By Elizabeth W. Pearce

Exceeding $200 million in annual sales would be reason enough for any company to celebrate, especially after 25 years in business in Southwest Florida. But while many would opt to mark the occasion with a silver anniversary gala, the top brass at Owen-Ames-Kimball Company (O-A-K) had other plans.

“We thought about throwing a 25-year party, but we decided it would become meaningless very quickly and we didn’t want it to be that way,” says Steve Shimp, company president. Instead, O-A-K commemorated the milestone by donating $25,000 to the Lee Building Industry Association’s Builders Care program. With the help of grants and community donations of money, materials and labor, Builders Care provides no-cost emergency repairs and construction services to Lee County homeowners in need.

Believed to be the largest single donation to date to Builders Care, Shimp says it was meant to inspire others to get involved. “We put it out there to set the pace,” which O-A-K has been doing locally since 1982, when Shimp relocated from O-A-K’s Michigan headquarters to establish the company in Southwest Florida.

The parent company, founded in 1891, remains very active in western Michigan. However, its size and sales volume have been eclipsed by O-A-K’s Southwest Florida operations, which provide construction management and general contracting services to commercial clients throughout Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties. Headquartered in Fort Myers, the company has expanded over the years with offices in Cape Coral, Naples and Punta Gorda.

In addition to building numerous landmark structures such as Harbourside Event Center in downtown Fort Myers, O-A-K has improved or expanded many high-profile facilities for public and private sector entities in the tri-county area. A partial list of clients includes Florida Gulf Coast University, Chico’s, Colonial Bank, the Lee County Port Authority, Sugden Community Theatre and McGregor Baptist Church, as well as the City of Marco Island and the three area school districts.

“Many people see us as focused on building educational facilities, but that’s only about 30% of what we did last year,” notes Shimp. “We enjoy an interesting project mix.”

For example, in its capacity as construction manager and general contractor for the port authority, O-A-K just finished resurfacing and reconditioning the 20-year-old runway at the Southwest Florida International Airport. The highly technical, $23 million project involved converting the parallel taxiway into a temporary runway while the main runway was closed for resurfacing. That runway reopened earlier this year, two months ahead of schedule.

Now O-A-K is in the process of converting the temporary runway back into a taxiway. It also has large improvement projects underway at Page Field, including the construction of a parallel taxiway and accompanying infrastructure.

Unique Corporate Culture

While Shimp acknowledges that massive, big-dollar construction projects have yielded impressive revenues for O-A-K, he credits people, not profits, as the true measure of the company’s success.

“The chairman of Colonial Bank expressed it so eloquently when he said his company employed people who were capable, compatible and had character – the three C’s. That’s what we try to do also,” says Shimp. “We have good people.” That’s a good thing, considering they own the company.

Approximately 60 employee shareholders own Owen-Ames-Kimball Co., the parent Michigan corporation under which the Florida corporation was founded. Each is employed in a management position and typically has been with the firm for three or more years. Now, 25 years after starting the Florida subsidiary, almost half of the shareholders are based in Southwest Florida. This employee ownership separates O-A-K from its competitors, all of whom are either controlled by one or two shareholders or are public companies.

“O-A-K is a broadly held, private company. That is unique,” says Shimp. “We are operating for the benefit of the broader number of employees, not just a handful of owners.”

Three years ago, O-A-K reorganized its Florida division to form a corporate board of directors. In addition to parent company President William Schoonveld and CFO John LaBarge, the board comprises Shimp and four other significant Florida shareholders: Steve Richards (senior project manager and chief estimator); Dave Dale (vice president of operations); Sherri Schreier (vice president of human relations/business services director); and Derald Pacetti (director of the Naples office).

“That was a significant shift in leadership to Florida,” designed to create new opportunities while facilitating the gradual transfer of management control from Shimp to the board. “The company has grown and continues to grow because we’ve broadened our leadership, not because of my efforts,” he adds.

Retaining Top Talent

Its unconventional corporate culture has enhanced O-A-K’s ability to hire and retain superior employees whose motivation lies as much or more in the corporate interest than their own, individual interests. Generous compensation helps hold their attention.

O-A-K’s shareholdership structure and benefits package are geared towards those who want to make a career with the company and be financially comfortable, both before and after retirement. Its profit-sharing plan, which supplements a 401-K, provides 100% company funded contributions to an employee’s retirement fund. In recent years, the contribution has amounted to just under 20% of base salaries. They also enjoy full health benefits with coverage available to families for just $50 per month.

While such benefits make employees feel valued, they also help inspire maximum performance. “If you can align your employees’ material interests with your corporate interests, then you’ve got the best of all worlds. And we believe that’s what we’ve done in our compensation,” says Shimp.

In exchange, O-A-K enjoys low turnover, which Shimp says translates into better service for its commercial customers. “When we have things we need to improve in our company, our people view it as their responsibility instead of somebody else’s. They see the company as being something very significant to them personally, which bodes well for our client relationships. At the end of the day, that really matters.”

Satisfied Clients

Approximately 85% of its projects are for repeat customers with an eye for professional excellence and personal integrity. “We’ve worked with Steve Shimp and O-A-K for a number of years now on a variety of successful projects,” says Steve Morrison, president of Johnson Engineering. “What I especially like about Steve is that he does what he says he’s going to do.”

