Pushing South - A new office in Danvers, MA

Kendrick Ballantyne: President

The Optimum Construction of today didn't pop out of thin air, the fully formed top-notch construction management firm it is today.  It was a long road that involved a lot of hard work and hard-won successes.

If you’d told me when I first started this company that I’d be starting a second office in the Boston area, I might have questioned your sanity. It was difficult enough building a company in the smaller market of Portland. Despite the expected setbacks and a slow-growing process, we learned how to do things the right way. We didn’t take any shortcuts or choose an easier path when it seemed like the business would never get off the ground. We kept grinding it out, developing new processes, and perfecting old ones while finding new solutions to problems that popped up. Ten years later, we’re at the point of opening up a new office in Danvers MA, which if I look back on it, seems nothing short of miraculous. 

Kendrick Ballantyne, President and Ryan Lessard, Vice President

When I started this company 10 years ago, no one cared that I played tight-end for the Baltimore Ravens. Not that I tried to leverage my time in the NFL to land jobs, but it was a major pivot going from professional sports to the construction business where doors were constantly being slammed shut in my face. No one trusted me with bigger jobs and I didn’t land any commercial work for almost two years.

But, I learned a valuable lesson during my stint in the NFL. The fact is, at the pro level, no one cares that you were the hometown hero quarterback, or that you went to a national championship two years in a row. Everyone on the field, (or on the bench) was the best at their high school and one of the best at their D1 school. Success is determined solely on merits on this field and has little to do with "hidden" talent. Sure, there are freaks of nature who seem like they were bred for the sport they played, but great genetics does not necessitate winning, or even being successful on the field. Talent can bolster greatness, but true greatness is achieved through grit, determination, and putting in more work than everyone else before ever stepping on the field. 

Translating that from the field to the job site: there are no cheat codes to lasting success. If you want to last, you have to put in the work learning to do things the right way. That doesn’t mean we didn’t make mistakes–there were plenty, but we learned from them. Throughout our growing process, we kept our heads down, didn't take on a dollar of debt, and reinvested our money back into the company. All the while, we figured out internal processes and organizational structures, really nailed down our company values and brand and got better at everything we did. 

As we’ve grown, it has not been at the steroidal rate of a high school gym rat. We’ve made it our policy to grow one size at a time, never getting too big for our britches, or outrunning our capacity, which would have diminished the quality of work. We’ve methodically planned how to organize ourselves every time we’ve increased in size. As we grew, we were able to hire the right people needed for bigger projects. 

This methodical relational process has paid dividends and has brought us to the point where we are now branching out into the broader New England market, with projects in and around Boston and the MetroWest area, the big leagues.  It's a natural step for us and we've got the people already in place to make it work.  

Speaking of which, It’s time to introduce the man heading up our new expansion, Ryan Bird. I spent time in the gridiron trenches playing football with this guy back in college and can attest that he fits the mold of everything we value at Optimum, but I’ll let him speak for himself.

Ryan Bird, Director - Danvers, MA Office

Playing on the field with someone, you get to know the kind of person they are. You see firsthand whether they’re a quitter, a slacker, or if they’ll choke at a key moment in the game. I know what kind of character Kendrick has because we fought on the football field side by side for the University of Maine. Kendrick is the kind of guy who puts it all on the line, on the field and off, and he never gives up. But he's is not a one-track-minded jock who only cares about personal glory; he values people and relationships above all else–the fact that he’s kept in touch with me after college is proof of that.

Ryan Bird, Danvers Mass.

Kendrick was able to translate the qualities and values that made him a great player and teammate into the arena of construction. That was essential to me in joining the Optimum team. In this line of work, you meet people who are all talk; they speak the language of values, but their only currency is money, and they have no problem cutting corners and screwing over whoever they need to to get it. That isn’t Optimum. What they say they’re about is what they’re about. Their values are uncompromising from beginning to end, in every situation, no matter the cost.

Over the years I've been watching how they've built their company, their team, their reputation, and their quals. When I was asked to head up their southern expansion, I knew it was the right move, for me. There’s no other team I’d rather be a part of. 

However, Kendrick didn’t ask me to run this new office because I’m his old college football buddy. Over the past decade, Optimum has developed a specialization in big institutional (educational and medical) as well as multifamily arenas which dovetails perfectly with my own career development. After years in construction management, I've recently been working on the owner’s side in facilities management, helping big institutions better use facilities to further their mission and increase revenue. This has filled in my skill set and helped me see projects from the owner’s side. After years of talking about it, our paths have finally aligned again and we’re joining forces. 

The Big Leagues

I’m aware of the fact that Optimum is moving into a bigger, more competitive arena, but we love the challenge. Down to a person, everyone at Optimum is competitive, which means we strive to do the best work we possibly can and be better than the next guy. Optimum has firmly established itself in the Portland ME area as a top-notch construction management firm because it has an incredible team and does excellent work. We are confident in our ability to continue to do the same quality of work and set ourselves apart in the Boston area. We might start off as underdogs, but we embrace that. We’ll win some and lose some– that’s all part of it. But we know that, even in the losses, we’ll learn from our mistakes and continue to grow in a way that is true to Optimum, and most importantly we'll never give up and never compromise.. That means never abandoning the core values that have made this company what it is.  

For us, at Optimum, it's about having the best team, knowing our craft, living our company values, and being able to state clearly what makes us the best crew for the project. 

Sound like the team for your project?

Sound like a team you'd like to be on?

Get in touch  rbird@optimumbuilds.com