It’s no secret that commercial and even residential construction is booming. Ogden-based R&O Construction is riding that wave, but keeping perspective. R&O Construction President Slade Opheikens said they stick to the idea of being “big enough.” He refers to a statement on their website to sum that up that idea: “When we look to the future, we don’t aim to be the biggest general contractor. We aim to be the general contractor that is big enough to handle the needs of any project. The secret to our success is that we do not differentiate between large and small. We believe every client and every project deserves the same level of service and attention to detail,” the site says.
Right now, the company has about 45 projects in progress and generates about $280 million in projects each year, making R&O the fifth largest contractor in the state. They have offices in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, but love the Ogden base.
“It’s home,” Opheikens said. “I can’t imagine why we would want to be anywhere else,” he said of the Ogden headquarters. Some current local projects include the renovation of the North Branch of the Weber County Library, Falcon Hill at Hill Air Force Base, the clinical services building at Utah State University and several other smaller retail sites. Opheiken’s brother, Chet, manages the Las Vegas area and lives there.
His father, Orluff Opheikens, started the construction business in 1979 with Les Randall. It got its start after residential interest skyrocketed above 20 percent and he worried about the security of his residential construction business, Opheikens and Company. The men put their heads down and went to work diligently, growing a commercial construction business and sometimes not making money on some projects just to make a name for themselves. There were long days and hard work in those early years, but their determination has paid off and created a family business to be proud of.
R&O currently has around 185 employees and three divisions: retail construction, which is about 45 to 50 percent of their projects; office buildings, which includes warehouse projects and multi-family housing and small projects, which includes smaller retail shops like CVS pharmacies and Maverick gas stations/mini stores.
The diversity is key, Opheikens said. Three divisions enables them to diversify job sizes and be busy with projects no matter where the market stands. “We don’t take shortcuts and we use the best subs [contractors] and people know that,” Opheikens said.
Right now there is no shortage in jobs to bid for, but they have to be able to find subcontractors with employees to do the work, which seems to be a bit of a challenge. “If there is a young adult kid between 18 and 30 that doesn’t have a job, there is a job in construction for them,” Opheikens said. He noted that R&O does a lot of the project management and works a great deal with subcontractors, but those subcontractors need employees and they have been harder to come by these days.
Opheikens is optimistic, though. “There can be a good future in this industry. People can be trained out of high school or we recruit out of college. We love to get kids from Weber State University or UNLV,” he said. Right now the unemployment rate in Utah in construction is extremely low, about 3.2 percent, Opheikens said. “Anyone who wants a job can find a job,” he added.
Northern Utah has its share of great construction companies, but Opheikens said there is room for all of them. “There are very good construction companies along the Wasatch Front. It’s a competitive market, but it is professionally competitive,” he explained. Opheikens has found in some areas [outside of Utah] where there is less honesty, but he knows when he goes up against a Big D, Layton or Jacobson, to just to name a few, he’s going up against good people who will do a good job.
Opheikens knows there can be ups and downs in the world of construction but he feels confident that the good work they continually produce will keep them going and going strong for many years to come.
