Contractor of the Year: Brasfield & Gorrie

Contractor adapts to changing times, venturing into new markets, but not altering its focus on building relationships.

By Debra Wood

Brasfield & Gorrie’s selection as Southeast Construction’s first “Contractor of the Year” is due to more than just numbers.

With $1.4 billion in regional revenue in 2008, the firm recently topped the magazine’s Top Contractors ranking for the third year running. The company was also an early adaptor of new trends, especially “green” construction, and it took the top spot on Southeast Construction’s inaugural Top Green Builders ranking.

Most important, the Birmingham, Ala.-based firm prides itself on treating people fairly and its nimble response to a changing marketplace.

“We’re a relationship-driven company,” says Keith Johnson, regional vice president of Brasfield & Gorrie in Kennesaw, Ga. “We’re not just about the numbers or building buildings.”

That outlook has led to hundreds of commissions from repeat clients, many of whom sing the contractor’s praises.

advertisement

“From top to bottom, Brasfield & Gorrie is one of the finest organizations I’ve ever seen, with its corporate culture, work ethic, character, smarts and team approach,” says De Little, president of Greenstone Properties, an Atlanta developer. “When they do a job for us, instead of looking out for their [own interests], they look out for mine.”

Little estimates Brasfield & Gorrie has built more than 1 million sq ft of office space for Greenstone, most recently Two Glenlake, a 14-story, 300,000-sq-ft office building in Atlanta.

Greenstone is not alone. Chris Schoen, CEO of Barry Real Estate Cos. in Atlanta, adds, “We trust them. They have great integrity, great people. They are young, aggressive and terrific.”

Brasfield & Gorrie has built about 16 buildings for Barry during the past decade, such as the $75-million, 686,000-sq-ft office component at 55 Allen Plaza in Atlanta.

“Our word means something,” says Tim Dwyer, president of the South Region of Brasfield & Gorrie in Lake Mary, Fla. “We do what we say. The Golden Rule is how we run our company. We treat people how we want to be treated.”

Solid Foundation In 1964, Miller Gorrie purchased the assets of Thomas C. Brasfield Co., a remodeling and small commercial contractor, creating Brasfield & Gorrie. Gorrie continues to serve as CEO of the firm, and his son Jim is president.

The Raleigh, N.C., office of Brasfield & Gorrie built the four-story, 85,710-sq-ft WakeMed Apex Healthplex facility in Apex, N.C., for WakeMed Health & Hospitals. Photo courtesy Brasfield & Gorrie

Brasfield & Gorrie began taking on larger projects and in 1968 completed its first multistory concrete structure. It has since built hundreds more.

The company opened offices in Kennesaw (near Atlanta) and Orlando in the mid-1980s; Raleigh, N.C., and Nashville, Tenn., in 1998; and Jacksonville, Fla., in 2007.

“Each one of those offices is broken into different divisions,” Johnson says.

The contractor has 26 decentralized divisions—for instance, health care, education, industrial, interiors and general commercial—that focus on their respective areas of expertise and act as independent profit centers, pursing their own work.

“It gives you a lot more people looking at new business opportunities,” says Rob Taylor, president of the East Region in Kennesaw. “That has helped us maintain growth.”

Johnson estimates the company grew 95% between 1999 and 2004 and 75% between 2004 and 2009, transitioning from a $650-million annual revenue company to one that is projected to have more than $2.2 billion in revenue this year.

A night view of the Florida Hospital Orlando project. The contractor’s Lake Mary, Fla., office is constructing the hospital’s $255-million Ginsburg Tower. Photo courtesy Brasfield & Gorrie

“If we’re doing a good job of treating people the way we like to be treated, we will continue to grow,” Johnson says.

Brasfield & Gorrie’s people watch market trends and act quickly. As mixed-use projects gained momentum in Atlanta, the company parlayed experience building similar structures to enter that market. In the early 1980s, the firm performed a significant amount of condominium work along Florida’s coasts. When that dried up, it moved on to other jobs, including water treatment facilities.

The company is working on a $45-million project for Veolia Water, expanding Tampa Bay Water’s surface-water treatment plant, and a $60-million expansion of the Shady Hills Wastewater Treatment Facility for Pasco County.

“Mr. Gorrie has given us the opportunities to grow and be entrepreneurial,” Dwyer says.

People Power “The culture of our company is focused on people,” says Roddy McCrory, a regional vice president in Kennesaw.

The Paideia School Gymnasium Expansion and new Junior High School project, located in the Druid Hills district of Atlanta, is scheduled for LEED Silver designation. The gym expansion included 22,000 sq ft of new construction and 8,000 sq ft of renovation. The junior high school required 27,000 sq ft of new construction. Perkins + Will was the architect. Photo courtesy Brasfield & Gorrie

Johnson adds that the firm functions with a relaxed atmosphere but a high expectation for excellence. A personal development program offers Bible studies, gives daily devotions and allows employees a place to vent. It operates a staff wellness center in the Atlanta-area office.

