large distribution and online retail facilities, those big boxes have dominated the industry for decades.” Blase adds, “We want to continually diversify our portfolio and what we offer. Customers are changing as we are, but we feel we are pretty agile when it comes to meeting their requirements and exceeding them. The one thing that we know won’t change is that we’re not going to sacrifice our quality, our integrity, and the name that we built in the industry. We will continue, no matter where the market takes us, to turn visions into reality.”

Wolverine Building Group is a general contractor and construction management company headquartered in Grand Rapids, West Michigan. A nationally recognised construction leader backed by an impressive eighty years of service, Wolverine Building Group prides itself on being one of West Michigan’s most trusted construction companies. It’s not unusual for a construction company to claim involvement in all facets of construction, but in the case of Wolverine Building Group the claim is meant quite literally. One day you might see the company building natural habitats for the animals at John Ball Zoo or a state-of the art healthcare facility, while the next it’s busy raising the roof on a multi-storey hotel building or bringing a new Wendy’s restaurant to a North American town. Whatever it does comes with an excellence that stems from eight decades of experience.

Wolverine Building Group works primarily in four market segments, all of whiach brings it varied levels of demand depending on socioeconomic trends. The first is the multi-family market, followed by industrial, commercial, and finally the National Accounts division. Within these market segments Wolverine Building Group provides a long list of construction services, from General Contracting and Construction Management to Design/Build and Historic Preservation.

The multi-family market is wide ranging and includes affordable housing, market-rate units, historical renovation, student housing, senior living, and in-place rehab. “That’s been my main focus for the last couple of years,” says Kurtis Fritz, Senior Project Manager at Wolverine Building Group. “I’m currently working on a 233-unit apartment building in Brighton, Michigan called Vista. That’s going to be one of largest single construction projects in the city. It’s a very cool apartment building, very modern. It has a large central courtyard, the middle of the building is carved out and open to the sky, so the residents have a nice secure outdoor area to hang out.” Another project that falls under the umbrella of the multi-family market is Home2Suites by Hilton, a 4-story residential building in Byron Center, Michigan. The building also hosts a saltwater pool, outdoor patio seating, a fire pit, and electrical vehicle charging facilities. The project’s complex design was achieved through Wolverine Building Group’s extensive pre-planning process and its unique ability to understand the project’s intricate needs.

The commercial construction market is a catch-all for everything else and can include projects such as healthcare facilities, offices, and business complexes. On the Commercial side Fritz is quick to highlight the Helen Devos Children’s Hospital, a state-of-the-art healthcare facility dedicated to paediatric care. “That was probably one of the most-high profile projects we’ve done,” he says. The construction of the facility included the use of Building Information Modelling, or BIM, which provides a digital representation of a built asset based on collaboratively assembled information and acts as a shared source of knowledge which can be accessed during the building’s life cycle, from conception to demolition. Fritz also mentions John Ball Zoo which represents some of the more speciality work that Wolverine Building Group has grown accustomed to. “We do a lot of work with John Ball Zoo on various animal habitats and other improvements around the zoo facility,” he says. Since 2017 Wolverine Building Group and John Ball Zoo have completed 14 projects together in what continues to be a successful partnership.

The National Accounts division focuses on big-brand retailers and fast-food restaurants across the country. Joining me to provide insight on that is General Superintendent, Jeff Hennip. “Taco Bells, McDonalds, Wendy’s, basically any of the big fast-food joints that you see all around America,” says Hennip.

The fast-food and retail market in America is one that shows no sign of slowing down, and so this is an ever-expanding market segment for Wolverine Building Group and one that acts as a safety net when times are tough. “That division really carried us through the covid years” says Hennip, reflecting on a time when restaurants and drive-throughs remained quite profitable. “Those four divisions and our adaptability to move to whatever is the best is really what makes us special,” he continues. “We have a great team here who can roll with punches. If industrial is slow, we focus on multi-family, and if multi-family is slow, we focus on commercial.”

In talking about Wolverine Building Groups standout projects, both Hennip and Fritz are in agreement that the 10 Ionia Residence Inn by Marriott is not to go unmentioned. “That was a 13-story building that helped further shape the skyline here in Downtown Grand Rapids,” says Fritz. “10 Ionia was full of challenges and full of attributes from the team,” Hennip adds. “The building alone was challenging on every aspect. It was shaped like a pie with curved corners, all precast.” Aside from the physical challenges, the project was also built during covid and right through all the riots that were going on at the time. “Without a great team that project could have fallen apart,” says Hennip. “Not only our internal team but all of our trade partners, we all went through the very same stuff and everyone really stepped it up there.”

“Its ongoing goal is to be the Master of Construction Delivery in Michigan and beyond.”

Hennip is perhaps most proud when he goes on to talk about Wolverine Building Group’s non-profit work, namely the 3-story building for Covenant House located on the East Side of the state. This involved the construction of a temporary housing shelter for youths who are experiencing, or at risk of homelessness. The facility allows Covenant House to take in kids, give them housing, help them find work and get them placed into programs for GEDs. “That project was near and dear to my heart, and the heart of Wolverine Building Group because we love our community. Here at Wolverine if you give to an organization, ownership will always match your funds. That makes us pretty special.”

Hennip touches on Wolverine Building Group’s superior level of service which is evident in the partnerships it continues to build. “One of the most exciting things we’ve got going on is our partnership with QT Travel stations, starting down south and working their way up to the mid-west,” he says. “We started that partnership a couple of years ago in the south and they’ve leaned on us to bring them to the north. We’ve got three going on currently in Illinois and hoping to have another three in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. It’s a great partnership and that’s really what it comes down to – having someone that really understands you and you understanding them. It makes a big difference.”

Wolverine Building Group is busy at work across the state of Michigan, navigating its four market segments and adding new projects to an already-impressive portfolio. Its ongoing goal is to be the Master of Construction Delivery in Michigan and beyond, a goal it is on the right path towards achieving.

BDA Inc. is a Toronto based general contracting company specializing in renovations and additions in the commercial and institutional space. The company was originally founded in 1997 by Brad Daniels and Toccar Brown. Daniels and Brown built the company on their three core values which are to “work ethically, respect our business partners, and build long-term relationships with our trades, consultants, and clients.” It is these core values that form the foundation of BDA Inc. and remain strongly in place today, only now with a brand-new management team to uphold them.

Today, BDA’s management team is led by President Lewis Cowan, alongside Vice Presidents Hallex Kong and Domenic Peragine. As well as President of BDA, Cowan is also Chair of the Ontario General Contracting Association, a position he gained last year having sat on the Board of Directors for six years. The construction industry in Canada has picked up significant pace in recent years and someone in Cowan’s position is far from short of things to do. I am grateful to him for taking some time out of his busy schedule to tell me all about BDA and its many successful endeavors.

“We do a lot of post-secondary work, and work for the Provincial Government and municipalities,” Cowan says. “We also work in hospitals, community centers, libraries, and many different institutional facilities. One way of putting it, is that if there’s a public dollar attached to the funding of the project, we are likely to work with that client. The commercial work we do tends to be for commercial institutions that act like public sector institutions, like large banks, insurance companies, sophisticated clients.” BDA procures most of its work through the competitive bid process and the Stipulated Lump Sum form of contract, and the values of its projects range between three and fifty million. “The sweet spot for us is somewhere between seven and fifteen million,” Cowan says. “Typically, our projects are designed by an Architect, put out to tender, and then we submit a bid. It’s not all based on price – there is often a technical component as well where we have to submit a technical proposal, and if we are successful we get the project.” BDA also provides some projects under the Design Build method which Cowan says, “is a bit of a growth sector for us in the coming years.”

When talking about the General Contracting service that BDA provides, Cowan gives the example of the Michener Institute Health Care Education Lab. “We started that project in January 2019 and finished that December. It was a 4.5 million dollar and 15,000 square foot new medical training facility on the 12th floor of the Michener Institute. The project included the creation of an operating room simulation laboratory, capable of broadcasting live, domestically and internationally. There was a lot of Audio Visual and IT integration required. Now we are doing a second project with the same BDA team; the same Project Manager and Site Superintendent.”

An interesting aspect of BDA’s offering, and one we hear less about in the General Contracting sphere, is Construction Management, which Cowan says is “becoming an increasingly large part of what we do.” This type of project sees the BDA team involved very early on in the design with significant influence over making the project more successful before it goes out to tender. “We are often dealing with very specific challenges or design issues that allow the architect to better refine the design and provide value to the client,” Cowan says of this service before following up with some examples. “We’re currently working on a new build 5-storey, Salvation Army project in Downtown Toronto which is meant to start in the summer. We have been involved in that project for about a year, working on cost-savings with the owner and efficiency of design to make it a more successful project because they have some budgetary constraints. Another example is a project for Harbourfront Toronto, where we have provided Design Build for the Mechanical and Electrical components, and Construction Management for the rest of the project. We have also been appointed as Construction Managers for a Ground Water Research Centre at the University of Guelph. We will be giving them feedback on the design and final pricing so they can ensure the project goes ahead within budget.”

A standout project of BDA’s, and another one on which it provided Construction Management, was Université de l’Ontario français. This was a fast-track project on account of funding being secured quite suddenly after it had previously been revoked during a change of government. “They weren’t expecting it,” Cowan says of the funding, “so they procured the management consulting and the architect quite quickly. Then they put out an RFP for Construction Management at the same time and we were brought on board within four to six weeks of the architect being involved.” As the appointed Construction Managers on the project, BDA gave lots of time-efficient budgetary feedback and worked on cost savings with the whole team. “Then we tendered all the scopes of work and started on-site,” says Cowan. “It was a really fast paced and challenging undertaking with supply chain issues, and a very aggressive timeline to complete the large volume of space. The client had tight budget constraints which put pressure on some of the decision making before awarding some of the subcontractors.” BDA is a company that is deeply involved in the public sector where funding and timelines are often volatile, and this particular project paints a picture of how these jobs can sometimes play out. Nonetheless, Université de l’Ontario français was nothing short of a huge success.

“Our team worked very closely with the management consultants and the architect to make it a success.”

“Our team worked very closely with the management consultants and the architect to make it a success,” Cowan reflects. “Once we procured all the subcontractors the actual build on site went very smoothly. There was a really collaborative approach with the entire team; probably one of the finest examples that I’ve seen of a Construction Management project working well with everyone working towards the same goal.” As President of the company, Cowan is often only involved in projects from an oversight perspective, and it is always a good sign if, as is the case here, “there were not a lot of issues I had to be involved in.” Given that it came about amidst a pandemic, the fact that Université de l’Ontario français was completed remotely speaks to the success of the project and the team behind it. “The RFP came out two months into the pandemic and construction began in the middle of it,” he says. “I don’t believe there was a single construction meeting completed on site with the full team there. To deal with the timeline constraints we had in the environment we were in – it was really successful.”

While they’ve proven that successful projects can be completed remotely, when it comes to the construction industry there is simply no substitute for face-to-face interaction, and this is what BDA looks forward to into the future. “One thing I’ve really seen come back to life is the importance of relationships,” Cowan says. “Getting back to in-person events and site meetings, being able to actually meet together on-site and look at the project that we’re building and that the clients will be occupying, really gives us the opportunity to collaborate and complete really successful projects. I think through the pandemic that was missing a little bit.”

When it comes to the pandemic, a shared gratitude can be felt throughout the construction industry for the fact that it was one of the few sectors that was able to not only continue to work, but be successful in such a challenging environment. This gratitude comes to light in conversation with people like Cowan who is equipped now with the experience of guiding a construction company through the unprecedented global event that was COVID-19. “Even though we were impacted, the industry has been very good throughout the past few years,” he says. “As a company that’s strong in the public sector we are confident that the pipeline of projects is going to continue, and we are really well positioned to take advantage of that. We are busy at the moment with lots of exciting opportunities coming up, and there is no reason why BDA can’t continue to grow. In construction we are moving forward and becoming more embracing of technologies and efficiencies, and I think through strong relationships with existing clients we will be able to go on to bigger and better things.”

When Herman Russell founded H. J. Russell & Company back in 1952, he quickly contributed to the birth and subsequent development of the Atlanta skyline. He was involved in joint venture partnerships including the Coca-Cola Company Headquarters, Georgia-Pacific Tower, 191 Peachtree Tower, and the former Georgia Dome, which was replaced with the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, all of which remain part of the skyline today. Culturally, 1960’s America was worlds apart from the one we know today, and so, as an African-American, Russell’s involvement in such ventures was a unique thing of the time. H. J. Russell also lays claim to projects such as the Smithsonian African-American Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, AL., both of which house a significant piece of the city’s history. Russell was part of history through the projects he built and the unlikely era in which he built them, and when he passed in 2014, he left behind him not just a company, but a legacy.

H. J. Russell is a 70-year-old company headquartered in Atlanta with offices in Savannah, Dallas, and Boston. To these areas, the company provides construction management, program management, and real estate development. “The construction management side is centered around multifamily projects as well as commercial office spaces, healthcare, infrastructure, and industrial work,” says Paul Bryant, Vice President of External Affairs. Joining me alongside Bryant is Project Executive Jhocques Jordan, and the two are a wealth of knowledge on both the company and the legacy.

“On the program management side, we have lots of activity out in Dallas including transportation work, airports, and the Dallas metro transit system, all of which are huge growth areas,” said Jordan. Construction management and program management are considered the company’s primary services, while real estate development remains a significant part of H. J. Russell’s business lines.

Jordan takes the lead on talking me through some of the standout projects that have marked the company’s more recent success. “The Terminal Renewal and Improvement Program at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was a joint venture project with a value of about $850 million dollars, which we wrapped up around 2017,” says Jordan. “We had a team working out there, and that’s what spun us to increase our presence even more in the Dallas area. We started to pick up some standalone work there as well as some other extensions out at DFW.”

Next, in the spotlight is Grayson Ridge, a senior living multifamily project in Lawrenceville, GA that was completed last year. “It was about $36 million dollars and 240 units, a four-story apartment building,” Jordan continues. “It’s a really nice building as far as finishes go as well as amenities such as a courtyard, library, crafts room, fitness center, salon and movie theatre. The courtyard has a bocce ball court, pavilions, barbeque grills and walking area. A really nice facility.”

Enthusiasm is in high supply from the conversation’s outset, but it reaches its peak when I ask about Russell CARES and the philanthropic work H. J. Russell does for its community. “That’s my area of expertise,” Bryant says. “I’m ready, willing, and able to jump in here.” Russell CARES, I quickly learn, is not a mere afterthought that was born out of a society that demands more philanthropy from profit-yielding businesses. Quite the opposite, Russell CARES is, and always was, at the very heart of what H. J. Russell stands for.

“Russell CARES is, and always was, at the very heart of what H. J. Russell stands for.”

Russell CARES, which is the company’s corporate social responsibility program, spurred from founder Herman Russell’s philanthropic efforts, including those of his family. Today, it stands proudly as a tangible representation of his legacy. “He was a generous man and quite involved in the community,” says Bryant, “and that is part of the DNA of H. J. Russell. Our CEO, Michael Russell, often tells me that I’m part of the ground game for the company. He wants me to be out and about, to really see the pulse of what’s going on. The Russell CARES philosophy is to support those grassroots agencies that really need some gas in their tanks. We’re not making a $50,000-dollar contribution to United Way Worldwide, we’re making a $2,500-dollar donation to organizations like Facts to Thrive, a unique organization that we supported a couple of months ago. It’s just one person. She goes to senior communities and teaches elderly people how to navigate their cell phones. Think about the Apple store experience where there are millennials who really know their way around phones. That can be somewhat intimidating. These places aren’t built for seniors, so she goes to these communities and puts on training sessions for them. And we just bumped into her because we’re out there on the ground floor. We like that human touch, getting to know the people we support and something about their business rather than just giving a check, taking pictures, and moving on.”

Bryant gives another example that captures the human touch he speaks of. “There’s an elderly tower we built called Maggie Russell Towers. During the COVID pandemic, we gave them a check to buy food for their food pantry.

