Intermountain Firm of the Year: Fourth-Generation Firm Grows By Tradition
ENR Contractor of the Year Okland Construction showcases its core competencies
The North Capitol building in Salt Lake City will house the Museum of Utah, including the state archives. The building’s style and granite stone exterior matches the historic Utah State Capitol and completes the original site plan drawn up in 1911 by renowned landscape architect John Charles Olmstead. It is slated for completion next year.
The number of general contracting firms operating in the Intermountain area of Utah, Idaho and Montana for over 100 years can be counted on just one hand, without using all the fingers.
Salt Lake City-based Okland Construction was founded in 1918 when Norwegian immigrant John Okland, a carpenter and boat builder, launched his own general contracting business. He was later joined by his son Jack in 1945. After a short stint playing football for the New York Giants and earning a civil engineering degree at the University of Utah, Jack helped the contractor take on larger and more complex projects.
Today, Okland Construction has expanded its reach across the country. In the Intermountain states, it has constructed landmarks like the Adobe Corporate campus in Lehi, Utah, the Orrin Hatch U.S. Courthouse and 111 South Main office tower in Salt Lake City and the LDS Temple in Idaho Falls.
Current projects include new semiconductor fabrication plants for Texas Instruments in Lehi and for Micron in Boise. The company is also at work on a significant renovation and expansion of the Delta Center arena in Salt Lake City to accommodate the city’s new professional hockey franchise.
In addition to its South Salt Lake City headquarters, Okland maintains offices in Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Hawaii and Idaho. The contractor reported revenue of $1.76 billion in 2024, landing it in 4th place on this year’s Top Contractors list for the seven-state region.
The current president, Brett Okland, is the fourth generation of the family to helm the company. He sat down with ENR to share how the family-owned business approaches growth. The following is an edited and condensed transcript of the Q&A.
Okland Projects at a Glance
University of Utah Eccles Health Campus and Eccles Hospital West Valley City
The first off-campus hospital for the University of Utah Health system, this $855-million, 800,000-sq-ft facility is scheduled for completion in 2028.
University of Utah Student Housing
As part of a public-private partnership between American Campus Communities and the University of Utah, Okland is building a $155-million, 1,400-bed student housing development on the University of Utah campus.
William Stewart Building and L.S. Skaggs Applied Science Building
This recently completed $97-million, 275,000-sq-ft renovation and expansion project on the University of Utah campus completes the Crocker Science Complex for research and education.
Canyon County Sheriff’s Office
A $27.6-million, 82,866-sq-ft facility in Caldwell, Idaho, will consolidate the operations of the sheriff’s department in the rapidly growing county. It is slated for completion in spring of 2026.
Many of your competitors have made acquisition or mergers part of their growth strategy. What is Okland’s plan?
We decided some years ago that our approach would be to build our core markets and core competencies and really refine them. Those core markets have been higher education, health care, advanced manufacturing and sports and entertainment venues. Those are things that require a certain level of expertise, and we want to be seen as someone who brings expertise to a project.
We are also investing in some things like mission critical which are hot right now, but those core markets have been strong for us for some time. We have kept growing by staying focused on what we’re good at. We invest a lot in training our people, so anyone who has an interface with us, we want them to have a remarkable experience.
Okland recently completed the Baltic Point office building, the first all mass timber building in Utah. Are there other new or emerging building types or technologies you are working with?
“We decided some years ago that our approach would be to build our core markets and core competencies and really refine them.”
—Brett Okland, President, Okland Construction
We hope to do more mass timber. Mass timber has been good, and we learned a lot from that project. There are a lot of different structural innovations we are working with. Right now, we are doing some things with the Infinity system. It’s a prefabricated, load-bearing, steel stud panel that can be used in lieu of wood framing. It approaches wood as far as economics go, but the speed and quality control is a lot higher. You get them up and have a concrete core, then you can fly in your decks right on top of them. We see this as a good application for multifamily and health care, hotels, things like that. We’re using it now on projects in Utah, Arizona and Idaho. We’re pleased we can bring some alternatives to the table that are cost effective and can move the schedule. We are always pushing innovation. We have started using some robots that will mark the layout on a floor. You transmit all your data, and they will go around and mark where the metal studs go, where all the openings need to be, everything. It’s really high quality and accurate.
What trends are you seeing in terms of delivery methods?
We are still seeing primarily CM/GC with some growth in design-build. The University of Utah hospital project we’ve just started is design-build, and we’ve been looking at more IPD (integrated project delivery) work. It is more prevalent in Arizona, but it is starting to make inroads in Utah and Idaho. The owner, architect, contractor and major trades all get together to work through preconstruction and even sign the same agreements. We are all working with a certain amount of risk and reward. It’s a very consolidated effort, and you’re all working very closely together. It is not as formalized in Utah yet, and we are trying to take a lot of the components and use them to provide better value to our clients.
In your opinion, what market sectors will remain strong in this region in the near term?
We are pretty bullish on the market right now. We think tech and advanced technologies and manufacturing are going to continue to grow [although those sectors] will slow at some point.
Higher education did slow down a bit during COVID, but it is picking back up and seems to be growing again. In the states we work in, health care is going to be big in the next five years. We’re already seeing it in Boise. Health care seems to have momentum and plenty of shovel-ready stuff.
With data centers, the challenge is power. There is not adequate power in our region, so the data centers are looking at alternative power supply solutions like renewables and natural gas. I think it’s going to drive some innovation.
