From Laborer To Owner, How A GC Continues His Company’s 30-Year Legacy

General contractors play an integral part in maintaining momentum on projects. From the planning stages to the execution of a project, a GC is there every step of the way to ensure its success. Without a quality GC, it’s tough for all parties involved to be in sync, whether it’s getting permits for the building, finding the right architect for the design or hiring subcontractors to help meet daily goals. 

LK Miller, a general contractor company based in Philadelphia, is committed to staying with all of its clients through every phase of a project to ensure its success. As a result, clients have kept coming back for more than three decades, LK Miller President and CEO Jason Scholl said.

“In our 30-year-plus history, we’ve built a reputation of catering to our client’s needs whether small or large,” Scholl said. “While we’re a midsized contractor, we have deep connections in the greater Philadelphia region to handle projects of different types and sizes while working with a great team to ensure the construction process is seamless.”

LK Miller recently renovated a 30K SF office facility in Plymouth Township at 5 Apollo Road. Scholl said this was a special project because the company has personal ties to the building dating back two decades. 

A few years before renovations started, Scholl was in the process of buying LK Miller from the original owner, Luke Miller. It was around this time that a local veteran broker, Paul Tornetta, whom Miller worked with in the past, referred him to the financial group Legacy Advisors. Legacy eventually bought 5 Apollo Road and wanted Miller to renovate the property. Miller had brought Scholl in to take over this renovation as the new owner and agreed with all parties involved on the project's direction.

At the beginning of Scholl’s career with LK Miller in 2002, he was doing everything from acting as the executive assistant and superintendent to sweeping the floors, so he had an intimate understanding of the company as a whole and this particular project when he took over in 2021.

“This renovation holds sentimental value to me as I was grabbing coffee for everyone and working my way up the ladder when this property first got built in 2004,” he said. “Twenty years later, I'm revisiting this space for a new purpose as owner of LK Miller.”

The design process took months of preparation to execute, with many long meetings for the team to “really nail the look” before construction started, Scholl said. It required careful planning between Legacy and Nelson Architects. 

LK Miller acted as an intermediary to keep everything in unison, not only to make sure the design was what Legacy wanted but also to stick to the original construction budget based on a plan Scholl created. He worked with Superintendent Jim Jordan to help keep the project on target. 

“I worked hand in hand with my superintendent to ensure each goal was met,” he said. “We stayed focused on achieving the mission of providing our client with a first-class office space for a price they were comfortable with.”

The property stood vacant for several years before it was purchased by Legacy in 2021. Legacy had the vision to turn this into a Class-A office space in a prime location for its own use, while leasing the other half to other tenants. 

LK Miller also does renovations for the local medical industry. Out of the 75 projects the company does a year, healthcare accounts for a third of its construction jobs, many of which are located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. 

Scholl said the main challenge of these healthcare projects is that they require more complex mechanical, electrical and plumbing work. That's why he hires experienced designers and equipment vendors in the medical field who know what permits are needed. They also determine if the building needs electrical upgrades for the new machinery and can walk a tenant through the building to show the best places to install equipment.

Scholl noticed more healthcare spaces rising as commercial businesses downsized their offices during the pandemic. He said former office buildings have the ideal infrastructure and size to be converted into healthcare facilities with plenty of parking spaces and the right HVAC systems in place.

Scholl said that while LK Miller was already doing renovations in the healthcare industry dating back to 1990, the pandemic was a catalyst for more medical construction being fast-tracked. In the process, he learned that local orthodontists and pediatricians needed more space, which led to the company doing more renovation projects. 

“The medical community is so close-knit, and I was able to get work based on referrals from other tenants due to successful renovations I had worked on in the area,” he said.

Scholl said he wants to continue to grow the company steadily and get more involved on the development side while nurturing the relationships with his long-term clients. He believes this will set LK Miller on a pathway for another 30 years in the construction industry.

“Our next step is to be more hands-on with the development end and eventually become building owners ourselves,” he said. “We feel like being involved in owning and developing buildings will not only increase our revenue but, more importantly, present more avenues to help our clients.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and LK Miller. 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.