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The Roundup with Scott

I hope everyone enjoyed the fireworks this past weekend and celebrated our great country. My family, especially my kids, love this time of year, with only minor complaints about the heat and bugs. I hope everyone took some quality time away from work.

We are entering the second half of the year, and we have some great results, news, and highlights to share. I am incredibly proud to see we made it through the end of June without a recordable or lost-time incident. Congrats, and great focus on safety and creating a culture of caring. 

The Texas Business Unit has also received a few recent project awards, and we are very excited to see them get started. Please see Mike Coleman's update below on our business development, strategic plan, and market diversity.

We have always focused on repeat clients, as you can see most recently from our projects getting started for San Antonio schools and HCA.  We are also excited to announce we are back working on the Exxon Mobile campus. The award stems from a long-term focus on a solid relationship led by Jim Springer and our outstanding past performance with this important client. We look forward to sharing more details as the design and work develops. 

Please check out some great progress photos of our projects and people announcements. It is always a great indicator of a business's health when we are hiring and adding talent to our San Antonio and Houston offices. We are building momentum and a roadmap for financial success in both markets. Please welcome our new team members. We also have a few retirements this year, so please reach out and help celebrate these great careers at Gilbane.

Finally, please look at our upcoming announcements for the Community Impact challenge.  We want to make a lasting impact and hope to see significant participation in Texas.

Service Anniversaries

MCDowell
Blair

Retirement Announcements

New Hires

Use side buttons to click through highlights. Swipe on mobile. 

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NH Crozier
NH Long
NH Pichardo
NH Valdez
NH Vanduren
NH Wilson

Transfers

Use side buttons to click through highlights. Swipe on mobile. 

T Knight
T Patel
T Santana

Past Events and Personal News

Project Updates

SAISD Sam Houston HS

On May 16, five hammers swung through the air to officially kick off the renovation of Sam Houston High School. Teachers, students, community members, and other stakeholders all came to the school to commemorate the start of a two-year project. Dr. Nakeshia Bibbs, principal, addressed the crowded to share her excitement about the coming changes and the positive impact it will have on the student body.

“I’m proud to stand here this morning to share the exciting milestone,” Dr. Bibbs said. “At Sam Houston, we’re eager to see the results of the Bond 2020 Program.”

Gilbane Building Company is working with KAI Architects to provide San Antonio Independent School District community with an updated Sam Houston High School. The school is receiving a series of renovations across the campus, as well as a multitude of additions. The project is part of a block of projects approved in the Bond 2020 Program, in which Gilbane also is renovating Graebner and Schenck Elementary Schools.

“It is a great day to be a Hurricane,” Dr. Sharene Dixon, Executive Principal at San Antonio Independent School District, said. “Our students deserve this. Our students deserve the excellence, we deserve to be able to compete with every other high school.”

The home of the Hurricanes has already begun to see changes. Demolition has started on the current auditorium, while crews are also adding new water lines and rerouting existing. The high school is slated to receive a new student entrance, with a concourse area and learning stairs. Extracurricular activities will receive a boost with a new black box theater, gallery area, competition gym, mat room, and weight room. The team is providing renovations to the auditorium, the dance studio, the PE gym, locker rooms, and training rooms.

“We are very excited about this,” Erik Chavez, Project Manager at Gilbane Building Company, said. “I’ve got the best team on this project. We are looking forward to completing it because it’s going to provide new opportunities to the students, not only for sportsmanship, but also for educational purposes.”

Sam Houston High School first opened in September 1923, but closed shortly after, due to low enrollments. Sam Houston High School opened again in 1942 and was relocated to the current campus in 1960. The school sits in the east side of San Antonio and served over 850 students in the 2022-2023 school year.

“The bond is changing the lives of the students on the East Side,” Dr. Dixon said. “Being able to invite people into our home and compete with everyone else is going to be amazing for them.”

https://www.gilbaneco.com/about/whats-new/news/gilbane-breaks-ground-at-sam-houston-high-school/

Project Photos

Hover over image to see the name of the project.

Business Development Update

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I hope everyone had a great first half of the year; I'm excited to share some news about our work here in Texas.

I recently attended the Annual Business Development Conference for Gilbane and had to present our market focuses and efforts. It was rewarding to step up and show Texas' balanced and strong portfolio to the company, as we are currently working in six different market sectors throughout the state. My presentation focused on re-iterating our diligent efforts in expanding our client base in the K-12, Healthcare, Higher Ed, and Corporate markets while also looking for opportunities to expand our recent experience in Aviation and Industrial work. We come into July in a powerful position within our current awarded work and backlog going into 2025 and 2026. We have already exceeded our business unit sales goal and are able to make stronger presell efforts to work further in the future that aligns with our market focuses.

Congratulations to our three projects, which are finalists for AGC's 2024 APEX Awards! The HCA Medical Center, Hines Global Headquarters, and The Ion/Ion Garage projects will be awarded Bronze, Silver, or Gold at the upcoming gala on September 27. We are excited to see their hard work and dedication to excellence recognized and to celebrate with them at the award ceremony.

Award packages and submittals are the cherry on top of a fantastic project. The opportunity to revisit these projects and highlight all the successful aspects is rewarding for the team and, certainly, the Texas Business Unit. Team members can explore the steps they took that led to a successful project and share them with future teams. The business unit also gets exposure among competitors, architects, and other industry members throughout the judging and award process and the opportunity to celebrate an award-winning project with potential clients and the general public.

I look forward to a solid second half of the year and continuing our momentum on the upcoming opportunities we are tracking for another award. Speaking of awards, check out the project award announcement below for a significant win for the Texas BU from a great doer-seller effort led by Jim Springer.

Project Award Announcements

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As part of continued partnership with this client over several decades, the Texas BU has negotiated a significant and complex project that will challenge all team members involved. This exciting opportunity will transform one of the many office buildings on the campus, which was constructed by Gilbane over a decade ago, into a new lab facility as part of the client’s consolidation of several other operations/locations in the US and Canada.

The project scope will include converting an existing 6-story office building into a new laboratory facility, creating new program and function spaces to support the client’s overall consolidation plan. Additional scope will include significant site development/support elements, renovations to the existing lab building constructed as part of the original campus, increases to chilled water capacity at the central utility plant, new site support areas to service the new laboratory facility, and the construction/relocation of existing library space to two separate office building also within the campus. The project is anticipated to extend into the first quarter of 2026.