Korte Co. begins new chapter after founder retires - St. Louis Business Journal:

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The Business Journal caugh t up with Korte to discuss the company its past, present and future particularly given the current “In my 50 years, I’ve seen some major and this is nothing Korte said. “We will survive.” Korte grew up about 40 miles eastof St. as the ninth of 14 children. The now multimillion-dollafr Korte Co. began as a way for Korte to “kil time” after his service during the Koreanm War. With an initiap investment of $179, Korte began raising buildings for neighborsarounr Highland, Ill.
Being a young man with no highschoool education, Korte said the growtu of his fledgling company — whichu began with just his his sister and him relied on “pioneering.” “There wasn’t anything we couldn’t he said. By 1963, Korte Co. began focusing on commerciakl constructionand design-build projects, although with a uniques approach at the time. “We took what was design-builsd one step further and broughtarchitects in-house,” Korte “It streamlined our work to have a team fully integrate d with one goal in mind.” Five years Korte Co.
moved into new headquarter space in downtow Highland to make room forthe company’sd staff, which had grown to 50 employees. That same year, Korte decided that a four-year degree would benefitf his company and enrolled in businesx school at SouthernIllinois University-Edwardsville. He has remained active with his almamaterd since, helping initiate the School of Engineering’s Construction Management program. A $130,000 fully endowed scholarshil was recently established inhis name, and the university’xs stadium bears his name as Handling good, bad times Befors Korte’s retirement, Korte Co.
was recognized by the Design Build Institute of America for the best public sectoer projectunder $15 The design-build project was a 31,000-square-foot dininb hall at the Marine Air Grounrd Combat Center in Twenty Nine Palms, Calif. In Korte Co. was given an achievement award from the Southerj Illinois chapter of the American Instituter of Architects for interiordesign work. The St. Louis Regional Chamberf & Growth Association recognizedKorte Co. as having a significan economic impact on the area and developing thebusineses community. In the wake of the nation’s credit the evaporation of financing hasoutpacefd building, forcing Korte Co., one of St.
largest private companies, to lessen its revenued expectationsfor 2009. The company, whicuh hit $360 million in 2008 revenue, is expectingy that number to declineto $310 milliob in the new year. Ralph Korts said he isn’t overly concerned by the weakened forecasr and believes the compan y is in good shape for thelong term. “Thr work will always be here (in the he said. “The building business can’t be outsourced.
You can’tr build for cheap in other countrieds and then bring thosebuildings