O’Reilly Build acquired by Iowa-based firm

Effective today, commercial general contractor O’Reilly Build LLC has been acquired by multistate construction and development company Russell Group, with a home base in Davenport, Iowa. This is the fourth office for the parent company.

The acquisition is part of an assertive growth plan by Russell. Melissa Pepper, chief strategy officer for Russell, said the company’s goal is to be at $700 million in revenue by 2027, and a big piece of that is growth outside of its home in Iowa’s Quad Cities. The company’s revenue in 2024 was $455 million, Pepper said.

“We’ve made a devoted effort to growing in Missouri, frankly,” she said, citing the company’s 2022 acquisition of Merit General Contractors Inc. in Olathe, Kansas, and its 2021 acquisition of HBD Construction Inc., one of St. Louis’ oldest construction firms.

An announcement of the acquisition states that adding the Springfield-based, 2008-founded O’Reilly Build to the mix further strengthens its Missouri presence. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Steve Monsanto, who was co-founder and director of construction at O’Reilly Build, has assumed the role of Russell vice president for Springfield. He said the O’Reilly Build office and staff will remain the same, though new signage is in place as of this week. The local headquarters is located at 5051 S. National Ave., Ste. 4-110, and the company has 14 local employees.

The local Russell office is already at work on a project, according to Pepper: a $38 million ground-up, 240-unit multifamily development at Nixa’s Wicklow site, a multiphase planned community.

In the announcement of the merger, Monsanto expressed excitement.

“Russell and O’Reilly Build combining strengthens both teams and benefits our clients,” he said. “We look forward to serving the Springfield region and beyond with expanded services and a deep bench of talented team members across Russell’s four offices.”

A news release from Russell notes that longstanding relationships with O’Reilly Development’s ownership led to the acquisition. Russell recently completed a senior living community, The Boulevard at St. Peters, for O’Reilly Development in the St. Louis region.

Both Pepper and Monsanto stressed in separate interviews that O’Reilly Build and Russell have strong alignment in their culture and values, making the merger seamless.

“This felt really good,” Monsanto said. “It adds a lot of depth to our group, and for me personally, I’ve got a big team behind me to support me and to help us make good decisions. It’s been really nice.”

He added that the companies conduct business very similarly.

Pepper agreed, noting both companies have defined integrity and community among their core values.

“A lot of companies have those, but when we started getting to know the people and spent time with Steve and the team, we found those values are lived,” she said. “That really comes through in the way they show up in the fact that they do what they say they’re going to do, and in the way their clients talk about them.”

Russell has delivered more than $1 billion in projects across 34 states throughout its history, and O’Reilly Build has constructed more than 3.1 million square feet of sustainable, efficient projects throughout the country in its years of operation, according to the release.