Full Circle with The Christi Reece Group
Compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's Western Slope, from the mountains to the desert. Christi Reece and her team hear from the movers, shakers and characters of the Grand Valley and surrounding mountain towns that make the Western Slope the place we all love. You'll learn, you'll laugh, you'll love with the Full Circle!
Full Circle with The Christi Reece Group
JCI Construction - President Ed Lenhart - Full Circle Podcast with The Christi Reece Group
Christi and Karen sit down with Ed Lenhart, President of JCI Construction, to talk about what projects they have underway and their mission to keep costs down so that new homes are more accessible to more people on this month's Full Circle Podcast. If you're looking for new construction, Barrick Estates has options now, and Orchard Highlands is coming in the spring! Give Karen a call at 970-210-7888 to learn about these new developments.
If you prefer to watch your podcasts, head over to our YouTube channel to check out this and all of our episodes.
You can learn more about JCI and their projects at their website!
The Full Circle Podcast. Compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's western slope, from the mountains to the desert. Christi Reece and her team hear from the movers, shakers, and characters of the Grand Valley and surrounding mountain towns that make the western slope the place we all love. You'll learn, you'll laugh, you'll love with The Full Circle. Hi everyone, I'm Christi Reece and we're back here again for another episode of The Full Circle Podcast. I'm here with Karen McLean-Wilson from my team and we're really happy to have as our guest today one of our longtime clients and good friend, Ed Lenhart from JCI Construction.
Ed:Thank you. It's nice being here.
Christi:We want to talk about all of the things that you have going on on the production side, but we want to start with a little history about your construction background, but let's start even before that with how did you get to Grand Junction? Because this is not your home where you grew up.
Ed:Oh, goodness. No, I was on Cape Cod, and my folks came out for a vacation. And it was a recession, and my dad's best friend told him to come out here and take a look at Grand Junction. So he came out, and they decided that he was going to move him and my mom out, and I was in college. So I helped her move out because my dad moved, or came out before, looking for a place to stay. And then I stayed for the summer and got a couple of jobs, you know, part-time, cutting timber or whatever up in the hills. And then I stayed another six months at college, and then I came out here and transferred to Mason State.
Christi:It's funny to think about somebody in Cape Cod back then. I mean, what year do you think that was?
Ed:Oh, I can still remember that far back.
Christi:Yeah. Wow. Your memory's better than mine. It
Ed:was 77. But
Christi:it's funny to think about somebody in Cape Cod even noticing Grand Junction back then.
Ed:Well, my dad's friend was a big-time lawyer in Boston, so he had his finger on a lot of pulses in the U.S.
Christi:And he was looking at the energy sector here?
Ed:Yeah, that was what drove my dad here.
Christi:What profession was he in?
Ed:He was still in construction. I'm a third-generation construction guy.
Christi:That's awesome. So your grandfather, too?
Ed:Yes.
Christi:That's awesome. You want to talk a little bit about how you got started in construction here?
Karen:Yeah, and tell us how you started the name of your company, too, because that was a new story to me.
Ed:I'd been in construction. I started when I was nine years old, doing stuff for my dad, being a laborer and all that, and then worked my way up through as a carpenter and trim carpenter. And then my wife and I moved to Kentucky for a little bit. We came back and started a concrete company and a concrete company we came up with the name just concrete because that's all we did was just concrete and then we got enough money and started diversifying out and doing houses and commercial work and all and we decided that just concrete doesn't fit the description of work anymore so we went to just companies
Christi:and now JCI
Ed:Yeah, we've shortened it up to JCI.
Christi:And still multi-generational because your daughter and her husband are in the business now.
Ed:Yeah, I hadn't thought about that, but fourth generation.
Christi:Tell us about their roles.
Ed:Stephanie is the project manager of the company. Well, the whole company is family run. My wife, Kathy, she does the books, chief financial officer. And Stephanie is the project manager. And Jonathan is Stephanie's husband. And Jonathan's the superintendent out in the field.
Christi:And it's just really nice to see them working together, all of you working together. It really feels great.
Ed:Yeah, there's not a lot of friction. There's a little bit, but compared to some families and some businesses, there's no friction at all. We work well together.
