Covering the Industry’s News
Texas Style
P.O. Box 791290 San Antonio, Texas 78279-1290
PRSRT. STD. U.S. POSTAGE PAID DALLAS, TX PERMIT #1451
Change Service Requested
San Antonio H Austin
Austin
CONSTRUCTION NEWS The Industry’s Newspaper
July 4th Independence Day
www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 24 H Number 7 H JULY 2022
40 years and going strong
Solutions and beyond
American Constructors leadership L-R: CEO Marty Burger, Founder and Chairman of the Board for American Constructors Foundation Bill Heine, COO Joe Charlton and CFO Joe Moore
L-R: Massey Brand, The Reynolds Co.; Andrew Gonzales, Alterman Electric; Richard Russell, Kris Mann, Billy Danford, The Reynolds Co., at Alterman Charity Clay Shoot
I
n 1982, Bill Heine formed American Constructors to perform work for Watson-Casey Companies, Austin’s premier developer of that time. Austin had a vision for a mid-rise, pedestrian-friendly downtown which eventually transformed to the high-rise downtown you see today. American Constructors built several buildings around the City Hall area. Heine recruited a handful of employees from former places he had worked who were experienced in high-rise concrete construction. American Constructor CEO, Marty Burger, was one of that group. “We came here from high-rise concrete construction marketplaces in Hawaii and California,” says Burger. “Concrete construction in those places back then was very expensive. When materials
O
n April Fool’s Day, Ralph Reinhardt and his wife were having dinner with some friends when one of them asked him how his day was going? When he answered, they thought he was joking. “I retired today, and they thought I was kidding,” says Reinhardt. “I said, I’m not kidding. I actually did retire today.” After 40-plus years, Reinhardt sold his share of Voelker Construction and retired. While it’s a little bitter-sweet, Reinhardt leaves with a lot of fond memories as he and his partner, Stan Voelker go back a long way. “I had known Stan for a number of years before we started the company,” he says. “His grandpa had a farm next door to my grandpa’s farm. My grandfather farmed his grandfather’s farm for several years until my grandpa retired. Stan’s grandpa would bring him out there in the summer and of course, I was there
and labor are expensive, innovation is at its peak. We brought a lot of innovative, creative ideas to the Austin market which was, at the time, inexpensive in Central Texas. Concrete, rebar, and labor was a lot less expensive in this part of the world. Bringing those innovative technologies, American Constructors quickly became known as kind of a concrete expert, whether it was low rise or high rise.” American Constructors’ innovative technologies include their slip form technology which allows for a continuous pour, sliding up the building very slowly. This technology was born in tall concrete towers such as nuclear power plant cooling towers. They also brought post tension flat plate, concrete slabs. “At that time in Texas, this technology was not continued on Page 14
T
he Reynolds Company was doing quite well prior to 2018, as attested to by Massey Brand, commercial sales manager for Central Texas. “We had done very, very well up to that point,” he said. But in 2018, a “fantastic opportunity” came along. “Over the course of time,” Brand explained, “you get to know people, especially when you know when you’re performing at the level that we were performing and growing the way we had grown since the mid ‘90s. You draw a lot of attention in the business. And that’s just kind of how it happened. It all started with a relationship and grew over time and a conversation began. Eventually the powers that be got everything worked out.” “Everything” turned out to be the merger of Reynolds with McNaught-
en-McKay Electric Company, whose primary focus is the automotive industry in states like Michigan, Ohio, the Carolinas and Georgia. Reynold’s focus has remained meeting the needs of companies with electrical supply in Texas and Louisiana. Brand’s area of responsibility is the I-35 corridor south of Temple down to Corpus Christi. He has two offices—Austin and San Antonio. He remembers the days back in the 1990s when there were actually gaps between Austin and Kyle and San Marcos and San Antonio. Reynolds has retained its original name as run by brothers Walter and Donald. One very positive result of the merger has been to make its employees owners as well, called ESOP: Employee Shared Ownership Program. continued on Page 14
Your someday is here…
Voelker Construction leadership L-R: Ralph Reinhardt, Stan Voelker, Steven Voelker and Melinda Fiebig
working with my grandpa. Then, I hadn’t seen him again for several years until he went to work at the National Guard, which just happen to be where I was.” After serving in the National Guard, the two decided to go into business together. According to Reinhardt, Voelker had a friend who was a welder and they both wanted to learn how to weld and that’s just what they did. Reinhardt and Voelker, returning the favor, helped this friend put up a building that required some welding. It was built from oil field pipe and sheet metal. After that, people started asking them to build similar buildings and Voelker Construction was born in 1978. “We quit a government job and went into the welding business,” says Reinhardt. “Both of our dads and grandfathers had taught us work ethic, and we had it. We were used to hard work and continued on Page 14