Drake Construction Company
Integrity, experience, excellence
This veteran contractor has recreated itself for the 21st Century, keeping
traditional standards and adding a modern outlook
Drake Construction Company just passed its first half-century, a landmark
that demonstrates the firm's expertise in construction. However, when four
employees purchased the firm in 1992 from the founders, who were retiring,
they created a new generation of management. The new owners created a reorganized
company with a lean, if not mean, staff, one enjoying all the advantages
of a close-knit management team that knows how to work well together.
Drake's offices since 1992 have been in a restored building on the West
Side of the Flats, a low-rent, low-overhead area that also manages to be
very attractive, and also close to downtown, the highway system, and the
architectural and construction mainstreamand with free parking. This
location was especially handy in the last decade, when tenant buildouts
and warehouse renovations were a downtown mainstay.
President Steve Ciuni was the last of the current partners to come on
board, joining the firm in 1995 and being elected president only last year.
The others joke that he was elected president only because he was out in
the field on election day; the leadership style is low-key, involved and
personal.
Honesty rules
"Our philosophy," says Ciuni, "is to be honest with clients,
even if they don't want to hear it. When we negotiate the job, we tell the
owner the truth, for instance, being realistic about how long it will take
to get a permit. We don't promise the world, we don't promise what we can't
deliver. We have lost jobs based on that."
Executive vice president Hamilton Biggar adds, "We are willing to
say no to jobs. Some projects are just not us."
Drake's goal: to complete each project with the highest quality materials
and workmanship, at the lowest and fairest cost, in the shortest possible
time. However, it does not aim at being one of the biggest contractors in
the region, just one of the best.
Although Drake was a Weatherhead 100 winner in 1997, recognized for its
outstanding growth, the company has no plans to grow beyond midsize and
prefers to keep a close-knit clientele of owners, architects and selected
developers.
Looking to the future
However, it is looking beyond the confines of Northeast Ohio to add to
its project list. Local work for the Arhaus furniture stores, for example,
led to work for the chain in Cincinnati, Toledo, Detroit, Ann Arbor, even
as far afield as Denver. "We are expanding in spite of ourselves,"
says Ciuni. "But we learned a lot from our experience in other cities:
that our superintendent is still the key to a great project, that we can
find great subs in other cities and that we can still maintain control over
out-of-state jobsites." Sometimes, he adds, Drake will take its own
employees to other places to demonstrate how work should be done to Drake
standards. But, he adds in fairness, "we've also discovered some great
subcontractors in other places."
t's obviously doing something right. Throughout its half-century, Drake
has never failed to complete a project, never had a bond revoked and never
defaulted on a contract. It's an enviable record, and one that Drake has
earned by following its ideals of integrity, experience and excellence.
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Close to the bone
Drake's clients benefit from a flattened company structure that emphasizes
communication and helps build customer loyalty as well as buildings
Drake Construction Company is a midsize commercial contractor with Steve
Ciuni serving as president, Hamilton F. Biggar, III, as executive vice president
and secretary, James Holloway as vice president-construction, assistant
secretary and general field superintendent, and James. E. Pinter, controller
and treasurer. Each project the company takes on is overseen by one of the
principals of the firm, assuring its clients that decisions can and will
be made right on the spot, so the firm stays dedicated to meeting promises
and delivering quality. This efficient business structure keeps projects
on track and key decision-makers very much within the loop, while clients
receive top-notch, personalized service. In addition, Holloway gets to each
site once or twice weekly, while Biggar and Ciuni also serve as estimators
and project managers.
According to Ham Biggar, Drake plays as close to the bone as possible
when it comes to staff, and notes that it gets a lot of work accomplished
with its streamlined management style. The key, Biggar adds, is the project
superintendent, who maintains momentum and quality on each project. This
keeps Drake in close control over every project, so work gets done to the
highest standards, on time and on budget.
A team effort
But while oversight of each Drake project is concentrated in a single
person, assuring continuity over the course of each project, the dedicated
Drake teams are structured so as to maintain this continuity. Each team
member is expected to be able to communicate effectively with the client,
able to listen to and understand client needs and charged to come up with
solutions.
The quality of the company's services is thus related to the individual
skills and credentials of those individuals on the construction team, their
experience, reliability, expertise, tenacity and good judgment, and Drake
hires with these attributes in mind. Keeping to a schedule is made easier,
say the principals, because of the large amount of work Drake self-performs:
rough framing, interiors, metal studs, drywall, ceiling systems and millwork
as well as demolition and clean-up. Keeping so much work in-house also helps
projects stay within the owner's budget, adds Ciuni.
Drake operates with a primarily private clientele, a stance that helps
reduce paperwork and keeps the operation running at full efficiency. "We
are better at building than we are at paperwork," says Ciuni. Drake
employs a staff of about 35 year -round, with seasonal employment at about
75 full-timers. The company can handle any desired project delivery system:
traditional general contracting, construction management, design/build and
fast track, as well as cost and scheduling consulting. While it does take
on construction management, it will work as well with architects and major
subcontractors to create design/build packages.
Negotiated work
The majority of the work is negotiated, and that is just the way the
company wants to keep it. "We feel this is the fairest way for both
the client and for us," says Ciuni. "When you do bid work, you
come into the project after you are chosen as low bidder. We think a better
approach is to start as a part of the team when the project is conceived."
