EM Construction Company

By offering a one-stop shopping experience for its clients, EM Construction Company has become a premiere design-build leader serving northeast Ohio. For more than 18 years, EM Construction has provided an innovative combination of speed, cost efficiency, design-build concepts and complete customer satisfaction on construction and maintenance as well as special and small projects. Headquartered in Bath, Ohio, EM Construction primarily works in the industrial sector and occasionally travels outside of the state for repeat clients.

EM Construction was founded in 1997 by Charles Marshall. Before starting the company, Charles owned a contracting firm in South Carolina, which he grew into a 60-employee company over a span of eight years. After moving back to Ohio, Charles worked as a vice president of construction for a design-build firm where he was responsible for 1 million square feet of new industrial construction annually along with all of the infrastructure development for five major business parks. As vice president of EM Construction, Charles manages all construction operations.

Design-build creates single point of contact

EM Construction utilizes its unique Total Project approach to building. With design-build being the dominant method of nonresidential construction in the United States, EM Construction is recognized as a leader in the industry with single-point responsibility. Under a single contract the company both designs and constructs each facility for its clients. “Clients really appreciate the single-point aspect of communication and I think that’s one reason we get a lot of repeat business,” says Steve Marshall, chief estimator for EM Construction. “We value each client and every project and it shows in our record of having never missed a deadline schedule for a single project.”

EM Construction is able to save money for its clients by performing work up front such as evaluating land and providing pros and cons by looking at potential cost issues such as the availability of utilities. “As a design-build firm we give a complete bid for each project,” says Marshall. “We produce a complete number for the job that we never go over. It’s a guaranteed maximum price.”

With its wide range of industrial projects, EM Construction has received numerous recognitions for its work. The company recently won the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) Award for Industrial Mixed-Use Project for a job it completed for the Manitowoc Company. The client was looking to build a new office building for its headquarters but also wanted to incorporate a new test kitchen and loading dock for its products. “We designed a new loading dock connection wing, which placed the trucks out of sight behind the building,” says Marshall. “This wing also allowed the client to bring their ovens from the manufacturing floor into the new test kitchen for demonstrations.”

Currently EM Construction is involved in a project for Myers Industries Inc., which is a plastic manufacturing company located in Akron, Ohio. EM Construction is constructing a 125,000-square-foot warehouse for the client and production is scheduled to be completed by November 2015.

A relationship-based industry

As a general contracting firm, EM Construction provides project management services with a solid network of suppliers and subcontractors that the company has established over the years. Depending on the project, EM Construction selects a subcontractor that the company feels is right for that particular job. “We have people that we trust and work with often because they are great contractors,” Marshall explains. “We’re always looking for new people to build relationships as well.”

By paying its subcontractors on time within a 30-day pay scale, EM Construction is able to move each project along swiftly, which helps to meet the deadline of every job. “That’s one of our biggest things and one of the reasons we’ve never missed a deadline,” shares Marshall. “We don’t withhold anything and we pay as quickly as we can because we feel that is what moves a job along.”

By gauging customer satisfaction as the measurement of success on each job and being well-known by subcontractors as a great company to work with, EM Construction has built a reputation that allows much of its work to come to the company by word-of-mouth. “It’s all about our relationships within the market,” says Marshall. “We’re happy to be involved in the community. A lot of the people we work with are business owners so we do a lot of networking.”

Marshall sees continued steady growth for the company in the future. While maintaining its commercial and industrial niche in the market, the EM Construction team will look to expand in the retail sector in the coming years. With nearly 20 years in the market, EM Construction Company will remain a leader in the northeast Ohio construction industry.