For the past 30 years, Joel Stensby has taken part in building some of California’s best-known structures, including the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Pac Bell Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco and Library Square in Los Angeles.
Along with two other partners in 1998, they started KPRS Construction Services Inc., which nowadays generates about $600 million in annual sales and supports thousands of employees and subcontractors.
KPRS has completed more than $4 billion in projects throughout California and nationally to date, including facilities for world-famous brands like Facebook, Microsoft and the LA Zoo.
KPRS has consistently ranked as one of the largest tenant improvement and general contracting firms on the Business Journal’s annual lists.
For all these reasons, Stensby was one of five winners of this year’s Business Journal Excellence in Entrepreneurship award (see stories, pages 1, 4 and 6).
“When we started 22 years ago, this would have been a dream, not an anticipated reality,” Stensby told presenter Brad Hall, founder of the accounting firm Hall & Co., when given the award in a Sept. 9 virtual presentation.
Big and Bigger Projects
Prior to founding KPRS, Stensby was the signor of the contracts for the Aquarium of the Pacific and Pac Bell Park when he was vice president/general manager at Kajima Construction Services Inc. He was also vice president of construction for more than six years for the developer at Playa Vista, a multibillion-dollar, 1,000-acre commercial and residential mixed-use project near Marina del Rey, and in the building of the 52-story Gas Company Tower in downtown Los Angeles.
In 1998, he formed KPRS with Paul Kristedja, who now provides client services in all areas of the business, and Lev Rabinovich, who oversees preconstruction services, including planning and estimates.
“When KPRS was formed, we went from working for large corporations to working for our own with our own lines of credit,” he said.
Instead of focusing on profits, the founders set about to hire the right employees.
“We talked about developing employees that are happy to be there,” Stensby said. “What’s really important to understand is what kind of culture you want to create.”
Sales Growth
The company’s culture has helped spur its sales.
KPRS ranked No. 11 on the Business Journal’s 2019 list of the fastest-growing companies, reporting a 39% revenue growth over a two-year period from 2017 to 2019.
This year, it ranked No. 35 on the Business Journal’s list of the biggest private companies headquartered here with $599 million in sales in 2019. That sales amount also gave it the No. 6 rank on the annual list of commercial construction companies in Orange County. It also ranked No. 2 on the Business Journal’s list of tenant-improvement contractors, reporting $205 million of work in Orange County in 2009.
Among other jobs in Orange County, KPRS handled construction of the sporting facilities at Great Park Neighborhoods last year and is gearing up to do more work for FivePoint Holdings LLC.
The KPRS mission statement includes a goal of supporting and giving back. KPRS regularly participates in community enhancement projects and has partnered with several organizations including Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross and Feed Projects.
Stensby actively supports the Young Professionals Group at NAIOP, serving on the Orange Lutheran High School board and continues to volunteer at his local church.
Coronavirus
Stensby is proud that KPRS didn’t lay off employees during the 2008 financial crisis that devastated the construction industry.
When the coronavirus exploded here in March, construction was deemed an essential business.
“We never went home,” Stensby said.
“I don’t think we had a moment of panic. It’s more a matter of taking a breath and how do you protect people. We pushed forward to keep people safe.”
While KPRS has 300 employees across eight offices throughout California and Hawaii, it also manages thousands of employees who are subcontractors.
“We literally control thousands of people in construction. Knock on wood; we’ve had very healthy jobs. We set up our own mechanisms to ensure separations and do things like take temperatures.”
While construction seems like a business where workers are often apart, certain tasks such as pouring cement require proximity to each other. KPRS worked to mitigate the transmission of the disease by having the same group of people work together.
“If we can keep the same groups of people working consistently together, we can minimize transfer” of the disease, he said.
“One of the things the industry has done is to continue to work together. You must worry about is cross contamination.”
Employees who work at the office initially worked from home and have since returned to the office, he said.
“Most of the employees are now back.”
Sees Booming 2021
Stensby initially believed 2020 would be a banner year. Then the coronavirus hit, which slowed some projects and pushed back timetables a few months.
He’s projecting revenue will be flat at around $600 million this year. He’s getting ready for a booming 2021 with plans to add up to 10% more employees.
“Next year it looks like be significantly higher,” he said.
