Brad Grose – Alpha Construction

If you’ve recently stepped into a chain hotel and marveled at the contemporary look and feel—crisp architectural lines and muted colors, registration areas of faux brick and glass, comfy and spacious common areas with fireplaces and modernistic lighting, grotto-like pools and outdoor patios with firepits—chances are it was designed and built by Alpha Construction and its proven team of partners.

Eighteen years in, the Ohio-based full-service general contractor continues to grow its portfolio of such hospitality locations, as well as senior living villages and multifamily complexes.

The way President Brad Grose puts it? It all comes down to relationships.

“Which is probably cliché for some to say,” he acknowledges. “But we have the luxury of building six, seven, eight, nine, 10 projects for the same clients. We’ve built business relationships, also friendships, with our clients.”

From inception to completion

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Winesburg, Ohio, Alpha has built for many hotel chains, including Marriott, Hilton, Choice, Wyndham and Best Western, as well as for Ohio’s Danbury chain of assisted living, memory care and independent living communities.

Design flourishes and amenities across these locations include terraces, patios, fountain pools and gazebos, sidewalks, salons, gyms, common areas and conference spaces with vaulted ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows.

As Grose explains, the 30-employee company likes to be involved in projects from the infancy stage. This allows his team to have a strong hand in project feasibility studies, land selection and acquisition, project design and construction. The company even takes it through to the furniture, fixtures, equipment stage and opening.

And although headquartered in Ohio, Alpha is expanding into new projects in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee and Alabama.

“Given the right opportunity, and the client relationship, we want to grow with clients wherever they go,” Grose says, noting that the company is currently starting six new hotels and a senior housing complex.

He adds that, “most work is word of mouth. We rarely competitively bid; 90 percent of our work is negotiated.”

The company is broadening into new project types as well, most notably medical office buildings. One freshly constructed example is Norton Parkway in Mentor, Ohio. The 30,000-square-foot location, which opened in October, houses two eye doctors, three dentists and a dermatologist.

“Medical offices and centers are certainly a field that we’re looking to hit very heavily,” Grose says.

He adds, “It’s neat to build something that the everyday person can use, that they can physically see and physically use for years to come. Our projects will be around for a long time—hundreds, thousands, millions of people will see them. It’s the tangible element in the end.”

A lifetime of relationships

Grose works closely with President and Chief Financial Officer Naomi Miller, who started in the business as a teenager. An industry veteran himself, Grose started out in construction at age 16 working for a high-end residential home builder. As he puts it, “I got the bug from there.”

After graduating with a business degree from Bowling Green State University, he spent seven years as a senior estimator and project manager with a large general contractor specializing in commercial construction. In 2010 he joined Alpha, where he oversees company planning, client acquisition, pre-construction processes and project construction. His work is 90 percent “keeping the pipeline full,” he explains.

Grose notes that he was interested in becoming part of the management and ownership of a company with a “great family atmosphere,” which, when he joined, was growing from a simple trade enterprise to a broader general contracting focus.

Alpha has very little turnover, he says, largely because the company takes the viewpoint that it is not only employing the person but their families, as well. For example: At holiday parties and other company events, employees and their family members receive gifts and accolades.

“We take a personal interest in clients and staff,” Grose points out. “We want repeat clients, we want staff to want to be here, we want them to start their careers here and end their careers here.”