Executive Profile

Ramblin’ Wreck man

Stevens-Leinweber Construction’s Jamie Godwin is proud of his Georgia Tech roots and his company’s 40-year history

By MICHAEL GOSSIE

Jamie Godwin, president and CEO of Stevens-Leinweber Construction, is an Arizona construction veteran with more than 23 years of commercial construction experience in the Valley of the Sun.

About Godwin: Prior to joining Stevens-Leinweber in 2014, Godwin held leadership positions with a large commercial developer, and was co-founder of a commercial general contracting and construction management firm. In his current role, he is focused on strategic planning for Stevens-Leinweber’s continued diversification from a tenant improvement general contractor to a full service commercial contractor with design-build capabilities. His experience includes both speculative development and build-to-suit construction of low, medium and high rise office buildings, distribution facilities, retail centers, institutional facilities, multifamily complexes and tenant improvements.

About the company: StevensLeinweber Construction (SLC), which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is one of the Valley’s most active tenant improvement contractors, providing general contracting, construction management and consulting, and select ground-up development to fill a growing need among SLC clients. Respected by architects, designers, owners and developers, the company is selected time and again to complete some of the Valley’s most prominent projects. Over its 40-year history, SLC has completed more than 8,000 projects, dominating Phoenix’s business core with more than 1,800 projects completed in 82 percent of the Downtown, Midtown and Biltmore submarkets.

Community impact: Godwin is active in a wide variety of associations, including NAIOP and SIOR. He is a LEED AP and holds commercial general contractor qualifying party status in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada.

Personal strengths: “Honesty, integrity, and the ability to remain level headed (for the most part) during times of stress or conflict,” Godwin says.

Professional advice: “Place an emphasis on building personal communication skills and inperson interactions,” Godwin says. “Our dependence on technology for instant communication has created a workplace that lacks the ability to effectively communicate, problem solve and create lasting business relationships.” Prized possession: “My degree from Georgia Tech,” Godwin says. “The knowledge gained and effort taken while at Tech carries a sense of achievement I will always have with me.”

Outlook for 2021: “All sides of our business are operating extremely well, which we are grateful for in light of the pandemic. We continue to see significant deal flow in our industrial ground-up business, which had a solid backlog as we entered 2021 and has new opportunities that we believe we will maintain for the rest of this year and into 2022. Since January 1, we’ve seen a measurable increase in tenant improvement opportunities as well. There continues to be a large number of smaller-sized deals, including speculative suites, but we are also seeing larger deals surface, which is encouraging. As we celebrate our 40th anniversary, we’ve renewed our focus on our core business lines, our commitment to best-in-class client experiences and on delivering projects that adhere to our quality standards for design through construction and occupancy. With our activity as it stands, we expect 2021 to be a recordsetting year for SLC.”