Notable among the contractor’s 2025 completed projects is its $144.78-million, phased build-out of a more than 90,000-sq-ft advanced manufacturing and aerospace facility operating under mission critical security and operational requirements. It was the firm’s largest completed regional project at that time, and its delivery led to three additional Colorado and Wyoming projects for the same client. AP’s Colorado and Wyoming operations also recently surpassed 4 million work hours without a lost-time incident for the second time and while maintaining a 0.60 EMR.

ENR Senior Editor Jennifer Seward sat down with John Herrera, regional president, to learn more about the firm’s approach to its community-driven work. The following Q&A has been edited and condensed.

Our recent growth has been driven by a combination of long-term client relationships, disciplined market planning and a deliberate focus on pursuing projects where we can add the greatest value for our clients.

For many years, AP has operated on the philosophy of building long-term relationships rather than one-off projects. As owners, facility leaders and design partners move into new organizations, those trusted relationships often create opportunities to work together again in new markets and on new project types.

That strategy is reflected in our 2025 results: We generated approximately $60 million in new client revenue and maintained a 91% repeat-client rate.

Another contributor has been disciplined market planning. Rather than relying on a single market sector, we positioned ourselves across multiple sectors, including K-12 education, higher education, municipal work and public infrastructure. As market conditions evolved, we were able to continue growing because we had prepared for multiple scenarios rather than waiting to react to them.

Education remains the foundation of our business, but we’re also seeing significant investment returning to municipal infrastructure as communities continue to grow, particularly along Colorado’s northern Front Range and in Colorado Springs.

Population growth is creating demand for schools, recreation centers, police and fire facilities, libraries and other civic buildings. Rather than waiting for projects to be advertised, our teams actively monitor those long-term growth trends and engage early with owners to better understand future needs.

We’ve also intentionally strengthened our local presence. Our Northern Colorado office was established because many of our employees already lived in those communities. Building a stronger local presence has allowed us to understand community priorities better, respond more quickly to clients and build projects in the communities where our employees live.

Rather than reacting to market shifts after they occur, we work to anticipate where growth is happening and position our teams accordingly.

One of AP’s strengths is organizing construction around the client’s mission rather than asking the client to adapt to construction. A good example is the Colorado School of Mines Energy and Minerals Research Facility, where construction is taking place adjacent to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center. The project required construction approaches that protected sensitive ongoing seismic monitoring operations while allowing work to continue safely.

At Montbello High School, the community made it clear that preserving the school’s theater and pool was essential. Although retaining those facilities increased project complexity, the team incorporated and upgraded both [because we understood that they were] important community assets.

[On the municipal side], the Timnath Recreation Center is a good example of how our approach has evolved. Rather than responding to a completed design, AP came into the planning process early through an existing client relationship. We worked alongside the owner and design team to help develop the master plan, establish project criteria and build the initial cost model while community input was still shaping the project.

As the town gathered additional public feedback, we helped evaluate how changing community priorities affected the overall scope, amenities and budget before the project entered procurement. That early involvement allowed the town to understand better both the investment required and the facilities most important to residents before final decisions were made.

More broadly, our approach to municipal work is centered on helping owners understand the gap between where they are today and where they want to be.