COVER STORY, JULY 2005

A CONTRACT FOR SUCCESS
Profiling contractors and their work in the Southeast.
Dan Marcec

Southeast Real Estate Business recently spoke with several general contractors throughout the Southeast region, gathering information about their businesses and their work. These versatile contractors all are engaged in significant projects affecting the landscape of the commercial real estate industry.

VCC

Vratsinas Construction Company (VCC) was founded in 1986. The Little Rock, Arkansas-based contracting company also holds offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Newport Beach, California, spreading its wings nationwide. VCC constructs office, industrial, high-rise residential and hospitality developments, yet the company’s resume typically is weighted toward retail of all shapes and sizes: large mixed-use, lifestyle centers, mall renovations, power centers and big boxes.           

VCC has developed the new 369,000-square-foot IKEA at Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta; the Swedish furniture store opened on June 29.

Currently, VCC’s largest projects are taking place in Atlantic Station, the 138-acre mixed-use project located in Midtown Atlanta. The company is the overall construction manager for the entire project, developing the infrastructure, all the streets and doing site work. Since 1999, the company has been involved heavily with this project, which is owned by a partnership between Jacoby Development and AIG Global Real Estate.

Within the project, VCC developed the 369,000-square-foot IKEA store directly for IKEA, which opened on June 29. In addition, the company is underway on Atlantic Town Center, the mixed-use village component of Atlantic Station. That part of the development features roughly 340,000 square feet of residential space, translating to approximately 350 units. Atlantic Town Center is a unique mixed-use project because each building will have residential units above street-level retail, giving it a true village town center atmosphere.

The company also is involved in developing movie theaters. Working with Regal Entertainment, VCC is constructing the Regal Cinemas at Atlantic Station, and also it is building a theater directly in the backyard of Regal’s Knoxville, Tennessee, headquarters, as well as another in Salisbury, Maryland. Additionally, VCC develops for AMC Theaters, finishing an AMC last year at Discover Mills in the Atlanta area, and it has two under construction in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tysons Corner, Virginia.

On the horizon, VCC is constructing Prospect Park in Alpharetta, Georgia, for Thomas Enterprises. Zoning is approved for this large mixed-use project, and groundbreaking ideally will occur late this year or early in 2006. Prospective tenants are not yet announced, but they are being publicized as high-end retail. In addition, the company is in the planning stages for three other mixed-use projects similar to Atlantic Town Center and Prospect Park.

“Our company philosophy is that we have never wanted to be the biggest contractor; we just want to be the best,” adds Johnson.

Centurion Construction

Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Centurion Construction was founded in 1980. Boasting one satellite office in Morehead City, North Carolina, the company covers a wide array of project development: office, warehouse distribution, industrial and high-tech manufacturing, retail, public works, churches, multifamily, commercial, interior fit-up and historic renovations, bio-tech pharmaceutical and other special projects.

“Really what we do depends on the market,” explains Randy Bragg, vice president of pre-construction services in Centurion’s Raleigh office. “We truly are a general contractor, and if you look at our company’s history, most of what we’ve done is office, industrial and retail; but it’s not really a specialty, so to speak, it’s just where most of our work has gone.”

Part of the reason Centurion is so versatile, according to Bragg, is that it utilizes tilt-wall construction, something that not many companies in the area can do. Generally, this type of construction is used in warehouse development, but also it is useful for churches and office buildings.

The company usually is most comfortable with projects between $2 million and $7 million, but again, versatility is the key. “Any construction company has to work within its experience and its capabilities,” Bragg adds. “For us, we look at our current workload and our schedule, both in estimating as well as what we have going on in the field. We tend to stay within the Raleigh-Durham area, but we are willing to go to any market in which we’ll be competitive.”

Last year, Centurion completed several major projects. From its satellite office in Morehead City, it built Old Town Yacht Club, a seven-story, 42-unit condominium project. In addition, the company constructed an 11,000-square-foot project on Slater Road in Research Triangle Park for Coastal Federal Credit Union, and in Durham, North Carolina, Centurion finished work on New Horizon Church, a 40,000-square-foot worship facility.

Currently, the company has several projects underway, including a distribution center for Long Beverage, which is roughly 50 percent complete; expect delivery for this project by the end of the summer or early fall. Additionally, Centurion is undertaking several other projects: a manufacturing expansion for Cree, which is in a similar stage as the Long Beverage project; Pearson Elementary School in Durham, which currently is undergoing site work and scheduled for completion in fall 2006; Apex Community Center, which is waiting on a building permit and should be complete next spring; and Spooner’s Creek, a condominium project in Morehead City that should break ground in the fall and take about a year to build.

Summit Contractors, Inc.

At 8290 Gate Parkway West in Jacksonville, Florida, Summit Contractors currently is constructing the Gardens at Bridgehampton, a 14-building, 350-unit, 494,817-square-foot multifamily development.

“We’ve built an array of varied wood frame project designs around the country with fast-paced production in mind,” explains Matt Robinson, senior vice president, business development for Summit Contractors. “Because we understand and use only multi-residential production subs, we are able to deliver units to the owner in a timely fashion with great quality.”

Robinson continues, “For LIHTC projects, we have multiple funding sources and stringent reporting requirements, which demands a substantial working knowledge of the system along with a strong reputation of timely delivery among equity providers and construction lenders.”

Currently, Summit has several projects in Florida. At 8290 Gate Parkway West in Jacksonville, the company is underway on the Gardens at Bridgehampton, a 14-building, 350-unit, 494,817-square-foot multifamily development. Amenities include wood frame with stucco, a clubhouse, amenity center and a pool with spa. Jim Smith is the owner of the property, which is being developed by Crescent Resources. The project broke ground last June, and completion is scheduled for December.

“One interesting aspect of this project is that 90 living units are part of the clubhouse building,” says Robinson. “Being somewhat unique to the industry, this idea represents cutting-edge development practices now beginning to come into play in the multi-residential industry.”

Summit Contractors recently has completed Woodland Lakes in Orlando, Florida.

Summit has won various awards in the last several years: 2004 Builder Magazine and Multi Family Executive Magazine Builder of the Year; 2004 Jacksonville Business Journal Top 10 Revenue Growth; and several awards for excellence in safety and construction on various projects.

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