McComas-Lacina Construction

McComas-Lacina Construction is a locally owned general contractor based in Iowa City, Iowa. Charles McComas and Dave Lacina founded the firm in 1977 with a team of 50, and it has worked in and around Iowa City ever since. The company handles general contracting, construction management, design-build and preconstruction, and it runs its own custom cabinetry shop. Its work covers schools, healthcare facilities, multifamily housing, churches, offices and athletics buildings. The University of Iowa awarded McComas-Lacina the construction contract for the Tippie College of Business expansion and Gilmore Hall renovation, a $42.8 million job designed by Neumann Monson Architects. New buildings, additions and renovations make up most of its book.

One thing that sets this firm apart from most general contractors its size is the cabinetry shop. McComas-Lacina lists a custom-built cabinetry operation as a service line of its own, which means millwork for a school, clinic or office fit-out can be drawn, built and installed in house instead of bought out to a separate vendor and scheduled around.

The service menu is otherwise familiar but specific about where the firm adds value early. Preconstruction consulting covers estimating and budgeting, value engineering support, design collaboration on design-build and design-assist delivery, permit and inspection coordination, LEED and sustainable building support, communication with the owner and design team, change order and scope management, and closeout documentation and turnover. The stated aim of overlapping design with construction is fewer delays and better coordination, which is the usual design-build argument, but the itemised list is more useful than the pitch: it tells an owner exactly which tasks the contractor expects to own.

Project types cluster in six categories on its portfolio: healthcare, education, multi-family, religious, commercial and athletics. For a firm in a university town, that mix tracks – institutional and multifamily work tends to repeat, and repeat work is where a contractor’s familiarity with local inspectors and subcontractors actually pays.

The company motto, focused on building quality, is registered as a trademark, and the firm states its vision in plain terms: serving clients with hard work, honesty and integrity, and taking pride in the relationships built along the way. It also publishes a staff directory, which makes it straightforward to identify who would actually run a job before you call.

Geographically the firm stays close to home. It describes building quality structures and strong relationships throughout the Iowa City area and has worked in and around that market since the late 1970s. For owners in eastern Iowa comparing contractors, the relevant question is less about capacity than about fit: this is a locally owned builder whose portfolio is weighted toward public and institutional clients who come back.