Helmkamp Moves to New Headquarters

Although the recession has sent many in the construction industry scrambling to survive, general contractor Helmkamp Construction Company of East Alton has grown rapidly, more than doubling its annual revenue to $50 million between 2008 and 2009, and outgrowing its corporate headquarters in the process. Helmkamp is a full service general contractor with extensive experience in industrial, power generation/transmission, healthcare, education and corporate building projects.

Helmkamp Construction recently moved from a 4,600-square-foot space in Wood River, Illinois, into a 20,000-square-foot corporate headquarters building, which the company bought in March and recently renovated. The new location at 707 Berkshire Blvd. in East Alton, about a mile-and-a-half from their previous headquarters, doubles their office space and provides room for future expansion as well as lease tenants.

"We grew so fast that we were using conference rooms and meeting space as offices," said Brad Farrell, president of Helmkamp. "At our new building, we now have a training center for 60 people, a formal conference room, several common areas and large private offices to accommodate smaller meetings."

Helmkamp's expansion is due, in part, to its growing energy industry work. They are a general contractor on the ConocoPhillips Wood River $3 billion Coker and Refinery Expansion (CORE) project, which will make the refinery the sixth largest in the U.S. upon completion later this year. Helmkamp also is nearing completion on its portion of a $500 million emissions control project at Dynegy's coal-fired Baldwin Energy Complex in Baldwin, Illinois. Helmkamp has performed work for both companies for more than 40 years.

"We're a relationship-based business and we tend to work with customers over and over again," said Farrell. "Our clients typically are professional buyers who need our high-quality construction services on a repeat basis."

Helmkamp, in business since 1938, specializes in work for private commercial clients in the automotive, building, civil, educational, food & beverage, healthcare, industrial, labs, renovations, and telecommunications industries. The company self-performs excavations, pile driving, demolition, concrete foundations and slabs, structural steel, rough carpentry, finish carpentry, millwright equipment installations, and laser alignment/precision leveling tasks.

Helmkamp was at its previous location in Wood River for 25 years and will maintain an existing storage yard and warehouse space there.

First Bank provided financing for the build-out project. Subcontractors included Kaiser Electric, Kane Mechanical, Bazan Painting, Stephens Floor Covering, Southern Illinois Interiors and St. Louis Woodworks.

Columns