Our History
We cultivate leaders who have demonstrated that they understand how we want things done and who care deeply about the end product, a building that will stand as a lasting testament to the quality of our work.
– MIKE COATES, JR.
DOING IT RIGHT
From our founding in 1958, doing it right has meant safely raising structures, and building them to last. Doing it right means maintaining an unwavering commitment to quality in all we do. It means providing a positive work environment for our employees, a job they know will be there tomorrow. It means building relationships of trust with owners, architects, engineers, subcontractors, unions, and the communities we all serve. It means providing superior value to each owner. And, it means building daily on an enduring reputation for reliability that few can match.
More than sixty years ago, Mike Coates, Sr., the son of a crane operator and a $2.50-an-hour apprentice electrician, organized a small crew of his own to build half-a-dozen well-constructed, affordable homes. Mike soon learned that owners would gladly engage a contractor committed to a quality product. As a result of that early growth, he was quickly able to take on more complicated commercial and institutional projects.
That commitment to build better put Mike Coates Construction on a solid foundation through the recession that ravaged the Mahoning Valley steel industry in the 70’s, when we built our headquarters—now expanded to a 40,000-square-foot facility.
While we have come to specialize in complex buildings with budgets in the tens of millions, we still give simpler projects the attention to detail they deserve. Our singular ability to self-perform in so many trades has brought with it the dual benefits of the tightest possible control of quality and a superior ability to predict and manage costs.
When Mike Coates, Jr. entered the business fulltime in 1986, he put his Case Western Reserve MBA and law degrees to work improving costing and estimating, developing a robust middle-management team, and establishing banking and bonding relationships that would ensure the financial stability of the company for another generation—now bondable to at least $60-million.
“Our experienced middle-management team has been crucial to our success,” he says, “and the longevity of that team is unusual in the industry. Most estimators, project managers and project superintendents have been with us for 15 or 20 years. We like to grow our own, hiring from within, taking people we have watched succeed as apprentices, then journeymen, then foremen, before tapping them to lead and teach others in quality construction.”
“We cultivate leaders who have demonstrated that they understand how we want things done and who care deeply about the end product, a building that will stand as a lasting testament to the quality of our work. These are people who want to do it right, who want to be part of something special, and who want to build structures that last, where people are going to get a good education, or be brought back to good health, or work in a safe and comfortable environment. We are proud to be able to give them that opportunity.”
The safety of the men and women on our team has always been paramount, as exemplified by the 2009 awarding of our first Joan Kovach Safety Leadership Award by the 400-member Mahoning Valley Safety Council–Ohio’s largest.
With strong annual revenues and 150 employees, we look forward to a bright future where we will remain steadfast in our conviction that by doing it right we can never go wrong.