Karen:That's great. That's wonderful. So what's your favorite thing you like to do in the construction business? Where's your heart? I mean, you do a lot of different stuff. I've read your resume.
Ed:Well, that's not fair because I like to get paid. So, yeah. I really enjoyed being all the different aspects as coming up through the ranks. I really enjoyed doing the labor work, this frame carpentry, trim carpentry, and then being a superintendent on the project. I enjoy my role now. It's more front end looking for work and getting development set up and going through process.
Karen:Mm-hmm. The bigger picture.
Ed:Right.
Karen:Because I look at you doing the finishing carpentry, and that's so detailed, and then you went into concrete. It's really different after doing something like that.
Ed:It was, but it worked out.
Karen:Stepping stone.
Ed:Right.
Christi:Yeah. So I know that we are, we have built a lot of homes, JCI construction that we have represented and sold, but you have done a lot of projects besides residential too, some remodeling and commercial construction. Tell us about that a little bit.
Ed:Oh goodness, now I have to put my memory to work. Yeah, we've done, well, let me see, going back through the... Annals of Time. We did one project. It was a kitchen remodel and bathroom remodel up at the VA in Rifle. And that was really interesting because I didn't realize how intricate and expensive the equipment was until we got into that project. You know, something that you think would cost maybe $100,000 ended up costing $900,000. Wow.
Christi:Wow.
Ed:But we've done remodels on stores. We did the... in restaurants. Rib City. We remodeled the Rib City in Fruita and the one in Rifle.
Christi:And you built homes, as you said, in Rifle. And where else besides the Grand Valley?
Ed:Well, as JCI, most of it's been in the Grand Valley. And we've done custom work up on Grand Mesa and up on Glade Park.
Christi:But now your focus is primarily residential. You Will you still take small jobs, or will you take a big job that's commercial, or do you want to focus only on residential?
Ed:I tell everybody we're omnivorous. So it doesn't matter. We've got skill levels. Jonathan's an engineer. Stephanie has her degree in project management. I've got a master's, but also the depth of experience. So we We can tackle anything.
Christi:And
Karen:open to anything.
Ed:And we're open to anything.
Karen:When I first started, you were doing Sagewood. That was the first one we were doing together when I joined the team. Yeah, yeah. And now we're doing Barrick Estates, which is just around the corner from there.
Ed:Right.
Christi:Yeah. You want to talk a little bit about our current inventory with JCI?
Karen:Well, sure. We have the last two on Stephen Creek in the southeast area under contract, which is wonderful. And we've got 14 lots out in Barrick Estates four of which are connected townhomes, right? So 10 others. And tell us a little bit about those properties for everybody.
Ed:In Barrick Estates?
Karen:Yeah.
Ed:Barrick Estates, we want to do a small home project, different than tiny home. Yeah. It's a smaller home project between 1,000 and 1,100 square feet. And so we can keep the price down. And... The finishes are still there. It's still 3-2-2 for the most part. Three bedroom, two bath, two car garage.
Christi:Yeah, those are such cute houses. And I think it's really nice that you can still find a three bedroom in that price range. And they're all finished, all ready to move into. Appliances, fencing, landscaping, everything.
Karen:Right, right. And there's a nice variety of homes out there. I mean, some of them have RV parking. We did have the one that had the one and a half size garage but the rest of them are full two cars, and then you've got your flag lot with a huge amount of parking.
Christi:And the last subdivision that we finished, Tawny, that was a great success. We sold out of those houses pretty quickly. They were very popular, and what a great little neighborhood. And we're excited to move on to the next neighborhood after Barrick, which is out in Orchard Mesa at Orchard Highlands. That is how many lots, Ed?
Ed:That's 40 lots, and they're big lots. Yeah. So we can build a three-car garage house. We can even do an ADU on the property.
Karen:That's exciting. Yeah, we were talking about that earlier. So there's going to be three or four-bedroom choices, good-sized lots. A couple two-stories might go out there. We haven't fully decided that yet, right?
Ed:Right.
Karen:Right, yeah. And three-car garage is going to be huge.
