FALLS CHURCH, VA–At the end of last year locally-based HITT Contracting made several changes to its executive line up. Long-time HITT executive Kim Roy was elevated to CEO, making her the only female chief executive at a large US construction company.

Co-Presidents Brett Hitt, whose grandfather founded the company 80 years ago, and Jim Millar, have become co-chairmen of a newly formed board. Two senior executives, Jeremy Bardin and Drew Mucci, are the new co-presidents.

The leadership changes come as the company is positioning itself for a new round of growth. It is moving beyond its local roots — Seattle and Richmond, for example, are two new markets that HITT is targeting. The company is continuing to expand its data center construction business. It is also more deeply embracing  emerging technology in the construction industry with the launch of a new lab. GlobeSt.com spoke with Roy, Bardin and Mucci about its plans for growth.

First, HITT is a relationship contractor

Roy: First, we are going to ensure that the really strong relationships with our clients, with our partners in the industry, with our team members, continue. From there we are focusing on a number of other fronts. To continue to grow, for instance, we have to ensure that we're attracting talent. Also I think the industry is ripe for change and HITT wants to be a part of that. We've developed corporate initiatives that focus on how we can be a part of that dialogue of changing the construction business.

About our new lab and what we think about IoT

Roy: This year we're going to roll out a lab…it'll be a hub where we explore advances in productivity and technology, such as robotics, modular prefab and the Internet of Things. We want to be a part of the change that this industry is really ready for.

About a year ago, a year and a half ago, we started a technology research project. We have not released any of the data on it yet but it was focused on using drone technology in the field, and it had a couple different
applications relating to site work. We'll continue on with that as well.

Also we know a growing number of our clients are interested in IoT. We haven't had a specific project on that but it is definitely on the radar. Our virtual construction team has started looking at some of the IoT technology and how they roll into current construction. If nothing else it creates a lot more data that can be useful to us and our clients.

What is different about data center construction

Bardin: It's very specialized. For instance, there are less subcontractors involved on a typical contract than with a base building — instead of, say, 60 subcontractors, we're usually dealing with 15 and they typically travel with us to the job.

So where a typical base building job might have a staff of at least 20, we can do a tech job with 10 and speed it to the market. In a base building job, we're typically at it 20, 25, 30 months, while in a tech job, we're done in about eight or nine months. All that comes together to make us very competitive across the US in tech work.

Where we plan to grow

Mucci: We're looking a number of different targets. Manufacturing and logistics are ever changing markets that really pique our interest. We're spending a lot of time in both understanding them from the owner's perspective. There's also some more geographic locations we will focus on in the future.

One of the opportunities that we came across in 2016 was up in Seattle, and we really pushed hard into that market. It's created a lot of growth for the company. We plan on repeating that model of growth in other markets as well.

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