It Starts with Foundation
Parkway Construction finds success through bedrock values and customer service
John Elmer started his business in Dallas in 1981 with a contract to remodel a Burger King restaurant and a plan to base his firm on a foundation of integrity, trust and respect. Today, Parkway C&A, LLP, more commonly known as Parkway Construction, serves clients coast to coast and employs a staff of more than 200 professionals.
John had a background in the construction industry, but when he opened his own company, he wanted to do business his own way. His vision was for Parkway to become the “customer’s choice” by focusing on hiring the best people to deliver excellent projects, while never wavering from the values of integrity, trust and respect.
“We felt the best way to grow would be to develop repeat clients,” says Erik Egan, director of business development at Parkway Construction. “We work with national programs, get involved in companies that are growing and position ourselves to go wherever they go in the country. Our first such client was Chuck E. Cheese’s. They’ve been with us since the late ‘80s. We organized our company to go and do whatever they needed done in any part of the country. As time went on, we’ve established similar partnerships with companies like Raising Cane’s, At Home and Chuy’s. Our ability to work with national programs has been a key to our growth. When we can establish an agreement with those companies, we can hire and plan for that growth.”
A Wider Net
In the beginning, the restaurant industry represented the vast majority of Parkway’s business, but the company has grown and expanded into multiple other sectors, including retail, education, religious, hospitality and entertainment.
“Ten years ago, restaurants made up the largest amount of our business,” Erik says. “Now, At Home is our largest client. Movie theaters and self-storage facilities are also some of the biggest sectors recently for us.”
To illustrate the scope of work for Parkway’s largest client, from 2013 through 2018, the firm did 64 projects in 27 states for At Home.
“Our national program approach is one thing that sets us apart from other firms,” Erik says. “Another is our 27-person, in-house architecture team to support our design-build strategy. We have an integrated team of architects, pre-construction resources and construction resources that work together. It streamlines the entire process. The architects do the design and the pre-construction team puts the estimate together with input from the construction team; the groups work together to make adjustments as needed. We’re value-engineering it along the way. We start with a budget and design to fit it.
“About 40 percent of our business is design-build,” he adds. “We feel we’re unique with our in-house approach and that sets us apart. We’ve made the effort to put processes in place and do things to take the unpredictability out of construction. To show we always put the customer first, even our employee bonuses are tied to customer satisfaction.”
Recession in the Rear-View
Parkway’s success lends weight to Erik’s argument. Coming out of the recession in 2008, Parkway’s leaders laid out a plan to bring the company to $200 million in gross revenue by 2016. In 2009, Parkway had $68 million in gross revenue; by 2018, that number had swollen to $350 million.
“We defined the company strategy around that goal,” Erik says. “Part of that strategy was to start a business development group at Parkway. We knew we needed a focus on inorganic growth instead of just building executive relationships. Focusing on business development is what helped drive that growth, bringing in more projects and larger projects. Ten years ago, the average project size was $800,000. Now it’s closer to $3.5 million.”
As the number and scope of projects has grown, so too has Parkway’s workforce. The company currently employees 225 people, most in its Lewisville, Texas, headquarters and others in its regional office in Southern California, which opened late last year.
“We also have 80 or so field superintendents spread across the country,” Erik says. “Since we’re nationwide, our supers are truly nomadic. They’re not regionalized at all—we don’t assign supers by proximity to where they’re based. We send the best person for the job to the job. We have Chuck E. Cheese’s supers, Chuy’s supers, At Home supers. We send the super that knows the client best and is able to anticipate their needs. For some projects, we send more than one.”
A Winning Team
As Parkway has grown, so too have the needs of its customers. Moving into new business sectors, from self-storage to automobile dealerships to banks and medical facilities, has required an ability and agility to take on new challenges, some more extreme than others.
“From a technical standpoint, I’d say one of our biggest challenges was taking on iFLY as a client,” Erik says, referring to the nationwide chain of indoor skydiving facilities. “We got in touch with them through our business developments efforts. They were building a project in Portland, Oregon. We flew up there and visited with them to discuss their particular needs. The project was on a very small site. We’d done theaters and restaurants, but never a building that tall. iFLY had strong expectations, and we had to convince them we could do it. We won the project and put some of our best people on it. Since then we’ve done three other projects for them.”
Parkway has more than doubled in size since Erik joined the team in 2008, but the culture of the company has remained the same. While the company continues to grow, it also takes steps to maintain the environment that has helped fuel that growth.
“Being here feels like being on a winning team,” Erik says. “The principle of valuing people and developing excellent people has always been here, and it’s still here helping to maintain and improve the culture. We understand the customers’ expectations and put our focus on what the customers need most. Simply put, we focus on providing excellent customer service and building long-term relationships.”