Christi:But also room for RV parking on a lot of these large lots, depending on the floor plan and the garage you choose. which is huge for people coming here with RVs because they really like to have them close to home. A lot of people in Grand Junction have them. So I think
Karen:that's going to be a great advantage.
Christi:And that won't be required to be in a garage, but just behind a fence?
Ed:Just behind the fence.
Christi:It's very exciting. And we've talked about different styles out there, but it looks like we're going to go craftsman style. Is that for sure?
Ed:That's our intent.
Christi:There's some great designs across the valley that now that I'm kind of watching out for craftsmen. I see it more frequently.
Karen:We were looking at a rendering today and it had a nice porch on it with the wooden gables framing it out and over the top of the door with some brickwork behind it that they came up with. It was really beautiful.
Christi:That sounds great. What is your theory about construction and what do you hope to provide to a homeowner when you build a house?
Ed:There's a lot of things we want to provide. One is is a feeling of comfort during the process of construction, knowing that we're doing the best job possible. Second is to know that they're getting the best deal possible. And then also knowing that we're there even after the process. Because I always tell people it's a combination of art and science. construction is. And so when you get to a point where the people move in, even though it should be a science, it's an art, so things do go wrong sometimes. You know, usually little things. But knowing that we're there to take care of it.
Christi:Well, and houses settle, right?
Ed:No.
Christi:I mean, they don't fall into the ground, but you know, they... I don't know. A little caulking
Ed:separation on the windows. There's a difference between settling and I guess you could call it settling. Most people in their mind when they think a house settles they see these houses where there's six inches of movement and all that.
Christi:And that's not what I meant. But
Ed:there's a point where every house because of all the different materials it all has to come together. It has to blend. And so the wood has to get to the same level line as the concrete. And the stresses need to, the wood needs to relax to where it's going to go for the stresses on the, you know, like the trusses with the insulation or the roofing or whatever. So it takes about a year for everything to settle in. And you might get a crack or two, but with the new technology, screw designs and all that for drywall, there's hardly ever any crack
Christi:Mm-hmm. Well, and I know on all the houses that we've closed on, the clients have been very appreciative about the, you know, the warranty that you provide and the schedule where you say, you know, when you need something, this first year is the time when we look at anything that needs to be repaired or anything and you're there, there to take care of things. So that's great. That's important, yeah. Mm-hmm. In the new site, subdivisions in Barrick and in Orchard Highlands. Are those subdivisions where you can build something custom or only choose from floor plans that you've provided?
Ed:Well, in Barrick, it's floor plans that we provide. In Orchard Highlands, it's going to be totally different. We'll have plans that we can provide, but we can also do custom build.
Christi:And kind of a modified, you know, start with a... a plan that you've provided and say somebody wants an extra bathroom or you know push out the square footage so you guys are really um um agreeable to making changes for a buyer so they get what they want right right yeah that's
Karen:amazing and for an adu possibility what what size are we looking at for the adu well
Ed:i think you can go up to half Half the size? I'm not exactly sure, but I believe it's half the size of the existing unit.
Karen:I know I've seen that in areas out in Fruita when I looked before, 50% of the primary residents. So I was wondering if it would be the
Ed:same out there. So if it's 1,600, you can do an 800-square-foot ADU.
Karen:That's going to be an answer for a lot of things for people.
Christi:There's a lot of talk about multi-generational living.
Karen:Yeah. Better option than all being in the same house sometimes.
Christi:A little separation is good.
Unknown:Yeah.
Karen:even if it's just across the yard.
Christi:And I know that in the construction industry all over, prices have gone up for building materials, and especially during the pandemic, supply chains were disrupted and things, but things have gotten back to normal for the most part. What is normal? I don't know.
Unknown:Yeah.
Christi:But now we have some other challenges, which is building code changes. It seems like they change every year. Is that the truth?
Ed:The building department tries not to change too often, but in the past two or three years they've changed a couple of times. So, yeah, there's a lot of changes that are coming right around the corner in September.
Christi:And how is that going to affect home pricing?
Ed:It's going to drive the price up at least another extra $5,000.
Christi:Because of energy code requirements or other things?
