2015 Dynamic Dozen No. 5: Build LLC

While crooners sing that everything old is new again, Build LLC is on the ground, making improvements to historic buildings in real time.

Since opening in 2008, Build has offered general construction services to the office, hospitality and industrial industries, with 75 percent of its local business in the booming student-housing market in center city Springfield, according to Steve Monsanto, project manager and a co-owner with Paula Thompson and Ron Barrett.

“We do a bit of everything,” Monsanto says, “but in the past two years we have done a lot of rehab.”

Downtown projects include Sky Eleven, Brick City, Frisco Lofts and Beacon Commons, with work continuing on Deep Elm, Beacon Park and The Jefferson.

“There is still a lot of demand for student housing in the area and we are trying to meet that need,” he says. “There are moments when it’s overwhelming but a good support system keeps this train on track.”

Those tracks are taking Build in directions the young company’s founders didn’t initially think they’d go.

“What we do is different than we envisioned when we started,” says Thompson. “We started out thinking mostly new (construction) but opportunities changed. Developers we were working with were involved in downtown and student housing, and now the biggest change for us is bringing the old back to new.”

Nearly all of the developers Build works with are repeat clients, Monsanto says.

“A lot of our clients are blossoming and their projects are getting bigger,” he says. “And if they get more work, we get more work.”

Monsanto describes the company’s approach as client-driven.

“We work with them from initiation, helping with their needs up front,” he says. “We meet with clients face to face and bring a very extensive knowledge of the development side of a project.”

Monsanto says it can take clients from six months to two years to get their financials together.

“We’re willing to stick it out, to find a way to make their project work,” he says.

That increase in projects has led to a boost in revenue of 112 percent in the past three years. In 2012, Build brought in over $17 million; by 2014, that had more than doubled, to nearly $39 million. Additional staff was hired to handle the expansion; payroll has swelled to 31 employees, up from 13 in 2012.

A lot of that growth came when Build accompanied O’Reilly Development Co. LLC  to a project in Kansas City and saw a need in that market.

“Since last year, we have opened a KC branch which has blossomed into something really big,” Monsanto says.

He says while work in the Springfield area is steady, Build’s new KC office “has doubled the size of our company.” However, expanding into other markets hasn’t taken Build’s focus off of its commitments to Springfield. Thompson says Build’s biggest accomplishment is the renovation it’s bringing to the downtown area. “The history of Springfield is downtown, that’s what is going to bring the square back to life,” she says.[[In-content Ad]]