Flywheel Model Spins Success For Minds
First decade shows Midwest D-Vision Solutions’ best niche is not having just one. By Doug Fox
When Marshall Tate and Sean Wright started Midwest D-Vision Solutions (MWDS) in 2013, they did it with the mindset of creating an entirely new breed of subcontractor in the Utah market. Deploying a unique flywheel approach championed by some of the area’s biggest general contractors themselves, Midwest D-Vision Solutions is pacing to do $75 million in business in 2023. Things are clearly trending in the right direction for MWDS as the company marks its 10th anniversary year.
“We’re kind of to that point where, honestly, if there’s a large project, it’s rare that we don’t have something on it,” Tate said. “It may be that we’re only doing a small division for one building and we’re doing four divisions for another. But most large projects, we’ve got our hand in, in one form or another. We’re just kind of at that scale now.”
No Pane, No Gain
When Tate and Wright –– as CEO and President, respectively at Midwest Commercial Interiors –– set out to disrupt Utah’s subcontractor market in 2013, they did an incredibly smart thing by meeting with leaders of the state’s biggest general contractors to pick their brains, understand their biggest frustrations, and find out what kind of subcontractor would be of the greatest benefit to them.
“One of the primary drivers of this journey was to sit down with the C suites of all the general contractors that we had come to know well and had trusted relationships with, and really get their input on where they saw problems within their construction means, methods and schedule,” Wright said. “We wanted to be the easiest company [for them] to do business with from the day the job landed in our lap.”
What they learned through their discussions was that there were three primary frustrations for the big general construction firms. They wanted better coverage within categories, better field execution and improved project closeout.
In terms of expanded coverage within categories, Wright explained that any particular project might have 10 scope areas inside of a certain division. Companies would typically bid on singular aspects of those 10 different specialties based on the nature of their specialty. What would make things simpler for the GCs, however, would be if one company could be hired to do all or multiple scopes.
“So our business premise was pretty simple when we started,” Wright said. “We wanted to give them 95 percent coverage confidence and we wanted to build the right kind of team that would be able to estimate, project manage and field deliver the projects we took on.”
Wright said the advice from the general contractors proved pivotal, leading MWDS to expand its available scopes of flooring, increased offerings in Division 8 of doors and hardware, as well as glass and glazing. Those latter two moves in particular have been critical to the company’s "flywheel" approach.
“Part of that flywheel strategy for us was to be able to offer a more comprehensive Division 8 offering to the marketplace. We really tried to differentiate ourselves from everyone else by investing in our own capabilities to engineer, draw and fabricate what (we sell)."
Glass and glazing services, Wright said, are indicative of the fragmentation in the market.
“You have the really big boys that are doing curtain wall on big skyscrapers and then you have a big gap down to smaller providers that are doing smaller commercial,” he said. “We wanted to fit somewhere in the middle there.”
As such, he said MWDS has found a sweet spot in providing glass for schools of all sizes, church facilities and office buildings in the range of three to five stories.
Tate added that subcontractors in any market are people who have grown up in and come to own a business committed to one particular trade. At MWDS, the approach is completely opposite.
“This company wasn’t built by trades people,” Tate said. “The company was built for general contractors by general contractors. We allowed [top contractors] to tell us what markets we should be in and where our business model would be most effective for them. They not only coached us on how to grow our company, they made strong business commitments to help us grow our company in the direction they wanted us to grow.”
"Walk, talk and smell like a subcontractor"
Several months after opening Midwest D-Vision Solutions, Tate and Wright determined they needed someone specifically over the new operation. Wright knew just the person –– Eric Reynolds, a former colleague at a prominent design firm.
The only problem was, Reynolds didn’t consider himself the right man for the job.
“When Sean and Marshall came to me with the idea of starting this off, I remember one of the first things I said to them was, ‘This is exciting. It’s exactly what the market needs, but sorry, I’m not your guy. I’ve never done anything of that sort,’” Reynolds said with a laugh. “Obviously that didn’t stick. They wouldn’t take no for an answer from me.”
Reynolds –– only the fourth employee at MWDS when he was hired, started as General Manager, and was elevated to Vice President in 2020 –– said the factors that weighed heavily in changing his mind were the trust that he would have the necessary support to make a difference, along with the ability to navigate his own pathway in fulfilling the company’s overall vision.
