Clayco Named Midwest Contractor of the Year and #4 in Top 100 Design-Build Contractors by ENR

CHICAGO – June 2, 2021 [UPDATED June 10, 2021] – Clayco has been named 2021’s Midwest Contractor of the Year by Engineering News-Record (ENR), an accolade that covers an 11-state region. With $3.8 billion of revenue in 2020 and a firm grip on the design-build distribution center market, Clayco topped ENR Midwest’s Top Contractors list for the second year in a row and was unanimously voted Contractor of the Year by ENR’s editors.

Recognized for leading the construction industry’s proactive response to the pandemic, Clayco advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and governors of 48 states to write work-site guidelines. This critical display of leadership allowed the construction industry to keep projects going and deemed essential throughout the pandemic. These directions included having multiple entrances to sites, temperature checks, masks, social distancing and an onsite nurse. Clayco is also the design-builder behind Pfizer’s Chesterfield, MO research and development facility where the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was developed and is still being manufactured today.

“The entire industry has really done a great job and has really proven to the governors and various health officials that construction can, indeed, go on under these pandemic conditions,” said Clayco Executive Chairman and Founder Bob Clark. “We want everyone to be in a safe situation and feel, all of the time, that they’re in a safe situation.”

Early in March 2020, Clark spearheaded weekly mentoring calls with minority- and women-owned (MBE/WBE) contractors and subcontractors across the country to offer mentorshiop and ensure they had the means and resources to adapt and sustain through the pandemic. Clayco also supplied personal protective equipment (PPE) to MBE/WBE contractors in need throughout the pandemic. In October 2020, Clark launched a nationwide tour visiting 45 active jobsites to demonstrate his appreciation for Clayco’s in-person workforce.

In 2020, Clayco delivered $1.4 billion in distribution centers, enabling the U.S. economy to leverage e-commerce in the fight against COVID-19. In the 12-month period since the start of the pandemic, the Clayco team has amassed approximately 14 million manhours on job sites, with up to 11,000 people on the jobsite every day, which resulted in only 125 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

To top off Clayco’s banner year, Bob Clark helped lead the industry push back against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidance that deemed adverse reactions to required COVID-19 vaccines recordable incidents in contractors’ and other employers’ safety logs. OSHA changed its guidance, in part because of Clayco’s communications with the agency, and no longer requires employers to report the reactions in safety logs.

In ENR’s annual Top 400 Contractors list for 2021, Clayco ranked #24 overall; #12 in Telecommunications; #20 in Industrial; #18 in Top Domestic Building/Manufacturing; #17 in Top New Contracts. ENR’s Top 400 is an annual report that ranks the largest U.S.-based contractors across different sectors and project types based on revenue. In ENR’s Top 100 Design-Build Firms list, Clayco ranked #4 overall.

To read ENR’s coverage of Clayco’s Midwest Contractor of the Year award, please click here. The full story will be featured in the July issue of ENR Midwest.


About ClaycoClayco is a full-service, turnkey real estate development, master planning, architecture, engineering, and construction firm that safely delivers clients across North America the highest quality solutions on time, on budget, and above and beyond expectations. With $3.8 billion in revenue for 2020, Clayco specializes in the “art and science of building,” providing fast track, efficient solutions for industrial, commercial, institutional and residential related building projects. For more information visit www.claycorp.com.