Because of the restrictions at the time, we did this cool thing where we airdropped the check in with a drone. We filmed the whole process which was really cool. It captured the skyline of the building, the drone flying in, and the people waving. It was something fun to do as we supported and celebrated those seasoned citizens.” Not only does H. J. Russell build these state-of-the-art buildings for seniors, it also donates to companies who go on to directly enhance their experience. “It’s in the tagline,” says Bryant. “‘We don’t just build structures. We build communities.’”

Perhaps one of the most unique parts of Herman Russell’s legacy is the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, the 54,000-square-foot former H. J. Russell headquarters that is dedicated now to developing black entrepreneurs. “When Mr. Russell passed in 2014, the building was worth around $8 million dollars.” Lending from the altruism passed down by their father, Russell’s three children decided to donate the building to the community instead of cashing in their share. “What we have now is really a national model—the programming and what they’ve done with this building is really amazing.” The center is visited year-round by CEOs and government officials, and most recently by Whiting-Turner Contracting Company and their network of employees as part of their Black History Month program. “Many were blown away by what we’re doing here,” says Bryant. “They left asking—how can we do something like this in our communities?”

Before his time at Russell, Bryant was involved in a global study that put forward the question—what’s the thought process of the employees in the best companies in the world? The study found that the employees of the world’s best companies shared six common beliefs. The first is the belief that somebody in your organization in a higher position than you sincerely cared about your growth and development. The second is the belief that every day you had the necessary tools to perform your job. The third is the belief that your work environment was one in which you could learn and grow. The fourth was that you had friends at work. “And, it’s the last two that really permeate throughout the colony,” he says. “Number five is the belief that what your company does, whether that be building structures or writing articles, is significant. And the sixth is the belief that every day, by doing your job, you are contributing to that something significant. We are extremely proud of Herman Russell’s legacy, and we know that we are blessed to be given the opportunity to carry that legacy on our shoulders and to be able to do all these good things in the community. It’s a wonderful thing!”

The true significance of Herman Russell’s legacy and the positive impact that his 70-year strong company continues to have on the community can be wrapped up in Bryant’s reflections on the company’s anniversary celebration last year. “Our primary corporate color is green,” he says, “and there are several buildings within the city that turned their lights green in honor of H. J. Russell. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta was green, 191 Peachtree Tower was green, Mercedes-Benz Stadium was green. I think it’s just beautiful to see these businesses in the area show their appreciation for Herman and what he’s done.”

Jordan adds, “When you think about how many companies start up, and they don’t make it five, 10, 20 years, 70 seems like forever. I started in 2006, and then, the recession hit. It was really tough. Projects weren’t coming in like they had been. People were bailing out and moving on. Michael Russell could have easily said, ‘Guys, I’m done,’ and quit while he was ahead, but his commitment to what his dad built and his decision to stick with it and ride it out—I give him a ton of credit for that. I’ve seen the company’s construction department drop to less than 20 people. Now though, it is back up to maybe three times that, and we continue to grow.”

In the same way that it practiced philanthropy from the outset, H. J. Russell was also a diverse company long before diversity was demanded in the modern working environment. “Herman Russell said he looked around his company back in the sixties, and it looked like the United Nations,” says Bryant. “That’s what he wanted. He liked it that way. We still look around today, and there’s diversity everywhere.” Perhaps, this is the very secret to H. J. Russell’s longevity—a longstanding commitment to values that truly matter.

“I’ve only been in the company five years,” Bryant continues, reflecting on his first day with H. J. Russell. “I remember as I was meeting people, it wasn’t, ‘Welcome to the team,’ or ‘Welcome to the company.’ It was, ‘Welcome to the family.’ Now I make sure that anytime I meet a new employee, I say the same. It’s important to carry that on. This is what a working environment, what a business, and what a community is all about.”

Healthcare, Senior Living, Communities of Faith. Pennsylvania is rich in caring communities, communities that are growing and also require the resources and buildings to meet the demand. Arthur Funk & Sons, Inc. Construction Services, is a third generation, family owned and operated company, positioned geographically and with more resources to meet that demand. According to Ken Funk, president of the company that is headquartered in Lebanon, PA, a location that is central to major access routes and cities, the firm specializes in building facilities to meet the demand of these industries. “We are committed to the community where our family and families of our employees live, work, worship and learn,” said Funk. “In fact, a walk around town or the central Pennsylvania area, and you will see our footprint and the impact it has made.”

Ken Funk, a third-generation owner of the company, is a rich source for construction history when it comes to the Arthur Funk & Sons story. “My Grandfather, Arthur, started the company in 1939,” Ken tells me. “We were in the middle of a deep depression at the time. He began with a small crew of carpenters garnered when he purchased the company from his uncle; and they built mostly agricultural buildings . . .barns, corn sheds, anything to do with agriculture.”

Henry Funk, Ken’s father, joined the company after WW2 and that’s when Arthur Funk & Sons started doing more commercial work, paving the path to where it is today. The company, now in its third generation, remains family-owned by Ken and his two brothers, Bob and Dave.

The true character of Arthur Funk & Sons is realized through its core values, which have been defined and built upon for three generations in business. “We listen to our customers to understand their needs, accommodate each customer’s unique goals, collaborate by building a quality team of professionals and subcontractors, and create thoughtful solutions to deliver projects where all involved succeed and thrive,” he said.

To all who work with Arthur Funk & Sons, these values are not merely a whish-wash narrative for reputation or marketing purposes, but rather the true essence of the company, backed by the everyday experience of its clients and employees.

“The feedback from our clients and employees says we’re flexible and we listen well. Our team are problem solvers, who solve problems with little to no conflict, as we try to minimize drama because in construction, there can be lots of it!”

Within its specialty sectors, Arthur Funk & Sons is known to take old buildings and give them a new lease of life. Called Adaptive Reuse, the Encounter Church of Palmyra, PA is a prime example. The Funk team took an old grocery store and converted it to a 38,300 sq ft church that included Fellowship area, welcome Center, Kitchen, Day Care and Worship Space.

“This was a Phased Project, that allowed the church to operate and grow, and at the same time raise the needed funds for the project,” said Funk. “Plus as it was a grocery store, there was plenty of parking and added land available for future growth. We have returned to do more work in part due to the relationship we have built.”

“To Arthur Funk & Sons, building solid relationships is as important as building solid structures.”

The word relationship is one that comes up time and time again throughout the conversation with Ken. It’s evident that to Arthur Funk & Sons, building solid relationships is as important as building solid structures. “We exist because we like to build lasting, long-term, and enduring relationships,” is how Ken puts it. Relationships in every sense are a two-way-street, and so it’s become the case that Arthur Funk & Sons has had prestigious jobs simply handed over to it by clients who place the same high value on relationships that it does. “Some of our competitors are twice our size,” Ken says, “and they can build effectively, but they can’t build relationships.”

A recent experience Ken shared captured the true significance of the relationships that are built between the Funk frontline and clients. “We had a client say to us about a project we’re working on right now, ‘you need to promise us that we get so-and-so on the job’. Then, last night at a church meeting for another project, the building committee chair said, ‘hey, you need to promise I get so-and-so on this…’. And again, another church in Lancaster requested, ‘we will wait as long as it takes to get so and so on the job.’ Three different occasions, three similar situations, demonstrated how we and our clients thrive on and values relationships.”

Of the sectors that Arthur Funk & Sons specialize in, it is the churches that make up the bulk of its portfolio. Ken is passionate about this kind of work, and for good reason. “If you’re doing a project for single owner of business, that one person makes all the decisions,” Ken explains. “But when you’re working with churches, where they have a big attendance at Sunday service, now you have 300 people making decisions, 300 people who have to buy-into the project, and it’s a very different process. The beauty is in witnessing not one but 300 people share enjoyment once the project is complete. That’s where our team stands out.”

In keeping with the recurring theme of relationships, many of the company’s church jobs are the product of previous relationships they have built within these communities of faith. Take Carlisle United Methodist Church in Carlisle, PA. “Carlisle UMC was a brand-new church on a new site – you don’t get that too often nowadays. That church came to us because we did some previous work in the town, so we knew the code inspector, the retirement home executive, and an engineer, all of whom sat on the committee. They asked us to come along and help develop plans, create budgets, and eventually build the project.”

Such is the typical series of events that have led to the significant footprint Arthur Funk & Sons now has on the Pennsylvanian church community. This modern business landscape often calls for a huge reliance on and investment in advertising and marketing in order for a company to succeed. It is a credit, then, that 90% of Arthur Funk & Son’s business still comes from word of mouth.

Another example of a project that involved Arthur Funk & Sons reimagining an existing space to make it more cost-efficient and mutually beneficial to all is Lebanon City Hall, which relocated to downtown after 50 years on the outskirts. “The city came to us wanting to move downtown,” Ken tells me of the project. “We worked with the city, a local non-profit foundation, and a local community college that wanted to get rid of their existing space due to costs. We brought all these different entities together—a team– to figure out how to get the townhall back into downtown. The result: the community college sold the building to the city, we came in and renovated, and now the community college occupies the fourth floor through a lease back agreement with the city at a much more economical position than through ownership.” The project, as Ken describes it, was a huge success. “Again, it boils down to our relationship with the city, the non-profit, and the community college combined with our ability build teams to get all these different groups together and heading in the same direction.”

The impact that Arthur Funk & Sons has on its community is plain to see through the projects and relationships that it builds. A little less evident is all the work that happens behind the scenes with local high schools and technical schools in the drive to inspire the future generation of construction workers. One of the many takeaways from my conversation with Ken is that Arthur Funk & Sons impact is one that extends far beyond the reach of healthcare, retirement, and church communities.

“We brought one of our awesome employees in as a general superintendent and asked him to do two things – one was to mentor up and coming employees, and two was to make connections with local high schools so we can hire young, energetic, quality people. This employee now sits on an advisory committee alongside these academic schools and has developed a really great relationship with them. We currently have two co-op students that go to school for half a day and work for us for the other half. About 75% of the time these students become full-time employees. We also get called into these academic schools for career days. This has made a difference to our workforce.”

Moving on from that point, I ask Ken about his goals for Arthur Funk & Sons as it goes forward. His answer is evident of the active investment he and his brothers have in the future and continuity of the company. “Bob, Dave and I believe without question how important it is to keep this thing going,” he says. “Two years ago, we hired the North Group to help us put together a plan to do just that. One of the first things they did was help us form a leadership team which consists of four employees who are totally dedicated to the cause. That’s going to help us distribute some of the decision making, get us through the next transition, and carry us down the road. Our future–It’s going to be fantastic!”

One of the first adopters to precast concrete was the agricultural industry, who in the early seventies had high demand for structures such as slats, feed bunks, troughs, and insulated walls. It was in this era that Fritz Construction Services Inc. came to life under the leadership of Tom Fritz and thrived in the business of agricultural precast. In the four decades that followed, under the banner of Fritzall, the company expanded their offerings to the industry to include complete barn structures, wall panels, and concrete bases for wind turbines. In 2014, through a fortunate stroke of serendipity, Fritzall crossed paths with Alder Concrete Group who had been building cast-in-place and ICF structures since 2006. For some time, the two worked in tandem, offering structural and architectural panels to the high-rise residential market. Fritzall produced wall panels for complete precast buildings while Alder installed them, each side benefiting from the others well-established craft. It soon became clear to both parties that if they were to combine forces, they’d be able to make a dramatic contribution to the Ontario superstructure market. So, in 2018, that’s exactly what they did.

I am joined by Colin Robinson, VP of Sales at Fritz-Alder Precast, who has been fortunate enough to experience first-hand some of the successes that came with the Fritz-Alder union. “The companies aligned and opened up their biggest plant addition yet with the most-high-tech hollowcore production line in Ontario,” Robinson says. “And that got us to where we are today.” From humble beginnings as two separate entities with similar values, Fritz-Alder was formed to provide its clients with the best quality products and services. Fritz-Alder is widely known today as an industry leader in concrete manufacturing and installation, offering advanced precast technology to the Ontario market and committing always to superior customer experience and cost-effective solutions.

I ask Robinson to delve a little deeper into the services Fritz-Alder offer and the answer is not short nor finite because in essence, they can build anything their customer desires. “We produce Precast hollowcore floor slabs, which are the most efficient flooring system in terms of span to depth ratio and materials,” he says. “Along with this we produce solid slabs for areas with higher loading or odd shaped pieces. We produce balconies that come sloped with broom finishes, basically standalone balconies that require no maintenance, as well as landings for stairwells. We make beams and columns, prestressing them where possible to eliminate the amount of reinforcing while increasing the strength of the product. And of course, wall panels – everything from structural concrete panels that are covered on site, to architectural panels with form liners, and stain or pigment. We can print the concrete with any pattern imaginable.” It was the introduction of wall panels to Fritzall’s line of products back in the early days that first led them into the commercial market, where they got their architectural certificate for wall panels on commercial and residential buildings. This particular product offering accounts for a significant proportion of Fritz-Alder’s business today.

“Within these walls we have the option to include insulation which creates a sandwich panel, allowing designers and owners to get the R value they desire and achieve what they are looking for – a slimmer wall system or a simpler wall system, it’s really up to the customer.” This customer-focused approach is paramount to the Fritz-Alder business model. Colin gives the example of energy and power companies, for which Fritz-Alder provide very specific precast products that come with very high-quality standards that they meet and exceed. It seems that if it can be built with precast concrete, it can be built by Fritz-Alder.

Fritz-Alder is a company championing and benefiting from a service model that allows them to provide almost everything in-house, a model that is growing in popularity due to the efficiency and quality that can be achieved off the back of it. “We provide and install the precast, and we provide any necessary finishing touches once installed to ensure our customers have a complete system,” says Robinson. “We have our own sales team that works with customers. Once the job is awarded it continues over to engineering and drafting, and they work in house with our Project Managers to ensure goals are met and that drawings are completed on time. Then the job goes into production, and once produced, we have our own installation team that not only installs it but goes in afterwards and does core-drilling. The cutting of mechanical openings is completed in the production faciality to reduce on site waste. We also put down underlayment on top of the precast for flooring needs.” This one-stop-shop system that Fritz-Alder has established over the years makes for a highly efficient service model that really works.

To demonstrate the proven, practical success of this service model Robinson tells me about some standout projects from over the years. He includes some projects from before the Fritz-Alder merger, worthy of a mention due to their significance in the company’s journey to 2022, its 50th year in business.

“Prior to Fritz-Alder, Fritzall completed a number of large projects, and one that stands out is 100 Victoria which is the first of the Garment Street Towers. Fritzall was producing the architectural cladding with Alder on installation. These panels were highly detailed, with brick form liner, integrated windowsills and headers, and large U shape and L shape pieces. That was a great achievement for both companies. And later in 2019, now as Fritz-Alder, we were tasked with doing the next building, which was a 28-storey tower.” In what has become known as the Fritz-Alder Advantage, Fritz-Alder makes a promise to its customers to be relentless in its pursuit of quality and precision, from design to manufacturing to installation. The 100 Victoria project is an example of the Fritz-Alder Advantage in action, long before the official joining of the two companies.

“Another standout project was 460 Columbia, our first complete precast project where we built the entire structure from parking deck up. We utilized a structural precast system with hollowcore walls, beams, columns, solids, balcony pieces, and also had some architectural pieces as well. 460 Columbia was two 12-storey towers with a floor plate of about 25,000 square feet. For this project we had two tower cranes on site which is rare. This meant we had to have two installation crews and with that we were able to install a new level of 25,000 square feet every 12 days.”

“Another standout project was 460 Columbia, our first complete precast project where we built the entire structure from parking deck up.”

Robinson tells me next about the Bloomingdale project, a recently completed complete precast building. With architectural cladding and lots of beams and columns, Bloomingdale was a similar concept to the projects previously mentioned, but this time Fritz-Alder’s service included the exterior of the building. “When we were finished on site not only was the structure done but the exterior too,” he says. “One of the prominent features of that building were the column-less balconies, something that isn’t done very often. We did two levels of underground parking on that as well.”

These are just a few of the large-scale projects from an impressive Fritz-Alder portfolio, which has a collective span of 50 years. “Aside from those we do quite a few smaller jobs as well,” Robinson tells me. “We do everything from garage floors to water treatment plants, schools, long term care facilities, industrial buildings, everything. The efficiency and durability of the product lends itself well to all sectors of the construction industry, and so we don’t just do residential or commercial or civil jobs, were in all the sectors.”