Ed:Energy code is a big deal. You know, they're making the houses now so tight and so insulated that, well, we have to put ERVs in. An ERV is a, in simple terms, is a fan. It gets fresh air from the outside so it does air changes in the house. Because if you don't have that running, then you get the steel air.
Karen:So that's what you're talking about in the second bathroom that I often see?
Ed:No, it wouldn't be in a bathroom. It's usually in the laundry room.
Karen:Okay. I was looking at a house yesterday, and they had one in the secondary bathroom, and I said it has to run all the time.
Ed:Yeah, that'd be the RV.
Karen:Yeah. Okay,
Christi:that's what I thought. And that's required for all new construction going forward?
Ed:Yes. And then the R factor in the walls and the U factor in the windows It's going to require most of the construction to be 2x6 rather than 2x4 construction now.
Karen:Oh. Some people think that's always so great, but it really does take up some square footage.
Ed:It takes up square footage and drives price.
Christi:What are some of the other factors you see driving up price? Are there certain materials these days that are costing a lot because of supply chain or tariffs or anything else?
Ed:I'm not sure. We haven't seen anything on tariffs yet. Maybe a little bit. Not enough to fill the impact, but every year... come November, December, we get notices in our mail from the insulation company, the roofing company, the aggregates company, the lumber company, about everything going up 10 to sometimes 30%. Yeah.
Christi:It always says, we hate to do this, but... Right. And then for you as a builder, when you're looking at just incremental increases on every single part of the house, it really is hard to build a house in an attainable price range anymore.
Ed:We fight that constantly. In Barrick and most of our subdivisions are starter homes or downsized homes. And so we fight to keep the price where it's affordable. And affordable to a lot of people, we mentioned that, I can't remember where it was at. I
Karen:think it was in the newspaper article.
Ed:It was. Yeah. You know, we've got a lot of lashing out at us because we use the word affordable. How can $350,000 be affordable? For a brand new home. Yeah, everybody else is at $400,000 or above.
Christi:What other kind of things do you try to employ to keep your costs down?
Ed:I hate to say it, but one of the things is look at where our subcontractors are at on pricing. And If we don't keep a close watch on that, things move up. You get a system in place, and it works really well. And the only thing you can do after that is just watch pricing.
Karen:Have you had the same subs for a lot of years? Or is there a big turnover?
Ed:We've had the subs... contingent of subs right now for two or three years.
Christi:It's probably hard to keep the same ones going all the time, even if you have like one main contact. The people underneath him will tend to turn over, I would think, fairly frequently. And didn't, I mean, did they have to lay a lot of people off during, well, let's see, that would have been the recession, really. I mean, when construction kind of came to a standstill. And then Has it been difficult to get the laborers needed and get going again over the last 10 years?
Ed:Well, I think we've had just the opposite problem. You know, during COVID and the pandemic, we thought everything would shut down. But for us, it was just gangbusters. And so our problem's been over the years finding the help that we need to get the project done on time.
Christi:So you are... You also develop property. You're not just a builder.
Ed:Correct.
Christi:How is that process going in city and county, and do you think there's some improvements that could be made there?
Ed:You're going to make me put my foot in it.
Christi:Put you on the spot. I mean, there's always improvements that could be made, right?
Ed:Yeah, there's a trend in the public sector that they just want to— have to add something every so often. And so right now we're dealing with the TEDS manual and some of the things that were in the TEDS manual.
Christi:Can you tell people what a TEDS manual is?
Ed:TEDS manual is the engineering manual for development, telling us how wide the streets have to be, how wide the sidewalks have to be, how many parking spaces, etc. And so, you know, for instance, going from four foot and then to five foot and now to six foot sidewalk And I look at that, and I look at downtown, and I drove down Main Street one day and looked, and the Main Street doesn't even have six-foot sidewalks. So, but what they don't realize is every foot of roadway, it just drives a price. When this new Ted's Manual got incorporated into the city, it was, I think... $2,000 a foot, which isn't much if you think, well, it's just a foot. It's $2,000, but you've got hundreds or thousands of feet in a subdivision.
Unknown:Mm-hmm.
Christi:So I know that they just formed a housing affordability code task force that is going to be challenged with trying to find ways to make the process of development and building more affordable in our community, which I think is a great thing. But it's going to take input from a lot of people like you because you've been doing this for so long.