Reynolds said he didn’t necessarily know what to expect from the company when he started but noted any worry or trepidation went out the window after the company’s initial growth, and delivering on huge projects like the Salt Lake International Airport, the new Utah State Correctional Facility, and the state-of-the-art 95 State at City Creek office tower.
“On Day 1, I probably was not thinking I was going to be building a new airport or being part of a new prison or even these 25-story towers. Those were not really in the cards, in my mind,” he said. “But now I’m like, ‘Bring it on!’ Any project, any size scope –– I’m eager and ready.”
The Next 10 Years
Midwest D-Vision Solutions not only remained fully functional during the COVID pandemic, it had all the projects its workforce could handle. It’s more the aftereffects of COVID that are providing challenges now and in the foreseeable future.
According to Tate, those obstacles include an incredibly disruptive supply chain followed by an equally disruptive inflation spike, both of which affected overall prices of projects.
“Price will always be important in construction,” said Tate, “but price is less of a primary driver today than it was three years ago by a long shot. Price doesn’t mean a lot if they can’t get the product. Price doesn’t mean a lot if they don’t have the labor to execute. Price doesn’t mean a lot if the whole process is so short-circuited. So there’s really been some fundamental changes, and I think in many ways those changes have kind of mirrored how we set ourselves up strategically.”
But when it comes to the biggest potential challenge in the years ahead, both Tate and Wright cited workforce scarcity.
“People have been and will be for the foreseeable future, our single-most significant constraint to growth,” Tate said. “You know, there’s something brewing out there. […] Where we’re headed, it’s not going to be a question of who has the lowest price. It’s going to be a question of who has people that can actually execute on the job.”
Once again taking advantage of its flywheel business model, Tate said MWDS is well-situated to counter future staffing issues as much as possible. He noted the company can bring in new employees and immediately put them to work in jobs that require less initial expertise. Then as their experience grows, they will have the opportunity to shift into higher trade categories, such as glass and glazing, where the earning potential is greater.
With five operating divisions working under a single roof, MWDS employees will have the ability to grow their careers in any number of directions, Tate said.
“I want to drive home that our ability to recruit and retain the best talent in the market is going to be, I think in the future, the biggest differentiator between companies. And those companies that are paranoid and pulling their hair out wondering how they are going to be able to attract talent are companies that are, frankly, at risk of not being around in five years.”
Accelerating advancements in technology are also expected to play a big role in how companies address construction in the years ahead, Wright said. Artificial intelligence will likely handle many of the more mundane tasks. Companies are making significant investments into how automation can affect construction.
From framing layouts being done by robots to smart equipment that will help save wear and tear on employees’ health and wellness, Wright said there’s going to be as many innovations for the field in construction as there may be for the home office.

“There’s a lot of technology that’s making its way into construction, and it’s speeding up,” said Wright. “We really see that as a game-changer for our company in how estimations may work. … The industry is going to have to look at what it needs to do with less people and more computing power. That’s one of our strategic views on that.”
The Ultimate Compliment
Going back to the original group of contractors who shared their insights on what kind of subcontractor would best meet their needs, it should come as no surprise that the majority of MWDS’ portfolio features work done for those very same companies.
Which can be a complimentary and daunting experience.
“Working for your friends is one of the scariest propositions that there is,” Wright said. “And I was not only professional colleagues with a lot of these general contractors, but personal friends. But that satisfaction that comes out of winning the [significant projects] and that they trust us enough that we were the one they hired. […] When the GC hires you to do their own work, that’s a compliment that keeps on giving.”

“We’ve built one of the largest subcontracting companies in Utah in a relative 10 short years and, ironically, not a single one of us came out of any of the trades that we have business in,” Tate said. “I think we really do represent a new breed of subcontractor that brings a more sophisticated approach to market –– a much more strategic partnership-centric approach to the market.”
