Carletons begin new company

Kim Carleton said the No. 1 question she's been asked in the last few months is why she and her husband, builder and developer Kevin Carleton, sold their general contracting firm, Carleton Building Co., to partner Greg Matlock late last year.

Kevin Carleton is known for the Old World-style designs of his buildings, such as the CastleGate office complex on South Fremont and Timber-wood, the office building on South McCann Court that houses the Carletons' new company, Carleton & Co. LLC.

"We had a very successful company; we had expanded into Oklahoma and had approximately 20 employees in Missouri and Oklahoma, and were at our highest dollar volume of construction," Carleton said. "Kevin was traveling a lot, we had a new baby, and (Matlock) made us an offer; he and his wife were 50 percent owners, we were 50 percent owners and it was the right time for us to scale back."

Carleton said the sale included all of Carleton Building Co.'s projects with the exception of a custom home for a relative and the Treehouse Learning Center project, which is now on hold.

Carleton said the site at 1525 E. Bradford Pkwy., where construction began on the Treehouse in June 1999, will instead house Bradford Place, an office condominium complex developed by Carleton & Co.

"We've drawn all new plans, and we're converting it into an office building. The building will have a lot of the same characteristics as the Treehouse, and we've got a large majority of it already pre-leased or sold," Carleton said.

Attempts to contact Treehouse Learning Center administrator Linda Vance for comment were unsuccessful as of press time.

The real estate company Kevin Carleton and Matlock began after Matlock joined the company as a principal and Waterford Subdivision, as well as projects in Oklahoma, were also part of the deal, according to Kim Carleton.

Further details of the sale, including the selling price, were unavailable because of a confidentiality agreement between the Carletons and Matlocks.

"I will say this: We would have liked to come out better, but anytime you sell a business, you'd like to come out better. We had a buy-sell agreement; one of us had to be the buyer, and one had to be the seller (to end the partnership), and Greg exercised his option to buy us out," Carleton said.

One thing the sales agreement did not include was a noncompete clause.

"We wanted to be able to go right down the street and do the same things we had been doing. That was a requirement. This is how we've made our livelihood for the past 13 years," Carleton said. "We just started over doing the same things we had been doing, just on a smaller scale. Instead of 15 projects going on at one time, we have one."

Matlock's company resulting from his purchase from the Carletons is Matco Building & Development LLC, and its offices are located in the CastleGate office complex. He said he is in the process of shutting down what was Carleton Building Co., and that he does not wish to be associated with it any longer.

"We've got a brand new company that is trying to distance itself from the old one," Matlock said.

Carleton said she and her husband began Carleton Building Co. as a family business in 1986 and went from building homes to becoming both a residential and commercial general contracting company and developer. The Carletons' and Matlocks' business relationship began when the Matlocks became interested in one of Carleton Building Co.'s homes.

"Greg started looking at buying into our company in 1998. He became a 50 percent owner Jan. 1, 1999. Toward the middle of 99 he approached us about buying out the remaining portion of the company ... We had worked very hard, and it was very hard to turn (the company) over," she said.

Carleton said Carleton & Co. employs no project managers or office staff and will focus on fewer projects at a time, which will allow them to give more time and personal attention to each project.

"We like doing our own self-developed projects; we want to put our flair into each one. Kevin has taken a real interest in assisting with the design of his buildings," Carleton said.

She said they have considered developing another subdivision, but that the company does not plan to take on any custom projects other than the one they are now working on.

"Custom projects can get very time consuming, whereas, if you're the owner (of a project), you can go at your own pace. I think Kevin prefers that," she said.