CEO Derek Wright likes to tell people that his firm, Suntec Concrete, is really in the “people business,” frequently following that up with “and, oh, by the way, we also pour concrete.”

Earlier this year, for instance, in formally announcing to employees the company’s establishment of an employee stock ownership plan—making Suntec 100% employee-owned—the CEO used those words again, telling them that “Suntec is committed to growing and developing people, and it’s about changing lives; and by the way, we pour concrete.”

More recently, talking to ENR, Wright says that “the ESOP, for us, was really a culmination of an expansion of that culture and a culmination of what’s next for us ... because culturally we already were [employee-owned].”

Of course, pouring concrete is much more than a side hustle for Suntec. According to Engineering News-Record’s most recent Top 600 Specialty Contractors ranking, Suntec was ranked No. 5 nationally among concrete firms—and 46th among all specialty firms—with $736.8 million in 2022 revenue, a 25% gain over its 2021 total.

Growth galloped along in 2023, too, with the Phoenix-based firm reporting $765 million—marking a 37% year-over-year jump in revenue from projects located within the Southwest region of Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. That total was more than sufficient for Suntec Concrete to “three-peat” in the No. 1 spot on ENR Southwest’s 2024 Top Specialty Contractors list.

When asked to explain how the concrete contractor has been able to continue to deliver such a volume of work in the face of ongoing workforce challenges, Wright points squarely to the company’s workers as the cause of its success.

General contractors offered consistent praise for the quality and efficiency delivered by Suntec’s project crews.
Photo courtesy Suntec Concrete

“It’s a testament to the culture of the company and ... the long-term, proven employees with extensive experience that you know represent us well in both culture and the quality of what we want to put out there for our clients [in terms of] creating predictable results,” he tells ENR.

Wright also credits the company’s structure of tradesmen broken up into “six distinct divisions with distinct leadership ... [that] allows us to really make a definable impact on a job.”

Importantly, he adds, when “you put leadership with the tradesmen to give them the skill sets that they need to be successful, they have a vision of their future that is completely different than just ‘I have a job.’”

With its cohesive, well-trained and experienced teams in place, Wright says, Suntec is able to provide general contractors and project owners with a heightened degree of predictability and cost certainty early in the project.

“The biggest influence we can have is early on to help ensure that the design is right,” he says. “That transparency gives the development teams confidence to move forward.”

Derek Wright, entering his 35th year with the 40-year-old firm, announces to employees the establishment of Suntec's employee stock-ownership plan.
Photo courtesy Suntec Concrete

Proven Partner

Three general contractors with long histories of regularly utilizing Suntec on their major projects vouch for the concrete firm’s ability to not only be an early project influencer, but also to deliver on the assessments it delivers well before any groundbreaking.

Layton Construction’s Phoenix-based Arizona division—which was ranked No. 1 on ENR Southwest’s 2024 Top Contractors list with nearly $1.3 billion in 2023 regional revenue—boasts a roughly 20-year relationship with Suntec. That’s for good reason, says Andrew Geier, executive vice president.

“You can’t miss” by hiring Suntec, he says. On two major projects currently progressing in downtown Phoenix, for example, Suntec is “solely responsible for the pace of the project,” and that’s a good thing, he says.

There in Phoenix, Layton is concurrently delivering two separate high-rise developments—the $245-million, two-tower Central Transit Station Redevelopment, and the $290-million, 29-story Sol Modern—just blocks apart from each other.

On both projects, “We’ve had Suntec deliver exceptional results,” Geier says. “The quality of work and the speed and efficiency with which they performed really set the pace for two very successful projects for us that are very high-profile.”

In each case, Suntec crews “are racing up the building, and our other trade partners are doing everything they can to keep up with the pace,” adds Geier.

James Murphy, CEO of Willmeng Construction, Phoenix, is another admirer of what Suntec brings to its projects, crediting the concrete contractor’s cohesive “one-team” approach to work.

