Bryan Hodnett
VP of Business Development
DonahueFavret Contractors
DonahueFavret Contractors is a 42-year-old commercial general contractor serving the Gulf South. The company’s team of construction professionals excels at healthcare, hospitality/mixed-use, assisted living and educational projects. Recently the firm has had a robust backlog of healthcare projects totaling over $100 million, including a new, ground-up cancer center, wellness/sports center and ICU/operating room expansions. The company has also put in place more than 700 beds of skilled nursing/assisted living in the past five years, in addition to more than 1 million square feet of healthcare facilities.
What are you most excited about for the coming year? Over the years, our firm has become a distinguished general contractor in the region, and as a result we are leading more exciting new large-scale projects across the region. Some of our larger and long-term clients, particularly in healthcare, are in the process of expanding their facilities, so we’re seeing an increase in operations in that sector. Also, with the recent impacts of Hurricane Ida, we’re managing several disaster recovery projects, which gives us an opportunity to further rebuild our communities and make them more resilient.
What is the biggest challenge facing your industry today? Currently one of the biggest is construction material. From lead times to pricing, some of these challenges include securing lumber, managing volatile pricing, and delayed shipping of specific materials. In times like this, we have found that two things are extremely imperative: aligning yourself with clients and trade partners who are willing to achieve a project’s goals and maintaining transparent communication throughout all phases of a project. For example, our team had a recent project that built out 30 ICU beds due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The entire project team — including the owner, architect, contractor and subcontractors — pulled together to complete this project 75% faster than under normal circumstances all thanks to a solutions-oriented, collaborative process.
