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San Antonio
CONSTRUCTION NEWS The Industry’s Newspaper
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www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 23 H Number 4 H APRIL 2020
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A diamond emerges
Not just beams & columns
Three generations embark on 60 years in business. L-R: Jed, Scott, Virgil, Sam and Shakotah Knowlton, and Regan Walker.
Metal Tech owners Mark and Teri LaCroix with their daughter, Raelyn.
ix decades have come and gone since Virgil Knowlton started VK Knowlton Paving Inc. Now known as VK Knowlton Construction & Utilities Inc., it is stronger than ever. “My grandfather started the company in 1960. It was started out of his mother’s garage with nothing more than a dump truck and a blade. I guess he didn’t want to go into the diary business, so he started doing construction work around the dairy farm and grainery,” says Vice President Jed Knowlton. During the ‘70s, after running the business on his own for several years, Virgil brought his two sons, Scott and Sam, into the company. By this time they were old enough to drive a truck and operate machines. By the mid-‘90s, Scott and Sam
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had taken over the company operations as Virgil decided to take a back seat and semi-retire. Two years ago, operations were turned over to the third generation. “We are on our third generation of Knowltons running the company,” adds Jed. “We couldn’t be more excited. To carry on what Pawpaw started is indescribable.“ As San Antonio continues to be one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, VK Knowlton is experiencing a tremendous amount of work. “We are 95% residential right now. It’s kind of like the late ‘90s and early 2000s. It’s nice to have a local economy that support the work we do which is great for us as we transition from the second generation to the third. continued on Page 18
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ark LaCroix got his start as a metal fabrication foreman making deer feeders. While he enjoyed his job and, most importantly, the people he worked for, LaCroix had other plans for himself. For years, LaCroix had hopes of going to work for City Public Service. When the opportunity finally came, he reluctantly left his job and the work he had grown to love. After a few years, he discovered that despite his perfect driving records and grade sheets, he couldn’t advance within and made the decision to leave. With the knowledge that his previous employer would have a spot for him if he had a change of plans, LaCroix went back to work fabricating deer feeders. Back to doing the type of work he enjoyed,
LaCroix found that things were no longer as they were before he had left and, once again, found himself at a crossroad. “I had always done metal work. I had done carports on the side trying to make extra money, but I never really thought of it as being a business,” says LaCroix. In 1996, LaCroix started Metal Tech in La Vernia, TX building fences, gates, car ports and large commercial metal buildings. “I told my wife I think I can do this. So I got enough equipment and started talking to people who gave me some jobs. I lined up enough work for about five months. I told my wife if I can’t get more work out there after five or six months, I don’t need to be doing this. continued on Page 18
Laying footprints companies into one and reincorporated it as MK Marlow Company. As a small company, they looked for jobs in markets where the competition was minimal. “We worked all over south Texas. When we first started out, we worked up and down the Texas border. We did a bunch of work in Corpus, Victoria, Brownsville, Laredo, Del Rio, Eagle Pass and all the little towns in between for years. Because we were in Victoria, we had to travel. That became our claim to fame…we were a traveling company,” remarks Marlow. “We still maintain that footprint. It’s always been good for us. We know the contractors in those areas. The problem is they are all getting old like me. My contacts are slowly either retiring or worse.” MK Marlow Company has since relocated their headquarters to San Antonio and has become a viable member of the San Antonio construction community. Now
o stranger to construction work, Mark Marlow had been in construction work of some sort or another his entire life. In 1985, he started performing construction services as a side job while in college. He was working on a double master’s degree in construction and needed to make some extra money. “I never intended to work for myself. I needed to make money, so I began doing little odds and ends for some of my professors. We did a television set for the local television station, a lease space in a mall, etc.” says Marlow. At the time, Marlow and a partner formed a company called Design Construct and moved the company to Victoria which is where Marlow is originally from. The company began to evolve as he picked up more work. As their work evolved, they formed another company called Acoustics Unlimited in the late ‘80s. In 1995, Marlow consolidated the MK Marlow leadership L-R: Todd Thomas and Chief Executive Officer Mark Marlow
continued on Page 18