Life Moves Pretty Fast: GE Johnson 50 Years Later

WORDS: Sean O’Keefe

Life moves pretty fast – if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it. The famous counsel given to Generation X by Farris Buhler in 1986 always seems to take a minute to settle in, but that’s the point. Fifty years from GE Johnson Construction Co.’s 1967 founding, Chief Executive Officer Jim Johnson also finds benefit in reflection.

“My father’s original vision for the company was to simply provide for a family and chase the American dream,” says Johnson, elaborating that, by founder Gil Johnson’s math, $8 million in annual revenue was the magic number. Established at about the beginning of a Colorado Springs’ population boom, the business exceeded the $8 million goal in just its fourth year, initially thriving in the hard-bid K-12 market while picking up office and manufacturing facility projects regionally. GE Johnson quickly earned a reputation for quality and integrity while gaining confidence on larger public projects like the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 1970 and Pikes Peak Community College in 1975.

All in the family: Gil and Jim Johnson

As Gil Johnson’s business and children grew, Jim, the third of four children in the family, recalled that though construction was in his blood he wasn’t always sure he was destined to take over the family business.

“My father wasn’t the first in our family to start a construction company,” continues Johnson. “Many of my ancestors were contractors, but history shows that when they died, their businesses died, and nothing was ever passed on.” Jim, however, had a natural passion for construction – enjoying the physical nature and comradery of hard work, outdoors in Colorado. Most importantly, even as a teenager, through construction Jim was able to measure the progress made in each day’s work with a sense of accomplishment.

By the mid-1970s, GE Johnson’s portfolio had grown to include strong practices in health care, high-tech environments and hospitality. One notable early accomplishment was the 150-room, $8.6 million Broadmoor West Hotel, the largest project in the firm’s history to that point. That relationship extended a full 40 years forward, when the Broadmoor selected GE Johnson to complete a 27-week, ultrafast renovation and addition of the West Complex in 2014.

Jim graduated with a degree in construction science from Kansas State University while spending summers and holiday breaks on projects in the field. He invested his early 20s gaining independent professional experience working for a large general contractor doing projects across Texas and Louisiana before coming back to the family business in 1986. Joining the firm as an estimator, Jim saw a lot of different jobs in a short period of time. Yet, as he learned the intricacies of pricing the work, he yearned rather to spend his time in the field building it. Eventually, he was put in charge of overseeing concrete pours and tilt-up construction on an RTD job as an assistant superintendent. From there Jim managed to spend a few quality years simply building work alongside subcontractors and laborers before his natural project management abilities and engineering degree eventually dragged him back to the office. GE Johnson’s work in the ’80s includes the iconic One DTC office building completed in 1985 and The Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, developed by East West Partners in 1989.

The early 1990s marked a turning point for the company, Jim recalls, a moment where GE Johnson Construction actually did stop and look around.

GE Jonson’s work in the 1980s includes the iconic One DTC office building completed in 1985.

“We had plenty of success. Honestly it was due to hard work, integrity, treating people right – all the common-sense stuff in building a business,” says Johnson. “We needed to figure out who we were and what we were best at as a company in order to establish a true identity.” After some self-exploration, GE Johnson made a commitment to being a negotiated contractor – a preconstruction expert capable of delivering greater value and performance through guidance during a project’s design decision making process. Investing in client relationships was central, but the committed direction also meant increased investments in both people and technology. In 1993, GE Johnson began assigning desktop computers to staff, several years ahead of the construction industry in general. One of the company’s signature accomplishments of the ’90s was bringing its new brand of innovative preconstruction services to rural communities on projects like the Montrose Memorial Hospital and the St. Johns Medical Center in Jackson, Wyoming.

Sadly, just as the firm was reaching its 30th anniversary, Gil Johnson was diagnosed with cancer. It was understood that the already in-progress transition from father to son had to be accelerated.

“He gave me the keys to the car, but told me not to leave the garage,” Jim chuckles fondly at being named president in 1997, while Gil remained behind him on big decisions. Realizing he didn’t have the legal or financial expertise needed to manage the large operation the firm had become, Jim sought new types of business professionals to support him. After three years with Jim at the helm, Gil passed in 2000 and GE Johnson Construction, a family held business of 33 years, was ready to evolve.

“I transitioned the company to an employee-owned business,” Johnson shares proudly. “To be competitive I knew we needed to grow the company and I felt like making the employees the biggest beneficiaries of the firm’s hard work made sense.”

Tim Redfern, employee-owner, joind the copmany in the mid ’80s.

Tim Redfern is an employee-owner, one of many longtime employees who has earned Jim’s deepest trust by sticking with him through the transition. Redfern joined the company in the mid-80s as a carpenter’s apprentice, working his way through the ranks. He began leading high-profile projects in the ’90s including the U.S. Olympic Training Center expansion beginning in 1992, his first project as superintendent.

“It’s great to be able to look back over more than 30 years with the same outfit and feel like I’ve helped build a lot more than just buildings,” says Redfern, now a senior superintendent. “I look at our list of superintendents and see lots of guys I brought up. It feels good to know I helped these people become respected professionals who can build anything there is.”

In the years since the transition to employee-owned, GE Johnson has continued to ride industry and economic tides, including the recession, new alternative delivery strategies, and the constant struggle to maintain high-quality subcontractors and skilled labor on projects spread across Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Kansas.

“Taking the company nonunion in 2009 had to be the bravest decision we’ve made as an employee-owned business,” says Johnson confidently. “The trust between the field staff and superintendents who selflessly mentored so many guys compelled people to choose to invest their futures here rather than with a union.”

GE Johnson CEO Jim Johnson reflects on 50 years.

Today the challenge of skilled labor availability remains, and GE Johnson once again is aiming to make an impact on the individual level where change takes root. In 2016, The GE Johnson Construction Company Community Foundation awarded $250,000 to Pikes Peak Community College Foundation and the Foundation for Colorado Community Colleges to create a pipeline of future skilled workers to Colorado’s construction industry, while providing scholarships to students at rural community colleges statewide. It also is investing in getting vocational trade programs back into local high schools and has partnered with several Colorado school districts to rebuild curriculums by providing guidance and resources.

“Today we are building all kinds of exciting projects,” say Johnson. From Agilent’s high-tech pharmaceutical manufacturing project in Frederick, to a 29-story mixed-use high-rise for Shea Properties and the Pikes Peak Summit Complex, which will welcome 750,000 visitors a year, GE Johnson is building a bit of everything.

“Tim is back home with an old client building the new U.S. Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs, continuing a relationship he started for all of us some 25 years ago,” says Johnson with a nod toward Redfern. “It’s important to stop and reflect on 50 years of hard work and success. I’m grateful that GE Johnson is still family.”

Published in Building Dialogue, September 2017