Reflecting on the company’s 50th anniversary which they’ve been quietly celebrating in the background of a busy year, Robinson takes it right back to 1972 and Fritzall’s founder, Tom Fritz. “Tom was a very innovative person, always finding new ways of pushing the envelope of product efficiency, trying new things, searching for new products to manufacture.” This innovation mindset that brought the company to life back in the early seventies is evident still today, championed now by a new generation of owners with big plans for the future. “We’ve achieved a lot in the last 50 years and especially in the last four,” says Robinson. “We’re seeing steady growth year to year, both in the number of jobs we do and in the products we offer. The market is heading more and more in the direction of precast simply because builders are looking at more efficient ways to do things, especially with rising interest rates and cost increases. The opportunity for us is exceptional, and we want to seize every opportunity we can. We are going to keep marching forward with growth and manufacturing improvements to ensure the quality and services our customers demand and expect from us are not only met, but exceeded.”

There is no substitute for experience. Communication is key. Excellence comes with innovation. Cost, quality, and time efficiency must be achieved in tandem.

It is the ability to learn and embrace these truths that is often the driving force behind a successful construction company, and such is the case for CCS Building Group. A commercial construction company based in Pennsylvania, CCS Building Group has established itself as a leader in its field when it comes to delivering innovative projects and forming honest partnerships. It started in 2007 with a wealth of knowledge already behind it through the collective experience of working with large construction companies in the region. Today, it stands strong with over sixty employees and is set to celebrate its 15th year in business.

CCS Building Group specializes in the design-build delivery method and is therefore highly engaged in the development of the design as well as the construction of the project. It is a method that is growing in popularity, simply because it makes for more efficient finished products. “Our preference is performing work via design-build, where we lead the project from the inception,” says Bill Koch Senior, Founder and President of CCS Building Group. Throughout his career Bill has been involved in the design and construction of projects that represent more than $1.5 billion and 10 million square feet of building construction. He joins me, alongside Preconstruction and Estimating Manager, Bill Koch Junior, and Business Manager, Todd Shertzer, to share some insights into the company. “A fair amount of our business is performed in that particular capacity whereby we don’t solely rely on architects and engineers to develop the project. We input a lot of our experience particularly into costs associated with different building systems as well as the long-term benefits and efficiencies that certain systems bring to the table.” The design-build philosophy is embraced by CCS Building Group, and this allows the company to deliver a high-quality service that is efficient in both cost and time, while fulfilling the vision of its clients.

CCS Building Group works within a two-hour driving time radius of its office in Lancaster Pennsylvania, which includes Central, Southeastern, Northern Maryland, and Delaware. CCS Building Group has contributed significantly to the Senior Living industry within this zone. The team at CCS Building Group has a depth of experience with designing and constructing Life Plan Communities, Independent Living, Assisted Living, and Personal Care facilities. It specializes in renovating and preparing existing living spaces for new residents, and it is this type of work that makes up for a significant bulk of its portfolio. As well as delivering projects through the design-build method, CCS Building Group also offers preconstruction management, operational consulting, general contracting, residence turnover management, residential renovations, and in-house skilled trades.

To provide an insight into the standard example of the work CCS Building Group does as part of the retirement community expansion, Bill talks about Southpointe Villas. “It’s a 45-acre property and so far, we’ve built 88 villas,” he says. “We’re also constructing five 24-unit apartment buildings, of which one is complete, one is in process and three will be in the future.” The first step in a multi-phase development, the Southpointe Villas project also includes a Memory Care Facility with programming and residential units directed purely towards memory support. “The Memory Support Campus is state-of-the-art,” says Bill, “and one of the more interesting components of the Southpointe Villas project.”

Bill talks about how it is often the amenity buildings within these retirement communities that make for the most interesting projects. Chautauqua Hall, for example, is a 20,000 square feet events pavilion and performance stage that was developed and constructed by CCS Building Group in partnership with Willow Valley Communities. “Chautauqua Hall is a timber-framed music entertainment venue that seats three hundred people,” says Bill. The venue was developed to enable Willow Valley Communities to provide its residents with rich cultural experiences, as is its longstanding tradition.

CCS Building Group is heavily involved in the renovation sector and as such the overall revitalization of the zone in which it operates. Bill talks about Southern Market, a recent standout renovation project in Lancaster City. “Southern Market is one of our more unique projects. We renovated the interior and facade of a building that was built in 1888. Originally it was a farmers’ market and then over the years it transitioned into office space. It sat vacant for several years until our client got hold of it with a vision to change it into a food hall along with co-working offices. This was a completely different from the building’s prior uses, so it changed a lot structurally from a fit-and-finish standpoint. It looks very different inside. We couldn’t do a lot of changes on the exterior, only some upgrades and improvements, because the building is listed in the National Historic Register.”

“CCS Building Group specializes in the design-build delivery method.”

Another interesting project in the works is Mosaic, a design-build contract for a senior living provider. “We’ve been working on that one for a few years now,” says Bill. “It’s a 20- story independent living building with 146 apartments and lots of amenity space, all within what is part of a city block here in Lancaster City. It’s kind of an urban and more modern design, while still offering all the same services that the client would enjoy on their suburban campuses. It’s been an interesting and exciting process, going through the approvals, and planning to get closer to a construction start date.” Bill goes on to talk about CCS Building Group’s role on the project. “As a design-build firm, all of the design is handled through us,” he says. “We’ve been involved day to day with the whole sales team, the development team, and the design team. Another unique aspect of it is that we’re also creating a model apartment and a sales center offsite. The model depicts an apartment on the sixteenth floor, so we’re using some tricks in the windows to give the sense that you’re looking out your window on the sixteenth floor and not the ground floor. We’re involved in a lot of the technology, as well as the marketing components associated with creating that project.” What Bill describes here is that CCS Building Group is not just constructors, they’re innovators, and that is another driving force behind its success.

Reflecting on the company’s upcoming 15th year anniversary, Bill talks about how quickly time has gone by. “It seems like just a couple of years ago that we were planning a party for our 10th anniversary,” he says. “That came and went, and then covid came into play. I didn’t even realize it was our 15th year in business! But it’s been a great tour. In that time, we’ve done what I feel is a significant amount of impactful projects with our own people.” It is the ethos of CCS Building Group that the art of building starts with a great team, and as such, they are just as committed to building a solid foundation of workers as they are to time and cost efficiency. The built environment is expanding at a rapid pace and there is an expectation for construction companies to fulfill the demand without sacrificing quality. This commitment is what sets CCS Building Group apart.

“We have growth opportunities,” Bill says when I ask him about his vision for the future, “but the biggest challenge is accumulating staff and keeping them, whether that be management or tradespeople. It’s a challenge for us and for the industry, but we’re managing it by trying to work smarter instead of harder.” With a nice backlog of work in the pipeline and a clear vision for growth, it seems that despite the challenges, CCS Building Group can look forward to another fifteen years of success in the Pennsylvanian construction market.

Some time ago, the team at SG Constructors attended a world-renowned Customer Service Training Course at The Disney Institute. The course teaches management teams how to adapt Disney’s service model into their own trade, regardless of industry type or customer size. SG Constructors were surrounded by people from industries such as hospitality, banking, and healthcare, many of whom were surprised to see members of the construction industry taking such an invested interest in customer service. But for SG Constructors, a construction management company based in Ontario, an invested interest in customer service is the very backbone of their existence. “Our company was formed out of a desire to perform a higher level of customer service,” says President of SG Constructors, Matt Stainton. “To look at the construction industry in a different light and try and provide a better understanding of what our clients’ needs are, and to assist with that. We really want to blur lines between contractor and client to the point where if the client has a responsibility and are about to drop the ball that we pick it up for them, and vice versa. If we can have a better understanding of their business and try and think like the owners, we can provide greater value through the services we provide and looking at design optimization.”

The SG team have over a century of collective experience working with some of the industry’s most noteworthy companies. This has taught them how to be proactive and future-focused in an industry that has, and continues to change. Stainton says, “I spent about twenty-five years with one of Canada’s largest contractors. I took some of the great learnings from there and brought them to SG along with the nimble, lean ability to act and behave differently.” What Stainton describes here is SG Constructors owner-centric approach to what they call ‘curated construction’, a key factor in their ongoing success.

Also key to SG Constructors success is their ability as a company to look inward and take care of their people. That is, their top-tier company culture. Speaking again on the importance of customer service and unpacking some wisdom from The Disney Institute, Stainton says, “If you don’t have the ability to provide internal customer service, you can’t provide that external customer service to the clients you’re working for. Our frontline people are our customers. We need to make their jobs as easy and efficient as possible so they can focus more on the client or on going home early; if they can get home half an hour early each day and spend an extra two and a half hours per week with their families, life’s a little better, and they’re better at work.” Stainton describes a home-life balance that many companies struggle, if not refuse to provide, and he proves that it can be achieved without sacrificing quality of service or customer satisfaction. “It gets us thinking about the small details and looking at little things,” he says, “because when you look at the little things the big things become very, very easy.”

“The Four Keys – safety, courtesy, show and efficiency – are the hierarchal backbone of SG Constructors Service Model.”

Stainton says that surprisingly, when it comes to customer service, “there’s not a whole lot of difference between what Disney do and what we do.” SG Constructors work to a Disney-inspired Service Model which they modify and tailor to construction. The Four Keys – safety, courtesy, show and efficiency – are the hierarchal backbone of SG Constructors Service Model. Stainton talks me through each of these Four Keys and the intentionally ranked order of them, which many are surprised at first glance.

“Safety comes first,” he says, “because we can never place safety secondary. Sure, we could build something faster and cheaper, but safety is going to be sacrificed and we can’t do that.”

The next, Stainton tells me, is courtesy, and it’s the high-ranking of this particular key that often catches people off guard. “The stereotype around construction is cold, callous, catcalling, that kind of thing,

and so, we’re trying to change all that around courtesy. If we’re doing a renovation in a major mall for example, we could do it faster but might disrupt a whole bunch of tenants in the process. We could just run roughshod and block all the parking and then the customers won’t come; its more efficient, but it’s not courteous.”

After courtesy comes show, which refers to what the site looks like. “Because ultimately, an efficient site is the by-product of an organized, clean site.” To explain this key Stainton applies the metaphor of painting a bedroom. “If you’ve got whole bunch of furniture in it it’s going to be very slow, you’ll get some paint on things, whereas if you move all that furniture to the center, it’s a whole lot more efficient, and that’s the show standpoint.”

Fourth on the list is efficiency, which is another ranking that people are often surprised by at first. “When you think about it, it’s never going to come ahead of safety, nor is it going to come before courtesy or show when you’re working in an occupied environment.” While efficiency is no doubt important in construction, it’s as refreshing as it is rare to see a company prioritize and care for the live environment within which they are operating.

These Four Keys can be applied by SG Constructors stakeholders and employees to empower them to think and act like owners, which makes for consistent service delivery and efficient decision- making across the board. “We have so many different variables and scenarios where people will have to make decisions,” Stainton says. “We can’t write a hundred different rules on how people should act and think, so if they look in those terms it’s easier for them to make a decision. That’s how the Four Keys work within our model of construction.”

Stainton goes on to discuss some of the standout projects SG Constructors have worked on over the years. They were recently awarded the ‘Best of the Best’ Award for LiUNA Gardens Shore Wall, a seven-hundred Linear Foot environmentally sensitive development in Stoney Creek, Ontario. “It was a challenging project for us because we had to work around fishery schedules, conservation requirements, and safety relative to working on and beside water. We had a track record of zero incidents on that job.” The 8-acre site development kicked off the first phase of a multi-phase project that will consist of over one million square feet of housing.

Another noteworthy project from SG Constructors portfolio is King William Residence, a two-tower development with 581 residential units and 20,000 square feet of retail space. “The developer had started early works on their own and had encountered a few challenges along the way,” says Stainton. “They reached out to us to step in earlier than anticipated to resolve the issues and get the project back on track. The project is now ahead of schedule despite COVID challenges. We put a lot of extra work on ourselves by thinking outside the box but in turn saved the client a lot of money – millions of dollars.”

Circling back to earlier in our conversation, Stainton reinforces his point about SG Constructors desire to better understand their client’s businesses in order to form better partnerships. He talks about a smaller but significant project – Spark Tower Interior Fit out – that shows how this desire is put into practice. “The Project Management team was encountering some challenges, so ultimately the client turned the entire construction management of the project over to us. We have significant leeway in making design and financial decisions about the project because we understand what they need, and we understand their budget.”

SG Constructors demonstrate a proactive and future-focused mindset in all that they do, and their approach to the ongoing labor shortage follows suite. Stainton describes how SG Constructors are managing the labor shortage in both the short-term and the long-term. “In the short-term, we are focusing on our employees and treating them like customers. We really try and make it a family feel here. We’re quite flat in terms of an organization chart, and if there’s ever a reason to have a little fun – birthdays, weddings, new babies – we do it.” Also, on the short-term Stainton highlights the importance of opening the doors to women, indigenous people, immigrants, and those who may not think about construction as an obvious opportunity. “That’s going to be our short-term stop gap,” he says.

On the long-term, and the thing that has the potential to transform the next generation of construction, is SG Constructors commitment to ending the negative stigma around the industry and to promote it for the rewarding career that it is. “Many years ago, American General Constructors did a study which found that by Grade 3 kids don’t know what they want to do but they know what they don’t want to do, and that’s construction.” This finding came as a great disappointment to Stainton who knows first-hand what a truly great industry construction is, and he is determined now to share this knowledge far and wide. “We are working with many partners on trying to promote the industry at a government level; trying to get shop back into schools and having an accelerated immigration program to attract people with skilled trades, not just architects and engineers.” Among other campaigns SG Constructors also run digital outdoor ads that read ‘Talk to your kids about a Career in Construction’ in an attempt to make parents aware that this shift towards a brighter future for construction begins in the home. Stainton is passionate when he says that “we need parents and guidance counselors to stop thinking everybody needs to go to a university or college. Not everyone can be a lawyer or a doctor. There’s a lot of great programs and trades out there that allow people get into the workforce very young and get a jump on things.”

When I ask Stainton about his vision for the future of SG Constructors he returns once again to the importance of customer service. It’s clear that for SG Constructors customer service is not merely a box-tick exercise that is demanded in today’s business landscape, but rather the driving force behind all that they do. “Ultimately, we want to work with great clients and great people who we call friends. When they trust us, they share more about their business, and then we can be of greater value to them because we understand more. When the ball is about to drop, we can see it and we know exactly where it needs to be. That’s where we want to be.”

When precast concrete first gathered significant momentum in the 1950s there were few companies that could see it for the leading building material it would later become. One company that was quick off the mark was Central Precast Inc, a concrete manufacturing company that remains at the forefront of Canada’s precast industry today. Central Precast Inc was established in 1956 as a manufacturer of precast concrete products for the general construction industry. The company’s product line and manufacturing quickly grew to include landscape utility products, manholes, concrete poles, steps, barriers, and architectural panels. “Anything to do with concrete was made under that one roof,” says current Vice-President, Claudio Mion. “With an excess of over one hundred product lines, focus on customer service was beginning to lack.” To address this, and in recognition of the potential of precast concrete and the many different market segments it could serve, new industry-specific companies were formed under the umbrella of The Precast Group.

First to join Central Precast Inc was M CON Products, a one-stop-shop for sewer infrastructure needs. “M CON was formed to focus on the sewer and water main industry,” says Claudio. “Concrete pipe, manholes, anything that was underground to do with water.” Next to form was Utility Structures who offer specialized precast concrete services to the electrical industry. “When my uncle and former President Luigi Mion saw the immediate success of M CON he started the company’s series of expansion and growth. Utility Structures was formed to focus on the electrical market including electrical manholes, hydro manholes, transformer bases, utility poles. Anything to do with concrete poles for street lighting, sports lighting, hydro-distribution, was going to be made at Utility Structures, and that’s when I came into the picture.”

