Along with providing design and construction expertise to keep pace with the increasing complexity and sophistication of building systems, Southern Air has invested heavily in developing and training skilled craftspeople across all of its specialty trades, employing more than 100 licensed apprentices throughout Virginia.

The firm also supports many charities across its area of service, with a strong focus on nonprofit organizations dedicated to career technical education. One of its major partners has been the Central Virginia Community College Educational Foundation, which Southern Air says it has supported at significant levels.

Paul Denham, who has been Southern Air president since 2016, shared his thoughts on the company’s recent success and its emerging challenges in the following Q&A with ENR that has been edited and condensed.

 

What’s the state of the markets for your services?

Aside from the Richmond area, we work mainly in rural parts of Virginia and North Carolina, which means we have to be a jack-of-all-trades and work on what’s available at any particular time. In terms of sectors, office construction is not robust, but there are projects mainly by larger employers that needed to expand or update. Health care is particularly strong, as is industrial, with a lot of capital investment for line change-outs and equipment upgrades.

When we profiled Southern Air in 2018, you said design-build capabilities drove revenue growth. Does design-build still distinguish your firm?

We consider ourselves more of an engineering company than a construction company. The more challenging the project is, the more likely people are looking for our expertise.

Over the last couple of years, as costs for materials and labor have risen significantly, it’s become harder for owners to get projects on budget. That’s where we can help. Typically, there are three or four projects per year that we initially bid for doing plans and specifications, then offer a design-build alternative, where we became the engineer-of-record and drive value for the owners. We don’t have many competitors capable of doing that.

 

Have your design-build projects changed or evolved over the past several years?

Projects have become more challenging and complex, driven in large part by changes in building codes requiring more energy efficiency. As a result, we’ve brought more trades in-house in recent years—such as for data cabling, access control and fire alarm and paging systems. It’s a way for us to control risk.

 

Have you increased offsite prefabrication?

We could not survive without prefabrication. It complements what we’re doing with BIM and design modeling. Along with expanding our fabrication shop to 60,000 square feet, we’re making more use of Total Stations to lay out underground and above-ground hanger points. So, when the crew shows up to install pipe and conduit, the hangers are already in place.

 

What are key elements that attract participants to your apprenticeship program?

Over the last five years, we’ve built a strong partnership with the state community college system to develop a more standardized, predictable apprenticeship curriculum that enables employees to fulfill all technical instruction requirements in two or two-and-one-half years. When done with classroom work, they are halfway to meeting their four-year on-the-job requirement to become a licensed journeyperson in the trade. By mapping a career path, [we] can attract young people to the company. We also help them secure financial aid and provide in-house classes taught by our field leaders.

We’ve also gained a lot of traction at the high school level with a dedicated HR department team that builds relationships with schools in our region. We’re actively talking to students about how they can navigate a career path in a technical trade and hiring some as interns. If they come to work for us in the summer before their junior year, they have two years of work experience when they graduate. We help get them through the balance of their classroom training.

 

You’ve been at Southern Air for more than 36 years; what has had the most significant influence on the business of engineering and construction?

Digital technology has permeated every part of the business, from how we communicate to laying out our work. And this is top to bottom—from our executive team to our field technicians. For example, we’ve gone virtually paperless. Our field teams need to know how to use their phones or tablets to communicate with the systems to set it up and adjust it. To do their jobs, they have to become network and Bluetooth experts.

 

How are you feeling about the region’s construction economy in the coming months and beyond?

In our business, it’s hard to look accurately past a year or two. We currently have more than a year’s backlog under contract, so we’re focused on that. But Virginia and North Carolina are great states to do business. Unless something significantly changes, they will continue to be that way, and we will continue to see growth.

 

And what are Southern Air’s plans for the near future?

I think AI may be a bit overhyped, but it plays into automating the kind of systems we work with. And the more you automate, the more you need a company like ours. We feel good about our future and our ability to continue to grow with the leadership team we’ve put together. But I always remind our employees that we’re not in the business of electrical or mechanical systems; we’re in the talent business. We sell the talents of the people we have here to help our clients make the most of systems that serve their needs.