After more than twenty-one years at Ideal Contracting, I’ve had the privilege of watching the company evolve in extraordinary ways. When I started, I was the ninth employee at Ideal, a stark contrast to today, where new team members have four-digit numbers, and our staff has grown to nearly 200 full-time employees. It’s been a remarkable journey.
From becoming one of the country’s leading steel erectors to expanding our expertise through the Special Projects Group, Ideal Contracting has consistently evolved to meet client needs and industry demands. This is especially true for our Construction Group, which I oversee as Vice President.
Construction Group’s Role + Capabilities
Ideal Contracting’s Construction Group houses our company’s competitively bid general contracting projects. As one of Michigan’s largest general contractors, we provide a wide range of construction services and delivery methods, including Design-Build, Design-Bid-Build, and Construction Management at Risk. Our extensive self-perform capabilities, paired with a strong network of trade partners, allow us to execute our clients’ vision with superior craftsmanship and an unwavering commitment to safety.
Because the Construction Group oversees competitively bid GC projects, our team naturally has a lot of collaboration and engagement in the preconstruction process of our project opportunities. This is a key factor in our ability to build an open line of communication and transparency with our clients early on before we ever put a shovel in the ground. Our team focuses on addressing challenges that arise to help mitigate issues during construction while also providing solutions and value engineering alternatives that help align budget and schedule. These efforts aim to strengthen our relationships with clients and partners.
A Defining Moment
When I think about the Construction Group’s evolution over the years, I fall back to one of the key moments in our company’s historical timeline: The General Motors Global Tech Center Flood Restoration project. When natural disaster struck our partners at GM, they immediately engaged Ideal Contracting to mobilize and support the recovery and restoration efforts of their Global Tech Center campus. This project, albeit uniquely challenging and an enormous undertaking, was a catalyst to our Construction Group’s beginning. It not only advanced our self-perform construction capabilities but also demonstrated to our customers that we are an excellent strategic design-build contractor and partner. The GM GTC Flood Restoration project was a major turning point in our company’s history, particularly for the Construction Group, which enabled us to differentiate ourselves, innovate, and showcase our full range of capabilities. After that project, we began seeing more diverse opportunities and, as a result, began delivering on those opportunities, ultimately transforming our team as a top general contracting partner in the Southeast Michigan market.
Diversification + Opportunity
Another key driving factor in the Construction Group’s growth and development over the past decade has been the unwavering support from our leadership team to diversify and strategically take on opportunities with new clients. Ideal Contracting is a Detroit-based, family-owned MBE with deep roots in Southwest Detroit, and the way that our team operates is a direct reflection of our leadership and the culture that we have all worked so hard to build.
With much of the Construction Group’s projects being Automotive and Manufacturing focused, it required a unified commitment to branch out and seek different opportunities with new and existing partners, all while being strategic about it. This has expanded our company’s reach and really empowered us to shift our focus in different directions. Being able to diversify yourself and spread to new partners and clients, all while upholding the values and relationships you have, is not easy. However, it has resulted in numerous impactful and unique projects that we would not have been a part of without the support of our entire team. Being based in Detroit, we are now consistently seeing opportunities to build with and for our city, transforming the landmarks and structures around us and helping revive the Detroit that families will cherish for years to come. That’s impactful. That’s rewarding. That’s why we do it.
Our People
At the core of everything that we build together is our people. It’s them who power our industry-leading safety program, which has evolved immensely over the past five years. We’ve made a number of innovations and investments into our safety culture, including ANSI Class 2 fall protection, Type II hard hats, company-wide employee assistance programs, and so much more. We’ve really placed a focus on our leadership to drive the message home to our team, and it has resulted in our people embracing the culture and sustaining what we have all built with each other.
The Construction Group’s success is a direct result of our team’s dedication. Over the past decade, we’ve welcomed new faces—industry veterans and graduates of our Build U Internship Program alike. What’s most impactful is that when people join Ideal, they stay. They contribute. They grow. They are our future, and we work tirelessly to equip them with the tools and resources for a successful career.
I view each of our younger team members as individuals with great potential, and I’m committed to supporting their growth by helping them build confidence and develop professionally. If I had to sum up the Construction Group in one word, it would be “unstoppable.” We are resilient, adaptable, ambitious, strategic, and passionate, a thriving family committed to being our best every day.
Looking Ahead
The Construction Group’s story is one of resilience, innovation, and teamwork. We’ve grown from a small team to a powerhouse of talent, driven by a shared commitment to excellence in service and safety. As we look ahead, our focus remains clear: delivering exceptional projects, building lasting relationships, and shaping the future of construction in Detroit and beyond.
