6 minute read
More Than Just Construction
Shawnee company focuses on serving others in the community.
Story by Beth Kornegay
Photographs by Kevin Anderson
Few companies survive and thrive for more than 100 years, but Shawnee’s Straub Construction is one of those fortunate companies. Founded in 1920 by Ernest J. Straub Sr., the company began building and developing homes in the Mission Hills area of Kansas City as well as some general contracting for local schools and churches around the Kansas City area.
Now helmed by the third generation of the Straub family, the business is currently owned and run by chairman and chief executive officer Ernie Straub III; president Parker Young; and executive vice president of operations Dan VanDonge. Ernie Straub has three sons who are also involved in the family business, carrying on Straub Sr.’s legacy of developing Kansas City communities through structures that serve others.
In the years leading up to the company’s 100th anniversary in 2020, a series of strategic planning sessions were held to help establish the identity of the company moving into the next 100 years. Among those items identified were committing to redeveloping Kansas City’s urban core, including quality housing for low-income families. Since the 1970s, Straub Construction has built or renovated thousands of Kansas City area housing units.
“Our goal was to maintain our foundation and guiding principles while adapting to the current marketplace. Through conversations and interviews with our current staff, clients, and business partners, the answer was simple. We build structures that serve others, where communities work, learn, pray, heal, and live,” says Ernie Straub III.
Notable projects within Shawnee include the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Shawanoe Elementary School, Westmor Industries, Shawnee Community Services, and Town & Country Villas, as well as its own headquarters building. Every project is custom, and every project is unique.
Family and Giving Back
While the company currently employs just over 50 people, it’s looking to increase that number by finding high-quality talent for a variety of positions. Those positions will be leveraged for upcoming projects, including construction of a new library at Benedictine College in Atchison, and projects funded by a recent Blue Valley 2023 Bond issue.
Straub also says that Straub Construction creates a family atmosphere for its employees because family is the backbone of the company. A yearly summer picnic for families is held at the Knights of Columbus Park in Shawnee. Those picnics feature traditional cookout cuisine with an ice cream truck always making an appearance. Another company tradition is the annual Labor Day Cookout, Christmas Party, and Reuben Sandwich Day, which always lands around St. Patrick’s Day. Each Friday at 4 p.m., employees gather in the kitchen for a social hour.
In addition to its construction projects throughout the metropolitan area, Straub Construction and the Straub family have a long history of supporting organizations that serve, educate, and care for others. Outside of the Shawnee area, Straub is also leaving its footprint renovating a 100-plus-year-old building in Kansas City, Missouri, for Reconciliation Services, which also includes Thelma’s Kitchen, a donate-what-you-can café whose proceeds benefit services to support Kansas City’s urban core. Straub is also constructing a psychiatric residential treatment facility in Paola, affordable housing on a health center campus in downtown Kansas City, and the Monastery of St. Joseph in Ava, Missouri.
“More than 50% of the construction projects we do are to serve nonprofit organizations, and every year we support more than 15 organizations. Straub Week of Giving is an annual tradition that takes place the week before Thanksgiving, including Saturday packaging Thanksgiving meals for Shawnee Community Services. Thanks to the leaders of SCS and the generosity of so many individuals and organizations in the community, we’ve helped distribute as many as 350 meals in a single day,” says Parker Young.
Over the years, Straub Construction has supported more than 50 charities by providing materials as well as project managers, superintendents, and laborers to charitable organizations throughout Kansas City. Employees also volunteer to renovate houses, make presentations to student groups, raise funds for special causes, work at food pantries, and remain active within their own community churches, schools, and other civic organizations.
Finding a Home in Shawnee
In 1987, Ernie Straub III chose to call Shawnee home and raise his family here based on the quality of life. In the spirit of providing a family atmosphere to all employees of Straub Construction,
in 1998, he and his father decided to build an office that would also be surrounded by the wonderful community, including its hometown feel. Straub purchased its current property in 2002; employees and management celebrated with a company cookout on the vacant ground. Four years later, the company moved into the building that now serves as the company’s headquarters.
Dan VanDonge says Straub Construction’s focus to serve purpose-driven clients is unique in the industry, and the company’s success is achieved only through its employees, whose high character and technical expertise allow them to treat others the way they would like to be treated themselves.
“Our employees live by the motto that it is never wrong to do the right thing. We are focused on a mission and purposedriven clients that strengthen and serve the community. We believe in what we build,” VanDonge says.
Straub Facts
• Straub Construction is located at 7775 Meadow View Drive in Shawnee.
• Founded in 1920 by Ernest J. Straub Sr.
• Currently in its third generation of Straub family ownership and leadership.
• Employs more than 50 people in jobs including project managers, superintendents, engineers, laborers, carpenters, controllers, marketing personnel, and accounting personnel.
• Straub’s annual week of giving offers employees an opportunity to give back to the community through volunteer work.
• Call 913-451-8828 or visit the website at www.straubconstruction.com.