Besides being a better way to approach individual projects, he says,
negotiating projects also leads to building good, strong relationships between
designer, owner and contractor and builds the repeat business that is the
key to Drake's success. Often, says Ciuni, recommendation letters from clients
come in unsolicited, attesting to the loyalty clients feel to the firm as
well as to the proven expertise and high degree of attention that Drake
brings to each of its projects. BXM
A full spectrum of projects
Having a diverse client list gives Drake experience in a variety of
market niches
The Drake Construction Co. has been involved in a wide variety of local
projects, including office, multi-family, retail, banks, industrial, healthcare,
data processing, warehousing and historic renovation. It had booked contracts
between $20 and $25 million yearly, with 30 to 60 projects a year ranging
from $5,000 to $10 million.
Historic preservation
One great love of Drake's is its work with historic preservation, a strong
market in the Cleveland area. "It's exciting to watch buildings go
from dumps to diamonds," says President Steve Ciuni, while acknowledging
the special challenges inherent in the constant surprises found in rehabbing.
One case in point: the Notre Dame Apartments, which won the National
Trust/HUD Secretary's Award for Excellence and the 1999 Preservation Award
from the Cleveland Restoration Society. "A wonderful client,"
says Ciuni of the developer, the Famicos Foundation. The $8.2 million project
converted the original Notre Dame Academy into 73 apartments and a community
center.
Very high on the public image scale is the Greyhound Bus Terminal, a
$2.1 million historic renovation that won Drake the 2000 Preservation Award
by the Cleveland Restoration Society.
Other examples of Drake's restoration work: rehabbing the West Virginia
Apartments and the Bender Building in Ohio City, reworking an old Cleveland
warehouse into the 21-unit Metro Lofts. Drake also worked on the First Ladies
Library in Canton with the maven of preservation, architect Bob Gaede.
Healthcare
Health facilities construction, according to Ham Biggar, executive vice
president, centers around making sure that patient and staff needs remain
paramount, and that dust and noise are virtually nonexistent to them.
Among Drake's projects: Southwest General Hospital's LifeWorks, which
includes an MRI center, involving the construction of a copper-lined room.
LifeWorks is a fun project, says Ciuni.
Drake also does a great deal of work for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation,
including such projects as the G-111 nursing unit renovation, H22 Heart
Failure ICU remodel and M30 renovation of a pediatric unit.
Also in the picture, senior facilities such as the Kemper Houses, in
Strongsville and Mentor, new Alzheimer care facilities.
Offices
Drake also specializes in the construction of two-to-four story office
buildings, like the three-phase, 42,000-sf Overlook Court II, III and IV
in Warrensville Hts., done as a design/build project and involving multiple
tenant buildouts as well. It also created the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating
Agency's new offices in an existing furniture store and buildouts for tenants
of the Chartwell Group and for the $5.2 million, five-floor Forest City
Enterprises offices in Tower City.
Retail
The Arhaus Furniture store at Legacy Village is only one of the many
retail stores Drake has built for the chain in cities such as Denver, Detroit
and Ann Arbor. It also constructed the buildout of Joseph Beth Booksellers
at Legacy Village and constructed Circuit City Superstores in Canton, Cuyahoga
Falls, Fairlawn, Mentor and Mansfield.
Another loyal chain customer, Dollar Banks, involves Drake in a continuing
series of small rehab and construction of new branch office projects in
communities including Eastlake, Avon, Parma, Strongsville and a host of
others. "This is the kind of work we love to do," says Biggar.
Entertainment and hospitality
Drake is actively involved in doing work for the country club industry,
with projects such as Signature of Solon Golf Club, on which it served as
construction manager, and the Legend Lake Golf Club, which involved converting
the second floor of a barn and old silos into a golf club and adding a new
wing.
As a sub,it handled the interior of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's
exciting new planetarium exhibit hall. One interesting project: The construction
of an historic carriage house, the John Johnson Inn, and the Kirtland Visitor
Center in the Historic Kirtland development sponsored by the Mormon Church.
This was new construction very carefully planned to emulate historic buildings
on the site downtown Kirtland site.
Residential
Drake's multifamily projects include the E. 88th St. apartment block
for the Cleveland Housing Network, the Robert L. Soltz Apartments at Payne
and E. 55th St., and the renovation of the 16-building, 182-unit Oak Hill
Village Apartments in Willoughby, including a new community center, fitness
center and playground.
Other
Drake's other work ranges widely, from public projects such as the Hunting
Valley Village Hall and Police Station to post offices in Garfield Hts.,
Lyndhurst, Medina and Northfield. But the firm also does industrial work:
Prince & Izant hired Drake to convert an existing warehouse into a corporate
headquarters and manufacturing plant. The $1.2 million project took only
five months. BXM
An elite safety record
The Drake Construction Co. was recognized by the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration since 2002 as being an elite provider of safety
training and practice, one of very few general contractors to win the award.
Drake's elite status means that it comes in well below the regional average
in days lost to accidents.
It provides all of its employees with 10 hours of OSHA training and requires
all supervisory personnel to take 30 hours. Some of its safety rules go
beyond that of OSHA, include mandatory hard hats and fall protection beginning
at six feet.
The safety program is overseen by Drake executive vice president Hamilton
Biggar, who is certified by the Department of Labor as an OSHA 500 instructor.
Bill Kremzar, a former OSHA assistant area director, is employed part-time
by Drake as a safety instructor. The two conduct mandatory safety workshops
on a scheduled basis and periodically visit job sites for unannounced safety
inspections, helping Drake to maintain its elite status. bxm
