David Sluter, owner of New England Construction, visits the site of one of his biggest ongoing projects, at Inskip Auto Mall in Warwick. Behind Sluter will be the new BMW building at the auto dealership.
COMPANY PROFILE
New England Construction
Owner: David A. Sluter,
president and CEO
Location: 293 Bourne Ave.,
East Providence
Business type: Pre-construction
consulting, design and building company
Employees: 32
Annual Revenue: WND
Year founded: 1985
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When a recession caught up to New England Construction in 1990, David Sluter was forced to make some tough decisions.
The company had enough work erecting pre-engineered steel buildings to stay in business, yet revenue shrank, and Sluter couldn’t afford his payroll.
The company had enough work erecting pre-engineered steel buildings to stay in business, yet revenue shrank, and Sluter couldn’t afford his payroll. Thus, he and a former partner stopped taking paychecks, and project manager Geoff Ballou agreed to take half of his salary for full-time work.
Though he had run the company with his wife, Marge, for more than six years, Sluter said, he wanted to improve his business acumen and take his enterprise to the next level.
“I didn’t know anything about the construction business when I started, and I knew little more about business in general,” Sluter said.
Having worked as an engineer for six years, Sluter launched his first business, New England Engineering, in 1980. He became interested in construction when his firm was hired to supervise projects for the U.S. Navy in Groton, Conn., and later for the U.S. Air Force on Cape Cod.
After those experiences, Sluter decided to launch New England Construction in 1985. The new company specialized in building pre-engineered steel structures for commercial clients and other contractors in the region.
But after business slowed, Sluter decided it was time to invest in education.
Borrowing for tuition, the CEO enrolled in Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management program. For three weeks a year from 1991 to 1993, Sluter lived in student housing in Cambridge and studied for 12 to 14 hours a day.
At Harvard, “I learned how to build a business,” Sluter said. “There are a lot of aspects to that, in terms of how to build a team and how to position your company. I understood what marketing was all about and the basic concepts of running a successful business.”
“It’s taken me since 1991 to get to where we are now,” he added, “but those basic concepts have never gone away.”
Right now, New England Construction is in the midst of one of its best years ever. You may have driven by one of its work sites throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The company is in the fourth year of a $60 million overhaul at Inskip Automall on Bald Hill Road in Warwick. The latest projects at the luxury auto dealership include renovations to the Audi building and a new sales center for BMW.
Other work includes two medical building projects on Toll Gate Road in Warwick, a renovation and addition to Dave’s Marketplace on Warwick Avenue, and an expansion of Heartlab’s facilities in Westerly.
In 2002, Sluter and two partners, Colin Kane and Jordan Stone, formed a real estate development company, The Peregrine Group, which has several projects under way as well, including the redevelopment of the Rumford Chemical Works Plant in East Providence.
New England Construction’s specialty, Sluter said, is working with small to medium-sized businesses on projects valued at $10 million or less. Why?
“Small or medium-sized business owners are busy building their business,” he said. “You can really add value to those customers by solving all those [construction issues] for them – especially somebody who has been through it once before and had a bad experience.”
To bring that value, Sluter said, his company’s work begins well before projects break ground.
First, the company offers a “feasibility analysis” based on clients’ goals. The process includes selecting appropriate real estate for a project, considering such details as zoning, location, access to utilities and site conditions.
Pre-construction services include budgeting and providing renderings to show to potential financiers. Also, the firm guides customers through the permitting process, which often involves several regulatory authorities, depending on the location and site challenges.
In juggling these tasks, Sluter said, small business owners risk hurting their own bottom lines. “The anecdotal evidence that I’ve seen shows that for an overwhelming majority of small businesses, the year of a capital expansion program, the bottom line takes a significant hit – because they take their eye off the ball.”
The CEO attributes some of the company’s success to selecting clients that value his comprehensive approach to construction projects. “It makes coming to work every day fun,” he said, “if you like who you’re working for.”
