Optimum Construction is a New England-based Construction Management and General Contractor with a footprint that stretches across the North Shore, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Operating out of its offices in Danvers, Massachusetts and Portland, Maine, Optimum Construction serves the multi-unit housing, institutional, healthcare and commercial sectors. As Construction Managers, Optimum manages everything from budget and schedule, hiring of subcontractors, health and safety coordination, onsite management, and quality control. It also provides preconstruction services to include cost estimation and value engineering, and the full scope of project management services. Each of these services have one thing in common: relationships. Optimum’s refined approach is not only driven by tight schedules and budget awareness, ingrained professionalism, and access to materials and suppliers but by building relationships. It is this approach, along with its five core values, that allows Optimum Construction to consistently deliver quality projects while making friends along the way.
President Kendrick Ballantyne and Vice President Ryan Lessard founded the company with one simple idea; that success is defined by the quality of our relationships. The pair were friends first and business partners second, having shared the same hometown and high school experience before a serendipitous meeting on a job site later in life. In this sense the company was founded on friendship, which lends to the strong emphasis on building relationships it maintains to this day. “That’s really the foundation of the company,” says Marketing Director Levi Woodard. “To build relationships first.” Optimum Construction sees construction not only as a job, but an opportunity to live out its passion for getting to know people. “Kendrick and I have known each other for 25 years now and have worked together for the last two and a half,” says Ryan Bird, Project Executive of the Massachusetts office at Optimum Construction and another reflection of the company’s relationship-first approach. “I’ve known the company and I’ve known Kendrick’s character, who he is and how he’s developed this company by getting the right people on board. A big part of the reason I joined is the company culture and how we present ourselves to the industry and to prospective clients. We’re living by what we do, and the core values of the company are ingrained in every conversation we have internally. It’s really important to maintain that.”
Optimum Construction’s core values are tightly woven into the fabric of the company, its employees, and the relationships and projects that it builds. It is these core values, upheld since the company’s founding, that best tell the Optimum Construction story. First on the list of core values is Listening, which forms the foundation of good communication and represents the company’s commitment to paying attention to real priorities. “There’s no collaborative aspect to a relationship when you’re just telling people what to do without knowing who they are, what their story is, or where they’re coming from,” says Levi. Next up is Plain Talk, a core value that is championed by President Kendrick who believes that telling the whole truth to bring clarity and direction is the most efficient path to get from an idea to the completed project. It is understood company-wide that a straight conversation, whether that’s between clients, employees or subcontractors, has the ability to bridge the gap between two sides and ultimately put an end to conflict or confusion.
“There’s no collaborative aspect to a relationship when you’re just telling people what to do without knowing who they are, what their story is, or where they’re coming from.”
The core value that guides Optimum Construction as it navigates challenges and changing market trends is New Ways. Market trends in New-England often see companies travel North in pursuit of opportunity, for example from Massachusetts up to Maine. Optimum Construction, in alignment with this New Ways core value, did the opposite when it opened an office in Massachusetts. “Opening up an office in Danvers was a big challenge because we went South where most companies will go North,” Ryan says. We’ve worked for a client that brought us more work in Massachusetts, down to Pennsylvania and then Tennessee.”
Optimum Construction creates buildings that are both durable and beautiful, believing strongly that one does not need to be a sacrifice for the other. The company has built this belief into its core values by creating a new word, Dura-Beauty, which it defines as straight lines and square corners that reflect our company’s integrity for years to come. It’s a word that is clearly reflected in the company’s diverse project portfolio.
Shared Success is the last of the company’s core values and one that ensures everyone, from employees to subcontractors to clients, benefits from Optimum Construction’s work. It is the result of the first four values. “Our employees should have better lives from working with us. Their families should be encouraging them to stay with our company. Same goes for subcontractors. Same goes for clients,” Ryan says.
As is their way, the Optimum Team established a great relationship with the client which has resulted in further opportunity in the Massachusetts multi-unit housing market. “It’s really about the experience of the people we have on board that has allowed us to get to this point,” Ryan continues. “We have several large projects in the Greater Boston area coming down the pipeline. We’re lining up employees and resources to ensure we’re ready to manage these projects efficiently.” John F Kennedy once said that “a rising tide lifts all boats,” which sums up Optimum Construction’s collective mindset as it moves forward together in pursuit of the same vision. That is, to build durable, beautiful buildings off the back of great relationships, ensuring always that their success is shared with all involved.
“We just finished a 12,000 square foot new construction project in Danvers,” Ryan says, highlighting the most recent of Optimum’s dura-beauty buildings. This commercial project, in fact, encompasses Optimum Construction’s full set of core values. “It was a four-acre property that had some older buildings on it, an old Denny’s and a couple of old hotels that were demolished,” Ryan says. “This significant redevelopment project transformed the area, bringing new opportunities and improvements to residents and businesses.” Optimum is beginning phase two of this project which includes intersection work on Endicott St. to facilitate better traffic flow and provide easy access to the Liberty Tree Mall.
Another project Optimum is closing out is the new Gardner School in Cambridge, MA. This large-scale institutional project, situated in the heart of downtown Cambridge, was constructed on the ground level of a six-story residential building. This project presented significant challenges, requiring Optimum to navigate complex existing conditions, coordinate construction within a fully occupied building, and manage numerous logistical hurdles. Through strategic planning, clear communication, and expert execution, Optimum successfully delivered a high-quality educational facility in a densely developed urban environment.
“We’re building new relationships and pricing a lot of work,” Ryan adds. “The projects we’ve completed and relationships we’ve built have brought us to this point. The biggest thing for us is building relationships and a company culture with the core values that we’ve set in place.” At the heart of Optimum Construction is the ability to first build lasting relationships, and with that, lasting buildings. This is what drives the company, leading with five core values, toward a future in which the possibilities are endless.
