Buch Construction Keeps It In The Family

By Len Lazarick



In what was their grandparent's old house alongside Route 29 in North Laurel, two brothers, a sister and their mom have kept going a little construction business started in 1984 that few business people in their native Howard County have ever heard of.

Driving along Johns Hopkins Road you might miss the little turnoff for the dead-end country lane that takes you a half mile back to offices and outbuildings masked by trees.

Yet last year, Buch Construction did $34 million in business, which included building the new Hecht's department store that opened in the Bowie Town Center. The company, now with 100 employees, is putting the finishing touches on a new Hecht Co. facility in Raleigh, N.C., one of at least 12 large stores it has constructed from the ground up for May Department Stores Co., as that chain of high-end retailers pursues a major national expansion.

Buch, pronounced BOOK, built May's Lord & Taylor's store at the Owings Mills Mall, but not the one in Columbia. "We didn't get that one," said Carl Buch, the brother who directs new business development. In fact, despite the massive construction of office and retail space in Columbia and Howard County in the last decade, Buch has never done a major project here, something the firm hopes to change.

The company did build the interior framework, the "white box" construction, for about 40 of the stores at Arundel Mills, and it has ongoing contracts with American Express in several locations and is erecting a Chevy Chase bank in Mt. Airy.

James R. Buch Jr. had worked for years as a union carpenter for Skinker & Garrett, a now defunct Washington construction firm, and his father before him worked for 50 years as a union carpenter. "He could build anything," said Carl Buch, like the house in Clarksville he grew up in, which his father had built by hand.

At 42, Jimmy Buch decided to start his own construction business, and his wife Marie helped get the $25,000 in family seed money. Buch Construction "got started at his kitchen table," Carl Buch said. "He did what he loved and took care of his clients," he said.

But in 1991, at the age of 49, Jimmy Buch suffered a massive stroke, which he barely survived with some paralysis. "That was the end of his career that day," his son said.

The company was then a $3-4 million business, and the family was dependent on it. And in 1991, "the bottom had basically dropped out of the commercial market," Carl Buch noted, but his mother Marie kept the company running and still keeps an eye on things from a small desk by the front door.

"She's our therapist," said daughter Denise, the numbers-cruncher for the firm- what some companies might call the chief financial officer, but "we don't have any fancy titles," Carl said.

So 11 years ago, Marie Buch had a permanently disabled husband and a general contracting firm that provided livelihood for not only her, but lots of others as well. She realized she could hardly run the company by herself.

"There are so many things that I can't put together in the field," she said. She decided she needed to hire talent that knew a lot more than she did. "Everybody's got to be smart," she determined. "So we proceeded to hire smart people."

Marie appointed Dennis Carlisle, a civil engineer and former Skinker & Garrett employee who had recently joined Buch, as president, a post he still holds. She also felt she needed an in-house lawyer who was an expert on contracts, so she hired James Buck, another former S&G employee.

And they grew the firm, but "we did it real slow," said Marie.

"They're probably one of the more professional contractors we've had to deal with," said Rockville architect Steve Karr, who began working with Buch six years ago and last year used the firm for four of his seven major projects. "A lot of general contractors are nothing more than middlemen, but they're a dues-paying, union general contractor. They self-perform a lot of their own work," and that gives them "an extraordinarily high degree of control."

Buch also treats its subcontractors well, while "a lot of general contractors treat their subs like dirt," said Karr. "And it's a family-owned business, it's not just another corporate entity. It's like one big familyÉ and they're extraordinarily honest."

With Karr as architect, Buch has recently done projects at Suburban Hospital, renovated the Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity in Wheaton, built the Elm Street Office Building in Bethesda, the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union offices in Kensington and several projects for National Rehabilitation Hospital, where Jimmy Buch spent many a day.

"It is a misnomer that the union contractor is going to be more expensive," Karr said. "They may pay more for labor, but they get more done, and more done right during the day."

What about the hazards of a business with four family members working together? Everybody has a job to do, Marie said, and they stay focused on getting the job done. Son Michael, for instance, deals with the Hecht Co. and is in charge of maintenance construction work. "We're all worker bees," said Denise.

Marie admits she's "slowing down a little," still taking care of Jimmy, who does a lot of fishing these days, and spending time with her six grandchildren who live nearby.

Her business philosophy is straightforward: "Be honest, be good to your clients," hire smart people and take care of them. "The people who work for you are the backbone of your success," she said.