As nephew of Luigi Mion and cousin of John, Claudio is part of The Precast Groups second-generation. He began his career working counter sales at Central Precast until 1991 when he became head of Utility Structures, where he bounced between dispatching, sales, purchasing, and whatever else the company demanded at the time. “It was only a two-man operation in office and nine in plant,” Claudio says. “We started in the midst of the recession but while we were slow at the beginning we soon grew exponentially.”

“The three companies make up The Precast Group, which stands today as the leading manufacturer of precast concrete products in Eastern Ontario.”

With M CON and Utility Structures in the picture, original company Central Precast continued to house the groups head office and accounting department while also specializing in architectural panels and interlocking stone. The three companies make up The Precast Group, which stands today as the leading manufacturer of precast concrete products in Eastern Ontario.

“In the same way that M CON grew exponentially,” says Claudio, “so did Utility Structures and so did Central Precast. Each had their own market segment, their own focus, and their own customer base. After a few years, instead of taking from the profits each company reinvested into growth and expansion, hence here we are sixty-five years later. We’re based in Ottawa with control over the Eastern Ontario market. We ship products to Toronto on a daily basis, and some that are quite unique and specialized go across the border and down South to Florida.”

Claudio describes how each of the companies were working independently for some time until they realized the synergies between them, for example when it comes to buying power. While they were strong as independent entities, they could be a powerhouse in unison. “We had a company reorganization in 2018 and by 2020 my role became about bringing the three companies together. I deal on a bigger scale when it comes to buying cement and aggregates, some of our key components, as opposed to everybody working independently. We’re also reorganizing our accounting department and bringing in an ERP system to make things a lot more efficient and better from an inventory control point of view. We’re in the midst of this transition and it’s going really well.”

From the early 1990s economic slump to the more recent worldwide pandemic, The Precast Group has navigated several industry ups and downs. As such, many of the projects from their sixty-five-year portfolio capture a significant moment in time and tell a unique story about the ever-changing construction industry. After the 9/11 attacks, for example, Utility Structures provided both the US Embassy and British High Commission buildings with special custom design security barriers. “Not only were the barriers extremely large,” says Claudio, “but given the circumstances we also had to work to very tight timelines.” Further back, in 1999 and 2000, there was a big boom on fiber optics and two large companies came to Canada to put a route across the nation. “Central Precast and Utility Structures reaped the benefit of that boom,” says Claudio. “That goes down as one of our biggest jobs of all time. One of the companies represented multimedia and they were buying manholes from us to run their fiber optics. At the same time Central Precast was providing them with concrete storage buildings, because at every certain distance they had to have a distribution or a booster station. The reason they liked our buildings was because they were vandal-proof, fire-proof, and maintenance free. They were complete concrete enclosed structures with concrete walls, floors, and roofs. We must have sold about five hundred of those sheds, and as far as manholes go, we must have sold about three thousand across the two-year project.”

In the mid to late nineties, when Toronto was going through a period of unprecedented growth, they were building a small subdivision in Brampton called Springdale which they planned to develop into 100,000 homes with 500,000 occupants in ten to fifteen years. “They approached us to make them concrete street lighting poles” says Claudio of the project. “At first it was five-hundred poles, then another five hundred, then every year after that another five hundred. It was hard to keep up at first, we were smaller then and didn’t have the infrastructure or the people. I said to my uncle Luigi at the time, how are we going to do this? and he said, don’t worry about it, just get the job and we will figure it out. That was one of his mottos – never dwell on how you’re going to pull this off, he always said we’ll figure this out. And we did.”

Luigi Mion’s motto has stood the test of time and is one that can be applied to many of the issues by which the construction industry is faced today. The labor shortage, for example, is causing a huge strain on the industry, however it remains an overwhelming positive that the work is as abundant as it is. Everything else can be figured out along the way.

Along with the ongoing labor shortage the construction industry is also up against high interest rates and inflation, but while a lot of employers are all doom and gloom Claudio remains optimistic. “We’re bullish in our industry and our market segment,” says Claudio. “The housing market is very strong in Ottawa, and we’re closely related to that. M CON provide the pipes and manholes, Utility Structures provide the transformer bases and utility poles, and Central Precast provide the interlocking stone. Also, our government tends to put money into infrastructure to keep the economy moving and a good portion of our products go towards the infrastructure we build. So, I would say the future is bright for The Precast Group.”

Claudio wraps things up with a nod to the driving force behind the company, and that is its people. “I like what I see,” says Claudio. “The third generation are young and ambitious and have a different mindset to my uncle and dad. We love their energy, and we love their ideas. They shed new light on things and when you blend that with us the result is quite optimistic.” The Precast Group have experienced sixty-five years of success and longevity and this, Claudio says, has a great deal to do with the dedicated employees they have. “We recently celebrated a fifty-year anniversary for an employee, and he’s still working. We also have many who have been with us for thirty, thirty-five, and forty years. When employees spend their entire career at The Precast Group it gives myself and John (President) a lot of pride.”

Between the longstanding employees who have been with the company for up to fifty years, and the third generation of fresh new minds coming up the ranks, The Precast Group is in good hands.

It is no secret among construction industry professionals that prefabricated and modular structures are the way of the future. What was always a popular approach from its introduction into the market decades ago has become even more so, with the industry moving rapidly towards a culture of speed, cost-efficiency, resiliency and sustainability. In the last ten years, precast concrete has become the fastest growing concrete in the world, a statistic that comes off the back of this heightened demand for prefabricated and modular buildings. In Canada, the precast concrete industry is represented by the Canadian Precast Prestressed Concrete Institute (CPCI).

CPCI is a research institute, trade association, and the leading technical resource for the precast concrete industry in Canada. It is described by Managing Director Brian Hall as “a joint industry initiative that develops, maintains, and disseminates the Body of Knowledge (BOK) necessary for designing, fabricating, and constructing sustainable and resilient precast concrete structures.” BOK refers to the collective knowledge of an industry that is relied upon to design and build with a specific material or system, and it is from this BOK that building codes, design guides, education programs and certifications are derived.

As an organization CPCI is, like the precast concrete it represents, structurally sound. It stands strong at 45 members and 56 manufacturing plants across Canada with over 500,000 square feet of plant space available for producing precast concrete. In fact, CPCI members produce 80% of all the precast concrete manufactured in Canada. This presence alone is representative of the industry’s scale, but what exactly is it about precast concrete that yields such growth and demand? “Fast production, life cycle cost effectiveness, low maintenance, and structural strength,” says Brian. “The inherent benefits of precast prestressed concrete make it the best choice for many projects.” To provide further insight into the durability of precast concrete Brian talks about the materials megapascal (MPa) which is a measure of the compressive strength of concrete. “Ordinary concrete is about 15-25 MPa while precast concrete is usually 35 – 55 MPa he says. “Right now, we can produce high-performance precast that’s 70 -100 MPa, so to manufacture a building that will last for a hundred years is not a problem.” Brian also says that on the aesthetic side of precast concrete “the creative dimensions of shape, texture, colour and pattern make for attractive buildings.” He adds that when it comes to sustainability “the onsite waste is almost nothing as the precast components are finished in the factory then delivered to the project”. Another sustainable benefit of precast concrete is how easily it can be power washed to look like new again, which is not the case for other building materials in the market. 

Precast concrete is far from a hard sell, and therefore the rapid growth of it as a building material of choice is very easily justified.

CPCI and its members play a huge part in the growth of the precast concrete industry in Canada through their advocacy work, which is in constant evolution and follows construction industry trends. A huge part of this advocacy work is their commitment to attracting skilled labour and promoting the benefits of a career in the precast concrete industry. “The manufacturing workforce shortage is real,” says Brian, “which means the precast industry has to rethink and enhance our interviewing, hiring, and retention practices. Since the largest labour pools are millennials, Gen Z, and new Canadians, we need a new focus on how to effectively hire and integrate these sectors into our workforce.” CPCI’s Guide to Skilled Labor Pool Developmentis being produced to help every member plant attract, train, and retain the best manufacturing talent in the precast concrete industry.

In the same way that skilled workers are beneficial to the industry, the industry offers benefits to the skilled worker. With the growth of precast concrete, there is no shortage of work out there and so CPCI is on a mission to promote the industry for what it is – an opportunity to be part of something forward-looking. As part of their advocacy work as far as building the workforce is concerned, CPCI makes sure to extend the precast opportunity to those who may need it most.

CPCI works closely with the Canadian Government as well as the Canadian architectural, engineering, transport, and parking associations, all of whom have an invested interest in the growth of precast concrete and the potential benefits of embracing it. This includes the Cement Association of Canada, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada & Regional Chapters (RAIC), Construction Specifications Canada (CSC), Transportation Association of Canada (TAC), Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE), Canadian Parking Association (CPA), Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and the Canadian Building Envelope Council, among others. As precast concrete is a more sustainable approach than traditional building methods, much of CPCI’s advocacy work is naturally focused on the drive towards a more sustainable built environment. CPCI along with Kearns Mancini Architects and Coreslab Structures presented at the Canadian Green Building Council National Convention in Toronto in June on the Putman Family YWCA the first Total Precast Concrete Passive House (PH) structure. A case study on the project is available on the CPCI website under resources/publications.

“The maturing of digital tools has radically changed the modular-construction proposition,” Brian says.

Brian attributes much of the industry’s growth in recent years to the rise in digital tools and 3D modelling that are available today. CPCI got into 3D modelling about fifteen years ago and Brian says that it’s been a godsend for the industry and members, in particular architects and engineers who love to be on the cutting edge of new technology. “The maturing of digital tools has radically changed the modular-construction proposition,” Brian says. “For instance, by facilitating the design of modular components and full modules and optimizing delivery logistics. Designer and client perceptions of prefabricated structures are beginning to change, particularly as 3D modelling design tools help improve the visual appeal of them.”

Precast concrete came about in the 1950s, embraced first by Nordic countries such as Norway and Sweden which needed to build quickly in the post-war era. It wasn’t until the 1950s that Canada’s one of the first prefabricated buildings was erected – a condominium building that stands strong today as a World Heritage site. Though it has been around since then, it is in the last 20 years that precast concrete started ramping up to its full potential. Because it remains a new phenomenon for many, there is a knowledge gap to be filled. Behind everything, CPCI’s drive is to fill that knowledge gap through education. Their Learn on Demand program, for example, is a continual series of educational courses for architects, engineers, real estate developers, academics, students, government officials and construction professionals who want to learn more about precast concrete products and services. Learn on Demand is available 24/7/365. Participants listen to a 45 50-minute presentation and then answer questions relating to the course content. Upon completion, you’re sent a certificate of participation to qualify for Professional Development Hours and/or Continuing Education Credits.”

Another successful educational service delivered by CPCI is their Lunch & Learn Presentation and Plant Tour Program, which involves educational presentations at client offices during lunch and plant tours throughout the year to share how precast concrete is manufactured. Twenty-two years ago, CPCI started a program called National Precast Day. Another channel through which CPCI provides the construction industry with quality education, National Precast Day sees members across Canada open their precast plants to demonstrate how precast components are manufactured and the many benefits of building with precast concrete. “In the last 22 years National Precast Day has hosted over 50,000 students and AEC professionals,” says Brian.

In Brian’s words, these educational programs “help those in the construction industry to keep current, master new knowledge and skills and plan for the future. In doing so they have the potential to be one of the primary forces in the improvement and revitalization of the construction industry.” With the prefabricated and modular building industry on the rise and organizations like CPCI working tirelessly to advocate and educate within it, the future looks bright for precast concrete. The industry as a whole is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.2% over the analysis period until 2026, and in Canada, it is CPCI and its members who are set to lead the way in making this a reality.

CPCI is pleased to announce, in 2022, the launch of a 2030/2050 Net-Zero Roadmap Initiative, an important step to decarbonizing our industry by 2050. The roadmap will align with the broader Canadian and international cement and concrete industry efforts by the Cement Association of Canada and the GCCA – Global Cement and Concrete Association and will also support international climate action industry efforts like the Paris agreement and #COP27 to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5C. The industry has established several working groups on benchmarking, production, design and construction, carbonation, and communications. The Canadian precast concrete net-zero roadmap and action plan is expected to be published by late 2022 and initiated in Winter 2023.

For more information contact CPCI at Toll-free: 877 937 2724 |Email: [email protected] | Web: www.cpci.ca

Brian J Hall, B. B. A., MBA
Managing Director
Canadian Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute
Vice-Chair – Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Foundation

“KIRCO is a national commercial real estate development, investment, construction and facilities management firm,” says Quinn Kiriluk, offering a worthy attempt at describing all that KIRCO is in just one short sentence. “We are primarily focused on two industry verticals,” says Quinn. “One being senior living and healthcare and the second being corporate real estate, which covers any type of facility from industrial, manufacturing, R&D, laboratories, offices and headquarters.”

Quinn is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of the family owned and family operated company, and he joins me today alongside Adam and A.J. to tell me all about its four- decade long journey towards nationwide success. “ KIRCO was born and raised in Michigan,” he tells me. “An overweight portion of our business has been in Michigan State and the Midwest.” KIRCO was founded in 1974 and is a partner company of KIRCO MANIX, the construction side of the organization providing the highest quality pre-construction, design build, and construction management expertise. With over 100 years of experience and $4 billion of successfully delivered projects across the country, KIRCO MANIX have truly played their part in the resurgence of the Midwest.

“Obviously, being in the Detroit area, a lot of our work and our history is with the automotive industry.” This insight comes from AJ Washeleski, head of Business Development at KIRCO MANIX. “We’ve ridden the waves of a lot of the Japanese companies coming in the eighties and the European companies coming in the nineties and early noughties.” This leads us nicely on to a recent project of KIRCO’s: Webasto’s North American Automotive HQ. Adam Manix, Director of Corporate Real Estate, delves deep into the project which all three agree, KIRCO are extremely proud of. “The project itself was a renovation and expansion of a building that was originally built by our company thirty years ago,” he says. “It was originally designed by an Architect based down in Mexico, so it’s got some unique features and design elements compared to other buildings you see today.” The Webasto HQ building represents KIRCO’s forty-sixth building in Auburn Hills, a suburb of Detroit where a lot of the automotive companies are based and in Adam’s words “a prime location for them.”

Working out of North America’s automotive hub, KIRCO and KIRCO MANIX have come to specialize in projects of this nature. They recently completed the Mercedes-Benz North American Headquarters, a two-thousand square foot facility in Farmington Hills. The project, on which they worked alongside renowned architectural and design firm Gensler, started just six weeks before the COVID-fueled shut down of Michigan. “Imagine it,” says Quinn, “everyone is excited to get going and to hit schedules, and then all of a sudden the site is shut down.” During that time the team at KIRCO didn’t take their foot off the pedal and instead put their heads together – virtually – to figure out how to navigate the unknown territory that was a global pandemic. Six weeks later, when the State of Michigan finally recognized construction as the essential industry that it is, they hit the ground running. “We had a great team who all worked together to make sure lead times of materials were being handled in an appropriate manner,” Quinn says. “It took an extra level of discipline and focus by everyone to get it done.” To alleviate some of the supply chain issues that continue to haunt the industry today, KIRCO purchased materials up front and stored them in containers on site. “With all that,” Quinn says, “we were able to maintain the schedule.”

Much of KIRCO’s portfolio falls within the well-known automotive sector, but an industry vertical of theirs that we may be less familiar with is laboratories. Ann Arbor, a suburb of Detroit in the University of Michigan area, is home to Wacker Chemicals North American Headquarters. The 140,000 square feet of lab and R&D space handles the most volatile and abrasive chemicals on the planet and was expertly developed by KIRCO to that effect. Wacker Chemicals are originally headquartered in Germany and so the new development required a lot of lab and custom equipment, including an onsite nitrogen generator, to be imported. “A lot of that equipment fell victim to the supply chain issues,” Quinn says, “so we had to work around them. We used a helicopter to hoist the Nitrogen Generator into the penthouse because we had to enclose the building so we could finish the interiors.” AJ picks up where Quinn leaves off and tells me that “when we couldn’t get roofing materials in the proper sequence, we worked with a roof manufacturer and designed an alternative insulation method, and we still got them to honor the warranty.” Quinn, Adam, and AJ all agree that this particular project is a great example of KIRCO’s ability to, as AJ puts it, “improvise and think things out on the fly with our subcontractors, designers, and clients.”

