On May 13, C.W. Driver, in partnership with Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, broke ground on the Kinesiology and Athletics Complex at Orange Coast College, a $36 million, 88,000-sf building within an Education sector that typically accounts for more than half of this Pasadena, Calif.-based general contractor’s annual revenue.
C.W. Driver, the oldest licensed builder headquartered in Southern California, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and is showing little sign of slowing down. The company, with seven offices and 365 employees across California, generates between $700 million and $850 million per year in revenue.
In a consolidating industry where firms are frenetically acquiring new practices and disciplines to stay competitive, C.W. Driver remains an anomaly: a GC that builds almost exclusively in one state. Its portfolio includes academic, entertainment and sports, retail, civic and cultural, office, commercial hospitality and gaming, healthcare, residential and senior living.
“It’s not that we haven’t tried in the past” to diversify, says Karl Kreutziger, the firm’s president, who spoke with BD+C last week. At one time, C.W. Driver was self-performing concrete and drywall. It also once had an international business in Singapore.
Kreutziger, who has been with the firm since 2011, attributes its longevity to sticking with its core competencies and focusing the bulk of its work in the Greater Los Angeles market. (Eighty percent of its revenue comes from repeat customers.)
The company also has management continuity, starting with its CEO Dana Roberts, who has been with C.W. Driver for 48 years. In the 1990s, Roberts brought in two partners: CFO Bessie Kouvara, who retired in 2017; and Executive Vice President John Janacek, who oversees estimating.
Karl Kreutziger, C.W.Driver's president since 2011, attributes his company's longevity, in part, to its careful selection of projects. Image: C.W. Driver
The company was founded in 1919 by John McDonald and Clarence Wike Driver, the latter of whom had been working for one of the oldest architectural firms in L.A. During its first decade in business, C.W. Driver worked mostly on smaller projects. Driver’s son, Douglas, led the company through its next era and was active until 1987, when he turned over the reins to Roberts.
At a time when recruiting and retaining talent are challenges for many AEC firms, C.W. Driver has been able to hold onto its employees in part by offering some of them ownership in the company. It currently has 25 owners. And over the past two years, says Kreutziger, “we’ve had some ‘boomerangs,’ people who had left the company and have returned.” The fact that it offers full health insurance to all of its employees doesn’t hurt, either.
Like other GCs, C.W. Driver must deal with labor shortages. Keeping its trades on board, says Kreutziger, starts with a focused business development strategy “that identifies the projects we can be successful doing.” That requires early involvement at the preconstruction level, and then “committing to our key trade partners,” he says.
To avoid commoditizing its services, C.W. Driver steers away from design-bid-build projects, which account for less than 2% of its annual revenue. And while it has done work in Nevada, C.W. Driver usually passes on projects outside of its primary markets because, explains Kreutziger, “we just can’t get the [subs] to go there.”
As it moves into its second century, C.W. Driver wants to continue to grow organically. Kreutziger says the firm has been spending more time lately on succession planning and employee training. It also wants to make sure it is ahead of emerging markets like modular and panelized construction.
The firm is open, albeit cautiously, to new ventures that include acquisition. In August 2013, C.W. Driver acquired Good & Roberts, a 34-year-old San Diego-based construction company, which helped to bolster a market where C.W. Driver had been growing since 2006.
C.W. Driver also operates Driver SPG, an internal group it formed in 2011 that specializes in tenant improvement projects ranging from $500,000 to $15 million. Driver SPG represents about $80 million of C.W. Driver’s annual revenue, and “there’s a lot of crossover clients,” says Kreutziger.
C.W. Driver is the oldest liscensed builder headquartered in Southern California, a state where the GC continues to do most of its work. Image: C.W. Driver
Related Stories
| Oct 13, 2010
Thought Leader
Sundra L. Ryce, President and CEO of SLR Contracting & Service Company, Buffalo, N.Y., talks about her firm’s success in new construction, renovation, CM, and design-build projects for the Navy, Air Force, and Buffalo Public Schools.
| Oct 13, 2010
Hospital tower gets modern makeover
The Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., expanded its D unit, a project that includes a 243,443-sf addition with a 12-room operating suite, a 36-bed intensive care unit, and an enlarged emergency department.
| Oct 13, 2010
Modern office design accentuates skyline views
Intercontinental|Exchange, a Chicago-based financial firm, hired design/engineering firm Epstein to create a modern, new 31st-floor headquarters.
| Oct 13, 2010
Hospital and clinic join for better patient care
Designed by HGA Architects and Engineers, the two-story Owatonna (Minn.) Hospital, owned by Allina Hospitals and Clinics, connects to a newly expanded clinic owned by Mayo Health System to create a single facility for inpatient and outpatient care.
| Oct 13, 2010
Biloxi’s convention center bigger, better after Katrina
The Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi is once again open for business following a renovation and expansion necessitated by Hurricane Katrina.
| Oct 13, 2010
Tower commemorates Lewis & Clark’s historic expedition
The $4.8 million Lewis and Clark Confluence Tower in Hartford, Ill., commemorates explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark at the point where their trek to the Pacific Ocean began—the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
| Oct 13, 2010
Maryland replacement hospital expands care, changes name
The new $120 million Meritus Regional Medical Center in Hagerstown, Md., has 267 beds, 17 operating rooms with high-resolution video screens, a special care level II nursery, and an emergency room with 53 treatment rooms, two trauma rooms, and two cardiac rooms.
| Oct 13, 2010
Campus building gives students a taste of the business world
William R. Hough Hall is the new home of the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The $17.6 million, 70,000-sf building gives students access to the latest technology, including a lab that simulates the stock exchange.
| Oct 13, 2010
Science building supports enrollment increases
The new Kluge-Moses Science Building at Piedmont Virginia Community College, in Charlottesville, is part of a campus update designed and managed by the Lukmire Partnership. The 34,000-sf building is designed to be both a focal point of the college and a recruitment mechanism to get more students enrolling in healthcare programs.
| Oct 13, 2010
Cancer hospital plans fifth treatment center
Construction is set to start in December on the new Cancer Treatment Centers of America’s $55 million hospital in Newnan, Ga. The 225,000-sf facility will have 25 universal inpatient beds, two linear accelerator vaults, an HDR/Brachy therapy vault, and a radiology and imaging unit.