Consistency helps firm build trust, clients

BUILDING UP BUSINESS: New England Construction’s success through the recession recovery has resulted in revenue that reached $55 million last fiscal year, a 57 percent increase from 2011’s $35 million. Pictured above, from left, are: David Sluter, founder and CEO of New England Construction; John Marques, senior project manager; Billy Craig, director of business development for Boston; and Matthew Sluter, president. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
BUILDING UP BUSINESS: New England Construction’s success through the recession recovery has resulted in revenue that reached $55 million last fiscal year, a 57 percent increase from 2011’s $35 million. Pictured above, from left, are: David Sluter, founder and CEO of New England Construction; John Marques, senior project manager; Billy Craig, director of business development for Boston; and Matthew Sluter, president. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

David A. Sluter says he developed a work ethic as a youth when he milked cows, shoveled manure, raked hay and completed other tasks on dairy farms in small towns in western Massachusetts.
Sluter, the founder, president and CEO of New England Construction in East Providence, said he became used to waking up bright and early with farmers.
“You can’t take the farmer out of the boy,” said Sluter, 66, whose company provides multifamily residential and business construction, design, general contracting and real estate services throughout the Northeast.
Starting at 5 years old, when his family lived on a cousin’s dairy farm in Whately, Mass., he and an older brother were assigned chores. Later, he worked on dairy farms in the region as a teenager. To this day, Sluter said, he is out of bed by 5 a.m. every day.
It’s a good habit to have for the leader of a business in the competitive regional construction industry, segments of which are still feeling the effects of the Great Recession. The firm’s success through the recovery is evident in growth of annual revenue that reached $55 million last fiscal year, a 57 percent increase from 2011’s $35 million. That three-year growth rate ranked the firm first in Providence Business News’ ranking of fastest-growing private companies with annual revenue of between $25 million and $75 million.
Consistently getting a jump on the competition requires more than just getting up early each day, however. So how are they doing it?
“The easy answer is our people,” said Sluter. “We have a great team that is focused on adding value for our customers. We also work very hard to make sure we are a good fit with prospective customers and we look for opportunities that will generate repeat business.”
And that often means traveling throughout the region and beyond for work with customers that mirror their own standards.
“We are willing to travel for good customers and have built projects from South Carolina to Maine and as far west as Ohio,” he said.
Sluter said “simple is better” when it comes to business: “I like to do business with people I like and trust. That’s pretty simple.”
He cited the philosophy of his loan officer at Bristol County Savings Bank, which has financially supported New England Construction for 13 years.
“He told me, ‘Dave, this business is really simple. We lend you money and you pay us back.’ I’ve always liked that simple philosophy. It’s the old-fashioned way of underwriting.”
The company has found recent success serving the millennial generation or downsizing baby boomers with apartment projects involving rents at market rates.
“We have been active in this market and will continue to look for select opportunities,” he said, though “apartment-development projects are becoming more difficult for developers to financially underwrite and execute.”
At the end of August, the company expected to complete work as construction manager of the $13 million “Mallory Ridge” project in Bloomfield, Conn. The work included 78 rental-apartment units in four three-story buildings in suburban Bloomfield.
This fall, the company is scheduled to break ground on 130 apartment units in two four-story buildings in Windsor, Conn., near a commuter rail station. The company is co-developer and builder of the project.
As main developer and builder, New England Construction is also finishing design and permits on 193 apartments in three buildings in North Attleboro.
On the commercial side, the company is benefiting from a boom in fast casual restaurants. It is currently building two 5,000-square-foot Corner Bakery cafes in Long Island and New Jersey.
In West Warwick, the company is finishing construction on a 25,669-square-foot Subaru dealership, the last of four dealerships it built in Warwick and West Warwick for the Balise Motor Sales Group, based in West Springfield, Mass.
The company also just started constructing a building for used-car retailer CarMax in Warwick.
It also began building an administration building for the Stetson School, a private school for troubled boys in Barre, Mass.
In Carver, Mass., the company in July finished building a 14,000-square-foot facility for Norfolk Power Equipment, which sells and maintains landscape and agricultural equipment.
It also completed in July a 10,000-square-foot maintenance and turf center for the White Cliffs Country Club in Plymouth, Mass., and a 9,000-square-foot addition, including 4,000-square-feet for a Vision Works, at the upscale Village at Colony Place plaza in Plymouth.
The company currently employs 40 people, including project managers, project engineers, superintendents and general senior support.
New England Construction, founded by Sluter in 1985, was begun as a family business and it remains that.
Sluter’s wife, Marjorie, used to run the finance operations of the company. Sluter and his wife first started an inspection and engineering consulting company in 1980.
The couple’s youngest of three sons, Matthew, 35, was named president of New England Construction in March. The middle son, Ethan, 38, is a development manager at the company and the oldest, Steven, 39, is an estimator at the company. All worked elsewhere before joining the company.
In August 2013, Sluter and his wife moved into one of their top developments. They sold their home in Providence and are currently renting a two-story, 2,400-square-foot home in Rumford Center in East Providence.
His company was construction manager for the project, which involved converting buildings from a 19th-century baking powder mill into 112 apartments, as well as office and retail space.
The apartments rented almost immediately after the complex opened in December of 2008 and the rest of the space was fully occupied as of three years ago, he said.
Sluter’s new home is located less than a mile from New England Construction’s corporate offices at 293 Bourne Ave. in East Providence.
“I can walk to work if I want to,” he said.

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