Another project that started deep in the throes of lockdown, Wacker Chemicals HQ was completed without a face-to-face meeting ever taking place. “We got through the design development phase and got site plan approvals and construction contracts, all virtually,” says Quinn. “We broke ground on the project in October of 2020 and, believe it or not, we just completed it last week within one week of our original schedule.” It is clear from such success stories that the team at KIRCO place a great deal of importance on getting the job done on time, and this speaks to their collaborative approach to doing business. Quinn says: “One overreaching theme that’s emerged in this post-COVID era is that clients should no longer look at construction and development teams as commodities, but as partnerships. All of us working together instead of saying force majeure or not my problem – that is what’s required now.”

Speaking more on the pandemic, Quinn tells me about how KIRCO managed through the past two years that were unlike any they had ever seen before. “It was a struggle trying to run a real estate and construction company remotely without being able to collaborate in a room together,” he says, “but we managed through it well and didn’t lose a single employee.” While all of their job sites lay idle during those uncertain weeks in early 2020, the KIRCO team themselves did not. “We put all of our focus into the community. We had Project Managers helping the healthcare system by getting kiosks and booths together for COVID testing. Our local healthcare system was part of a clinical trial for early COVID treatment, and they were desperately in need of funds, so we stepped up and contributed towards those.” As well as that, KIRCO took part in the development of COVID treatment centers for homeless people in the city of Detroit. “It was unchartered waters for everybody,” says Quinn, and we certainly didn’t just look inwards.”

“Another project that started deep in the throes of lockdown, Wacker Chemicals HQ was completed without a face-to-face meeting ever taking place.”

Adam goes on to talk about how KIRCO’s handling of the pandemic ultimately speaks to the positive culture embedded deep within the company. He says that “when your back is against the wall with something so unexpected and everyone steps up, comes together, puts their heads down and gets the job done – I couldn’t be prouder.

Because development, construction, and facilities management all fall under the KIRCO umbrella, it makes sense for them to gear their focus towards long-term ownership. “Whether it’s an asset we’re going to own and lease or one we’re just building for a client like Webasto and Mercedes, we’re doing everything through the eyes of an owner. We have the rallied, brainstorming and coming up with solutions and thinking outside the box.” This approach will lead KIRCO into the future and the next stage of their journey, in which they plan to focus on their main disciple for which they are confident there will always be a demand. “Despite all the challenges we’re seeing globally and economically,” says Quinn, “there’s always going to be that demand for corporate real estate and senior housing. The product types we focus on may differ, for example we may look into more mission critical type facilities, but we will remain focused on those demands.” In terms of growth projection, Quinn says that KIRCO are committed to the national growth they are already experiencing. “We’ve got a project in a new state almost monthly,” he says. “We’re active in seventeen states today, and we only hope that we continue to see that number grow.”

To close out our conversation which was insightful and informative in equal measure, Quinn says: “We’re not perfect, there’s still challenges ahead, and we haven’t got it all figured out yet, but we feel pretty good about where we’re at.”

Occhino Corp is a Buffalo-based asphalt paving and road construction company with deep roots in Western New York. To their community in Buffalo and beyond they are a go-to contractor for road construction, parking lot construction, concrete construction, new site development, sewer installation, and various types of utility work. “An extremely versatile company,” as current CEO Lee Occhino puts it. Occhino Corp also serve Buffalo as an emergency road and utility contractor in times of need, reinforcing their reputation as a reliable asset to the community.

First established in 1955 with a fleet of just four trucks that hauled gravel products, Occhino Corp in its original form was a far cry from the multi-faceted utility and construction company that it is today. What it still is, though, is a truly authentic family business that remains under Occhino ownership. When Lee joined Occhino Corp he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and original founder Anthony A. Occhino and his own father Anthony John, becoming the third generation of Occhino to lead the company. But Lee’s involvement in Occhino Corp started unofficially back when he was just a kid, as is often the case with family businesses. He and his brother Tony were raised on Occhino Corp soil where they would help their father and grandfather with odd jobs, two future Occhino leaders in the making. All things considered, the sense of continuity that permeates through Occhino Corp is tangible. This stability is currently evidenced by the involvement of Lee’s and Tony’s children who, unsurprisingly, also demonstrate considerable skill and dedication. The family atmosphere; underpinned by a combination of diligence, trust and skill, is evident throughout my conversation with Lee and Tony and is clearly weaved into the very fabric of the company.

Before Lee came on board Occhino Corp was focused primarily on trucking, snow removal and small demolition jobs. In the early 1980s Lee got to work on expanding into residential and commercial paving, site development work and general contracting. This opened Occhino’s doors to a wider customer base and scope of service. “Back then I worked for the company doing driveway paving and smaller construction, “Lee says. “Then in the 1990s when my grandfather passed away and my father retired, my brother Tony joined me as a partner.” It was in 1999 when Tony came on board full time and together the pair grew Occhino into the versatile construction company it is today.

“In 2000 we did our first project for the NY State Department of Transportation and from there it really blossomed,” says Tony. ”Today we do everything from heavy highway road reconstruction to milling and paving of roadways. We also do a lot of school capital projects which consists of sports and athletic fields, specialty fields, rebuilding of infrastructure, and site work like sewers and water lines.”

“Anything from grass to road, you name it,” Lee adds. “We take a field and a bunch of trees and turn it into a site where somebody can put up a building, and we do all the site work for them.” Occhino Corp serves the Buffalo and Western New York region not as a client, but more like an extension of family. “We service both roadways and commercial businesses. To us, that’s our larger family and we want to make sure that our work always shines through.”

“Occhino Corp takes huge pride in every project it works on.”

As part of this commitment to quality, Occhino Corp ensures that the highest standards of safety are at the helm of all they do. Many of their employees are enrolled in programs such as civil engineering, surveying, and additional safety courses. All field employees have completed OSHA Safety requirements. “Because we started out as a trucking company,” Lee says, “we try to take care of our truckers and other employees and to get everyone home safe, while also updating our equipment regularly and keeping a nice clean site.” Occhino Corp has between forty and sixty employees depending on the time of year, and in the wintertime when business is slower they provide those employees with the opportunity to upskill. “If an employee wants to better themselves or do something that’ll move them up in the world we help them find classes and pay for a lot of it,” says Lee. “Because better employees make a better company.”

Because Occhino Corp is people-orientated they are by default safety-orientated too, and this extends to their clients as well as their employees. “We do work in places like chemical industrial manufacturing plants who are big on safety,” says Lee. He goes on to talk about some standout projects from Occhino Corp’s extensive portfolio, all of which are delivered to the highest safety and quality standards. In the spotlight is a project for Conway Beam, a family-owned truck dealership based in New York. “Two years ago we helped Conway Beam through a little bit of a rough patch getting a project off the ground,” says Lee. “We took twenty-six acres of wooded lowland, filled the property, and turned this site from wooded lowland into one of the biggest Mack Mobile dealerships in North America.”

Occhino Corp went on to win an AGC Award for this particular project along with Gernatt Asphalt Products who supplied product. The Association of General Contractors (AGC) Awards recognize the most pioneering of projects in the American construction industry. Coming out on top of their category among some of the most innovative paving projects in the region was a true reflection of Occhino Corp’s dedication to their craft.

Having experienced so much growth in earlier years, Occhino Corp is fortunate to be in a place now where they don’t want to get much bigger. Instead, they want to maintain what they’ve built over the years while bringing in fresh new talent to help the company evolve along with market trends. “We buy lots of new trucks and equipment and we try to keep up to date and running smoothly. And not only equipment – it’s the same with personnel too. We try to keep our personnel up to date through education and introducing fresh new minds to lead us through the changes the world is going through.” Occhino Corp has been around the block enough times to know first-hand that the construction industry is ever-changing. It’s clear that they are committed to keeping up with the changing demands of the industry and whatever challenges it may present, with a flexible, innovative and open-minded approach that is paramount in construction today.

“The truth is that the construction industry is getting a lot tougher these days, with a lot more white-collar and younger people coming out of college who just don’t have the experience,” says Lee. It’s no secret that the construction industry today is often plagued by inexperience and staff shortages, which ultimately has a negative impact on a company’s bottom line. “We recently brought in a new partner named Tony Milone who is a licensed Professional Engineer, and we’d like to keep the company growing with new younger partners,” says Lee. It is this investment in the future of the company and the people within it that allows for the expansion of knowledge and expertise, which is exactly what is needed to stay competitive in the ever-evolving game.

The ‘personal touch’ that underpins all that Occhino Corp does is evident in the relationships they share with both employees and clients alike. When it comes to the company’s clients Lee and Tony take inspiration from the handshake business on which they were raised. Like their father and grandfather before them, they know the importance of client relationships and they do all that they can to maintain them. “Occhino Corp takes huge pride in every project it works on. This is a company that does not merely complete projects to the required specifications. Our attitude is always to do the best job we possibly can for our customers by going the extra mile. In doing this, we have created and maintained many relationships over the years. This has all been based on a trust that is built on the handshake deal mentality.” It is this unyielding commitment to employee and client satisfaction that sets Occhino Corp apart from the crowd and keeps them on the path of success that’s been paved for generations.

Any company that’s been around for the past three decades knows a thing or two about major industry shifts, from the economic crash of 2008 to the more recent global pandemic. Champion Site Prep is a Texas-based earthwork, site preparation and excavation company who have been navigating the construction industry since 1985 with a proactive approach to its ever-changing demands. “We started out as a small shoestring company working on projects as small as gas stations and fast-food restaurants,” says President and CEO Trey Taparauskas. “We perform earthwork and paving now for projects large and small, specifically focused on the private commercial industry including offices, high rise, restaurants, banks, retail, industrial, and municipal.” In a catch-all phrase that cleverly captures both their scope of work and their commitment to quality service, Champion uses the slogan ‘We’ll move the earth for you.’

During their first twenty year period in business Champion grew slowly to approximately 100 employees and expanded their customer base but they stayed relatively small into the 90’s and early 00’s. Then, in 2003, Trey was hired with the task of taking the company to the next level in terms of growth. Champion experienced marginal growth during that time despite the industry struggles that came with 2008 but it wasn’t until some years later that the company rose to the height it stands at today. That growth, as Trey explains, was largely down to Champion’s ESOP buyout of the original owner in 2014. “That’s when we lit the fuse and the rocket really started heading up,” Trey says. “That, along with the exceptional Texas market and Champion’s renewed commitment to our customers and employees, has allowed us to over double in number of employees and triple in annual revenue. We were successful before the buyout but now we are a top tier company.”

ESOP is an Employee Stock Ownership Plan that offers workers interest in the company in the form of stock shares. It’s a ‘grow together’ approach that goes further than making employees simply feel like they are part of the company’s overall success by offering them tangible proof that they truly are. “It was definitely unique to me, the management team, and our employees, but over time it’s become the fabric of who we are,” says Trey of the business model. “We were the little guy for many years at the beginning which kept us out of the market for bigger work, but the ESOP helped us establish a more personal atmosphere which has had a positive impact on our bottom line. Our margins and company culture have both benefited from the involvement of a full team and areas of safety, work engagement, teams, and productivity have all seen the positive effect of the program.” Champion believes that each individuals success leads to positive results for the company as a whole, and the ESOP is what helps them set up their employees for that success. “Each employee can become a stock owner within one year of employment. It allows employees to feel like they’ve got skin in the game because they actually do – they get a stock report of their shares every year. We’ve grown the value of our stock by 500% since the buyout and every individual has a little piece of that. Some of those stock accounts have grown rapidly.” The program blurs the lines of hierarchy between owner and employee to make for a more fair, balanced, and opportunistic environment. Trey also says that being able to add some long-term benefits to compensation packages for each individual employee has helped Champion retain the best people, which is more than half the battle in the construction industry today.

Speaking of the success Champion has experienced since 2014, Trey mentions some of the standout projects that have kept them busy over the years. Texas is one of Northern America’s fastest growing educational hubs, and often it is Champion who are first on the ground to make that happen. “We’re very proud of our association with the largest universities in the region,” he says. “We’re a huge part of the school and university building that’s going on here. We’ve performed work for the University of Texas for over twenty years including stadium projects, new buildings, roadways, arenas, and sports fields. We’ve also got three projects at Baylor University in Waco including their new premier basketball arena, dormitory, and football practice facility. Additionally, we’ve got many projects at Texas State University, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Saint Edward’s University and Southwestern University. Having performed well for these organizations in the past does get us in the driver’s seat for their big projects when we are competitively bidding for them.”

“Big enough to undertake the largest projects, yet small enough to maintain the loyalty, quality, and teamwork that has made us successful.”

Trey goes on to talk about Champion’s work for H-E-B, the premier grocery company who are rapidly expanding throughout the Texas region. “We work as a large subcontractor on many of their new grocery projects which are a big deal in the Austin, San Antonio, and Waco areas. We’ve done over $25 million on H-E-B projects alone. We’re currently working in Temple, Texas on a $90 million plus freezer and processing center, the largest industrial investment H-E-B has ever made. It’s a 350,000 sq ft facility, like what you’d have in your kitchen or garage except with fully automated robotics and packaging. It’s a really exciting project and we won it on a competitive bid proposal along with the previous relationships we’ve built.”

It is these kinds of projects that represent the scale Champion has grown to since their humble beginnings in the mid-eighties. They plan, humbly, to continue in that direction. “We are very fortunate to be in this region that is experiencing growth,” Trey says speaking of the Austin construction market and the wider Central Texas area, “but we’re also in a particular space and market that is affected by regional, economic and world events. We try to balance growth with a conservative outlook so that we don’t get out over our skis, as we say. We take all the good we can get when the market is growing without putting ourselves in a position to go under if things slow down.”

Champion’s successful ESOP buyout in 2014 and the steady growth that’s come with it has placed the company in a position that is fully aligned with their very philosophy: to be big enough to undertake the largest projects, yet small enough to maintain the loyalty, quality, and teamwork that has made us successful. “We don’t want to be the biggest contractor performing earthwork and excavation in our region, but we do want to be the best,” says Trey. “We try to just take it as it comes and expand along with the market without having to branch out into other regions or lower prices to gain market share. We’re just riding the wave at the moment. Currently were in the top tier of premier earthwork contractors in our region and we plan to grow while also working hard to maintain our service level and our employee work environment, which we believe is what sets us apart.” The future of Champion Site Prep is all about steady growth, cautious optimism, and a lifelong commitment to always putting the employees first. The unique business model they have built over time has put them on the path to achieving all of their goals, together.

Growth, diversification, collaboration. This is the order of business for Villager Construction, the New York based and multi-faceted construction company working up and down the East coast. Villager Construction was started in 1980 by Richard K. Clark who, prior to that, had been doing commercial work under the name Clark Excavation. Clark branched out into municipal and public bid work, and along with General Manager Skip Pike, they hired Timothy Lawless to help the company grow. Timothy is now the CEO of Villager Construction having bought the company from Clark in 2019, and today he takes time out of his busy schedule to talk me through the company’s journey from past to present. “When I came on board in 1992, we were doing mostly road reconstruction and utility water and sewer work in the Upstate New York area,” Timothy says. “There were about thirty to forty employees, and we were doing a couple million dollars a year. Shortly thereafter, with the help of General Manager Skip Pike and myself, we transformed the company into a larger firm and continued to grow almost exponentially in the public arena for the next ten years.”

The growth Tim speaks of came largely as a result of Villager Construction’s open-minded approach to changing industry demands. In 1997, when they recognized that road milling and profiling was set to become a bigger part of road construction, they got to work right away on making it a part of their portfolio. “We had a job that required road milling, so we rented a Caterpillar machine,” Tim says. “We started buying road milling machines soon after the success of that job, and that became our second line of work.” Villager Construction’s road milling department had been in existence for less than three years when they expanded it outside of New York and into the Carolina’s, building and rebuilding highways with some of the larger firms out there. “Today, twenty-five years later, we have a fleet of twenty-eight million machines that work up and down the East Coast.”

