Strata Building Group is making a name for itself among Southern Nevada contractors. It’s a new name, coupled with a renewed vision and focus.
Strata Building Group LLC was formerly known as Centra Construction. While Centra Construction nurtured a thriving client base – working for its parent company, Centra Properties, as well as taking outside contracts – the association with the parent company caused the firm to miss opportunities, according to President Charles Mitchener. Some developers opted to hire other firms due to concerns that the parent company, a well-known developer in Southern Nevada, would be involved in their business. This ultimately led Mitchener and Centra to dissolve their bonds, allowing Mitchener and his team to form Strata Building Group.
Mitchener, who brought the entire Centra Construction team to Strata Building Group, said he feels strongly that the bottom line to success is having a team of people who can make things happen. “It is easy to fill spots in an organization, but it is much more difficult to have the best people in the spots,” he said. “We believe we have that now. We each care about what we are doing, want to do it the best we can, want the process to be easy and enjoyable for our clients, want our clients to be successful in the facility we construct, want our team to be successful, and look forward to conquering the next challenge.”
To further inspire team-building, Mitchener recently took all of his employees on a team-building trip fly-fishing in Montana.
When not reeling in fish, the Strata Building Group team is hard at work reeling in a variety of clients, with a focus on office, industrial, retail and commercial projects. “We think we do design-build as well as anyone,” Mitchener said, pointing to the firm’s commitment to value engineering and the monthly status reports, complete with photos, it prepares for clients.
Projects he is particularly proud of include buildings for Colonial Bank, Vestin Mortgage and Stewart Title. With a construction volume of approximately 350,000 square feet and more than $20 million in the past two years, Strata Building Group is developing Gaming Today’s office/warehouse project and the Giroux Glass office/warehouse building.
Another recent challenging project included the conversion of Pulte Homes’ former headquarters into a multi-tenant building for Pulte/Del Webb. “It required a lot of planning and coordination to make it happen,” Mitchener said.
Strata is in negotiations for numerous other large-scale projects and tenant improvements and will be working on a California condominium project that is a joint venture with another contracting firm.
Mitchener and his team also go to great lengths to maintain excellent relationships with subcontractors. “We and other contractors are all working from basically the same pool of subcontractors,” he said. “We spend a lot of time building our relationships with our subs and treat them with respect.”
Mitchener has spent nearly three decades in the construction industry. His background also includes senior-level positions for Panattoni Construction, Kitchell Contractors, Nathan Construction, Americon Companies, Inc., Tibesar Construction, Sigma Contracting and Splashtown USA. Although his company is doing business under a new name, Mitchener’s goal remains the same: to build at the next level, in both his personal and professional life. “We understand it’s not Strata paying our salaries – it’s the customer,” said Mitchener.
