Oakridge Takes Parent?s Name

Flintco Inc. has had an office in the Northwest Arkansas market since 1992. But until recently, it was known as Oakridge Builders Inc., a subsidiary of The Flintco Cos. of Tulsa.

The Springdale hard-bid arm of the $570 million construction corporation now seeks to more closely align its image with its flagship.

“We are doing away with that name,” said Darrel Harris, Flintco’s area manager. “Oakridge functioned as a smaller hard-bid contractor, and Flintco is a negotiated full-service general contractor and construction management firm.”

Oakridge has built more than 1 million SF of commercial buildings in Northwest Arkansas since its arrival.

Engineering News-Record in 2004 ranked The Flintco Cos. as the 63rd largest contractor in the United States. Flintco earned $22.5 million in local revenue last year. The company expects to have earned than $600 million when its 2005 fiscal year ends in May.

Nabholz Construction Corp. of Conway, whose Roger’s office topped this year’s Northwest Arkansas Business Journal list of the area’s top contractors with 2004 revenues of $257 million, ranked 139 nationally and CDI of Little Rock was ranked 193.

Harris joined Flintco on Jan. 3 from Nabholz’s Rogers office where he served as vice president of construction management. The company has almost doubled its staff of 27, adding four to its project management team, as well as one estimator and a marketing representative.

Flintco will also be moving to a new 5,000-SF location off Green Acres Road in Fayetteville in March.

“Oakridge was not involved in preconstruction of any type because by the time they got the plans and put the bid on it, everything was done and ready to start construction,” Harris said. “What we are focusing on is negotiating with the owners way before that time and partnering with the architectural firm on the process.”

Harris said Flintco hopes to succeed locally by leveraging its parent’s reputation and success in preconstruction and construction management.

“The resources we have are beneficial to the owner,” Harris said. “We can call up a number of experts on any field or phase.”

Harris said the nature of local work could provide some additional challenges.

“One of the biggest challenges is that there is so much work in Northwest Arkansas,” Harris said. “The subcontractor market is busy — saturated. We are going to have to rely on our good relationships with local subs as well as bring in some local subcontractors outside this area we’ve worked with in the past.”

Harris said Flintco can offer services such as value-analysis and life-cycle costing that could save an owner money in the long-term. For example, a heating and air system that is cheaper to install might cost an owner more money in the long term.

Flintco has more than 700 employees and office locations in six other states besides Oklahoma and Arkansas — stretching from Springfield, Mo., to Sacramento, Calif. Projects on its national drawing board include the Kickapoo Casino and Hotel in McLoud, Okla.; The Moore-Norman Technology Center in Norman, Okla., and the Ronald McDonald House Park & Pavilion in Memphis.

Locally, Flintco’s projects include the $4.2 million John Brown University Business Center in Siloam Springs and the First Western Bank at Rogers’ Pinnacle Hills development.

Flintco, founded in 1908, is also the largest Native-American owned contractor in the United States.