To capture the true extent of Villager Construction’s diversified portfolio Tim tells me that while one of his teams might be assisting in the reconstructing sixteen miles of road down the East Coast, another might be tending to an emergency call in the middle of the night for a water main or sewer line break. “This is because we’re on call 24/7 for the local municipals,” he says. Villager Construction continued to diversify into the early 2000s with the addition of their treatment plant work and paving departments, and such has been the Villager way ever since.

Around that same time Villager Construction picked up a job for the New York State DOT that required them to take out concrete sub-base, process it by way of crushing, and reuse that product back in the road. This was an era during which the talk of sustainability in the construction industry was a mere background noise compared to the roar that it is today, but even so Villager Construction had the foresight to recognize its potential. “We realized that like road milling, recycling and reusing materials coming out of the ground was going to become a larger part of the industry,” Tim says. “We purchased our first transportable crushing machine, then in 2009 our second and third. We continue to grow that line of business and follow the construction industry along the path of green.” To reuse rather than waste remains one of the most important principles of sustainability today, and one that Villager Construction are quite literally building into our infrastructure through their ever-evolving road construction department. Tim says that “it’s really exciting how we’ve taken straight up road construction and found different avenues to help us diversify and become what we are today.”

“We realized that like road milling, recycling and reusing materials coming out of the ground was going to become a larger part of the industry.”

Today Villager Construction continue to play an integral role in building the infrastructure of New York and beyond. They recently completed a section of the 490 interstate and it is this kind of project that brings about the sense of pride Tim and his employees find in their craft. “We milled and resurfaced six and a half miles of a major highway here in Rochester and will be doing an extension of that soon, the 590 project, heading North for another six miles of milling and paving.” Those who just use a city’s infrastructure allow things like smooth highways and clean running water to improve their daily lives without a second thought, while those who build it experience its benefits with a sense of pride and satisfaction that only they understand. “Helping to improve our roads and utilities is very satisfying and an accomplishment that everyone in our company is very proud of,” Tim says. “It’s exciting to drive down a road, feel the ride in your car, and know that your company had a part in making that happen. Or when you flush the toilet or take a shower and you have clean running water, you realize that that too is how our work comes together. To know that you’ve had a part in the infrastructure that keeps us healthy and safe – it’s a really neat feeling.” In this reflection Tim captures the true essence of what construction is all about – building something greater than what meets the eye and improving the lives of those who use it.

In today’s construction climate, with the shortage of qualified workers becoming a major headline, industry professionals are working against the clock to find innovate new ways to do business. Tim and his team recognize these workers shortages as an industry-wide rather than a company-wide problem, and as such have taken a collaborative approach in trying to solve them. Their paving department for example, which has expanded in typical Villager fashion over the years into North Carolina, is set up to support and build partnerships with the larger contractors down there. “The paving department continues to grow and be part of our footprint up and down the East Coast,” says Tim. “And when we can support some of the larger firms through the worker shortage and do some of the prep work, that’s pretty cool as well.”

This collaborative approach is also true of Villager Construction’s Logistics team, who have become a department of their own as a result of growing industry demands. “If we’re delivering something to one of our job sites and we can help one of our partners out by moving their equipment too – that’s what that department is all about.” It is this kind of attitude that transcends the competitiveness that often comes with doing business and replaces it with a sense of community that may be the very thing the construction industry needs to heal.

Villager Construction, as Tim describes it, is made up of a million different machines that work across all departments to get the job done, but the true brain behind the operation is, of course, its people. “All departments continue to find ways to grow, and the operations managers are key in making each one successful,” Tim says. “All of our employees contribute to the overall success of Villager Construction and I’m very proud of everyone who works here. We talk to our employees and let them know we’re proud, and we hope the travelling public can recognize their good work too.”

As they move forward into the future Villager Construction plan to continue along the tried and tested path that has led them to where they are today. That is, one that is rich in growth, diversification, and collaboration. They hope to continue to support the bigger firms with whom they’ve formed successful partnerships with, learning from them as they too continue to expand. “With the diminishing infrastructure that needs to be brought up to date there’s a lot of work to be done and we’re looking forward to doing it,” Tim says. “There are challenges along the way, but it’s about navigating those challenges and building a better future.”

Collaboration, creativity, and integrity. These are the three core values of LoDuca Associates, an award-winning construction company operating out of Blue Point NY. LoDuca’s CEO Renee Guerrieri mentions these values very early on in our conversation, and it strikes me throughout that they are not merely used as buzz words to establish a particular reputation but rather that they are deeply woven into the fabric of the company and all that they do. “All of our core values stem from my father,” Renee says, “and the employees we hire have to embody and uphold them.”

When CEO Renee joined LoDuca Associates back in 2007 she did so on what was meant to be a temporary basis. “I came in at first to help out during a period of transition,” she says. “I’ve been here almost fifteen years now, and I plan to be here forever.” The reflection is a testament to the company which was started by Renee’s father thirty-nine years ago, and the positive workplace culture that has driven LoDuca’s success ever since.

Richard LoDuca is Renee’s father and current President of LoDuca Associates. Richard started the company in 1983 as a home developer, and by 1987 had broken out into the public works and commercial contracting sector. Today, LoDuca Associates has a four-decade long portfolio under their belt with a diverse range of projects including high-end residential, ground-up construction, renovations, alterations, and additions. Though their journey thus far has led them down different paths in terms of the work they do, LoDuca’s “people first” approach has remained in place through every twist and turn. The name of the company itself was well thought out by Richard, who knew from day one that behind every successful business is a solid team.

“He was very set on choosing ‘associates’ because he knew from the start that the company was not just him, it was him and his team,” Renee says. LoDuca Associates is a company that was quite literally born of a team mindset, and so it’s no wonder that today they’ve got a great team of people behind them with a staff retention record that we don’t see too much of anymore. “A lot of our employees have been here for ten years or more,” Renee says, “a lot for twenty years or more, and some for as long as thirty-six years.”

A happy and hardworking workforce directly reflects the success of a project, and this is certainly the case for LoDuca Associates. LoDuca Associates are, as any great construction company should be, hyper-focused on the work that they produce. To get a true understanding of what LoDuca Associates are all about, I asked Renee to talk me through some of the projects they have completed in New York and beyond. “Long Island Railroad has been one of our biggest clients for almost forty years,” Renee says. “We’re very proud of that work and have built great relationships with project managers and clients, but we’re not just a railroad contractor.” Renee goes on to talk about some of the standout projects that really capture the company’s build with precision ethos.

First up is the Ocean Beach Ferry Terminal, a 6,000 square foot ground-up construction development which recently won an award for excellence through ABC. “It was built next to the water which presents a lot of challenges,” Renee says. “We have a staff of in-house carpenters, and so we did almost the entire project with just our staff. The truss work inside is absolutely beautiful. It’s a project we get so many compliments on, and we’re very proud of it.

“We have a staff of in-house carpenters, and so we did almost the entire project with just our staff.”

Renee tells me next about a glamping site they recently built for Collective Retreats. This is not the typical kind of project that springs to mind when we think about a construction company, and it is one that really showcases the diversity in LoDuca’s work. “We built a glamping site out at Governors Island for Collective Retreats, whom we have a great relationship with. They recently asked for one of our employees to be flown out to their Texas site for a project. It’s amazing – they have sites all over but wanted to use our guy.”

Next up is the construction of a museum paying tribute to true American hero Lt. Michael P. Murphy, a US Navy SEAL Officer who was awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions during the war in Afghanistan. “The Michael P. Murphy Museum was built due to the donations of people like us,” Renee says. “We were able to donate a large portion of framing work to the project, and we were very excited to be a part of that. We’ve done a lot of fundraising with those guys too, supporting their mission over there.”

Another standout project for LoDuca Associates is their Gotham Greens development, a 65,000 square foot greenhouse built on top of a 4-storey building in Jamaica, Queens. “Gotham Greens are a very successful greenhouse and produce growing company,” Renee tells me. “Building on top of the roof presented tremendous challenges, but we worked really well through it.” This is another example of LoDuca’s wide range of skills in the built environment, and one that ring true to their company motto – if you dream it, we’ll build it.

It’s evident that for a company like LoDuca Associates to select just a handful of standout projects is no easy feat. Renee also talks with pride about the Jamaica Theatre Control Centre, MTA Headquarters and Saltaire Yacht Club, each of which offers an exciting new insight into the true potential of modern-day construction.

Though the level of quality produced by LoDuca Associates is clearly evident in the projects themselves, LoDuca have put in place certain certifications and benchmarks to ensure that that quality is never in question. As Accredited Quality Certifiers, LoDuca Associates pledge that the company is committed to providing their clients with the highest quality construction services, and that they deeply care their employees and the communities in which they build. “We felt like the AQC pledge strongly aligned with who we are as a company,” Renee says. “We’re extremely transparent with clients, subcontractors and employees and we take safety on site very seriously, so this just puts a stamp on what we’ve been doing for the company’s entire existence.” The AQC pledge lets LoDuca’s clients know that their carpenters are receiving continued education through the program, while from a marketing perspective it allows LoDuca Associates to highlight potential new clients.

LoDuca Associates have also introduced benchmarking tool STEP to their practice to further ensure quality and improvement across the board. They achieved Platinum status through the program when they first implemented it last year. The only status above that is Diamond and that’s something they continue to strive towards. “Achieving Platinum status confirmed that our safety standards are really in line with industry standards. STEP helps us analyze and measure where we are, and where we need to improve.”

Renee talks with gratitude about how LoDuca Associates were blessed with a steady flow of essential work during the pandemic, and it’s evident that that blessing has not gone unnoticed by the LoDuca team.

Another word that drives our conversation along with LoDuca’s three core values is the word ‘gratitude’, which many of us have come to use to reflect on and appreciate all that we’ve got. Renee talks with gratitude about how LoDuca Associates were blessed with a steady flow of essential work during the pandemic, and it’s evident that that blessing has not gone unnoticed by the LoDuca team. “We had a responsibility to really appreciate the fact we weren’t affected like others were.” Renee says. “We’ve worked harder than ever to appreciate and protect what we have.”

For LoDuca Associates the pandemic set in stone what they’ve been preaching all along: it pays to have a solid foundation underneath you. That is, a team of people who love their work, take pride in what they do as if it’s their own, and trust their leaders to carry them through times of uncertainty. A well-established foundation that existed pre-pandemic is what allowed LoDuca Associates to fall into step with the new normal that stopped some construction companies in their tracks, and march forward into an unknown future without fear nor falter. “It threw us for a loop for a second, but we found our footing really well,” Renee says. “It was amazing to see the company come together as a team and not skip a beat.”

LoDuca Associates moved forward into 2022 with that same solid team along with some new hires they gained over the course of the pandemic and are now projecting their biggest year yet. “2022 will be a year of more strategy and honing in on future plans,” Renee says. “I’m excited for the year ahead. The fruits of our labor will be seen and we’ve got a lot of work on the table. I’m super confident in the team we have in place, and I am so grateful.”

It takes a village to raise a child is a phrase that has taken on many different meanings over the years. Used in the context of construction, the phrase refers to the collaborative effort involved in taking a project from design to completion. Easling Construction recognizes the many different skills and expertise it takes to build a home, and as such have built a business model that allows them to do most of their work in-house. A whole village under one roof, in a sense. From concrete work and carpentry to painting and insulation, Easling Construction offer a ‘full package’ service that achieves efficiency and consistency across the board. “It’s pretty seamless,” says Marty Easling, President and Director of the Northern Michigan based company. “There’s higher quality, better scheduling, efficient problem solving, and we’re not relying on subcontractors.” That’s the Easling difference.

Marty Easling started Easling Construction in 1976 as a one-man team specializing in commercial building. About two years later and in search of a more challenging line of work, Easling Construction made the move to custom residential and have been specializing in that ever since. Today, Easling Construction is 100% employee owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) and is one of Leelanau County’s largest private employers. With a team of almost one hundred people, Easling Construction are responsible for many of the custom builds on the Northern Michigan Peninsula.

Northern Michigan is an area in which vacation homes have always been a hot topic. “It’s a different market,” Marty says. “90% of the homes we build are second homes, not year-round.” It is this type of housing market that has Easling Construction’s employees at their busiest during the winter months, when they’re on the ground working hard to get remodels and new-builds completed by Spring. As Marty says, “They don’t want to see us in the summertime.”

Now that they’ve been in business for over forty-five years, Easling Construction strive to keep things interesting by finding challenging projects to add to their portfolio. They recently completed a cottage-style home on Lake Michigan that is unlike any of the other lake-front homes by which it is surrounded. “Typically, the homes there are more Lake Michigan style with white painted trim and shingle siding. This was all timbers. Every wall was log siding or barnwood panelling, all wood. The beams were reclaimed from the salvaged material from barns we tore down. There was a lot of stone too – not native stone but stone from Idaho and Montana.” The build was a refreshing change for the Easling Construction team as well as the architects, all of whom specialize in lake-front homes with painted trim. “It was a different avenue for us all,” says Marty. “And challenge that turned out very well.”

“Now that they’ve been in business for over forty-five years, Easling Construction strive to keep things interesting by finding challenging projects to add to their portfolio.”

Working with wood is something that Easling Construction have mastered throughout the years, and that mastery was the catalyst in the opening of their own in-house cabinet shop. The Easling Wood Shop, which is operated by highly experienced craftsmen, is capable of making virtually anything you can imagine. If your dream home calls for a hand-crafted staircase or a unique coffee-table, the same company that are doing your concrete work and insulation or fitting your hardwood floors, have got you covered. It’s a service that’s rarely offered by your run-of-the-mill construction company, and another element of Easling Construction’s make-up that drives their success in Northern Michigan.

In the construction industry there are some challenges that are embraced, like taking part in offbeat projects and operating an in-house cabinet shop, and some that are a little harder to swallow, like the challenges that come with a global pandemic. This has been especially true for companies operating in Michigan, where construction work was not awarded the ‘essential’ status it was in most other North American regions. “At first we thought we were essential and then the Governor shut us down for seven weeks, and that hurt,” says Marty. Seven weeks may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of a two-year pandemic, but in the construction industry where projects are made up of so many moving parts, it’s enough to stir operational chaos.

Easling Construction have experienced first-hand the difficulty in completing projects as seamlessly as they once could. Not least of the challenges inflicted on the construction industry by the pandemic is the supply chain, which Marty says is “completely crippled.” He gives the example of windows and how their delivery time has moved from four weeks to eighteen, “And even that gets extended,” he says. “We’re just trying to order as soon as we get a decision, and we’re pushing for decisions more so than ever before so we don’t have these hold ups.” Where before the pandemic fixed-price contracts were commonplace, Marty says that now “it’s impossible to enter into a fixed- price contract if you don’t know what materials are going to cost or when you’re going to get them.”

Aside from the supply chain, the pandemic has also presented major staffing issues to overcome. Marty speaks of a new normal in which during the waves of covid infections it became common that “every time we go into the office there’s at least five or six employees calling in to say they’ve been exposed.” With an employee count of around one hundred employees this equates to five or six percent of the Easling Construction workforce, a significant number when it comes to delivering projects efficiently.

While it’s business as usual for some industries after a period of closure, in construction it takes a great deal of time, effort, and resources to get all of those moving parts that make a successful project to once again align. “It’s something we’re still trying to catch up with,” says Marty, echoing the shared struggle of an industry that appears from the outside to be booming.

And it is booming, in a sense. While Easling Construction are doing all they can to pick up the pieces post-pandemic, they are simultaneously reaping the rewards of new lifestyle trends in North West Lower Michigan. “People are moving away from urban areas into rural areas where we are,” says Marty says. “They’re either operating from home or have changed their whole occupation. A lot of the people we build for have offspring who are moving to these areas with their parents, so we’re putting up second cottages to main cottages or additions to homes to accommodate extended families.” Marty speaks of how Michigan is an area that has always treated Easling Construction well while also recognizing these new trends as a definite boom – one that’s keeping them busier than ever. “It’s a trend that’s not going away,” he says, “and one that could change the whole environment.”

