Selecting the right national commercial construction general contractor is a critical decision that can significantly impact the success of your construction project. Over the past 20+ years, with 2500 completed commercial construction projects, we have learned that it takes more than a great price to win a bid. Our national retail, restaurant, hospitality, senior living, industrial, and automotive clients are very clear about what factors they look for when it comes time to award a project. Here are some of the critical considerations for choosing a national contractor: Reputation and Tra ..read more

As anyone in the commercial construction industry knows, reliable, responsive, and skilled subcontractors are the lifeblood of our business.  Your reputation and finished product as a national general contractor are only as good as the performance of your local subcontractor partners. That’s why Englewood’s leadership team has prioritized building, vetting, and nurturing a 20,000+ tier-one network of experienced and project-tested subcontractors over the last 22+ years.  We value subcontractor partners who deliver on their promises, communicate effectively, and ..read more

Over the last few years, Englewood Construction has been involved in several flagship store and brand expansion projects with our national retail, fitness, and restaurant clients.  These types of commercial construction projects are very important to the growth of their brands and offer many opportunities for our national contracting team to apply our experience and know-how to ensure a successful completion. Flagship Retail Relocation – American Girl Building or relocating national retail flagship stores nationwide is nothing new to Englewood Construction.  As a national con ..read more

This adaptive reuse trend is now extending to abandoned big-box buildings. With a number of traditional retailers closing locations or going out of business, they are leaving millions of square feet behind for redevelopment. Our first experience with this was turning an old Kmart into a mixed-use retail development. But from experiential retail, restaurants, and entertainment to fun and fitness, developers have recently gotten a lot more creative in their approach to commercial retail redevelopment. And with good reason. Structurally, big-box buildings provide a blank canvas to architects ..read more

As anyone who works in the commercial construction business knows, timing is everything. Inefficient sequencing of materials and equipment can have a significant impact on both time and money. Business as usual, is out the door as the supply chain has continued to provide challenges.  For example, Roofing HVAC used to be 12-`14 weeks out but is now 12-14 months. If we don’t plan for that and have to continually stop and start a project because of the unavailability of materials or owner-furnished equipment, it will cause delays that will lead to cost overruns, such as subcontractors as ..read more

It looks like there may be light at the end of the commercial construction tunnel. Driven by pent-up demand and the need to expand and grow, our national restaurant, service retail, and hospitality clients are building again to increase revenues. The headwinds of supply chain disruption, higher material costs, and personnel shortages are beginning to subside. Also, while material costs have come down in some instances, material and component availability in some key areas is still a challenge heading into the building season. This is especially true regarding prescribed or bra ..read more

As a National General Contractor working across multiple verticals in the commercial construction space, we understand the challenges (COVID and Supply Chain) facing our retail, restaurant, hospitality, and senior housing clients. But we’ve also experienced a strong will to solve problems, adapt smarter ways of working, and find new opportunities. Here are just a few examples: Working Through Challenges: Key Lessons for Moving Forward For Englewood and our national retail, restaurant, and hospitality clients, we’ve learned that the old mindset of the lowest competitive bid and a rigid appr ..read more

With Baby Boomers aging, it is no surprise that Senior Housing construction and renovation are… well…BOOMING.  In recent years, we’ve been working with Senior Housing developers and operators to update existing facilities, add new amenities, and retool common areas to be more competitive with new-construction senior housing options. In addition, many national senior housing operators are in “acquisition” mode and are boosting their portfolio by snapping up value-add properties they can remodel and put under their brand umbrella. In both these cases, a trusted comme ..read more

Last month, I had the opportunity to check in with an Illinois Real Estate Journal reporter for a feature on the latest trends in senior housing. It’s an extremely timely topic for commercial construction firms since, as we noted in our post last year on Commercial Construction Trends and Predictions for 2022, senior housing construction is currently booming. Here at Englewood Construction, we are seeing a number of ground-up senior housing construction projects break ground to meet housing demand from aging baby boomers. But we’ve been especially busy lately with existing senior housing comm ..read more

If there were one word that summed up our experience from 2022 and our approach to the year ahead, it would flexibility. You succeed in a challenging environment by being adaptable to change, open-minded to new ideas, and focused on solutions.    As we mentioned in previous posts, last year presented various challenges for the commercial construction industry. Driven by pent-up demand and the need to expand and grow, clients have been more than ready to build to increase revenues. The real headwinds over the last year were supply chain disruption, higher material costs, and persona ..read more