Wes Palmisano
Founder and CEO | RNGD Construction
“Each year we have an annual theme as an organization, and this year’s theme was ‘full send,’” said Wes Palmisano, founder and CEO of the commercial construction company RNGD. “We want to lean heavily into the future of construction, and it was a pivotal year for us.”
The biggest pivot this year was moving the firm’s headquarters to a new $25 million facility RNGD built in Jefferson Parish. According to Palmisano, the location’s more industrial environment will support increased on-site manufacturing and pre-fabrication.
The new facility will also house the company’s Renegade Academy, which provides employees with professional and leadership development.
“We spend a lot of time on soft-skills training,” he noted. “People get a lot of on-the-job training, from work skills to first aid, to safety, but not a lot of business and leadership training.”
New technologies will also be integral to the academy, including a simulator for heavy equipment training, which will also save wear and tear on equipment.
In 2024, RNGD also opened satellite offices in Nashville, Tennessee and Huntsville, Alabama. In Huntsville, the company broke ground on a $50 million mixed-use project.
Meanwhile, RNGD’s charitable foundation gave out a record amount of donations and scholarships.
The year was not without its difficulties, however.
“The economy has been challenging because of elevated interest rates and general uncertainty in the world,” Palmisano noted. “We’ve seen a lot of projects pushed to a later date. Right now, we have a record amount of backlog.”
While noting that his team is always cautiously optimistic, he added, “It’s still a bit of a guessing game at the moment. A lot of things have to fall into place for these large projects to move forward.”
Still, RNGD will begin the new year with some major projects. In addition to the Huntsville development, the company is constructing a new bridge in Reserve, Louisiana, and continuing stormwater retention projects in Central City New Orleans. The latter involves lowering several playing surfaces in local parks by 8 feet so they can store rainwater runoff during major storms.
“It’s a really interesting stormwater strategy for New Orleans,” Palmisano observed, “draining water from the neighborhoods and storing it in the parks.”
With the new facility and training center, the new satellite offices, and an ongoing commitment to advancing the construction industry in general, Palmisano considers 2024 a highly successful year.
“We went into the year thinking it was going to be a transitional year for the organization,” he said, “and I think our team has done well leaning into a more innovative way of delivering construction services.”