It is these trends that give Marty an overall positive outlook for the future of Easling Construction, despite the challenges they’ve faced over the past two years. “It’s possible that the homes surrounding us, which are mostly seasonal villages, will become more year-round when people start to spend longer in them.” The positive impact that this may have, not just on the construction industry but also on the tourist industry and the wider economy, is unheard of in our time. As one of the finest custom construction companies in the area, Easling Construction have no small part to play in accommodating these ever-changing demands and redefining the infrastructure of the Northern Michigan landscape.

Sometimes, like in the case of Illinois’s Federal Steel & Erection Co., the meaning of a family business goes much deeper than just a handful of family members taking part in an organizations key decision making and overall vision. Federal Steel & Erection Co. is a collective of many different families, spanning over four generations with roots in the company as far back as World War 2. Christopher Darr, a fourth-generation Federal Steel employee and current company President, talks with pride about the history that underlies the most efficient fabrication company in the St. Louis area.

“Arthur Isringhausen founded the company in 1948 when he came back from the war,” Christopher says. “My great-grandfather was with him at the time, he was the acting secretary and general manager. My family have been in the company ever since. There are more families too who’ve been with us for three generations. It’s still a family business today across the board and in every department, and that’s something to be proud of.”

Federal Steel & Erection Co. is a full-service steel contractor specializing in design, detailing, CNC, fabrications, coding and erection. The company found their home in East Alton-Wood River back in 1953 and have been expanding and modernizing from there ever since. They specialize in industrial and commercial structural steel as well as pre-engineered metal buildings and petro-chemical work. “Pretty much anything steel,” Christopher says of their scope of work. “Whether we’re erecting a project or not we’re always looking at how it goes together and offering the best solutions for the client.” Federal Steel & Erection Co. are fully outfitted with a conveyor-driven CNC band saw and a modern drill line, as well as a robotic thermal processor, a blaster for paint preparation, an angle line and plate processor. They’ve also got an in-house Certified Weld Inspector who Christopher says “keeps all our welders and fitters qualified to complete the task right the first time.”

Of his own role as company president, Christopher says his job is to make sure everyone has all the tools they need to do their part safely and efficiently. “There is a lot of passion and satisfaction in what we do,” Christopher says, “and the fun part is coming up with solutions for our clients that they might not have thought about.”

In recent years Federal Steel’s workforce has become younger with much of the older generation reaching retirement age. The result is a varied workforce that achieves a perfect blend of valuable experience and a fresh new outlook on the industry. It is this fresh outlook that has made Federal Steel the technology-forward company they are today, embracing things like robotics and staying on top of the latest industry advancements. “We used to drill the holes ourselves,” says Christopher, “and now a robot does it.”

Introducing modern technology into their practice has allowed Federal Steel to perform their work efficiently and always to the highest standard. “We draw everything in three dimensions now,” says Christopher, reminding us of how far the industry has come since the days of sketching plans with pen and paper. “We program those drawings into the CNC where they can be transferred directly to the machines out on the shop floor. Everything’s built right and efficiently the first time, and there’s very little opportunity for human error.”

“Everything’s built right and efficiently the first time, and there’s very little opportunity for human error.”

Efficiency is a key word that comes up time and time again when it comes to Federal Steel’s scope of work, along with another word that’s high on their priority list – safety. “Our safety compliance programme makes us qualified to work in some of the most stringent environments,” Christopher says. “We have a great safety record. We limit exposure to elements and working at heights by designing, fabricating, and assembling as much off site as possible.” Federal Steel & Erection Co. are also AISC-certified for bridges, allowing them to do state work on both pedestrian and vehicle bridges. “As an AISC certified building and bridge fabricator we adhere to the latest and most stringent standards of quality and professionalism in the service we provide.”

From their home in Illinois they recently completed the Pipeline Bridge, a 22,000-foot modular bridge project for a Midwest refinery client. The largest single span of the bridge was 315 feet spanning both road and levy. Federal Steel & Erection Co. have become leading experts in this scale of project during their 45+ years of experience in the field, and when asked about the Pipeline Bridge Christopher says “the picture really speaks for itself.”

When it comes to service, Federal Steel & Erection Co. offer a one-stop-shop with a full-service philosophy. Whether it’s a pre-engineered metal building or structural platform, Federal Steel consider the owner’s end goal and find the most economical and efficient process to get them there. “We really want to take the stress off owners and general contractors. When it comes to steel, we want to be able to take the lead and minimize the impact on RFIs. Our full-service philosophy gives us the full gambit to coordinate the fabricating and erecting so that there’s no holes in the scope, no surprises, and nothing shows up late. Having that control helps with cost, scheduling, coordination, connection designs and modulation. We can really get ahead of things and get the job done right.”

Federal Steel & Erection Co. handle a wide gambit of projects “from as little as one piece of plate to thousands of tons.” To accommodate such projects they’ve got a state-of-the-art fabrication facility that is 400,000 Square feet under roof and 7 acres, with an assembly yard where they modularize projects before they ship or store them if they’re ready ahead of time. The facility is conveniently located in the Midwest with close proximity to major highways, rail terminals, and Mississippi Barge docks, which allows them to ship large structural modules all over the world. They’ve recently shipped projects to Ireland and the US Virgin Islands, to name a few. Of the facility Christopher says, “We’re not the biggest shop in the world but we can run with the biggest shops in the world.”

The scale of Federal Steel & Erection Co.’s fabrication facility is a reflection of the wider growth of the steel industry in North America, where the average warehouse size today is almost double what it was ten years ago. “These warehouses you see popping up everywhere are a big indication of where the industry is going,” Christopher says. “Everything is getting bigger, schedules are getting tighter, and there’s a lot more delegated design which we’re perfectly outfitted for.” When reflecting on what the future looks like for Federal Steel, Christopher recognizes the key role that this growth will play. He says that as a company they are very competitive and very eager to do all they can with their resources in an industry that shows no sign of slowing down.

Touching on the pandemic, which no construction company has been fortunate enough to sail through unscathed, Christopher says, “the current supply chain challenges have presented plenty of opportunities to think outside the box. Some schedule sensitive projects now need to be designed around long lead items, and price hikes have us looking at alternatives to keep clients’ projects within budget and often saving money.”

Christopher also talks about North America’s aging infrastructure, and how Federal Steel’s maintenance experience in this area is invaluable. These maintenance services allow Federal Steel to refurbish existing structures, extending their life cycle and saving the owner huge costs. “We can come in where there’s a corroded beam or where there’s fire or storm damage and replace what’s needed. We have the resources to detail out, fabricate and erect a fix for this type of job, often making an old building or platform look like new.”

“We’re diversifying the types of projects we pursue as the landscape of construction changes,” Christopher says. “Fabrication and erection equipment never stops evolving. We’ll continue to grow and develop as demands are always evolving from shop fireproofing, painting galvanized steel, delegated designs, and the ever-changing module.” The future of Federal Steel & Erection Co., wrapped up in a single word by Christopher, is “bright.”

The roofs we live under today are a far cry from the straw-thatched roofs of the mid eighteenth century. Often equipped now with durable material and smart technology, the modern-day roof is fit more than ever for its intended purpose. That is, safety and protection for us, our families, our belongings, and everything else that builds a home. “Everyone needs one,” says Jake Ackerman, Founder and CEO of RoofTek. “With ninety-nine percent of the population living with a roof over their heads, we see roofing as one of those basic human needs.”

RoofTek is a Utah-based roofing contractor and franchisor selling franchises across the United States. One of the highest rated roofers in the nation, RoofTek’s success stems from their total commitment to quality and a dedication to always deliver the best value in the industry. Over the years the RoofTek team has completed thousands of rooftop installations, from affordable re-roofs to complex solar installations. It is RoofTek, therefore, who have quite literally put a roof over much of the country’s heads.

It was Jake’s love of nature that led him into the roofing business and ultimately to the founding of RoofTek. “I love the amazing wonder that our planet is,” says Jake, “and we as inhabitants are burning fossil fuels and consuming a lot.” Intrigued by the great potential in harnessing energy from the sun, Jake joined a solar company as a sales advisor in an attempt to further understand that potential. A few months later and equipped with the skills he needed to effect real change, Jake founded RoofTek. From then on it was full speed ahead into roofing, with solar naturally remaining a big part of the business. RoofTek have established themselves as trusted solar experts, leading the way in planning, engineering and installing utility grade solar systems.

“If there’s tech on your roof, it’s RoofTek,” is how Jake puts it. This idea of tech on your roof is embedded into the RoofTek name, and it doesn;t stop with solar. As well as commercial and residential roofing and solar paneling, RoofTek are now in the business of Permanent Holiday Light installations. Invisible by day, these lights tie right into the metal on the soffit and fascia of the roof where they stay all year round. These lights can then be controlled through an app on your smartphone that allows you to choose colors, pattern and animation, all using LED light technology. It is this kind of innovative technology that is elevating the industry to new heights, and it’s RoofTek who are leading the way in installing it.

When you peel back the curtains of the industry it is the expert quality roofers who are out there getting the work done, and Jake gives us an insight into how those relationships are managed within the company. “While we see ourselves being in the roofing business,” Jake says, “we also know that we are in the people business, the onboarding business, the business of creating a track where people can be successful. I wake up everyday and think: how do I build on and further improve that success track?” RoofTek have yielded tremendous success from investing in employees and subcontractor relationships, enlisting good people in the cause and providing them with mentorship at every turn. They provide fair pay and health benefits that workers may not have found elsewhere, providing them with the tools they need to “level up and change their lives.” RoofTek ensure that every estimator, project manager and lead installer that arrives at your door is a Field Certified roofer, with a fully-trained team who adhere strictly to RoofTek installation guidelines. “All of the crew leads have access to our computer management software where they can read notes, take pictures, make notes and follow directions.” This high level of communication and consistency across the board is what sets RoofTek apart as roofing contractors, ensuring always that customer experience, accountability and quality is at the core of what they do.

“RoofTek have yielded tremendous success from investing in employees and subcontractor relationships, enlisting good people in the cause and providing them with mentorship at every turn.”

Jake believes that “if there are strengths there are strengths of leadership, if there are weaknesses there are weaknesses of leadership.” As RoofTek continues to grow and develop their team, they do so with a heavy focus on leadership. It is this leadership that has seen the company yield huge results when it comes to growth. “If you want to grow as a business,” Jake says, “you’ve got to grow as a leader.” Jake, who has always been an entrepreneur, has grown as a leader within RoofTek to land at a place where he truly sees himself as a CEO. “As I grow and the leadership team grows and we learn how to deliver that success track – that’s really what I think has made the biggest difference in our growth.”

The growth that Jake speaks of is in both scale and revenue, and it has been a significant uptick since RoofTek first came to life. The first year in business saw a turnover of $4.5 million, a figure that doubled in the following year to $9 million, thus setting a trend that was indicative of how the next few years would play out. During this period of growth RoofTek added reroofing and repair services to the business, as well as spray-on products that help extend the life of a roof and most recently, franchising. “In our first year of franchising we’ve sold ten units and we’re in the process of getting them up and operational.” Just last year, as a result of such growth and new opportunities, RoofTek finished up on $31 million in revenue. “It’s gratifying when a plan comes together,” Jake says when speaking about some of RoofTek’s growth milestones. “You decide where you want to be, you task your team, create clarity and roles, and then later you get to sit in a quarterly meeting and say hey, we did it!”

While RoofTek has experienced exceptional growth in recent years, they are only scratching the surface of what can be achieved, and certainly what they plan to achieve within the industry. In talking about the company’s vision Jake refers to RoofTek’s North Star. “What gets us out of bed besides the paycheck?” he asks. The roofing industry in North America does not yet have a unified, go-to brand when it comes to all things roofing. In this, Jake sees an opportunity to become to roofing what Kleenex is to tissue or what Levi’s is to jeans: a household name. “So if someone’s got something going on with their roof, we want them to say without hesitation, I’m gonna call RoofTek.” Sometimes it just makes sense to, pardon the pun, put everything under the one roof. This streamlining of services is happening in so many other industries, and so when it comes to roofing an ambitious and forward-thinking Jake asks the question, why not us?

Jake’s high hopes for the future of RoofTek is reflective of his positive outlook on the roofing industry as a whole. In speaking on this he calls to mind a saying: there’s only so much land out there and god’s not making any more of it. With the population growing in density and land becoming scarcer, we need to start thinking of roofs as assets and figure out how to maximize them to our advantage. “The industry is going in an exciting direction and I’m excited to be one of the people that’s trying to figure out how best to utilize that asset up there,” Jake says. The thing that was once a straw-thatched layer of weak protection is now a powerful force for change, and in order to put that change into practice we need companies like RoofTek in the driver’s seat. “A roof is not a liability you have to deal with every twenty-five years,” Jake offers in his closing thoughts. “If we can find a better way to use them by making them last longer, harnessing the power of the sun, or spending some time in sanctuary up there, we can use them to improve our quality of life. The world is our acorn. It’s just about finding the right people to help make it all happen.”

It is often said that once we’ve got a roof over our heads and food on the table, everything else will fall into place. While Airfoam, in British Columbia, doesn’t directly manufacture these essential goods, quite often it is their innovative insulation solutions that place safe buildings and fresh food within our reach. Add life-saving medicines and vaccines to the list of products that they insulate, and Airfoam lands high up on the list of what we’ve come to know as essential.  

Since their inception, over thirty-five years ago, Airfoam Industries Ltd.  has grown and evolved into a multi-national provider of insulation solutions. They came to life in 1986 as Aqua-Pak Industries, taking on the task of shipping fresh coastal seafood around the world. From those humble beginnings as a packaging company they branched out into the building materials space, introducing Quad-Lock Insulating Concrete Forms in 1994. Later, after expanding the business and acquiring their biggest competitor, they rebranded all construction products under the Airfoam banner to become what they are today. “After our acquisitions and rebrand of our building materials under Airfoam we have a really strong lineup of products that can serve many construction applications,” says CEO Josh Plamondon, who joined the company in 2006. Today, the Airfoam group operates a fifty-fifty split business between insulated packaging and building materials, with the construction vertical growing rapidly in the current climate. “British Columbia is on the cutting edge of changing building codes in North America and that has really created a lot of opportunity for us.” 

Evident in the building market today is an urgent drive towards sustainability and resilience. This comes as no surprise as the construction industry is responsible for 11% of global carbon emissions. To achieve Net Carbon Zero by 2050 as set out by world leaders at COP26, the way buildings are designed and built needs to be revolutionised. This includes how buildings are protected in both a thermal and moisture management sense, and that’s where Airfoam comes in. It doesn’t take long into our conversation for Josh to drive the point home that sustainability and resilience are at the core of what Airfoam does. “It seems the extremes are becoming more common,” says Josh, speaking of climate change and the forest fires that sweep through British Columbia every summer. “Providing high-performance insulation solutions is really all about minimising our impact on the environment. Especially our buildings – those are the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Whether it’s the energy used to heat or cool them, or controlling moisture in the building envelope, better insulation is a simple solution that’ll have a big impact.” 

It is EPS, or expanded polystyrene, that forms the basis of Airfoam’s high-performance insulation solutions. A versatile and lightweight material, EPS is about 98% air and is free from formaldehyde and CFC, HCFC and HFC gases. EPS allows for the safe insulation of food and medical supplies during transit as well as the quality and cost-efficient insulation of buildings. “A great product with a fantastic cost per R-Value,” is how Josh puts it. Airfoam is passionate about the low environmental impact of EPS compared to some other solutions on the market, and strives to put even more recycled content into their products in the future. “You look at what we do and you might think we just make foam, but what Airfoam is trying to accomplish and how we’re trying to impact the world has really resonated with me,” says Josh. “I’m lucky to be in a position now in which I get to help lead the charge with that.”

“A versatile and lightweight material, EPS is about 98% air and is free from formaldehyde and CFC, HCFC and HFC gases.”

Airfoam continues to be an influencer in Canadian and US markets by lending technical expertise to industry and government in the development of codes and standards. Airfoam experts sit on a number advisory committees that review changing needs in both the building and packaging industries and help to develop regulatory codes that protect the consumer in a safe and logical manner. An example of Airfoam’s influence can be found in BC Housing’s latest revision of the Building Envelope Guide for Houses – Part 9, which features a greatly expanded “how-to” section on Insulating Concrete Forms that helps to ensure compliance with BC’s residential building code.  