Ed:Yeah, I looked at the list, and you're wrong. it.
Christi:Yes, I am. I'm excited to be on it.
Ed:Congratulations.
Christi:Thank you.
Ed:Uh, but there's some good names, Kevin Bray, um, Ron Apollo and, uh, Charlie Gettner and a few others that have been through the process and know the pitfalls. So there'll be, they'll give good input and hopefully, uh, people start listening because we're getting to a point where it just doesn't pay to develop anymore.
Unknown:Yeah.
Christi:I think that there's... For people that aren't in the business, there tends to be a sense of developers being very wealthy and maybe only concerned about money. But the reality is it costs so much to develop something. It's not a job that just somebody off the street can buy a piece of property and go develop it. I mean, it's a very difficult process and very costly.
Ed:Most of the projects in the city, I would say... start at three years time to get it through process, sometimes five. And not only are you tied up for the cost of the land, but just for, I'll give you an example, Orchard Highlands is over $300,000 for fees like engineering and landscape engineering or architect, all that. And then you put that out for five years so you can't make any money on it. Yeah. And so you're, you know... You pay a lot, and then you have to hold a long time.
Christi:Have you been in partnerships with a lot of people over the years? Or when you got started, were you in partnerships in order to make those projects happen, and then you were able to do them on your own?
Ed:No.
Christi:You always did them on your own?
Ed:Yeah. I started small, a 10-lot project, a 15-lot project. This is the first time we've got more than one going at a time.
Karen:Back to what you were saying a minute ago, and back to the quote-unquote affordability. I think a lot of people that get down that road and get upset about that kind of stuff, they don't realize all the preliminary stuff that has to be done before you even can move dirt. There's just so much to it.
Christi:And so much that goes into building a house and making sure that it's safe and secure and all of those things. Comfortable. Yeah. That's why a lot of marriages don't survive
Karen:that.
Ed:Building a
Karen:house? Yeah. I was asking, do you have a strong marriage?
Ed:I have had a friend that was a plumber, still is, and he and his wife decided to build a house and just tore
Christi:them up. There's a lot of choices to be made. I think for someone that has built a custom house, they can be very overwhelmed with all the choices. So one of the nice things about JCI is you guys do a lot of the choosing ahead of time, but you still give a buyer a lot of design choices, a lot of color choices, so they can really customize the house and make it their own.
Karen:Stephanie's really good at that. She has a great eye for the colors that go together. You think you know and you sit down and you look at it and she goes, uh-uh. And then she brings a couple more together, lays it out, and it really jives. She does a great job at that.
Ed:Before Stephanie got on board, I did all the color choosing. And I did a good job, but Stephanie brings it to a different level.
Christi:She does. It's her favorite part. It is hard because I think the first one that I did, I walked into the house afterward and I looked around and I said, did I pick this? Because it doesn't look very good. It was really good on the table.
Karen:Yeah. What do you think are going to be some of the biggest challenges coming up next year in the field?
Ed:It's the same ones we've been facing now, and that's trying to keep the price down, trying to give the best product possible, and something that people really feel like it's theirs and it's everything they want.
Karen:One thing I felt like, you know, I bought one of the Patterson Pine houses, as you know, for my mother-in-law. And I mean, the solidness just of the construction. I walk through their sill and look at everything, windowsills and everything. And it's just a really solidly built house.
Christi:You're always looking for projects too, right? I mean, I know we have two coming up and we have to get a certain way through. I mean, a 40 lot subdivision is pretty big, so we have to get through that. But then you're always on the lookout for the next thing
Ed:well like I said it takes three to five years to get a piece of ground through process that's through process not even being built so and that takes another six months to a year to get it built so yeah so I'm looking for land and opportunities now for the next Two projects.
Karen:Do you have anything in particular in mind that you've kind of got a dream that you want to eventually do when you think of projects?
