Gray Construction, founded in 1960, has operated its global headquarters from the Wolf Wile building in downtown Lexington since 1997. In recent years, the company’s growth has exceeded its capacity to comfortably accommodate employees in the building, said Gray COO Brian Jones, and the company’s leadership has been eyeing a plan for expansion.
Recently, when 234 E. Main St. became available, Gray quickly leased the space from property owner Bo Harris and has subsequently cobbled together a plan that, over the next year, will allow the company to expand its footprint into a contiguous space reaching from the Wolf Wile building down the block to Barney Miller’s. A team of 20 Gray employees recently moved into 234 E. Main, and the building next door, 236 E. Main, is currently being renovated with an expected move-in date of April 2019, Jones said. Gray has also secured a lease on The Livery building, 238 E. Main St., which will begin in January 2020. In the meantime, The Livery will remain open and continue to host events.
Emily Giancarlo
The Livery will continue to host events until January 2020, when Gray will renovate the space into offices.
“We are extremely excited about 2019 and all of the events that are already on the books and the many others that will be scheduled for our final year in business as an event venue space,” said Harris, who is also owner or co-owner of the adjacent buildings into which Gray is expanding. “Over the past four years, it’s been a great honor to be able to serve Lexington in the form of hosting some very special events in downtown. Looking to the future, we cannot think of a better tenant to take over the space than our neighbors, Gray, who are no strangers to treating historic buildings with respect. We are confident that they will once again re-energize and redefine a historic building that is now treasured in the hearts of many.”
Gray currently employs about 300 team members in Lexington and operates 22 offices across the United States and Canada, as well as in Japan. Gray recently added offices in Chicago and Atlanta and is actively working on about 30 to 35 projects, said Jill Wilson, vice president of communications and marketing. “If you count all [of Gray’s affiliated] companies together, we're working on hundreds of projects, with 3,000 to 4,000 construction workers onsite on any given day,” she said.
Brian Jones
"We've seen exponential growth over the past five years,” Jones said. “Coming out of the downturn, our growth probably accelerated more than most just because of our unique focus in the design–build and manufacturing space. We're back at all-time highs in terms of construction and design activity." Jones said the design and construction of manufacturing facilities, particularly related to the food and beverage and automotive sectors, continues to be the main driver for the business. "Our projects are becoming bigger, and our head count continues to grow,” he said, noting that Gray has added 30 employees since early October. "There's a lot of activity here and a lot of energy,” he said. “This [new] space allows us to add 80 to 100 people over the next three to five years to our team."
Gray is currently building commercial facilities for Champion Petfoods in Alberta, Canada, a repeat customer that previously contracted with Gray to design and build a similar facility outside of Bowling Green. Gray is also working with Amazon, Mercedes–Benz and Buffalo Trace, as well as on a plant for tissue-manufacturer Sofidel in Oklahoma.
"Food and beverage, manufacturing, automotive and distribution have become ‘sweet spot’ markets for Gray, and we came out of the recession very strategically looking at several large projects. We were very fortunate to win those projects, and continue on that path with that growth,” Wilson said. “Over the past five or six years, we've also seen a lot of reshoring back to the U.S. and expect the trend to continue."
“More than half of our revenue comes from foreign-direct investment, which really started in the ’80s when the Grays actively marketed to and pursued work in Japan to help Japanese companies come to the U.S." — Gray COO Brian Jones
Helping foreign companies locate facilities domestically is also a key focus for Gray, Jones said. “More than half of our revenue comes from foreign-direct investment, which really started in the ’80s when the Grays actively marketed to and pursued work in Japan to help Japanese companies come to the U.S.," he said. "Now it's Asia, Europe … it's a global economy, and we've been able to really capitalize there and pick up a lot of nice projects from foreign companies coming to build in the U.S. or Canada.”
And with its newly expanded headquarters in downtown Lexington and a host of new talent joining the company, Gray is well-positioned to continue to capitalize on those opportunities.