Brasfield & Gorrie employs interns from college construction programs, with as many as 50 per summer working at jobsites. The company’s new hires spend their first year in estimating.

“We do a good job of investing in our people and grow leaders,” Johnson says. “When you invest in them and they know you care, they tend to stay.”

Starting Early “Preconstruction and estimating are a foundation for success on any project,” McCrory says. “Any time we have a new project on the books, we have the project manager and superintendents working along with the preconstruction and estimating team, developing a plan for the project.”

Taylor adds that Brasfield & Gorrie builds the job on paper and thinks through every detail before starting construction.

From left: Keith Johnson, regional vice president of Brasfield & Gorrie; Roddy McCrory, regional vice president; and Rob Taylor, president of the East Region. All three are based in the contractor’s Kennesaw, Ga., offices.

Steve Baile, senior vice president of Daniel Corp. of Atlanta, says he appreciates Brasfield & Gorrie’s commitment to preconstruction. He adds that the contractor has completed more than 20 projects for Daniel and is currently working on the $500-million 1075 Peachtree project in Atlanta. It features a 38-story office tower and a 39-story hotel-condominium tower.

“Having them on board early has allowed us to bite off some large, sexy projects,” Baile says.

Tim Burrill, assistant vice president of Florida Hospital in Orlando, also praised Brasfield & Gorrie’s preconstruction budgeting, planning and building of mock rooms. The construction firm is currently working on the hospital’s $255-million, 660,000-sq-ft Ginsburg Tower, open but scheduled for completion in 2010, and the $60-million, multiphase expansion of the Walt Disney World Pavilion at Florida Hospital for Children, slated to wrap up in 2011.

“On the Ginsburg project, in particular, what caused success was getting them involved early,” Burrill says. “They owned the project as much as we did.”

Daily Operations “Our approach is to be a true general contractor,” McCrory says. “We have the ability to self-perform a lot of work.”

Brasfield & Gorrie employs more than 2,000 field staff overall and approximately 1,229 in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. The company often self-performs its concrete work, earthwork, masonry and carpentry.

“It helps us control the schedule and the quality of the project,” McCrory says.

Larry Kelly, president and partner with Pope and Land Enterprises in Atlanta, says Brasfield & Gorrie has kept his multiple office projects within budget and on schedule. The company recently completed Pope and Land’s $126-million, 1.3-million-sq-ft 3630 Peachtree mixed-use project in Atlanta.

“They have a service-oriented attitude,” Kelly says. “They do an excellent job for us.”

Brasfield & Gorrie embraces new technology. The company uses Prolog project management software and LaTista punch-list software. The firm employs building information modeling (BIM) on more complicated projects, such as hospitals.

“From our estimating to BIM, we are full speed ahead,” Dwyer adds. “If you blink, you get left behind.”

Safety remains a top priority. All supervisory staff must take the 30-hour Occupational Safety & Health Administration class, and field employees receive a 10-hour OSHA training course. Its current experience modification rate is .55, below the national average of 1.0.

Brasfield & Gorrie has developed a diverse project portfolio over the years, but offices and health-care facilities have been two of the strongest in recent years. The recently completed Dynetech Centre in Orlando; and the atrium of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston project. (Photos courtesy Brasfield & Gorrie)

“Our goal, each day, is to make sure our fellow workers and subcontractors leave work the same way they came—healthy and safe,” Dwyer says.

More than 220 Brasfield & Gorrie professionals have obtained LEED accreditation. McCrory says the company applies sustainable principles on every project, even if the owner does not seek U.S. Green Building Council certification. The contractor’s LEED-certified personnel certainly have kept busy. The company reported more than $354 million in green revenue from the four-state Southeast region during 2008, or about 25% of its area total.

Brasfield & Gorrie also places an emphasis on community service, with employees participating in Habitat for Humanity home projects and raising money for various charities.

“The community has been good to us, and we have a responsibility to give back,” McCrory says.

Surviving in a Difficult Market “We’ve taken [the economy] as an opportunity to pursue work types that we wanted to in the past but [couldn’t because] we were busy,” Johnson says. For instance, “we’re more willing to go out of town and do a job.”

Historically, the majority of Brasfield & Gorrie’s work has come from repeat clients. But that’s declining as the company pursues more hard-bid projects in existing markets and branches out into new ones, including federal General Services Administration and military work, power plants, heavy civil, and more municipal water and wastewater-treatment facilities.

“Our ability to be diverse—in both work type and geographically—has given us a lot of flexibility in the market,” Taylor says. “And our ability to self-perform work has allowed us to deal with some of the things the market has thrown at us.”

Useful Source:

Brasfield & Gorrie
http://www.brasfieldgorrie.com