Staff
Midway through its sophomore year, Fort Frances business Ty-Gr Construction has hit its stride with the building of the new Au Lac Retreats in Sioux Narrows.
Taking on the Au Lac project is “very exciting,” enthused Tyrell Griffith, whose entrepreneurial spirit first started up Ty-Gr Construction back in April, 2009, aiming at that time to target smaller projects with a smaller crew.
“[Au Lac Retreats] has made the business grow faster than I ever thought it would,” Griffith noted, adding he had “no idea” what he was getting into when he first met with Bill Orr in February, who is partners on the development with his wife, Evelyn, and Bob and Diane Querel.
For this new development, Ty-Gr Construction is handling the construction of the buildings—from footings for the foundation to trimming out the windows and “everything in between,” Griffith explained.
Some 17 cabins are planned for the location, he noted, and it would take about eight weeks to complete an individual building if it were built alone—roughly the same size of past projects his company has done.
“But when you look at the entire picture, and see the site plan with 17 units on it, that works out to over two-and-a-half years,” Griffith said.
“So the project, as a whole, is quite a bit bigger then anything I’ve ever encountered, both with my own company or other companies I’ve worked for.”
The interesting thing about working on a project like this is time management and planning, both on the business and on the actual build, he noted.
“Everything requires a lot of planning,” Griffith stressed.
It’s his crew that Griffith credits for the ability of Ty-Gr Construction to take on a project like Au Lac Retreats.
“It all comes down to the crew. If I couldn’t find hard-working dependable people that can make things happen, the company wouldn’t be where it is today,” he lauded.
“On a large project like this, I have to be able to step aside to order materials, talk to the customers, and deal with change orders, and trust that work is still getting done.”