When Lehi-based Reef Capital Partners (Reef) initially announced plans in 2018 to build a sprawling, estimated $2 billion mega-resort with a championship-caliber golf course on 600 acres covering parts of Ivins and Santa Clara—small towns with just over 15,000 combined residents at the time—it was difficult to fathom what a project of that magnitude might look like. Fast forward seven years, and Black Desert Resort is indeed a shining oasis amidst Southern Utah's famed red rock cliffs, sitting atop an ancient lava field, with buildings strategically carved into the land to produce a resort unlike anything else. "This is the biggest project we've ever done—we feel really good where we are," said Brett Boren, President of Real Estate for Reef, acknowledging the general completion of the $290 million, 806,000-SF resort center, along with significant ongoing work—including a 1,298-stall parking garage, condominiums, and a private water park. As of September, all aspects of the main resort center were open and fully complete, with the hotel celebrating its first official year in business after partially opening in September 2024 as it hosted the inaugural PGA Black Desert Championship October 10-13. The second installment of the tournament—now dubbed the Bank of Utah Championship—is slated for October 23-26, with a third tournament signed for 2026.
In 2005, Calder Richards Consulting Engineers formed after the merger of two smaller structural consulting firms who, interestingly enough, both started in 1986. Calder Richards has provided a steady structural support for Utah’s built environment ever since. As the firm celebrates its 20th anniversary, UC+D spoke with Managing Principals Shaun Packer and Nolan Balls to look back over the company’s history and celebrate what has helped their firm stand out to deliver solid projects in Utah and beyond. Their responses were edited for clarity and brevity. UC+D: What have been some catalytic moments for Calder Richards since that initial merger? SP: Winning the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona is the first one. The big reason for the merger between Richards Consulting Group and Calder Consulting was to build a large enough company to go after bigger projects like that.” NB: That was my first project when I was hired straight out of college. We helped design the 17-story hotel and casino, a conference center, as well as parking structures, a central mechanical building, and a pool building. Talking Stick helped get us through the downturn a few years later. UC+D: What have been your key market sectors you all have targeted over the last 20 years? NB: We were breaking into K-12 along the Wasatch Front soon after the Talking Stick Resort and it’s been our bread and butter since then. SP: Absolutely, but I credit our firm for always adapting to the current environment. We’ve been fortunate to do so much K-12, but we used to do a lot of office work, and now we are working on conversions like the Ebay Headquarters to CTE/Innovation Center for Canyons School District as the market has shifted away from commercial office. UC+D: Schools have certainly evolved over the last 20 years, how has your work as structural engineers evolved? SP: We are seeing more creative design on the architectural side, certainly. We see many more two-story designs; more windows and daylighting. But we’re utilizing more powerful tools and continually building our understanding of the structural materials that are in use more than ever—tilt-up concrete, steel columns and beams, especially—to be the architect’s trusted partner. NB: Schools have definitely changed, and we’ve had better experience in helping projects move forward successfully when we are involved earlier in the design process. As we got involved early on in West High School’s schematic design, we were able to provide structural solutions and options to accommodate the architects’ design intent. UC+D: How has company growth changed Calder Richards? SP: It’s certainly changed the number of people in our office. We started with around 10 people when we merged, and today we have 27. But we often say that we don’t want to grow just to grow—we want to grow sustainably. We don’t lay people off when works slows down, and we have an expectation that sometimes there will be overtime work, and other times you may be waiting for our next project to begin.
