After more than three decades of installing athletic surfaces, culminating in its busiest year ever in 2010, Byrne & Jones Construction Inc. has launched Byrne & Jones Sports – a new division that will specialize in building and maintaining sports surfaces in a 10-state region centered by Missouri.
In 2010, the firm tallied more than $7 million in projects for schools, including nine turf fields, 18 polyurethane tracks and 64 tennis courts. All told, it has installed and maintained more than 1,000 athletic surfaces, including artificial and natural turf fields, polyurethane tracks and tennis courts.
“While we are the largest commercial paving contractor in St. Louis, in recent years up to 20% of our business has come from schools upgrading athletic facilities,” said Brian Goggins, president of Byrne & Jones. “More and more schools are looking for ways to strategically manage their real estate assets, reduce maintenance costs and use their sports facilities as a recruiting tool.”
In addition to its established markets in Missouri and Illinois, Byrne & Jones Sports will target Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, according to Britt Taulbee, executive vice president of the new division. Taulbee joined Byrne & Jones in 2000 and has been director of estimating since 2006. Byrne & Jones Sports will initially have a staff of 10 with plans to grow that number to 25 by 2013.
“We’ve developed a niche in helping schools manage the process of improving their sports facilities with our knowledge of installation and products, including natural and artificial turf, track and tennis court surfaces,” said Taulbee.
In metro St. Louis, clients have included Chaminade College Preparatory School, Saint Louis University High School, the Fort Zumwalt, Hazelwood, Parkway, Rockwood and LadueSchool Districts, Lutheran South, Southern Illinois University (SIU) at Edwardsville, Saint Louis University, Lindenwood University, WashingtonUniversity, St. Louis Priory, Villa Duchesneand the Scott Gallagher Soccer Club.
The firm also recently completed a new turf field for Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. It has served Washburn Rural High Schoolin Topeka, KS; OsageHigh Schoolat Lake Ozark, MO; the Cooper Soccer Complex in Springfield, MO; Ft. Campbell, KY; and the New Orleans Saints NFL training facility.