"Greg [Schmidt] and I have six partners we can call on at a moment's notice," Beeble says. "Most contractors don't think this way. It's a risk they wouldn't take." He recalls an emergency conference call from a Citadel partner asking Saunders and another firm to help finance a $100-million deal. Beeble and Schmidt quickly agreed, relishing the opportunity to go after a project larger than any of the firms could have tackled alone.

Beeble and Schmidt have their own unique partnership that dates back to 1995. "Partnering is an interesting theme for us here at Saunders. I have never seen two leaders more aligned or who complement each other more than these two do," says the firm's marketing and communications director Marcy Loughran.

While Schmidt now leads the organization, both men have been instrumental in carrying out the vision set forth by company founder and chairman emeritus Dick Saunders. The first leadership transition came in 2000, and today this employee-owned firm has 65 shareholders and tops out at 500 employees, including those at Heath Construction.

Ahead of the Curve

"We're dogmatic about staying true to our contractor roots," Schmidt says. Saunders is a true general contractor, with 200-300 tradespeople self-performing many portions of a project, including concrete. "But we also like to do design-build and CM/GC. We get involved early on, and keep up with Revit, BIM and all that," he adds.

"That's just mandatory," Beeble says. "If you're going to compete at this level, you have to focus on the applications side of technology—what are the things we can do that make our projects more efficient."

Saunders hired its first full-time, in-house architect for coordination (not design) 16 years ago. Today, the firm's projects remain mostly in the $15-million to $20-million range; however, last year $30 million to $40 million in revenue came from smaller, tenant improvement projects done through Saunders Express Group.

Saunders has 43 LEED-certified projects in Colorado, with eight more under way seeking LEED certification, nearly $2 billion in total, Loughran says.

With the Citadel Group, Saunders has built an estimated $105 million in projects over the past 10 years for clients that include Comcast, Lillibridge Health Trust and the Niagra Bottling Plant.

Saunders' diversity has helped it survive many a dip and turn of the economy over the past four decades. The firm is active in 18 target markets. "Our best measure of success has been our downturns," Beeble says. "Every recession, our market share goes up. As the market gets smaller—and it was cut in half during the Great Recession—we've historically maintained and grown. We actually found ourselves having the opportunity to do larger and more complex projects [and] we grew and enhanced our resume."

"We had to become a leaner organization. Had to take a hard look at how we were doing business, who was doing what and how to be efficient as an organization," Schmidt says. "Our long-range goals didn't change, we just adjusted; it wasn't a total reset. But we got too lean—people worked really hard—and now we're back up to where we were before [the recession]," he says.

"We're in a great place here in Colorado. The economy and construction market are in an enviable place nationally. For us, 2015 will look a lot like 2014. It feels like we should be due for three or four steady years—I hope," Schmidt adds.

Saunders built three multiyear student center projects during the past five years: the Center for Community at the University of Colorado's Boulder campus, the Metro State University of Denver's Student Success Building and Colorado State University's Lory Student Union in Fort Collins. Saunders is currently renovating the recreation center at CU's Colorado Springs campus and a renovation of the Colorado School of Mines' Student Center is on the books.

Saunders also completed its third project for the Denver Broncos: a new indoor practice facility and headquarters remodel. Upcoming work includes a project at 9th Street and Colorado Boulevard in Denver to redevelop the old University of Colorado hospital site into mixed-use buildings. Saunders will break ground on other redevelopment projects in 2015 and a new office for Google in Boulder.

"We're worried like everyone else about the impact of oil and gas on downtown real estate," Schmidt says. "How long is this cycle? How long until the next recession? No one knows. But it's in our DNA to grow."