Dan Frisbee, CEO of Walton Construction Company, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal last week in an article on small businesses benefiting from federal stimulus funds. Walton has offices in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Missouri, Dallas and New Orleans.

According to the article by Kelly Spors, the small companies best-positioned to take advantage of the stimulus money are those that already have established relationships with government officials and have experience doing government contracting work.

Walton, a construction firm with about 550 employees, currently gets about 60% of its revenue from public and government projects such as constructing military barracks. Dan Frisbee says his company has seen the number of inquiries from prospective subcontractors double to more than 300 in the past six months.

But even with his experience, Mr. Frisbee says the process isn’t easy. “The government has a lot of regulations you have to be aware of,” he says.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Valero Energy Corporation–Benicia has recognized Guarantee Electrical for its outstanding safety record at the company’s Benicia, California refinery through their “Contractor of the Year Safety Award for Large Contractors.” St. Louis-based Guarantee Electrical has provided electrical maintenance, service, instrumentation and electrical construction on capital projects for the refinery since 1969. read more…

The American Concrete Pavement Association has recognized Kwame Building Group/Green Joint Venture for their work on the reconstruction of taxiway F, L & S at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. The project was rated the “best commercial service and military airport concrete paving project completed in Missouri in 2007.” A St. Louis-based program and construction management firm, Kwame Building Group (KWAME) has completed several major projects at Lambert-St. Louis.

One of the big national AEC stories of 2007 was the number of top design firms acquired by larger companies last year. Sixteen firms “disappeared” from the ENR Top 500 Design Firms list due to acquisitions.

The trend to instantly create companies that can provide a full range of services — from planning and design through construction and even operations and maintenance — has been fueled by larger projects and clients who want single source delivery.

The U.S. dollar’s fall against foreign currencies is another factor that makes acquisition of U.S. firms by foreign companies look more enticing than ever. European companies can get 30% more for their money by using Euros in the U.S.

Still, there’s a lot to be said for the stability, integrity and commitment of firms owned by their founders, management teams or ESOPs (employee stock ownership plans). Among such successful companies in St. Louis are McCarthy, Walton Construction, Guarantee Electrical, Lawrence Group, Clayco, Kwame Building Group, Graybar Electric.

These companies and many others have found ways to provide the broad range of services owners want while still maintaining local ownership.

What other local AEC firms can you add to the list?

St. Louis-based Lawrence Group and Austin Tao & Associates have merged, combining two successful, well-respected St. Louis design practices that have been teaming on national and international projects for many years.

The Lawrence Group board of directors approved the acquisition as a move to expand services both nationally and internationally. Austin Tao joined Lawrence Group as a principal and is responsible for the firm’s growing international work.

“We’re picking up Austin’s Beijing, China, office as part of this acquisition,” said Lawrence Group CEO Steve Smith.

“The combination of our practices will allow us to more effectively grow our international business, where we both already have significant design assignments.”

Walton Investors, LLC has appointed Dan Frisbee of St. Louis as chief operation officer of Walton Construction Company, LLC. As CEO, Frisbee will provide overall direction and vision for the company, whose corporate offices are in Kansas City, Missouri. He also will continue to oversee and support the operations of Walton’s five divisions nationwide.

Frisbee told me “The past year was a very active and positive year for our company. In addition to our leadership transition, we’ve built the largest backlog of work ever in our history, thanks to the hard work of our division and corporate staff.”

Frisbee has more than 35 years experience in the construction industry and previously was chief operating office of Walton Construction. Prior to that, he was executive vice president of the Walton St. Louis Division, which he opened in 2002. In its first year, the Walton St. Louis Division had seven employees and revenues of $30 million. That division has grown to more than 100 employees with revenues of $175 million in 2007.

Frisbee became an owner when he joined Walton Investors in September 2006. He was the first executive outside of Kansas City to join the company’s ownership group.

Steve Biederman has succeeded Frisbee as president of the Walton St. Louis office.