C. R. Crawford Builds Efficient Company

The boys at C.R. Crawford Construction might like to “lay low,” but the company’s profile is getting undeniably higher.

Despite a modest dip in year-over-year revenue – $25.8 million in 2009 vs. $27 million in 2008 – C.R. Crawford ranks third among the commercial contractors that made figures available for this year’s Largest Contractors list. And there’s nothing to suggest C.R. Crawford will be leaving that upper echelon anytime soon.

“We’re comfortable operating where we are right now, but there’s no reason for us to resist growth opportunities,” said Cody Crawford, president of the Fayetteville company. “Where that ends, only time will tell.”

Nowadays, C.R. Crawford is keeping its 19 employees busy with a backlog of projects totaling about $21 million. Of those projects, Stepping Stone in Alma is perhaps the shiniest.

Stepping Stone is a comprehensive service provider to people with developmental disabilities and their families. It includes a therapeutic preschool, an adult development center, and an assisted-living center.

C.R. Crawford currently is constructing a new facility with a price tag of about $9.5 million.

“That is a signature project for us,” Crawford said.

Before one can truly appreciate C.R. Crawford’s current successes, it pays to revisit the company’s roots. It was started in February 2006 by Crawford, now 31, with the help of Mike Forbis, who owns F & F Construction in Memphis.

Crawford met Forbis while working for the Little Rock-based entity formerly known as Bell-Corley Construction Co. Crawford was working for Bell-Corley’s Northwest Arkansas division when he reunited with Jason Keathley.

The two previously had earned degrees in construction management at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, and Keathley actually tried to recruit Crawford early in their professional careers. Eventually, it was Crawford who convinced Keathley to join him at Bell-Corley.

“From that, this all started,” Keathley said with a smile.

More specifically, the two began to have conversations that frequently ended in the same manner.

“Hey, we can go out on our own and do it better. Let’s do our own thing,” Keathley, 37, remembered.

Thus armed with solid backing and the confidence to match a peaking period of development in Northwest Arkansas, Crawford opened shop with Keathley as a partner.

“Our immediate goals were just to get out there and get some repeat clients,” Crawford said. “I think most contractors have that goal, and we wanted to develop some relationships, to where we could rely on a handful of clients to keep us busy.”

 

The Early Days           

It didn’t take Crawford long to find such a partnership. His first big break came in the form of a handful of Furniture Row projects. Crawford remembered that period as “a fun run,” and the company did about $12 or $13 million despite the late start in 2006.

Another relationship that’s proven profitable for C.R. Crawford has been the one with BancorpSouth Bank. C.R. Crawford has built or renovated more than 10 BancorpSouth properties, including a one-story, 3,500-SF prototype in Little Rock and a two-story, 9,000-SF prototype in Rogers.

“Their project managers and superintendents are very knowledgeable and do exceptional work,” said Carol Drake, construction manager for DWC and Associates.

DWC and Associates, a full-service architecture, planning and interior design firm in Tupelo, Miss., also worked with C.R. Crawford on the Hamilton Math and Science Complex for Rust College in Holly Springs, Miss. Drake said the three-story masonry/structural steel facility included a state-of-the-art animal laboratory, as well as chemistry and physics labs.

“They made sure everything was carried out to our plans and specifications,” Drake said. “We look forward to working with them again in the future.”

Drake wasn’t alone in her relatively effusive praise of C.R. Crawford. Scott McLain is a partner and chief development officer for Drive Clean, which operates a string of more than 20 Boomerang Carwashes in six states.

And while C.R. Crawford hasn’t won every bid with Drive Clean, it has built four properties in Northwest Arkansas over the last two years and currently is working on another in Texarkana. McLain said C.R. Crawford has a proven ability to produce quality work while staying on schedule.

McLain said Boomerang Carwashes are designed to be completed in four months, and pointed to the Springdale location – done in 92 days – as an example of C.R. Crawford’s efficiency. What McLain seemed to like more is C.R. Crawford’s ability to stay on track even when faced with hurdles.

“With any construction company, you’re going to have unknown issues that you find during the process. … The thing I like about C.R. Crawford is their no-nonsense approach to those problems,” McLain said.

“They don’t try to gouge you. They try to work with you to get through the problem.”

Other high-profile C.R. Crawford clients include Walmart, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and Darden Restaurants Inc. The latter includes eateries such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden, and touts itself as the world’s largest company-owned and operated restaurant company with more than $7 billion in annual sales.

C.R. Crawford has built multiple Darden restaurants, including a one-of-a-kind Olive Garden in Jonesboro. The property is the world’s first LEED-certified casual dining chain restaurant.

And while Crawford is proud of such achievements, as well as a portfolio packed with projects from practically every sector imaginable, he expressed his sentiments in a humble sort of way. The same is true when he talked about the range in construction of his projects, whether they be tilt wall or engineered buildings, structural steel or wood frames.

“We feel we’re well-rounded and diversified,” Crawford said.

That approach appears to appeal to C.R. Crawford’s employees as much as its clients.

“These guys are very straightforward, very honest,” Scott Stokenbury said of Crawford and Keathley, as well as Forbis, who remains a partner. “When they tell you something, it’s black-and-white.”

Stokenbury, 43, is a partner, too, in charge of business development. It’s not just the partners, though, that offered endorsements.

Josh Tuberville and Dave Kennedy lead the company’s project management efforts, and both have worked in the construction industry for 10-plus years.

While Kennedy said he likes working for a company based on teamwork, he also appreciates its intense focus.

“These are goal-oriented people,” he said.

Tuberville agreed, but added those goals don’t come at the risk of short-changing clients. Tuberville said C.R. Crawford never assumes what worked for one client will work for the next.

“They don’t get the same treatment,” he said. “They get what they need.”

 

Convincing Witness

Of all those who had good things to say about C.R. Crawford, none was more convicted than Toni Wilson, executive director of Stepping Stone. The facility is her lifework and C.R. Crawford made it clear from the get-go it understood her feelings.

“We could tell by the detailed proposal they submitted that they had already spent a lot of time studying our project,” Wilson said. “The other companies just didn’t have that kind of detail.

“Their whole team became invested in what we’re doing here.”

Wilson said that notion has been reinforced many times. She said C.R. Crawford reps, for example, have sat through at least a dozen three- and four-hour meetings that dealt with playground and kitchen equipment, not exactly the first things that come to mind in a construction project.

Wilson also has been impressed with the monthly updates C.R. Crawford provides board members

“This is a $14 million project and we have to satisfy our financial stream,” Wilson said. “We have to be accountable to them and Crawford Construction helps us do that.

“In everything they do, they act like their reputation is on the line, and it certainly is.”

That reputation, with projects stretching from South Dakota to Florida, is growing. Crawford is no doubt pleased, but hardly content. He’d like to see more growth in local projects, but not at the cost of a quality finished project.

“We’ve never really been volume-driven,” Crawford said. “A lot of contractors will gauge a lot of their success by their volume, but I guess we’re bottom line-kind of guys.

“We try to operate an efficient company where everybody wears a lot of hats.”

The result, increasingly, is C.R. Crawford – like it or not – is emitting a bigger blip on the construction industry’s radar.