When Adolfson & Peterson Construction launched 25 years ago in the Texas market, we were relatively unknown in a competitive region. We went from lofty revenue goals of $20 million to more than $400 million this year.
Not bad for a start-up in North Texas. Let me walk you through how we accomplished that. Hint: It focused on forming strong partnerships over the years and doing quality work for top clients along the way.
We had no strong connections in the North Texas market, but we planned to demonstrate how well we could perform and deliver high-caliber projects. Playing a big role in accomplishing that was building a culture that attracted top talent and made them want to stick around.
We were in a very competitive market without the connections to lean on and get our foot in the door. In fact, in the early days, we were in danger of closing our doors.
The turning point for AP? Gaining a deep understanding of strong trade partners and building solid relationships. We also focused on recruiting top-tier preconstruction talent. These efforts allowed us to start building our reputation and make a name for ourselves.
Sometimes the projects were ugly, but we were building a book of business. We took on difficult renovation work, and some profit margins were small to non-existent.
Success started with our trade partners; simple as that. We worked to develop partnerships, enabling us to shine better on projects. From those wins, we could promote our completed work, leading to future assignments.
Over time, we became more of a value builder versus simply taking on cost-driven work. This was a defining time in our growth and history and a key differentiator for us in this market.
Our first project was the renovation of downtown Dallas’ Magnolia Hotel, followed by another hotel renovation just down the street. But maybe our big break was the work we did on three major hospital campus projects, which proved to be key wins for us.
Over the course of six years, AP built three large ground-up hospital campuses with construction costs of $90 million (HCA Medical Center Dallas; now owned by Medical City Hospital), $67 million (Methodist Hospital in Southlake, Texas), and $69 million (St. David’s Surgical Hospital in Austin, Texas). Those medical facilities allowed us to demonstrate our capabilities as a value-based builder, opening a door for us to compete with other general contractors and elevating us into a different category of construction partners.
We put in the work to build our portfolio, tackling a variety of projects and using different trade partners, until we developed relationships that clicked. Our trade partners played a big role in this by spreading the word that we were a good team to work with and for.
Recruiting improved with the big project wins and successful outcomes. With top talent now interested in us, we began developing stronger teams with the necessary skillsets to be extraordinary.
This led to building a winning company culture – one that aligns with our other AP offices across the country. Team members joined us and stuck around. This longevity plays a large role in our success. About 20% of team members – ranging from leadership to accounting and all roles in between – have been with AP in the North Texas market for more than 10 years. Of that 20%, one-third of them (30%) are part of the leadership team and 48% have a tenure of 15 years or more.
In an industry that typically sees a lot of employee turnover, this speaks volumes to the company culture; people want to stay here. Since starting the main office in Dallas 25 years ago, we added our San Antonio office in 2019, the Austin office in 2022 and will continue to see rapid growth in those markets based on the strong teams we have in place.
As we look to the future, we continue to pursue new opportunities while diversifying our project base. We aren’t risk-averse and seize opportunities in the market, which is always evolving.
To weather the economic headwinds, we work in more than half a dozen verticals regularly. We can do a smaller project – less than $1M – to projects that cost more than $300M. What sets us apart is that we are nimble, flexible and have a team with diverse experience. That allows us to stretch our wings into different project types.
We’ve done major corporate office campuses, facilities for municipalities, projects for higher education institutions, and our expansion efforts continue as we focus on mission critical (data centers) and multifamily. We see bright prospects there and anticipate 2025 will be our largest revenue year as we are currently working on some of the biggest projects in our 25-year history.
We have built our reputation over the years with great relationships and landmark projects. We’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with some truly outstanding clients—including Billingsley Company, KDC, Kaizen Development Partners, RTX (formally Raytheon Technologies), Acadia Healthcare, Corgan, BOKA Powell and many others. Our teams have built complex, high-profile projects like the PGA of America headquarters, NBCUniversal, Fox 4 Studios and Baylor Scott & White’s Sports and Orthopedic Center in Waco, Texas. We had a client this year tell us that “AP wasn’t just focused on winning our business; they were committed to winning our trust.” We couldn’t ask for a better endorsement than that. That comment exemplifies what we do every day on every project.
