ENR 2024 Mountain States Contractor of the Year: Getting ‘Back to Basics’ Is Key to Firm’s Success
Saunders used innovative technology to construct the One River North high-rise in Denver, including real-time scanning software and equipment used before concrete placement.
Photo by Vic Moss
When the pandemic hit, Saunders Construction, like many businesses, was focused on keeping the doors open while ensuring the safety of its employees. Coincidentally, the Denver-based contractor was also “ramping up to start a huge tranche of new projects,” says Justin Cooper, the firm’s president.
While the contractor put many of those projects on hold to focus on playing defense, “we also had to play some offense,” Cooper says.
One strategy entailed expanding the firm’s geographic footprint into the mountains, southern Colorado and Wyoming, and Saunders added a Colorado Springs office during the pandemic. “The goal was to become a border-to-border contractor,” Cooper says.
In another targeted move, Saunders grew its concrete business, launching a subsidiary for self-perform and third-party concrete services, which incorporated as its own entity in 2023.
Saunders’ reported revenue has more than doubled since the pandemic, growing from $339 million in 2021 to $711 million in 2023, landing the firm in the No. 2 spot on ENR’s Top Contractors list for Colorado, Wyoming and the Dakotas for the second year in a row.
Holistic Growth
“At our core, we are a relationship company,” Cooper contends. Acknowledging the fact that that sounds cliché, he says Saunders has applied that principle to “getting back to the basics of doing business.”
To accommodate growth, Saunders created an onboarding manager role to provide training, development and onsite resources for newly hired staff. A texting program was launched to better communicate with all employees, including field team members, and all communications are translated into Spanish.
Skill development classes, computer courses and leadership training are all wrapped into the internal development programs Saunders offers its employees, says Ame Muniz, director of learning and development.
The contractor also launched a mental health initiative to ensure its employees’ mental safety is given the same level of attention as their physical safety. Saunders was one of 10 organizations selected to pilot the H.O.P.E. certification program in Colorado. Created by United Suicide Survivors International and supported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the program helps workplaces meet the needs of total worker well-being. Employee assistance programs range from mindfulness training activities to anxiety and sleep support, and all of the firm’s more than 500 employees are eligible for eight free sessions of counseling per year, per unique issue.
“Our employees are becoming more comfortable talking about mental health and checking in with their peers and work partners to ensure they are doing OK,” Muniz says.
“We are evangelists about bringing mental health first aid to construction,” Cooper adds. “On the physical safety front, [we have evolved from] a culture of writing safety checklists on jobsites to focus on collaborative thinking and engagement ... The goal is that we engineer out hazards that can hurt someone,” he says.
By the end of 2023, Saunders’ EMR had dropped to 0.55, the lowest in the contractor’s history.
Saunders is constructing the new Heart and Vascular Tower at AdventHealth Littleton Hospital.
Photo courtesy Saunders
Building What Matters
Emerging from the pandemic, many of the large projects that were put on hold have now come to life. Cooper says decisions for which projects to pursue are intentional. Building What Matters may be the contractor’s kumbaya catchphrase, but as Saunders celebrates its 50th year, firm representatives cite 100 projects completed or underway that serve vital community purposes, including mass transit, health care, behavioral health, education, science and technology, recreation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings.
Saunders is also adapting to industry challenges, and the contractor’s technology investments since 2020 are paying off, says Sean Jackson, senior superintendent on the new 16-story One River North luxury high-rise project in Denver.
“We are evangelists about bringing mental health first aid to construction.”
—Justin Cooper, President, Saunders Construction
“While materials shortages have calmed from where they were six months to a year ago, this project was affected by a substantial materials shortage from the glazing contractor—a challenge for a building of all glass,” he says. To address both material and labor challenges, Saunders is “refocusing on our planning initiatives in the preconstruction phase, getting with our trade partners early on,” Jackson says. “Gone are the days when you could swarm the project at the end to get it done; that’s not possible today. You have to be very cognizant of your production rates from your trade partners.” As challenging as the One River North project was, “we stayed true to ourself,” he says. “In this market it would be very easy to shy away from your beliefs when in a tough spot ... our team never strayed from who we are.”
Other projects include transforming the Steamboat Ski Base Area and breaking ground in February on the Legacy Building at Denver’s National Western Center campus. Saunders also is building the new Heart and Vascular Tower at the Littleton Adventist Hospital for longtime client AdventHealth and wrapping up a workforce housing project with Tetrad in Fort Collins to provide Colorado State University faculty and staff with housing.
“The project is a testament to the collaborative nature of working with Saunders,” says Jordan Berger, Tetrad president and CEO. “We went through a big cost escalation and [still] ended up substantially under budget in the end ... We worked together to solve problems, and there’s a lot of trust.”