“There’s one Suntec, and in the end, they’re all [working on] strategy and then they’re all working on execution,” Murphy says. He describes Suntec’s project teams as tight-knit and deeply experienced across the entire group.

“Leadership is staying engaged in execution and not allowing there to be this disconnect between the office and the field,” Murphy continues. “It’s the trapdoor of the industry.”

Effusive with praise, Murphy adds, “Their culture is a culture of learning—of let’s learn, let’s improve and let’s bring it to the next job, and it’s very palpable in their delivery method.”

Summing up, Murphy adds, “From the strategy of the job through execution of the strategy, their leaders have dirt on their boots. If you hang out with Derek, his phone’s going off with the pour schedules,” even if that pour is set for 3 a.m.

Describing Suntec in similar terms is Rusty Martin, general manager for Graycor’s Southwest division in Phoenix, attesting that the concrete contractor has been a “great trade partner for us.”

While noting that he’s personally worked with Suntec for 27 years, Martin tells ENR, “They’re always a team player, they’re always looking for solutions, they always perform well and the quality’s great. That’s everything we could ask for in a subcontractor, and we consistently get it from them. And they’re a great group of people.”

Suntec also erects a considerable amount of tilt-up concrete panels.
Photo courtesy Suntec Concrete

Differentiators

Suntec’s official transformation into an ESOP company, announced at a gathering this past March, was a major development for the firm that already prides itself on its overall employee benefits.

According to the contractor—with approximately 2,000 employees spread across the states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and Utah—the move makes Suntec Concrete one of the 10 largest construction companies in the country to be employee-owned, and the second-largest overall in the state of Arizona.

In its release announcing the ESOP, the company called it “another way Suntec continues to enhance the already industry-leading benefits and ensures the company leadership structure will remain the same, as will bonus programs, health insurance and 401(k) plans.”

Another differentiator that Suntec believes to be unique within the industry was its establishment in October 2023 of a stand-alone enterprise providing structural engineering services, both to Suntec and to general contractors and project developers as well. Leading the business as director of engineering services is Valerie Granger, a 19-year P.E. and S.E. who joined Suntec in 2023.

This new group provides structural engineering for any type of project, from the earliest stages, regardless of whether Suntec is involved yet, with no condition that the concrete firm be enlisted in the future. Granger humorously noted to ENR that one of the group’s recent efforts literally came in as a napkin sketch consisting entirely of a site’s size and the need for a 300-car parking garage.

“We can provide a whole structural design that would be comparable to any other structural engineering firm,” Granger says. She notes that the group has the added benefit of being able to consult with Suntec staff to best understand cost drivers so that “we can understand what moves the numbers. That’s a lot of the value that we can bring early on.”

Both Granger and other Suntec leaders believe this unit to be a unique arrangement for a concrete firm.

Suntec crews at work on an early-morning concrete placement at the Central Station project in downtown Phoenix.
Photo courtesy Suntec Concrete

Helping Employees Become ‘Heroes’

Wright says providing a culture that helps employees feel like working for the concrete company is more than just having a job requires more than just attention to the day-to-day.

“How do we make them feel like heroes in their home and in their community?” Wright asks rhetorically. “If we can do that, we’re going to win on the job.”

Suntec’s Heroes in Hardhats program has helped the firm do just that, he says. The largest program under that umbrella is its Teacher Appreciation program, which involves employees going to schools, finding out from their children’s teachers what’s needed in the classroom, and then personally delivering the items to their student’s classroom.

In 2023, Suntec selected 73 teachers for its appreciation program and distributed more than $300,000 worth of teaching supplies that ultimately benefited an estimated 2,500 students, according to the firm.

“Getting them involved in their kids’ education and delivering that to the classroom makes an impact in their community,” Wright says. “It is a priceless image to be able to see a son or daughter looking at their parent who’s making a difference in their classroom, in their school and in front of their community and classroom peers. It is amazingly impactful.”

For these reasons and more, ENR Southwest recognizes Suntec Concrete as its 2024 Southwest Specialty Contractor of the Year.