In fact, O-A-K is building Johnson Engineering’s new corporate headquarters. Located on aptly named Johnson Street in downtown Fort Myers, the 30,000sf headquarters building is scheduled for completion in early September.

O-A-K’s ability to handle commercial projects of significant scope has made a big impression on many respected, commercial developers in the area. “They have the quality and capability to put together large and complicated projects,” says Rob Brooks, Florida regional director for Songy Partners, LLC, and a long-time friend of Shimp’s. “Also, they build on schedule and within budget, which are two key things for a developer.”

Songy’s latest collaboration with O-A-K is at The Forum Corporate Park, a 42-acre office park Songy is developing within The Forum on Colonial Boulevard in Fort Myers. As general contractor, O-A-K has installed the project’s horizontal infrastructure and broken ground on the first of two, multi-tenant office buildings. When completed in February, Building I will contain 60,000sf in three stories. A second building will feature four stories with 80,000sf.

“We’ve been extremely happy with everyone from O-A-K, from Steve to the site superintendent,” says Brooks, who has known Shimp personally and professionally for 20 years. “We’re really proud to be associated with his company and have them as part of our team.”

Community Involvement

Although Shimp is low key about his tireless volunteer work, his name is synonymous with public service in Southwest Florida. He sits on numerous local boards of directors, ranging from the Horizon Council to Habitat for Humanity.

“Steve’s and O-A-K’s ongoing support and commitment to the community speak volumes about the type of person he is,” says Scott Edmonds, president and CEO of Chico’s FAS, Inc. Having known Shimp personally and professionally for many years, Edmonds describes him as “a great friend to public education and many worthwhile charitable organizations. I believe he has been successful because he conducts himself and his business with a great mind and a great heart.”

Not surprisingly, community service is a cornerstone of O-A-K, whose management team is expected to be involved in some sort of activity that benefits the community. O-A-K employees are well known for volunteering on behalf of local schools, churches, youth athletic leagues and other non-profit organizations and agencies. The company also boasts 100% employee participation in the local United Way’s annual fundraising campaign.

Frequently, O-A-K provides construction services to area non-profits at substantially reduced fees. Beneficiaries include the Boy Scouts, Community Cooperative Ministries’ soup kitchen, Habitat for Humanity, and YMCAs in Lee and Collier counties, to name a few. Soon, O-A-K plans to start construction of new headquarters for Southwest Florida Addiction Services (on a former YMCA site on Evans Avenue) and the United Way (in the Harlem Heights area).

According to Shimp, O-A-K’s future looks bright, regardless of the slowing market. “We’ve been very fortunate to be able to plan ahead so that when it really gets busy, we work harder until we have to add a person. And when it starts to slow down, we retain our people because they were worth having going in. I’ve never laid anyone off.”

That’s unlikely to change anytime soon, as O-A-K has at least a two-year project backlog. “We’re in an enviable position. Our clients continue to be successful and when they are, they come to us to have things built. We like that.” -

OAK’s Southwest Florida Projects

Currently, OAK is working on projects spanning the tri-county area, including the following.

Lee County

• Chico’s World Headquarters. OAK is making improvements to 200,000sf of office space in which Chico’s will expand, adjacent to and just north of its current campus on Metro Parkway.

• Canterbury’s Upper School. The $14 million project for Canterbury School includes a new three-story, 42,000sf classroom building, a new administrative center, a covered courtyard and additional parking. It is scheduled to open this fall.

• A $10 million, 60,000sf headquarters building for AIM Engineering & Surveying. The four-story building is on Colonial Court at the I-75/Colonial Blvd. interchange and scheduled for completion in early 2008.

• Lutgert School of Business at FGCU. Scheduled to break ground this fall, the 60,000sf building will be FGCU’s signature building, positioned at the entrance to the campus.

• Olympian Art Gallery. OAK is working with former Olympians Lin Bochette and Al Oerter to transform the vacant, waterfront City Pier building on Hendry Street into an art gallery/museum and educational facility, pending successful lease negotiations with Fort Myers.

Charlotte County

• Elementary Schools. Scheduled to open this fall, these buildings match their prototype Sallie Jones Elementary that was built by O-A-K. Sallie Jones was the only school in Charlotte County south of Charlotte Harbor to survive Hurricane Charley.

•Harbor Nissan Auto Dealership. Replacing its hurricane damaged predecessor, this new facility will update the local dealership to the new national image of this successful manufacturer.

• Faith Lutheran Fellowship Hall. Billed as an investment in the future for others, this new fellowship hall at a long-established Punta Gorda church is anticipated to bring new growth from young families in this traditionally senior congregation.

Collier County

• Marco Island Marriott Hotel Remodel. This $40 million project was completed on an accelerated schedule. At the peak of activity last summer, O-A-K provided temporary on-island housing to more than 200 workers to address manpower needs.

• Collier County Public Schools currently has O-A-K wrapping up work on three major projects for school opening this fall. Included are a new middle school, new elementary school and a full campus remodel of Golden Gate Middle School.

• Marco Island’s New Police Headquarters. A long needed facility on Marco, this project is coming on line almost two months ahead of schedule.

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