Nested in the middle of the University of Utah (U of U) campus sits the aptly-named Impact & Prosperity Epicenter, the second living learning community (LLC) project designed on campus by Los Angeles-based Yazdani Studio of CannonDesign. After nearly a decade since their first LLC project, the award-winning Lassonde Studios (UC+D’s 2016 Most Outstanding Public Building over $10 million), Mehrdad Yazdani, the design firm’s Principal and Studio Director, said their work on a sequel was an exciting prospect for the firm, and enlisted Salt Lake-based MHTN Architects and Okland Construction to serve as the respective local architect and general contractor. Today, the Epicenter serves as a striking piece of architecture and construction, one whose curvilinear shape asks users and visitors plenty of questions. But moving from idea to execution has been a work in progress. One query from Yazdani stood out as it relates to students and the built environment, and helped begin the journey to create the Epicenter: “How does your living environment as a student impact your success as a student and as a changemaker?” A Project for an Evolving Campus Katie Macc, CEO of the Sorenson Impact Institute, said LLCs like the Epicenter and Lassonde Studios next door have been massive steps forward in advancing entrepreneurship and social impact. But both play a major role in creating “college town magic”—a phrase coined by University President Taylor Randall that invokes a vibrant campus where students can find community and have one-of-a-kind experiences. With more on-campus student housing in the works, the state’s flagship university is hoping to shed the “commuter school” label and deliver a level of desirability that matches the resources students commit to higher education. “There is some soul searching going on across university campuses,” said Macc of the challenge at hand. “We have to be convincing that going to college matters.” She said overall university enrollments across the nation are decreasing as students grapple with tuition costs, COVID and its isolating aftershocks, and a different perspective on higher education. Universities are no longer a place where students come to learn what they couldn’t learn elsewhere—remote learning and the internet have opened a fissure in that idea that will never close. Instead of that educational transaction, being at a university must include building community and creating in-person experiences only available on campus. Macc said that the Epicenter helps steer the campus experience toward the future, with design goals to create a base of operations for two changemaking organizations and a living and learning home for 778 students. The three-story commercial portion of the building, known as the “Changemaker Pavilion”, includes office space for The Center for Business, Health, and Prosperity (second floor) and the Sorenson Impact Institute (third floor). While each organization has a different focus, both are firmly invested in helping students access and create the resources needed to change the world. Each entity works hand-in-hand as owners of the Epicenter to host events and “create a full spectrum of ways for students to get involved,” said Chad Salvadore, Chief Financial Officer for the Sorenson Impact Institute. “We’re dialing in the programming to energize the student body,” said Salvadore of the work done at the Epicenter. With over 60 majors represented among the 778 students who live there, he said that the diversity of students is less a reflection of their chosen major and more a desire to reside in a space built for students to work their entrepreneurial muscles. “Living here is a mindset—you can engage across many different paths you choose.”
Front view of the bleachers, press box, and suites. (photos courtesy SIRQ Construction)
Over the course of its 40-year history in Utah, WSP's Salt Lake office—originally founded as Parsons Brinckerhoff in 1985—has morphed from primarily a transportation design firm to one that successfully operates in multiple civil engineering markets. The results of WSP's transformation the past decade into a more diverse outfit speak for themselves, with the 128-person Salt Lake office (with locations in Cottonwood Heights and South Jordan) posting three consecutive years of revenues over $50 million, including a record $70.1 million in 2023, and a robust $59.9 million in 2024—good for the No. 2 ranking in UC+D's 2025 Top Utah Engineering Firms rankings.
Lucio Gallegos vividly remembers the workforce development meetings he attended during his time at Ogden-Weber Tech. These career and technical education (CTE) discussions consistently focused on one thing: young people were not entering construction, and the industry needed a new approach to attract them. Gallegos recalled one member of the workforce development team, a training director with a prominent general contractor, saying, “We have been trying this for over 10 years, screw it, we’re just gonna hire them.” The Long Road Those conversations occurred nearly 10 years ago, and workforce development concerns continue to permeate the industry. The National Center for Construction Education & Research estimates that 41% of the construction workforce will retire by 2031, leading to potential gaps in skill and safety and decreases in productivity and project quality. While stakeholders have aligned on the overall goal of providing students a foundation for future success through career development, the means to achieve the ends were seemingly at odds. High schools, trade schools, colleges, and private industry took different paths to achieve their goals, with some moving in opposite directions. “I’m gonna be honest with you,” Gallegos recalled one school administrator saying, “If I promote what you’re telling me to get them over to the tech college, I lose head count. And then I lose teachers. I can’t have a school without teachers.” Jobs that took away student learning experiences, according to federal guidelines and child labor laws, made the idea a non-starter. However, after years of lobbying the Utah Legislature for a compromise between industry and education, H.B. 055, passed in 2023, provided a catalytic change in how younger people can engage with construction and other industries. High school students could participate if they were involved in a school-sponsored work experience and career exploration program. Private industry finally had the compromise it wanted. It was time to act. Big-D Charts New Path Gallegos, now the Workforce Development Manager from Big-D, joined the company in 2023 with the express purpose of creating a program that fit within the new guidelines. Gallegos said he sees career development through the lens of the immigrant experience, one he knows personally as a Mexican immigrant with a father who worked in commercial construction. “I was 9 years old and busting pins out of concrete forms with a hammer that was as big as I was,” he laughed. “I’ve got the cliché immigrant story.” That story has a theme familiar to many immigrant families, he said, one where parents say, “I want my kids not to have to work as hard as I do. I want them in school.” Add to that, it’s a law—children must attend school. Gallegos was unfazed by those obstacles. As he began planning how Big-D’s internship program would operate, he knew that engagement had to start at the elementary school level and build on personal relationships between private industry, school administrators, students, and their families to succeed. “We want to be the solution, not the obstacle to get into this industry,” said Gallegos. So Big-D removed the barriers. Students can still attend school, work towards graduation, and be available in the afternoon for sports, extracurricular activities, and the high school experience. But working was another significant part of the immigrant experience, Gallegos said, and internships needed to be paid to alleviate the family concerns. “We asked what we would pay somebody fresh out of high school who worked at Big-D,” Gallegos said. Interns have earned those same wages ever since.
