Return to Virginia Business - May 2002

Related stories:
This year's Fantastic 50 (intro)
The 2002 Fantastic 50 (chart)
Highest Overall Growth Rate: RGI - Robinson Gareiss
Manufacturing winner: Parker Compound Bows
Retail-Wholesale winner: Schiller International
Service winner: The Cube Corp.
Technology winner: TechBooks

by Robert Burke

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When the Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co. decided to move its headquarters from the World Trade Center in New York to Norfolk, it hired a general contractor known for delivering buildings quickly. In just five months, RGI - Robinson Gareiss built a 45,000-square-foot office. The speedy completion proved crucial. By chance, Zim-American moved into its new headquarters just two weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks toppled the trade center's towers.

The ability to hurry a project has fueled rapid growth in the last year at Virginia Beach-based RGI, founded by Hampton Roads developer Tom Robinson in 1997. A booming office market in Hampton Roads - which largely escaped last year's huge dumping of tech space that plagued other Virginia markets - and a close relationship to Robinson's real estate firm, Robinson Development Group, also contributed to the growth. Relatively modest revenues of $458,000 in the company's first year climbed to $10.7 million in 2000 - an increase of 2,333 percent, highest among firms in the Fantastic 50.

Though its four-year growth rate is impressive, 2001 was even bigger when revenues skyrocketed from $10.7 million to $25 million. RGI's President Drew Gareiss says the company's dramatic jump last year resulted from its desire to become "fast track experts" in the delivery of new office buildings. By getting involved in the planning process early on, RGI project managers push subcontractors, architects and even the client to avoid scheduling problems that can stall a project. "It really comes down to knowing everyone's business and removing all those roadblocks," says Gareiss. Another plus is that the involvement helps the firm stay connected to the local real estate market - a winning association since it's often viewed as an extension of a client's sales team in landing tenants.

One of RGI's fastest projects, a 98,000-square-foot office building in Chesapeake, went from groundbreaking to occupancy in barely four months. This year, though, the company is doing fewer big projects, concentrating instead on tenant-improvement work. The shift is helping RGI establish some independence from Robinson Development Group, which focuses mostly on new construction. Gareiss says the perception that RGI might favor its projects for Robinson Development is fading as it does more deals for other clients. All clients are treated equally, he says. "People are seeing that and now believing it."

Perceptions may linger because the company was started with financial backing from Tom Robinson, who recruited Gareiss from another general contracting firm when he started RGI five years ago. For Gareiss it was a deal too good to turn down. At the time, Robinson's real estate firm was preparing to develop a major office park. Gareiss recalls that Robinson "wasn't satisfied with the service they were getting" from other development and real estate firms. Plus, there was going to be a lot of money on the table. "The market at that time was really starting to pick up," he says. "We felt there was a volume of business there."

RGI's first new construction project for Robinson Development Group was a 65,000-square-foot Lake Center I office at Battlefield Corporate Center in Chesapeake. Since then it has done several other buildings in the same park as well as new office buildings near Richmond and in Gaithersburg, Md. Dozens of tenant-improvement projects in Hampton Roads and Richmond round out the company's resume.

RGI is not a big firm, which Gareiss considers a plus. Its 22 employees include five project managers and nine superintendents; subcontractors do 95 percent of its work. RGI can do big projects, says Gareiss, "but we're not such a big company that we don't all work together. We're not a bunch of divisions." Gareiss, 41, knows that kind of collegiality and the firm's success is unusual. "These past five years have been the most exciting period in my life," he says. "It's nice to have a group of people that I can sincerely say I like and care about as friends as well as colleagues. It really is a special environment."

Return to Virginia Business - May 2002