Chicago-Based Stone Supplier Preps For A Big Year … In 2026

While many cautiously expect 2025 to be the year commercial real estate begins to regain its mojo, one contractor is predicting a significant uptick in volume of work starting in 2026 as once-delayed projects move forward.

“2026 is going to be very busy,” said Sandya Dandamudi, president of GI Stone, a Chicago-based supplier, fabricator and installer of ​​interior and exterior stone cladding, floors, countertops, furniture and custom projects. 

Dandamudi said she is “incredibly optimistic,” adding that her firm is prepared to seize opportunities that market dislocations are likely to catalyze in the next couple of years.

“We’re well placed in terms of the machinery and staff we have in place,” said Dandamudi, whose firm will celebrate three decades in business later this year.

Dandamudi is bullish about the firm’s hometown of Chicago, where she said GI Stone has a robust pipeline of work. The commercial stone contractor is also looking for opportunities elsewhere, such as Nashville, where it plans to open an office.

“That city’s skyline is dotted with dozens of cranes,” Dandamudi said.

Closer to home in coming years, the firm is slated to work on Chicago-area projects such as the 220 N. Ada St. mixed-use development, Related Midwest’s luxury rental 400 Lake Shore and the Hyatt Centric Chicago/O'Hare Airport.

Dandamudi said other Chicago projects, some of which are delayed but expected to come back online, will contribute to the city’s construction market. They include the redevelopment of the North Side campus of the Moody Bible Institute into a mixed-use destination, Lincoln Yards, the Michael Reese Hospital site redevelopment and The 78, the 62-acre riverfront development that will expand the city’s central business district southward.

Looking For Cost Savings

Dandamudi said her firm’s clients continue to struggle to keep a lid on budgets and are looking to their contractors for cost-saving solutions. Meanwhile, with a new pro-tariff administration in Washington, D.C., she said the market has many unanswered questions. 

“I don’t think the market can absorb interest rates staying at 7% and higher tariffs, but we’re walking in a fog right now,” Dandamudi said. “Everything is not clear.”

Still, GI Stone isn’t sitting on its hands and is exploring how to bring its clients the efficiencies they are clamoring for.

“We’re hunting for new suppliers, including in Brazil,” Dandamudi said. “When we go to conferences, we aren’t just reconnecting with old friends. We’re spending more time talking to everyone and discovering new vendors.”

GI Stone is also expanding its U.S.-based vendor portfolio while also forming new relationships abroad, she added.

“That is because America's domestic supply of stone has limited variety,” Dandamudi said. “We don't have exotics like onyx, and our choices would be limited without the global marketplace.”

But some projects are well matched with the selection available closer to home. GI Stone's work on the Obama Presidential Center uses stone sourced from North America exclusively, Dandamudi said.

“It's just that the choices from within North America have a more institutional look, as befits this kind of structure,” Dandamudi said. 

In addition to reexamining its supply chain, GI Stone is experimenting with dozens of other technological innovations that together can add up to big savings. The company now recommends clients look at options such as half-inch-thick slabs or stone pieces that are larger and easier to install over large surfaces.

“Anything that makes things cheaper but not cheaper-looking,” Dandamudi said.

Home Is Where The Stone Is

The last 15 years have brought a sea change to the American idea of homeownership, prompting GI Stone to launch a luxury residential division, Dandamudi said.

While high interest rates and the surge in housing prices precipitated by the pandemic have put homeownership out of reach for swaths of the middle class, many high net worth individuals are focused on improving the livability and comforts of their homes and no longer view resale value as their highest priority.  

“To achieve this, our clients today have an entourage of consultants,” Dandamudi said. “They are working with an interior designer, an owner’s rep and a general contractor. And the interior designer’s status has been elevated.”

The change has been a tailwind for GI Stone.

“Our residential division is booming organically,” Dandamudi said. “Thirty years ago, we jettisoned our residential business to focus on commercial work exclusively, but things have changed completely in the intervening years.”

GI Stone’s affluent residential clients are focused on their personal comfort and staying in place, and they are increasingly confident in their tastes, she added. It doesn’t hurt that the use of stone in interiors has vastly expanded in recent decades.

“Thirty years ago, stone was reserved for office building lobbies, museums and college campuses,” Dandamudi said. “On the one hand, stone is very old, but on the other hand, it’s new in the sense that only institutions and very wealthy people were decorating their interiors with stone until recently.”

Constant Innovation 

Dandamudi said that the work of GI Stone’s commercial and residential divisions now often bolster each other.

“Many of the interior designers and architects we work with on commercial projects also have practices focused on high-end residential, which dovetails with the division we launched,” Dandamudi said. “It’s been easy to piggyback on that.”

Regardless of division, innovation in the industry continues apace.

“It’s simpler today to create stone in different textures and finishes, like polished, matte, honed and leather,” Dandamudi said. “Folks are taking the veins in the stone and gouging them and opening up the crystalline structure for dramatic effects. It’s not just flat surfaces anymore.”

Dandamudi said she looks forward to working with materials in these new ways as GI Stone performs more commercial and high-end residential work in coming years.

“There’s plenty of room for growth in the industry,” Dandamudi said. “For us, the playbook is to focus on our areas of expertise, lean in to the quality we are known for and take care of our customers and our employees.” 

This article was produced in collaboration between GI Stone and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.