Building Community loyd builder s
From hospitals to schools and beyond, Loyd Builders has been spending the past half century building their community. Their actual buildings are only a small part of their incredible success.
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From hospitals, schools and beyond — the past half century, Loyd Builders has been building their community. Their actual buildings, are only a fraction of their incredible success. Story by Joel Cornell NCCC images by Ben Smith, Watercolor renderings by Bill McBride, Ransom Memorial Hospital Images courtesy of Health Facilities Group
midwest | general contracting
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he approach Loyd Builders takes to each project is uniquely summed up in one word, "flexibility.” “For us, flexibility means not specializing in one sector,” said firm President, Josh Walker. “Our concentration is on client service, regardless of the type of building. In these last few years that’s what has allowed us to see growth, while some sectors have dwindled, others have fared better. We’ve been able to work in multiple sectors and weather the storm so far.” Founded in 1959, as Loyd Construction by industry veteran Allen Loyd, the firm first struck out as a small but quality home builder. With real, but moderate success throughout the 1960s, Loyd Construction eventually ventured into several commercial sectors and incorporated as Loyd Builders, Inc. Throughout their 52 year history, the firm has always remained relatively localized. Based out of Kansas City suburb, Ottawa, Kan., a large majority of the firm’s projects dot the Kansas landscape from east to west. 2 Construction Leaders Today
Upon Loyd’s retirement in 1988, longtime Loyd Builders employees, Sonny Burch and Jerry Thompson took over the business and expanded its reach across Kansas. When Walker first joined Loyd Builders as Vice President in 2007, the firm’s annual revenue stood at approximately $4 million. However, over the last 4 years, the firm’s revenue has grown to over $14 million annually. Walker’s own first experience with Loyd Builders came at an early age, as his father has worked for the firm as a superintendent for over 30 years. Walker would come in as a teenager to sweep the floors and pick up debris on job sites. Soon, however, he left to pursue a degree in construction engineering at Pittsburg State University, followed by a successful career with another construction management firm in the region. “Though we’ve done some work as a general contractor, the majority of our projects see us work in construction management and design/ build capacities,” Walker said. “Every firm out there probably says they focus
on customer service, but we make it our goal above everything else. We ask each client to let us know if we have indeed fulfilled our promise of quality customer service and every time our clients tell us that we have achieved that, and then some. “We understand that even if we’ve built 50 schools of a certain type in a certain area before, we haven’t built this particular client’s school and their needs may be different than our other clients. Similarly, we know when we go to compete with other firms, there will be others out there that are bigger than us. So, the more we can cater and tailor our services to each individual client, the better off we’ll be.” Under construction in Loyd Builders’ hometown of Ottawa, stands Ransom Memorial Hospital. Broken down into several phases, Loyd Builders’ first mission was to build from the ground up a new 16,000 sq. ft. addition would relocate the existing surgery and maternity wings. The first floor of this new addition houses an entirely new surgical suite with four state of the art oper-
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ating rooms. The second floor houses a new maternity/delivery wing with six cutting-edge patient rooms. The subsequent phases of the project consist of renovating 20,000 sq. ft. of the existing hospital. These phases provide a brand new six-bed surgery recovery area, a new intensive care unit, renovated nursing stations and break rooms, and a total renovation of all patient rooms — which includes the transformation of all double bed rooms into singles. “I think anyone who’s worked on a hospital before, would tell you that you’re facing a serious challenge with the extent of the renovations that we’re undertaking,” Walker said. “Everything we do is predicated on making sure the hospital can function every day. The addition required relocating several of the main utility services to the hospital. It was also directly adjacent to the existing operating rooms and the emergency room. "Vibration, noise, dust, traffic flow, and pub-
lic safety was all a concern. Inside — all those concerns get ramped up a few notches. Having good lines of communication with hospital staff is foremost in making sure we do whatever we can so they can focus on patient care.” Nearby, Loyd Builders recently completed a new 52,000 sq. ft. campus for Neosho County Community College. Because of the school’s funding requirements, the project was on an extremely aggressive schedule. The site chosen didn’t make things any easier. One half of the building footprint was an 80-yearold landfill, which required soil stabilization. The other half of the footprint was deep, ground level, solid rock, which required some severe soil destabilization which came in the form of an extensive blasting process. Acting as design/builders, Loyd Builders was selected for the job March 2010, finished the designs and broke ground June 2010, before moving their client into the space, March 2011. NCCC utilized the firm’s broad swath of
experience across many industries and building types. With an extensive nursing program, the college needed a simulated hospital to serve the nine different healthcare programs they offer. The firm and its design partners successfully found a way to properly orient each component of the hospital so multiple programs could use the same area, saving the college space and money. As a part of their community, Loyd Builders has spent over half a century ensuring a proper attention to detail. This focus has allowed the firm to have a hand in the development of their own neighborhoods, all while demonstrating this same dedication in their approach to each client. “We keep hearing from our clients that we do succeed in reaching our goal of customer service,” Walker said. “In the end, our client is really all we have. How we go about satisfying our clients has helped to define us over the past 50 plus years. "I don't see that changing.” clt Spring 2012 3