On January 2, 1957, Gene Fullmer, a scrappy, underdog fighter from West Jordan stunned the boxing world with a 15-round unanimous decision over the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson at New York’s fabled Madison Square Garden. Fullmer captured the world middleweight championship and established himself as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers during the late 50s and early 60s. Since then, the Fullmer name has been synonymous with boxing in Utah, with brothers Gene, Jay, and Don establishing the Fullmer Brothers Boxing Gym in 1978, and offering free boxing instruction and life mentoring to thousands of youths—carrying on a tradition they learned from their trainer, Marv Jenson. Their legacy of community giving will live on in the new Fullmer Legacy Center in South Jordan, a 16,500-SF facility that will serve as a permanent home to the boxing gym—after years of bouncing around to various temporary facilities—along with a museum, snack bar, and gift shop. “The Fullmers are the first family of boxing in the state of Utah—that’s well understood,” said Dave Butterfield, a founding board member of the Fullmer Legacy Foundation. Butterfield served as Chairman of the Board from June 2016 to early 2025 and was influential in helping raise money—nearly $6 million via donations to date, which includes $2 million from the Utah Legislature. Project Driven by Vision to Find a Permanent Home for Fullmer Brothers Gym It was Jay Fullmer who led the charge to teach boxing in the community. By 1978, the Fullmer Brothers Boxing Gym had formally opened at the Butterfield farm chicken coop in South Jordan, recalled Larry Fullmer, Don’s oldest son and the man who spearheaded the efforts for the Fullmer Legacy Center. From there, Larry said the facility moved to Riverton Elementary, an old church house in West Jordan, a sugar factory, a former fire station, and the Salt Lake County Equestrian Park in South Jordan, where it had resided since 2011. When they got word that Salt Lake County planned to transfer ownership of the park to Utah State University, Fullmer knew they needed to find a long-term home for the boxing gym. Fullmer met with Butterfield and Robert Behunin—who at the time was a Vice President with Utah State University—in 2016 and told them he just wanted a “tin shed of our own” for boxing. Behunin countered by saying, “If you want people to donate money, you need something better than a tin shed!” They quickly formed the Fullmer Legacy Foundation (FLF), and by 2018, the wheels were in motion on a building. Doc Murdock, a long-time trainer at the gym, connected Larry with his former roommate at Brigham Young University, Vern Latham, who is a Principal at Salt Lake-based VCBO Architecture. VCBO offered pro-bono services initially while helping FLF put together an RFP, while North Salt-based Gramoll Construction provided value engineering and other services in an effort to get the project launched. Larry expressed sheer gratitude for the contributions of both firms in helping make the project a reality, especially for many generous donations from various foundations and individuals. “[VCBO] believed in us early on and did our first phase of planning at no charge—they have been amazing and so professional to work with,” said Larry. “Gramoll helped us get the budget done as tight as it could be. This project had the absolute tightest budget. We met weekly with architects and the general contractor to see the progress—I’ve never seen such an amazing process. Construction started in November ’23, and every time I would come to the jobsite in the first six months, I’d get emotional.” “We leaned on our relationships with contractors for flooring, ceiling, tiles, donated furniture and got deep discounts and a lot of in-kind donations,” said Phil Haderlie, Principal-in-Charge for VCBO. “To me, the story of this project is the grassroots effort of people seeing the value—this is something that came from their heart. It will have a long-lasting impact on the community.”