Ed:Um... I don't have any special dreams. You know, that's one thing that I've never tried to do is put my ego into building because it doesn't work. I'm always for the people and what people want. But as far as projects, you know, you always think, wow, if I could get that next size up, 100 lot subdivision, 200 lot subdivision, then I wouldn't have to go through process so
Christi:much. Right. It's not a bad idea. Think about it that way. I know we have talked about, you know, when we've got some land coming up that we can develop, what would be great to do? What can we do that's different and exciting? But then it always comes back to what is the market requiring and requesting? What do the buyers want in this kind of market? And it always comes back to price. I mean, we could build bigger, more expensive homes, but we try really hard to keep it reasonable. And I'm excited in Orchard Highlands that we have these bigger lots that will let us build a little bit bigger home than we've been building. Although those Patterson Pines, Tawny subdivision were so popular. They're great sizes, really great houses. Yeah.
Karen:I'm excited too, you know, trying to weave the craftsman style in there. Just, you know, we've seen the stucco and then the stucco with the stone and that little bit of slate look. So I'm kind of excited to see some of the wood gables accenting like that. And that's going to be really cool.
Ed:I hope it is. I
Christi:think so.
Karen:Post it out there so you can give us a call. Phone numbers are listed. We have a lender, preferred lender out there as well. You can give us a call that way or you can go to christyreese.com, our website, and there's a link there as well. You can go to JCI's website, but we've got it all linked together. And, you know, give us a call. We'll tell you about the incentives that we have out there that are sparking a lot of interest and there's some great opportunities for people.
Christi:Yeah, we do have some good incentives and we hate to say specifically what they are because they change frequently, you know, according to the market and what's going on. we've put together incentive from the builder incentive from us and incentive from a great lender in town and so it makes it really attainable for especially a homeowner that doesn't have a lot of cash to put down that's right might
Karen:help you with your closing costs rate buy down you know it's it's people are looking at it from a lot of different angles and it opens up a lot of opportunity
Christi:I've had quite a few people realtors especially that you know find out about Orchard Highlands and ask me what are you going to be building out there and when Are they going to be ready? So what do you say to those folks, Ed, and what's our timeline look like out there?
Ed:Well, it's supposed to be paved by the middle of November.
Christi:Fantastic.
Ed:And then we have to put the dry utilities in, which is the electric and the cable. Mm-hmm. And so then we'll start building probably right around March.
Karen:Oh, I love that. little sooner than I thought.
Christi:They're
Ed:going vertical in March.
Christi:Okay. And these will be slab foundation?
Ed:Slab on grade foundations.
Christi:And any other features that you want to highlight? I mean, I think JCI Construction does such a good job with the interiors, you know, the hand-traveled finish, and we have islands in most of the kitchens and pantries, lots of different floor plans, but anything else you want to highlight about the interiors?
Ed:Well, we really work on getting an open airy concept feeling and that's been one of the highlights over the years that we've been able to do on whether it's a larger house or a smaller house get that open airy bright feeling
Karen:yeah gathering area yeah it's very popular with today's buyers it very much is a lot of people seem to be leaning towards nothing in the island just that open space for hanging out
Christi:put a couple stools there and be able to gather around that space Right. While somebody else is doing all the cooking. Ed, we want to thank you for joining us today and sharing your adventure in building in the Grand Valley. We appreciate all that you do to bring really beautiful housing to the public and to the buyers here in town. And we're so lucky to have a partnership with you and be able to represent your homes.
Ed:Thank you, Christy. It's a pleasure being here. And Karen, thank you
Christi:very much. Thank you. Karen, any closing that you want to tell our viewers and listeners about our upcoming and and current projects. One more time.
Karen:Oh, right now, I just want to encourage everybody to come out to Barrick Estates. We've got the model home. You can come check out at any time. And we're in a place right now where one's going to be done at the end of September. So things are chosen there as far as finishes, but everything else is open for discussion and be able to make it your own. And then we've got those great incentives. So give us a call, and I can share all that information. And we'll be posting a little sneak preview at some point coming up here in the next few months. to what Orchard Highlands is going to look like. So stick around. That's going to be fun.
Christi:Okay. Thanks, Karen. Thanks, Ed. And we're at 970-589-7700 if you'd like information on any of our JCI construction projects. And we just love to show them to you. So give us a call. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time on the Full Circle Podcast. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening. This is Christi Reece signing out from the Full Circle Podcast.