Celebrating Five Decades of Building Arizona  

Celebrating Five Decades of Building Arizona  

By Grenee Celuch | CEO at Concord General Contracting 

Fifty years ago, Jim and Gary Jackson, two brothers from Iowa, traveled to Phoenix. While in school, they realized there was a need in Arizona for a construction firm that operated with a high level of integrity, so they decided to start their own company. But rather than naming it after themselves, the pair wanted something that spoke to the culture they hoped to foster, one built on principles of character and relationships rather than dollar signs. 

Jim had a vision that the business would be bigger than him and that it would go well beyond his years, so the Jacksons settled on Concord. Originating from the Latin roots “com,” meaning “together,” and “cor,” literally, “heart,” Concord in its most elemental form means unity. In 1972, they founded Concord General Contracting. Five decades later, the name endures.  

Concord started out building a million dollars worth of projects and today, our revenues are around $70 million. The company’s portfolio is focused on municipal, government, education, and non-profit. Today Concord is led by Grenee Martacho, CEO; JV Nyman, President; Jason Beaver, COO; and John Nyman, Director of Estimating and Shareholder. Dale Marr, retired in 2022, however, still plays a key role as a shareholder and client liaison to our non-profit clients. 

Creating A Culture of Collaboration 

A lot has been said in recent years about the importance of corporate culture. Culture is what builds a brand’s identity. It is shared values and goals. And when employees feel a personal connection to their company, they work hard to ensure its success. Open communication, an emphasis on teamwork, and a respect for all levels of employees are cornerstones of our culture. Sometimes in construction, you work in silos. At Concord, there is no such thing as ‘that’s not my job’. We are smaller team, and we do a large amount of revenue. It takes all of us working together to succeed. In September 2020, we officially transitioned to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). An ESOP thrives on giving our employees the ability to have control over the projects and their careers. Empowering people to take ownership of their positions is just one way Concord instills pride in its employees — but that pride goes beyond job responsibilities and carries into Employee Ownership.  

The founders of Concord believed in building a strong culture. John Nyman and Dale Marr strengthen and defined our culture, and as third-generation leaders, Grenee, JV, and Jason look to preserve and maintain our culture as we continue to grow as an organization. 

Resiliency 

In 2007 the recession began to impact our business profits. In 35 years of business, the firm had never had a strategic plan, we filled the $30 million backlog on referrals from past partnerships. Instead of sitting back and “weathering the storm” leadership used the slower time to start planning for the future. We stepped back and really thought our end-users of the facilities we build. We explored how our team likes to work and what makes them love their careers at Concord. We thought about how we are different – what is our purple cow if you will. 

Through this activity, the Ultimate Client Experience (UCE) was born. Our most successful projects are ones where we partner with our clients throughout the entire construction process and recognize that people will remember how you made them feel during a project. Our UCE celebrates construction through ground-breaking and dedication ceremonies, Contractors in the Classroom where we teach construction to students and, assisting our clients in marketing their new project. 

Because we simply did long-term strategic planning and created our focus our revenues grew by 110% going from a $30,000,000 to $70,000,000 in six years. 

Increasing Awareness 

As an industry, we are struggling to recruit people into the trades. While there is a lot of work still to do to promote the different positions available within the construction industry, we are proud to play a part in increasing awareness in construction. Our team goes into Arizona public school classrooms and teaches about the construction process and the different teams that work together to construct a building. This includes a variety of career paths to support the construction industry. We recently immersed 600 K-12th grade students in construction at Vail Academy and High School through tours of an active construction site, discussing the different career paths in construction, and allowing the students to experience the different tools and materials that are used to build a new school. We are proud to say our team has spent more than 1000 hours in public school classrooms since 2014. 

As the firm steps into its next 50 years, leadership looks to make Concord a recognized name throughout the entire state—with one proviso – the firm evolves, grows, and continues to elevate the industry while still maintaining our culture.