MEET RANDY HALL
Job: CEO of Batson-Cook Construction
Age: 50
Education: Auburn University, B.S. in civil engineering
Family: Married with five children
Lives: Peachtree City
Favorite quote: "You can have everything in life that you want if you just help enough other people get what they want" — Zig Ziglar
Reading: "The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business," by Patrick Lencioni
At 98-years-old, the Batson-Cook Construction Co. is one of the oldest, continuously operating companies in Georgia — but it got hit hard in the recession like many commercial contractors did.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that Batson-Cook’s new CEO, Randy Hall, is convinced the economy is improving.
“There is anxious optimism,” he says, pointing to the recent rebound in consumer confidence.
Hall has held many executive positions at Batson-Cook. He was named president in January 2012 and CEO a year later. He is responsible for the firm’s strategic planning, business development, pre-construction services and construction operations.
Q: How has the economy affected your revenue?
A: Our revenues were about $300 million in 2012, but we were not immune to the devastation of the downturn. Our revenues between 2008 and 2011 were hurt tremendously.
The revenues for 2012 put us back to within 80 to 85 percent of our 2008 figures. We haven’t fully recovered, but the graph is going up and to the right. And that’s good.
Q: During the recession, money got tight. It was hard to borrow. What’s going on now?
A: For real estate development, lending has been and continues to be tight. With revenues being down, there has not been as much cash flowing through the company, so we have tightened our belt tremendously.
Q: What does your company specialize in?
A: Healthcare is one. We delivered more than $190 million in healthcare facilities last year. We also specialize as general contractors in education, hospitality, office, retail, multi-family housing, hotels. Also, industrial and religious buildings.
Q: Can you give me some examples of things you’ve built?
A: We built the Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Newnan. Other signature projects include Duke Energy Center in Charlotte, the Bank of America headquarters in Charlotte, Baptist/Wolfson Tower in Jacksonville, Fla., and the Cloister Hotel renovation in Sea Island.
We are currently building high-rise luxury apartment buildings in Atlanta, Orlando, Austin and Houston.
Q: Is it surprising to you that there’s a lot of demand for luxury rental units?
A: No. We spend a lot of time watching trends in the markets where we work in. There have been for the last five years many young college graduates living with mom and dad. There's a bunch of them. Now, they are slowly getting jobs and need a place to live.
We also have a lot of folks who have struggled with mortgages and their only option is to move back into a rental category. My opinion is the upcoming generation may prefer the flexibility of a rental home over the ties of home ownership. That’s why we are so busy building high-rise apartment buildings. It’s why luxury apartment towers are doing so well.
Q: Where are you headquartered? What’s your history?
A: In West Point, Ga., but I work in our Atlanta office.
Batson-Cook has been around since 1915. The company was owned by family members until 2008, but by then they were getting on in years. To give the company a chance to advance, the decision was made to sell the company to someone who had an interest and a good record. The timing was perfect because 2007 was our very best year.
Q: Who did the company get sold to?
A: Kajima, which is a publicly-owned company in Japan. They have a hands-off management style and they have a long-term view of everything. The Japanese have helped us keep people in place and prepare for a period of growth. They were buying the name and reputation of Batson-Cook. So now we are part of Kajima USA. Kajima is a highly-respected, large 150-year old contractor based in Tokyo.
Q: Where do you have offices?
A: Besides Atlanta and West Point, in Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla.
Q: How many employees do you have?
A: We have 324 employees. About 50 percent work through the Atlanta office, 20 percent through West Point and the remainder through Jacksonville and Tampa.
Q: How has the recent comeback in residential housing helped Batson-Cook?
A: Commercial construction almost always follows residential construction. The more people moving and creating communities, it creates need for office buildings and all the things centered around residential growth.
Q: What’s your chief job?
A: Sales, operations and profitability fall under my responsibility. If you have good people who enjoy what they do, that is 85 percent of the job. You have to trust the people who are executives.
Q: Have you done most of your work outside of Atlanta?
A: No. We did most of the underground tunneling for the plane train at Hartsfield-Jackson. We built the original Delta hangar. We built the first residential tower in Atlanta in Peachtree Towers, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the Galleria complex of buildings.
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