STO Building Group, based in New York City, has several of its regional brands in the same office building or in nearby states when employees from one unit need another for experience. The ability to hire independently or combine the right mix of talent from City-based Structure Tone and Pavarini McGovern, which share a building with a branch office of LF Driscoll and are across the street from New Jersey-based RC Andersen, makes STO Building Group well-suited for megaproject work in the region, says Jim Donaghy, executive chairman of the parent company.
The collaborative workplace is also fostered by ownership opportunities for each employee. Donaghy’s father, Patrick, co-founder of the group’s flagship contractor, Structure Tone, championed a business culture that invested in its employees since the company’s inception in 1971. The company currently ranks fourth in the ENR East Top Contractors rankings with revenue of $5.33 billion, up 13.4% on last year’s revenue.
Jim Donaghy spoke with ENR about the themes STO Building Group sees in some of its latest projects, its newest approaches to workplace safety, and some of the work contributing to the more than 1,700 hours its employees have invested in volunteer activities by 2025. This Q&A has been edited and condensed.
STOBG Building Group’s main projects include:
SoMA at 25 Water St., New York: One of the largest office-to-residential conversions in the United States and a landmark adaptive reuse project in Manhattan’s Financial District, the 1.1 million square foot redevelopment includes a complete renovation, a modernized facade and a vertical expansion that will add 10 new floors.
Christie’s NY, New York: Structure Tone is CM for this multi-phase 373,000 square meter renovation for the auction industry leader. The Rockefeller Center project is renovating office space, front-of-house auction areas, back-of-house facilities and critical infrastructure.
Columbia University, Vagelos Innovation Laboratories, New York: The all-electric biomedical research facility will feature high-performance facade systems, collaborative interior spaces and energy efficiency strategies to reduce energy consumption intensity by 30% compared to existing standards.
What are clients looking for in offices?
We are seeing an increase in contractor design assistance work. Cost per square foot has come under pressure, and so has increased scrutiny to ensure dollars are being spent most productively. Clients interested in an integrated design and build team approach potentially do not have authorization to change the way they contract, so they ask the contractor to come in earlier for a longer pre-construction period. We set the tone for the project through a detailed budget and schedule. Businesses are competing with people who might consider working in other locations, and there are more clients investing in employees who themselves work longer days, possibly three or four days per week, compared to the traditional five days, so they want the spaces to be commensurate with what is required of their employees.
As the cost of renting has increased, they are also finding ways to create more value from their properties. There are staircases that function as meeting spaces or mezzanine structures that serve as atriums. We are seeing more large-scale conference areas that function as auditoriums for food and evening entertainment. These clients want to entertain their staff, their customers and the industry. They are using their spaces for more than just work.
How does STOBG fit for adaptive reuse?
“You become familiar with historical and historic properties in New York City.”
—Jim Donaghy, Executive Chairman, STO Building Group
If you’re an interior contractor, as Structure Tone has been for decades, you’ll be familiar with historic and historic New York City properties. These buildings are earmarked for conversion as larger headquarters clients seek new systems and commercial space. We have a deep bank of knowledgeable MEP structural and architectural superintendents who specialize in older buildings. It also helps to have a long track record of the right subcontractors. Since tenants won’t have the same feel of a modernized building, it makes up for it with a beautiful restoration of old materials. We recover some of the old surfaces with grinding and polishing, whether brick, old floors, stone or concrete.
Also, older properties are inherently difficult to work on. There is a reconstruction of stairs and new bathroom designs; expanding the use of space often requires new walls next to old walls. We put as much of the MEP behind the walls and on the ceilings as we can, but we are dealing with limited space. There are also ancient paths. Upgrading all elevators is a common facet, and sometimes equipment rooms aren’t where we need them to be. We can’t probe enough holes to eliminate all the surprises. Your team needs to be comfortable solving problems on the fly. At Carrer de l’Aigua 25, there was a lot of confidence in this project. Our goal is that when we discover surprises, we resolve them in a way that people feel there is trust. Often, we do the following work.
Talk about your best safety record
We continue to invest in targeted training and ensure it is a continuous learning environment within STO Building Group. We’ve also taken advantage of new technologies and certain AI features that help us monitor the sites and prevent errors. We’ve increased our glove policy: We expect all traders on our sites to wear gloves and want to put helmet chinstraps on them. These policies are not as widely adopted in the New York City area as elsewhere, but the city is quickly becoming as good as many other major markets. We’ve also created a superintendent roundtable group within STO Building Group where we’ve brought together some superintendents and project managers with our safety teams to collaborate and strategize on what to invest in, what didn’t work well and what needs to change.
We really try to treat our people as they are, which is that they are our only asset. Without the security of our trades, it is difficult to invest in other aspects of your business. Even when we agree on a schedule and decide which projects we might work on, safety is a big factor in those decisions. We go into each year with solid planning and a strategy on how to do better and how to do more around safety as a core value.
What explains the company’s best safety record last year?
It’s a journey we’ve been on for many years, building a safety culture. We continue to invest in targeted training and ensure it is a continuous learning environment within STO Building Group. We’ve also taken advantage of new technologies and certain AI features that help us monitor the sites and prevent errors. We’ve increased our glove policy: We expect all traders on our sites to wear gloves and want to put helmet chinstraps on them. These policies are not as widely adopted in the New York City area as in other parts of the world, but the city is quickly becoming as good as many of the other major markets. We’ve also created a superintendent roundtable organization within STO Building Group where we’ve brought together some of the superintendents and project managers with our safety teams to basically collaborate and strategize about what to invest in, what didn’t work well and what needs to change.
We really try to treat our people as they are, which is that they are our only asset. Without the security of our trades, it is difficult to invest in other aspects of your business. Even when we agree on a schedule and decide which projects we might work on, safety is a big factor in those decisions. We go into each year with solid planning and a strategy on how to do better and how to do more around safety as a core value.
Of the various charities your company is involved with, do you have a favourite?
I feel a little guilty for picking a favorite. We have a major event that we do for United Way every year, we love that charity, but I’ve been the president of the Explorer program in New York City for almost two decades. The premise of the program is that companies commit their resources and train high school kids for a dozen nights a year, exposing them to the various industries of New York City. At the Structure Tone office, we offer what they call an Explorer “post” for about 40 kids in the spring and 40 in the fall. We teach them to love, take them through the workplaces and have a friendly competition at the end of their sessions.
They leave these posts with something to put on their resume and a better insight into why they might want to be a part of our industry. Many of them had never been inside a Class A skyscraper before; it’s really eye-opening for them. As a leader in an industry like construction, I feel it is an honor to help and open doors for these kids.
