RK Mechanical Selected As Colorado Specialty Contractor of the Year

And just last month, RK established its MCS Group, which will focus on a new market for the contractor in 2012—oil and gas. This wholly owned subsidiary will be a turnkey, single-source solutions provider to the global oil and gas industry, Paolicelli says.

Meanwhile, RK's service group provides warranty and maintenance on contracts for projects it builds and also has its own service customers. This group plans to double its 50 service personnel over the next three years.

Partnerships

Mike Harms, a vice president with Denver's GE Johnson Construction Co., and one of RK's general contractor clients, appreciates the firm's approach to business because it acts as a partner, not just a vendor.

"We focus on bringing value to a project," says Jon Kinning. "We take [the client's] priorities and make them our priorities."

Rick Kinning says repeat business, due in large part to this partnering attitude, has helped the company grow.

Earlier this year, RK wrapped up a two-and-a half-year, $58-million mechanical project for GE Johnson at the new St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colo. At the time it was bid, it was the single largest project in RK's history and helped the contractor break into the health-care market at a much more significant level.

"There are less than a handful of local contractors capable of doing a project like this," Harms says. "RK's use of technology and prefabrication sets them apart and allows them to be cost competitive, more schedule certain and bring a high level of quality to the project."

RK is currently working with GE Johnson on phase two of an $18-million mechanical project for the Castle Rock Adventist Health Campus. The $2.6-million phase one was completed in September.

RK is also constructing a 297,000-sq-ft, LEED-Gold project with Denver's Whiting-Turner Construction Co. for the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder. Two-thirds of the building comprises mechanical support for the clean rooms and instrumentation labs. The $37-million mechanical project will be completed in March.

RK recently completed a federal project for Parsons Brinkerhoff (now Balfour Beatty) in Taiwan and is pursuing work at the U.S. Embassy in London, as well as other international and federal projects. In 2008 RK completed construction of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin with Greeley-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co.

"If we're in, we're in," Rick Kinning says. "We aren't apathetic about anything."

Recent RK Mechanical Projects

Jennifer Seward is editor of ENR Mountain States, which covers Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Utah, Idaho and Montana. She has more than two decades of experience writing for the AEC industry and reports from Denver.