I followed a Google Alert on my name to a post on Donna Gamache’s new blog, St. Louis Design Community Connections. Nice Monday morning wake-me-up!

Donna, marketing director at the Lawrence Group, is providing a great service to the local architecture/design community with her very timely and interesting blog. She writes about networking, job hunting, leads, tips and hints, and fun ways to keep up your good humor in tough times.

Be sure to check it out! You can subscribe through RSS or FeedBlitz. You won’t want to miss a post!

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

St. Louis-based Capri Pool & Aquatics is named in today’s St. Louis Business Journal for their rapid growth over five years.

Capri Pool & Aquatics, a builder of large aquatic centers and water parks, is owned by Vee-Jay Cement Contracting, one of the largest concrete contractors in St. Louis. According to President Cary Dennis, Capri Pool has increased sales from $1.5 million when it was started five years ago to $11.5 million in 2008.

Recent projects include the $5.7 million Hazelwood Aquatic Facility and a $1.5 million outdoor recreation center pool in Normal, Illinois. Capri Pool also has been hired as the aquatics contractor for the huge Schlitterbahn Vacation Village resort in Kansas City, Kansas.

Source: St. Louis Business Journal

Kwame Building Group, Inc.(KWAME) has been selected to provide construction management services for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources on the redevelopment of Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park in Reynolds County.

The park was damaged by the breach of the Taum Sauk Reservoir in December 2005. Following cleanup and the planning and design process, redevelopment began in 2008. The designer and builder is MACTEC, an engineering, environmental and remedial construction firm from Atlanta, GA.

KWAME has been selected to provide technical assistance to the department by monitoring the reconstruction progress and providing reviews of the architectural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection and civil engineering drawings and specifications for construction compliance.

Source: St. Louis Construction News & Real Estate

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) has named Kwame Building Group, Inc. as construction manager for a rehabilitation and expansion program at the Missouri River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Maryland Heights. Construction on the first project is expected to begin in the summer of 2009 and the program will be complete by the end of 2012.

Kwame’s primary subconsultant partner is HDR, an architectural, engineering and consulting firm based in Omaha, NE. The project designer is Black & Veatch Corporation, a global engineering, consulting and construction company based in Overland Park, KS.

Source: St. Louis Construction News & Real Estate

St. Louis-based general contractor Paric Corp. has completed a $7.8 million senior housing project on South Grand Boulevard in the city of St. Louis. The 76,000-square-foot development features 87 senior apartments above ground-level retail. The project was built on behalf of Minneapolis-based Dominium Development and Acquisition.

Amenitites include a computer center, a multi-purpose room, a dining hall, an exercise room, recreational activities and a courtyard.

Source: REBusinessOnline