A Clean Sweep: How The Owner Of A Philadelphia GC Went From Cleanup Duties To Charting The Company's Future

If there is a single building that exemplifies LK Miller’s past, present and future all at once, it is 5 Apollo Road in Plymouth Township, Pennsylvania, President and CEO Jason Scholl says. 

The Philadelphia-area general contractor built the 30K SF ground-up building in 2004, when Scholl was a 19-year-old laborer for LK Miller. 

“At the time, I was young and naive about how the business worked,” Scholl said. “I was just the guy that would show up and push a broom, throw out the trash — those sorts of things.”

But Scholl did more than keep work sites clean. He observed, learned, asked questions and worked his way up the company ladder. In 2021, he purchased the business from founder Luke Miller.

Soon after he took the reins, the owner of 5 Apollo Road contacted his company to perform a complete rehabilitation of the building’s interior and exterior. The work included 30K SF of interior demolition and a 15K SF fit-out for a new tenant as well as a parking lot repaving, landscaping and roofing.

“We went back this time with me as the owner,” Scholl said. “Not only was it cool to return some 20 years later, but I was able to see the work through a different lens. It was more stressful than when I was pushing a broom, but also more fun and rewarding.”

The project was a test of the team Scholl had been assembling and training for the past 2.5 years. But more importantly, he said it gave him confidence that the eight-person, $10M to $15M company can take on even larger projects and grow.

His ultimate goal is to double LK Miller’s revenue in the next five years, Scholl said. One area the company is venturing into is managing building maintenance for clients that aren't large enough to be part of a property management group but nevertheless need help with the upkeep of plumbing, HVAC and other systems.

Scholl also wants the company to embrace an element of vertical integration so that it isn't completely dependent on other people’s projects.

“I’d like to take LK Miller from being a commercial builder to being a commercial builder and developer,” he said. “I’d like the company to own more properties and generate more of our own work for our own tenants.”

Scholl said Philadelphia’s commercial construction market remains a “little tricky” in the wake of the pandemic, with the office and multifamily sectors particularly slow. 

However, he sees great potential in medical office construction in Philadelphia, which is among the most dynamic regional markets for this type of work. This is an area where LK Miller will concentrate its efforts for the foreseeable future. 

“With the continued specialization of healthcare practices, medical offices in retail settings are starting to boom, and there’s also a lot of office-to-medical conversions going on right now,” he said.

LK Miller’s recent work in this sector includes the complete renovation of a 3K SF medical space in Spring House, Pennsylvania. Scholl said his team put a lot of effort into understanding the needs of the tenant, a growing medical practice. 

Another job involved the 2K SF expansion of a pediatrician’s office in East Norriton, Pennsylvania. Much of the work was performed after hours so the practice could remain fully operational during the day. 

The owner said working with LK Miller on the project was a “constant joy.” That’s not a compliment usually bestowed on a GC, but Scholl said he has worked hard since becoming owner to instill a sense of teamwork among his employees, where people step up and take responsibility for their work. And he said others have taken notice.

“I’ve heard several times from clients and subcontractors that ‘you are surrounded by incredible people and have created a wonderful culture,’” Scholl said. “That warms my heart.”

Scholl said he expects LK Miller’s culture will continue to serve it well as it pursues his growth plans. And if he needs a reminder of how to manage his growing team successfully, he said he only needs to think back on how it was for him 20-plus years ago, pushing a broom at 5 Apollo Road.

“I always chat with team members on the job site for a little bit because I remember some bosses coming through and not knowing my name and not giving 2 cents about what I had to say,” he said. “I treat the guy pushing the broom the same as the guy in the corner office because that’s the kind of company I want to work at, especially as we take on bigger jobs.”

This article was produced in collaboration between LK Miller 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.