Today the STO Building Group and RC Andersen Construction announced the two firms have joined ranks, making RC Andersen the newest member of the STO Building Group family of companies. The merger enhances the services and geographic reach both firms can offer clients in the growing industrial and distribution sector
“Joining the STO Building Group allows our clients to benefit from the added services we can offer them, anywhere across their geographic platform,” says Robert Andersen, founder and President of RC Andersen. “The merger also allows us to provide more opportunities for our employees, from the employee ownership program to the extended resources and other benefits of being part of a larger group of companies.”
Founded in 2006 and based in New Jersey, RC Andersen is a general contractor in the industrial sector that offers comprehensive construction management and project management for property owners, developers, and tenants. The company is focused on delivering high-quality projects as quickly as possible in a time when the demands of e-commerce have made it increasingly critical to generate warehouse distribution space and cold storage facilities expeditiously and efficiently. Some of the firm’s key clients include Prologis, Trammell Crow Company, Amazon, Hillwood, Bridge Development, Matrix Development, Clarion, and Bluewater Property Group.
“Our STO Building Group companies have been working across North America with clients in the booming industrial and distribution facility market, and we don’t see that slowing down anytime soon,” says Robert Mullen, STO Building Group CEO. “RC Andersen’s particular expertise will only enhance the specialized knowledge and experience we’re able to offer clients in this sector, as well as provide RC Andersen’s existing clients with extended services and geographic reach across our platform.”
Mullen tells BD+C that STO has known Andersen and his company for several years, “and have always admired their position in the market.” And thanks to the prominence of another STO-affiliated company, Layton Construction, “we have become increasingly involved in the distribution and warehouse market, where RC Andersen is already a known leader.” Utah-based Layton Construction merged with the organization in 2019.
STO Building Group’s family of companies model has helped the firm move up eight spots on ENR’s Top Contractors list—from #14 to #6—in just the last two years, while allowing each member company to maintain its name, reputation, and leadership structure. Seattle’s Abbott Construction merged with STO last year.
“Opportunities to merge with great companies like RC Andersen are the very reason we shifted our company structure to the STO Building Group platform,” says James Donaghy, STO Building Group executive chairman. “We value the reputation and heritage of the firms who merge with our organization, and each has kept its name as a way to honor that legacy. As we continue to grow, we want to respect that history, but also reflect the collective expertise our companies offer and allow our employees to benefit from the larger organization’s resources.”
RC Andersen will retain its name, logo, and cultural identity, and its current leaders will retain an ownership position in the organization and maintain their roles as the senior leadership team of the business. It is anticipated that new job opportunities will be created as a result of the merger to support the company’s projected growth for 2022 and beyond.
“This merger assures the future of RC Andersen and our employees for decades to come,” Bob Andersen tells BD+C. “We see this transition is an exciting next step in the evolution of our business.”
Editor's note: Some comments from Robert Andersen and Robert Mullen were added after this article was posted initially.
Related Stories
| Jan 19, 2011
New Fort Hood hospital will replace aging medical center
The Army Corps of Engineers selected London-based Balfour Beatty and St. Louis-based McCarthy to provide design-build services for the Fort Hood Replacement Hospital in Texas, a $503 million, 944,000-sf complex partially funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The firm plans to use BIM for the project, which will include outpatient clinics, an ambulance garage, a central utility plant, and three parking structures. Texas firms HKS Architects and Wingler & Sharp will participate as design partners. The project seeks LEED Gold.
| Jan 19, 2011
Museum design integrates Greek history and architecture
Construction is under way in Chicago on the National Hellenic Museum, the nation’s first museum devoted to Greek history and culture. RTKL designed the 40,000-sf limestone and glass building to include such historic references as the covered walkway of classical architecture and the natural wood accents of Byzantine monasteries. The museum will include a research library and oral history center, plus a 3,600-sf rooftop terrace featuring three gardens. The project seeks LEED Silver.
| Jan 19, 2011
Large-Scale Concrete Reconstruction Solid Thinking
Driven by both current economic conditions and sustainable building trends, Building Teams are looking more and more to retrofits and reconstruction as the most viable alternative to new construction. In that context, large-scale concrete restoration projects are playing an important role within this growing specialty.
| Jan 10, 2011
Michael J. Alter, president of The Alter Group: ‘There’s a significant pent-up demand for projects’
Michael J. Alter, president of The Alter Group, a national corporate real estate development firm headquartered in Skokie, Ill., on the growth of urban centers, project financing, and what clients are saying about sustainability.
| Jan 7, 2011
BIM on Target
By using BIM for the design of its new San Clemente, Calif., store, big-box retailer Target has been able to model the entire structural steel package, including joists, in 3D, chopping the timeline for shop drawings from as much as 10 weeks down to an ‘unheard of’ three-and-a-half weeks.
| Jan 7, 2011
How Building Teams Choose Roofing Systems
A roofing survey emailed to a representative sample of BD+C’s subscriber list revealed such key findings as: Respondents named metal (56%) and EPDM (50%) as the roofing systems they (or their firms) employed most in projects. Also, new construction and retrofits were fairly evenly split among respondents’ roofing-related projects over the last couple of years.
| Jan 7, 2011
Total construction to rise 5.1% in 2011
Total U.S. construction spending will increase 5.1% in 2011. The gain from the end of 2010 to the end of 2011 will be 10%. The biggest annual gain in 2011 will be 10% for new residential construction, far above the 2-3% gains in all other construction sectors.
| Jan 7, 2011
Mixed-Use on Steroids
Mixed-use development has been one of the few bright spots in real estate in the last few years. Successful mixed-use projects are almost always located in dense urban or suburban areas, usually close to public transportation. It’s a sign of the times that the residential component tends to be rental rather than for-sale.