Construction Today - September/October 2017 - 50
Commercial | DOWNING CONSTRUCTION Fields Of Opportunity DOWNING CONSTRUCTION THRIVES IN IOWA'S BOOMING COMMERCIAL MARKET. BY CHRIS KELSCH O ne might not necessarily think of Iowa as a hotbed for commercial construction, but nevertheless it has quietly taken off in recent years. "We are very excited about the Iowa market," Downing Construction Partner Justin Brown says. "Because of its gusting winds, Iowa has a lot of low-cost energy, and that has led to companies like Apple, Microsoft and Facebook building large data centers here." Indeed, all three companies will soon have large data centers in the state, all within 25 miles of each other. Downing Construction has been an active participant in an exploding commercial market in recent years, but the company didn't start out in that sector. It actually began in 1966, when founder Robert Downing began building homes in the Indianola, Iowa, community with one employee, two trucks and one 8-by-20-foot trailer. His company remained focused on the residential market until 2001. That is when Downing brought Denis Frischmeyer on board to help expand business in the commercial market. Frischmeyer was named president in 2010. Earlier, in 2006, Justin Brown and Joe Butler had been brought on board to expand the commercial market. "We still do a limited number of residential buildings as well, but have really put our emphasis on the commercial market," Brown explains. Downing Construction www.downingconstruct.com * Headquarters: Indianola, Iowa * Employees: 35 "We eally try and erve clients by looking at projects from eir perspective." - Justin Brown, partner 50 CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 has created a niche by ยป Downing completing 114 dental health projects in the last 10 years. Downing serves an area within a 150mile radius of Indianola for the bulk of its projects, which covers a majority of the state of Iowa. And it has expanded its services as well to include design/build, general contracting, construction management, consulting and a specialty in building senior housing facilities, medical office buildings, warehouses and dental clinics. Although it took some time to build out the commercial business, Downing did receive a nice kick-start. "About six years ago, a senior housing developer hired us for a project, and that has led to a steady stream of 12 to 13 of those projects over the past five years or so," Brown says. "We have also created a bit of a niche by completing 114 dental projects in the last 10 years." In addition to dental clinics, knowing how to build other types of health clinics has also been a boon for Downing. Since 2013, Downing has completed 17 health