For nearly 15 years, Allegiance Construction Group has been quietly shaping interior environments across the Chicago region, building a reputation on responsiveness, trust, and a hands-on approach that keeps decision-making close to the work itself. Based in Rolling Meadows, just west of downtown Chicago, AC Group has grown into a full-service interior general contractor offering construction management and design-build services to clients throughout the city and its surrounding suburbs.
From the outset, the company’s philosophy has been grounded in agility. Rather than routing every decision through layers of management, AC Group connects clients directly with the professionals responsible for delivering the work. The goal is speed, accountability, and clarity, ensuring that issues are resolved quickly and that project teams remain aligned from early planning through closeout.
Founded in 2012, AC Group initially focused on Class A office interiors and health-care facility remodeling. That specialization helped the company establish strong footing in complex, schedule-driven environments, and since then, it has posted steady growth year after year. According to owner Carl Leno, a defining moment came early when the company committed to personalizing its approach to every job. “We’re making sure that clients understand who we were, and why we were there, and the process and procedures of the construction process,” Leno said. “For instance, in health care, it’s all about making sure everyone is on schedule. You can only have certain people there, at certain times, to do what we need to do.”
That emphasis on process has become a hallmark of the firm. Internally, much of that coordination is supported by Alice Hawman, a project manager assistant whose role has evolved into something closer to a connective tissue for the company. As remote work accelerated during the pandemic, AC Group invested in systems that allowed team members to securely access servers and project information through virtual private networks, keeping collaboration intact even when teams were dispersed.
Hawman also plays a key role in cultivating relationships with subcontractors, which she says sets AC Group apart. Clear scheduling, early coordination, and mutual trust allow projects to move efficiently and help eliminate the friction that can derail interior work in occupied buildings. “We set our jobs up correctly,” she said. “They get scheduled right off the bat, so everyone knows when to be expected on site. We try to make our job sites to where you get stead up on the schedule.”
“We set our jobs up correctly. They get scheduled right off the bat, so everyone knows when to be expected on site.”
For Leno, that attention to scheduling and communication is inseparable from the company’s broader focus on relationships. In recent years, AC Group has seen an increase in work in downtown Chicago, an area that experienced disruption following the pandemic as office buildings changed ownership and vacancy levels fluctuated. As investment returned to the city core, landlords and tenants began reinvesting in spaces designed to attract employees back, including amenity-rich offices and wellness-focused environments.
AC Group has been well positioned to capture that work, in part because of long-standing relationships with suburban clients now relocating downtown. Those clients often seek partners who understand both the financial and logistical realities of repositioning office space in dense urban environments.
Although Leno is the owner, he remains closely involved in projects, particularly during early planning stages where decisions can significantly affect cost and constructability. That involvement extends beyond traditional contractor responsibilities. When working with brokers, Leno may assist with rental square-footage cost analyses to help attract tenants. When collaborating with architects and property managers, he supports the development of architectural and mechanical drawings. From there, the company moves seamlessly into construction execution and closeout, preparing spaces so landlords can bring them to market without delay. Several recent projects illustrate how this approach translates into built results. At the Schaumburg Corporate Center, AC Group was selected to remodel and expand a 19,350-square-foot corporate office for Central Garden & Pet as the company moved closer to downtown Chicago. The $1 million project was designed by Interwork Architects Inc. and engineered by Kent Consulting Engineers Ltd., and included executive offices, a large boardroom, collaboration rooms, a spacious kitchen, and modern, high-end finishes. “It’s these landlords and owners revitalizing the downtown markets, or attracting tenants from the suburbs back to downtown,” Leno said, crediting project manager Andrew Leno with assembling the budget and working closely with the team during the months-long preconstruction phase.
Another notable project involved Spotless Brands, a car-wash company that sought a new 9,508-square-foot office suite at Two Mid America Plaza in Oakbrook Terrace. Designed by EWP Architects and engineered by Kent Consulting Engineers, the space features private offices, conference rooms, informal huddle rooms, and a large break room with concrete floors and spray-insulated ceilings to manage acoustics beneath an open ceiling. Value engineering played a critical role in that project’s success. “We had to do a lot of value engineering on that job,” Leno said, again pointing to Andrew Leno’s role in refining the scope. “The original rental square footage was way too high, so, what Andrew and our subcontractors did, is they cut the whole project down to still give Spotless Brands what they wanted.” The revised $1 million budget allowed the project to proceed quickly, reinforcing the client’s trust in the team.
That level of effort did not go unnoticed. According to Leno, Spotless Brands came to see AC Group as more than just another general contractor. “You’re someone that cares, right? You’re willing to put aside the time to make this deal happen,” he said, noting that many contractors would not invest weeks of effort to reshape a project before construction even begins.
Looking ahead, AC Group expects downtown Chicago to remain a key growth area, even as suburban markets continue to generate steady work. Schaumburg and Brooklyn are among the neighborhoods the company sees as particularly active in the coming years, reflecting broader shifts in how and where businesses choose to locate.
Staffing levels at AC Group fluctuate with project demand, but one constant is the company’s status as a signatory contractor with both the carpenters’ and laborers’ unions. That commitment ensures access to skilled labor while reinforcing safe working conditions and strong ties to the local construction community.
Taken together, AC Group’s growth story is less about scale and more about consistency. By keeping leadership close to projects, investing in relationships, and approaching every assignment with a willingness to engage early and solve problems collaboratively, the company has carved out a durable position in one of the most competitive interior construction markets in the country.
