The business television program "Alabama, Inc." returns to your local Alabama Public Television station this Wednesday night at 10:00 pm.
Alabama Public Radio continues its collaboration on the television show about business called Alabama, Inc. Season two begins tonight. I'll interview the head of a construction company in Birmingham. His work may be familiar, especially if you vacation in Orlando.
“I drive by buildings we did, and I say ‘I built that,’” says Rob Burton.
Burton is part of a family business. His father didn’t start the Hoar Construction Company. But, he helped make it bigger. “I could have been brain washed at an early age,” says Burton. “Because he’d drive by buildings he said, and he’d say ‘I did that.’” Rob Burton is now the CEO.
A book on the coffee table of his office gives a hint about one particular project. On the cover is a color photo of a castle and a mouse you may have heard of. Namely, the Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando. “It’s one of my favorite projects,” says Burton. “And, it made me famous with my children.”
Hoar Construction started off small. Disney wanted an office building at the Disney- Hollywood Studios Park, so Hoar built it. Then, they did a Disney store inside a shopping mall. Burton says that was just for starters . “Then we did mission space inside EPCOT,” Burton recalls. “After that, they asked if we wanted to build an indoor roller coaster. I thought ‘how many of those have we done?’ And, I said yes!” It was the Rockin’ Roller Coaster at the Disney-Hollywood Studios. “That one made me famous with my children,” says Burton. “If you build part of Disney World, they think you’re a hero.”
By comparison to roller coasters and outer space rides, the campus of Samford University in Birmingham may seem a bit quaint. Hoar construction crews are using cranes to build the foundation of a new business school. “It’ll be five stories, about eighty or ninety thousand square feet,” says Burton. “It’s going to be a beautiful marquee facility. And as you can tell by the venue up here on top of the hill, it’s going to be a prominent building here on the Samford campus.”
This is the Brock School of Business at Samford. For Burton, it’s not just a case of somebody writing a big check to get their name on the building. The school is named after Harry Brock, the founder of Compass Bank. Burton says he and Brock’s son Buck were boyhood friends… “This building is important to them and the family, and it’s important to the campus,” says Burton. “But, it’s emotionally important to me to be a part of this building that represents that family. So, it is kind of a circle of life thing.”
Hoar Construction also built the biggest hospital in Alabama history. The company restored the nearly century old Vance Federal office building and courthouse in Birmingham. They even built Maritime Park in Pensacola, home to the minor league team the Blue Wahoos. Still, Burton can be critical of his own industry. One of his complaints is a trend called fast tracking. That’s when builders design a project as they go, to save the customer money… “It creates huge inefficiencies in between, because you’re moving so fast,” says Burton. “You actually don’t get to stop and ask ‘what’s the best way to install that window.’” Burton quotes studies that say up to sixty percent of the labor spent on construction is wasted.
He’s also concerned about the future of his industry. The recession created a twenty percent unemployment rate among construction workers. Burton spends a lot of his time trying to talk young people into trade skills. “You get out there as a laborer, and you learn how concrete is put together,” says Burton. “And then you become a carpenter foreman, then you a foreman, or a superintendent. And the next thing you know, you’re one of the men out there building for Disney.”
Rob Burton and I talk more about how he got from here to there tonight on Alabama, Inc on your local Alabama Public Television Station, Wednesdays at 10:00 pm.