Climate change is not the only significant global challenge that Airfoam has had to face head on. “Keep people healthy and keep the doors open,” was the Airfoam approach from the second the pandemic kicked off and their services were deemed essential. Airfoam was on the leading edge when it came to implementing protocols and going above and beyond what was required to keep everyone safe. Without any foresight on what the next few months would bring they’d made a pre-pandemic move to cloud-based solutions. This meant that from a technology standpoint they were able to flip a switch and send everybody home without fuss, while many others scrambled to implement online solutions overnight. “It was business as usual,” says Josh. Since March 2020, Airfoam has moved forward with a more flexible working environment, and have even been fortunate to grow in numbers without the limitations of a physical office.  

While Airfoam has come out the other side of the pandemic with a happy and healthy team and a busy workload, it did not come without challenges. The extent of what COVID-19 has done to the global supply chain can only be fully understood if your business exists within that chain. Many of the materials that Airfoam uses come from overseas. When demand for such materials dropped and ships and containers were decommissioned, supplies came at a hefty price or fell out of reach entirely. “Later when the demand spiked there was no capacity to keep up, causing worldwide supply chain issues that we’ve all had to navigate.” Another well-documented supply chain issue that arose in light of COVID-19 is the great lumber shortage which, as Josh puts it, really pushed people to look at other proven methods of building. When you pair such issues with an industry-wide drive towards greener buildings, there is huge potential to be found. “We’ve seen a lot of organic growth over the last two years with people looking to build in a more sustainable way,” says Josh. “We worked really hard to make sure our customers had supply and were able to keep service levels close to 100% from our lead time standards. We even got some more business out of that from people who wouldn’t normally buy from us. We’re hopeful we can continue to grow those new relationships once things start to stabilize.”  

Just like construction companies have had to find different ways to build, companies like Airfoam have had to find different ways to sell. It raises the question – where do traditional trade shows fit into all this? While traditional trade shows are not the sales powerhouses they once were, Vancouver-based trade show BUILDEX remains an important one for Airfoam. “It plants a flag in the soil that this is where we are, this is our birthplace, this is where we call home.” BUILDEX is an annual trade show that provides networking, educational and product demonstration opportunities to building industry professionals. Still an important platform for sales and lead generation, BUILDEX now has a strong focus on education and building science. “When we develop new building and insulation solutions BUILDEX is a great place for us to introduce them into the market.” This year Airfoam will be participating in the show alongside HAVAN, the Home Builders Association in the Lower Mainland. “This is really exciting as it signifies to us that we’re a key partner for them. It says a lot that they’ve invited us and really speaks to the work that we’ve been doing in the building community to promote high performance buildings and sustainability.” 

Among the technical seminars and demonstrations that Airfoam will be running at BUILDEX 2022 is the introduction of their latest focused solution, Foamshield. Building on research from University of Alaska’s Cold Climate Housing Research Center, Foamshield technology can help builders achieve the highest levels of British Columbia’s emerging Energy Step Codes – which is a province-wide standard that incentivizes energy efficiency in new buildings – with off the shelf parts. Foamshield technology is based on what building scientists are calling  “perfect wall” assemblies for healthy, durable, and budget-friendly buildings. Manufacturing the best performing products for the lowest cost is what drives Airfoam, and as Josh says, “it’s a compelling story for the building community to hear.” This kind of innovation and product development is a big part of Airfoam’s vision for the future. “We’re ramping up investment in a product development team which is going to be an exciting initiative over the next while. We strive to be the best in the world at what we do, which means innovating new ways to improve production, reduce costs and create efficiency.”  

Airfoam has ambitious plans on where they want to be as a company and are focused on working together to achieve their vision. “Expanding product lines, expanding offerings, expanding reach – these things are all on the table for us.” With a world-class team of innovators and years of industry experience, Airfoam strives to be thought leaders in their field of expertise. “Internally we know we have a lot of talented people that understand building science, but outside our business we’re not sure it’s as well known. One of our initiatives is to drive these new products and solutions and to increase industry recognition,” says Josh. “We’ve set the bar much higher this year, but the whole team is really keen on continuing to push the rock up the hill.” 

“Nobody represents the construction industry in the Carolinas like Carolinas AGC,” says Dave Simpson, President & CEO of the award-winning trade association. It takes just a small glimpse into the company’s plethora of work to know that Dave is speaking the truth. Carolinas AGC is a full-service trade association that has been in operation for 101 years, representing almost eight-hundred-member companies in the commercial and industrial construction industry. They are a chapter of the wider Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and the American Road and Transportation Building Association (ARTBA), both of whom they have a great working relationship with. Recognizing the prodigious work being done by their Carolinas chapter, the AGC of America have awarded CAGC the Chapter of the Year Award in 1999 and again in 2019 – and in 2021, of the 89 Chapters, CAGC won both the AGCA Public Relations and Workforce Development Awards for a $3.75 million COVID safety program and a Build Your Career workforce program.

Carolinas AGC exists to serve the construction industry and strengthen members’ businesses by providing business development opportunities, helping contractors manage their workforce through training and education, and advocating for a legal and regulatory environment that ensures contractors success. They have their feet firmly on the ground with four lobbyists in North and South Carolina who are full-time CAGC employees.

Both North and South Carolina entered the new decade with a bright outlook for the construction industry, with an abundance of building, highway-heavy, and utility work in the pipeline. The survival of the Carolinas construction industry during a time in which COVID posed the question – what industries are essential? – would not have been possible without the support of Carolinas AGC. Their commitment to industry success and the ongoing advocacy work that stems from such commitment allowed Carolinas AGC to convince South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper to recognize construction as an essential industry.

Last year Carolinas AGC had to quickly pivot from a live, hands-on organization that hosts over one hundred face-to-face events per year to a pandemic-friendly event model. In approaching the situation, they demonstrated, as is their very essence, an unwavering commitment to industry success. There were 650 attendees at their first virtual Summer Summit in 2020, including the state Governors along with various other politicians and economists. Dave describes the event as a “home run,” an impressive reflection considering the monumental adjustments that had to be put in place to ensure its successful execution.

Over a year later and it’s no longer COVID that dominates the US construction industry’s news headlines, but instead the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. When asked about the bill and the ongoing delays in passing it, Dave is passionate in his response: “I’m hoping that Congress and the President can get their acts together and cut a deal on the highly needed $1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure package. They need to stop bickering and start working together to secure this badly needed funding at a time when our infrastructure system is in deplorable condition, not only in the Carolinas but throughout the US.” Dave is a business leader who is well-versed in the benefits of working together rather than against one another to get the job done. This is the exact mindset that is needed to drive not only the survival of, but the success and growth of an ever-changing and ever-important industry.

“This year CAGC were granted $642,000 dollars from the South Carolina legislature, which they went on to spend on their Be Pro Be Proud Skilled Trades Mobile Workshop.”

Dave’s passion for the industry is also evident when he talks about the work Carolinas AGC is doing to promote the benefits of a career in construction. There continues to be an ongoing workforce shortage in the construction industry throughout the US, making it a struggle to “get people into an industry and a career in which the future is unlimited.” But as the workforce shortage continues to pose a challenge, Carolinas AGC continues to be innovative and committed in their approach to overcoming it. This year CAGC were granted $642,000 dollars from the South Carolina legislature, which they went on to spend on their Be Pro Be Proud Skilled Trades Mobile Workshop. This is a 53-foot mobile truck that comes fully-equipped with simulated construction equipment, offering an interactive way for children, students and parents to learn more about skilled trades. “We’ve got $5 million more that we think is coming from the North Carolina legislature this year which we plan to use for the same thing. We’ll have one truck in South Carolina, two in North Carolina, rolling around and promoting construction as the great industry that it is.” The launch of this workshop is a hands-on approach to tackling the workforce shortage, communicating through tangible and interactive means the exciting prospect of a career in construction.

In 2020 Carolinas AGC’s Foundation was granted $3.5 million from the North Carolina General Assembly for its Public Relations efforts, the only chapter to be named for two awards. $3 million was spent reimbursing the construction industry for COVID-related expenses such as onsite safety efforts, safety equipment and related efforts. “I was writing checks from a few dollars to up to $100,000 to both members and non-members,” says Dave, recognizing the detrimental impact of the pandemic and ensuring that at the very least nobody was out of pocket. Another $750K was used to reach out to minority organizations via a radio network, in particular African Americans, Hispanics and Latinos, and make subgrants for multilingual education, training, and community outreach programs.

The inclusion of minority groups is an integral part of Carolina AGC’s stateside efforts in North and South Carolina to improve and support the construction industry. Women in construction, for example, is of growing importance to CAGC and as such is an area that they pour a great deal of time and funding into. It’s a commitment that does not stop at targeted advertising campaigns showcasing the benefits of a career in construction for women. CAGC goes that step further by, to mention one effort, launching an entire CAGC Buildercast podcast series on the issue. We Were Built For This aired during Women In Construction Week in March 2021, and is a four-episode series interviewing women in construction and highlighting the impact they have on their workplace and within the industry. “We are dedicated to getting more women and minority groups involved in construction,” Dave says, before proudly directing me to a particular page of the CAGC website where I could read some reflections from female CAGC members for myself. “I want to be an example of how women can be successful in this industry,” says Lindsay Smith of Palmetto Corporation. “Just like any other industry, if you keep your nose to the grindstone, submerge yourself in the opportunity to learn, and don’t overthink being a woman surrounded by men, you will succeed.” The world is progressing, and to ignore the need for gender and cultural diversity within the workplace is to do your company a great disservice. Dave mentions often throughout our interview that there is no limit to the amount of construction work available in the Carolinas, and he is passionate about making this work both appealing and accessible to women and minority groups.

“We are dedicated to getting more women and minority groups involved in construction.”

It’s evident that while there is no shortage of work available within the construction industry, there are some significant roadblocks in the way of getting the jobs done. Aside from the workforce shortage, the delayed Infrastructure Bill and the ongoing COVID situation, Dave says “one of the biggest challenges the industry is facing is supply chain delays and surging material prices, making it not only hard for people to get materials, but also for them to lock down prices. That’s no way to be able to do business.” But CAGC exists to fight these very issues, and Dave is both dedicated to the cause and up to the task. He says, “Between the material delays, the surging prices that you can’t lock down, and not having enough people to do the great work that’s out there – that’ll keep us busy for many more years.”

It does seem that from the perspective of Dave and Carolinas AGC that the positives of the construction industry far outweigh the current challenges it faces. Dave puts it simply: “The outlook for the construction industry is excellent. What we need to do now is get more young, promising, and enthusiastic people into the industry and build the many things that need to be built, highways, bridges, buildings, utilities, dams, factories, hotels, warehouse, tunnels, airports, schools, churches, you name it. I can’t think of a more exciting thing for people to do.”

The construction industry in the Carolinas, supported in no small way by Carolinas AGC, continues to move with the changing tide and hold its place as one of the most lucrative and optimistic sectors in the state.

In North America, where trees are plentiful and lumber remains the dominant material used in new-builds throughout the nation, the construction industry depends heavily on good quality wood framing services. It’s the wood framing, as Tom English says, that “everything else goes off; the electrical, the plumbing, the hardware, the bricks and the shingles. If it’s not framed and up, nobody else can do their work.” Tom is the owner of US Framing, a Kentucky-born company following a simple ethos: that every great piece of art needs its frame. 

US Framing began in the early nineties with an idea, a family-driven determination and a slab of good quality wood. What started out as a small home-framing operation has grown in both company size and project scale and is now primarily focused on large-scale framing projects such as apartments, student housing, hotels, and urban infill. Backed now by over forty years of industry experience and a portfolio exhibiting almost every kind of wood framing project imaginable, US Framing have become the leading experts in the business. They have a license to work in every state, and with that they frame more square feet annually than anyone else in the country. And by a long shot, according to Tom, who talks about framing “sixteen or seventeen million square feet last year, more than anybody else in the country times two or three.” With steady growth, good people, and leading innovation at their core, US Framing exemplifies in all that they do a ‘better way to frame.’  

As the nation’s largest multi-family wood framing group working border to border and coast to coast, you could say that when it comes to their craft US Framing have seen it all. As such they are no strangers to keeping their heads above water in difficult times. In 2008, when the great recession hit and no industry seemed fit enough to make it through unscathed, they continued to onboard the right people, build the right relationships, secure the right projects, and get the work done. “A lot of framers went out of business at that time,” says Tom. “We hired and hired and continued to grow, so we are a collection of five or six big contractors. We had the opportunity to hire a lot of really good people and ninety percent of those people are still with us today.” By any standards, and particularly when the environment around you is abuzz with talks of pay cuts and layoffs, that kind of staff retention is a clear indicator of a company that’s doing something right.  

Their proven strength and resilience during such a turbulent time was a positive turning point for US Framing and the thing that kicked their steady growth into gear while everyone else seemed to be slowing down. To the wide community of carpenters who found themselves in vulnerable positions, US Framing became a safety net to fall back on. And to their valued clients and suppliers, they became a much-needed source of trust and stability amidst an otherwise challenging and uncertain landscape.  

In the same way that lumber is the foundation of a successful construction project, good people are the foundation of US Framing. When it comes to their clients and suppliers, US Framing work on the basis of “good partnerships with good people.” As a company predominantly focused on labor they work hand in hand with some of the biggest lumber, truss and hardware suppliers in the United States. “They help us sell business, we help them sell business, and we work together to get the job done.” This mutually beneficial relationship carries over to the general contractors they work with too, with trust and high-quality service always at the forefront. “The first job we do for new clients is always the hardest,” says Tom. “We get to know them, they get to know us, and then we grow into a relationship where they rely and depend on us. Because framing is a difficult industry, and if they can count on us to get the buildings up and done – that’s the most important thing for them.” Hiring and partnering with the right people to represent the company is something that US Framing have mastered over the years, and this is what ensures consistency of service across the large-scale wood framing, design and construction projects they lead.  

“When it comes to their clients and suppliers, US Framing work on the basis of ‘good partnerships with good people.'”

Working on such a monumental volume of projects, all of which are completed on time and to the highest of standards, makes it difficult for a company to look back on their portfolio and pinpoint the ones that standout. “We just finished Gardendale Apartments for Capstone Properties, whom we have a great relationship with,” says Tom in relation to an impressive 205,000 square feet apartment block recently framed by US Framing in Alabama. Noteworthy too among the company’s many success stories is a “tremendous number of successful projects completed in Florida recently for a bunch of different contractors.” US Framing also work on several large-scale jobs for Carmel Partners, one of which was a staggering one million square feet. “A size you don’t see a lot of for a single project,” Tom points out. “Maybe three or four projects together that might make a million, but not one alone. Some of the pictures are amazing. If you see an overall view, it’s almost like a whole city.” And no better people for the job; true to their track record it was finished ahead of schedule and laid those all-important foundations for what resulted in a very successful project. It is projects of such size and scale, and the success stories that stem from them, that prove no project is too big for US Framing. 

With an unwavering growth mindset and a keen eye for opportunity, US Framing continue to move forward despite the challenges facing the industry today. When asked about such challenges, Tom talks about the recent lumber shortage, or “lumber pandemic” as industry experts have come to know it. Lumber allows for speedy building, great sound and thermal insulation, cost efficiency, and a lower carbon footprint than other construction methods, hence why it is still so widely used across North America and beyond. Recent trends in the market have caused an increase in demand for housing and remodeling, sending lumber prices soaring and supply plummeting. Simply getting lumber and trusses to job sites so that framers can continue to work has been a struggle. But Tom and his team, having overcome and outsmarted many industry challenges in the past, look at this as only temporary and “expect things to be pretty bright for the future.” 

Through their hard work, steady growth and determination, US Framing have landed themselves in a rare position; to be able to say, as Tom did, that “we can’t really expand anymore geographically because we work nationwide.” Improvements and growth for US Framing in the future, therefore, will continue to work hard, be innovative, and build relationships with clients and suppliers. In Tom’s words, “we will continue to be on the forefront in framing.” With years of experience in the industry, US Framing comes equipped with manpower, vision, and the know-how to make all of their projects a success. US Framing will continue to make improvements in every area of framing for many years to come.