The first season is in the books for the Salt Lake Bees in its spectacular new home—the Ballpark at America First Square, the exciting new heart of Downtown Daybreak and certainly one of the premier Triple-A stadiums in the country. "It's a really cool stadium—the field looks so good!" gushed Eric Barton, Project Director for Salt Lake-based Okland Construction, while surveying the spacious 280,000 SF, 6,500-seat (8,000 capacity) ballpark. Barton said his team faced an extremely difficult construction schedule with the mandate the project had to be sufficiently ready for Opening Day 2025 on April 8, less than 18 months after the formal October 20, 2023, groundbreaking. Barton said Okland knew it was going to be a grind, with long hours and tight windows to get various milestones accomplished. "When we bid this to our trade partners, we had them bid it with the expectation of it being six days a week," he said. "We want not only your best guys, but you have to be adaptable to the plan. It was gangbusters from the start.” Up to 300 workers were onsite during peak construction activity, requiring meticulous coordination throughout. Okland even brought in Fred Strasser, a legendary project director who came out of retirement to shepherd the project through. "Fred is the genius behind getting this whole thing done," said Barton. The project was designed by Salt Lake-based HOK, who worked closely with the owner, Sandy-based Larry H. Miller Real Estate (LHMRE) and Miller Sports + Entertainment (MSE) to bring about a project that would add even more buzz to its wildly popular, 4,000-acre master planned Daybreak development in South Jordan, making it a true entertainment destination. The design weaves together best-in-class baseball experiences with year-round public amenities, including a recently opened Megaplex theater, a performing arts center, a large amphitheater, along with retail, restaurants, and apartments, with buildout continuing through 2027. Walking paths and open spaces create natural connections between The Ballpark and the surrounding neighborhood, making the area an iconic community asset and a true sports and entertainment district. Downtown Daybreak is slated to host more than 200 annual events—including the Bees’ 75-game regular season. Supporting this entertainment destination, the venue’s prominent location just off the Mountain View Corridor freeway makes it highly visible to passing traffic while providing easy access. The stadium is also connected to multiple transportation options, easily reached by walking, biking or light rail across the Wasatch Front, and by car from the new freeway corridor. The Ballpark site drops 20 feet from the loading dock to the plaza, managed through terraced spaces that echo the region’s mining heritage. Though the slope stays gentle at under 5%, carefully placed stairs and planters make walking comfortable while honoring the industrial past. The center field main entrance connects to light rail, while a formal plaza at home plate serves as a second entrance, primarily for VIP access. The street design follows Daybreak’s established standards for lighting and tree spacing. Bike racks at the light rail station and plaza make cycling to games convenient. Utah’s Landscape Shapes Design The Wasatch Mountains, visible from every angle of the ballpark, directly influenced the ballpark's design. Throughout the venue, carefully planned viewpoints frame these mountain vistas. The structure resembles this mountainous setting in its form, transitioning from solid brick and concrete at its base to lighter materials—metal and expansive glass—as it ascends. Working with Kansas City-based architectural metal fabricator Zahner, HOK and MSE created a distinctive facade using perforated metal panels that suggest Utah mountain peak silhouettes from Ben Lomond Peak in Weber County to Mt. Nebo, the southernmost and highest mountain in the Wasatch Range of Utah. These panels transform into a glowing display at night, serving as a lantern on The Ballpark’s ‘front porch’ and welcoming visitors. This connection to Utah’s landscape flows throughout the site. Angular planters guide visitors along pathways, while public spaces are arranged in terraces that echo the mountainside. The copper colors and stepped surfaces of the nearby Kennecott Mine inspired the ballpark’s materials and layout. Inside, the decor features warm copper, gold and honey tones, with textured materials that blend the natural landscape with the Salt Lake Bees’ team colors.
Horrocks CEO Bryan Foote (left) shakes hands with Matt Hirst, former President/CEO of CRS Engineering & Survey. Horrocks acquired CRS a year ago in a move that has proven to be a seamless fit for more than 60 CRS employees.
Nathan Goodrich
