10th Anniversary: 2024
Blog
Ashton Construction Services
10th Anniversary: 2024
Blog
Ashton Construction Services
A Strong Foundation: How ACS’s Commitment to Community Supported a Decade of Growth
It’s a momentous time at Ashton Construction Services (ACS). This year, we’re thrilled to celebrate a successful first decade of remarkable growth and community involvement. Over the past 10 years, we’ve achieved a core part of our vision—to become the Bow Valley’s largest commercial construction company—and we’re grateful to our community for helping us thrive.
There’s a lot more to look forward to. But on our 10th anniversary, we want to take a pause to reflect on our journey so far, and the people who have joined us along the way.
Deep Community Roots
The Bow Valley is at the core of ACS’s success story, stretching all the way back to 1994, when Steve Ashton’s family moved to Canmore from Ottawa. The family quickly embedded itself in the community, with Steve’s father relocating Ashton Engineering and getting involved in the local industry, which led to the co-founding of Bow Valley Builders and Developers Association (BOWDA).
“He was a really respected businessman,” says Steve. “He worked on a lot of projects with the larger developers and smaller contractors in Three Sisters, Silvertip, and downtown Canmore.”
Chateau Mountain Sports | Jeremy & Steve Ashton
By the time Steve graduated from high school, he knew he wanted to continue the family tradition. “I have an entrepreneurial spirit,” he says. “Construction has been in my family’s blood for six generations.”
After earning a Civil Engineering Technology diploma from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, Steve started looking for ways to build more experience. He moved to Calgary for a junior manager position.
Ashton Construction Services Team 2021
Finding a Way Back Home
During that time, Steve also married his high school sweetheart, Jessie Ashton of Nest Design and Drafting Studio. He and Jessie always planned to return to Canmore, and about 11 years later, Steve found the right opportunity.
The Calgary company he was working for sent him to Canmore to lead a large construction project. “It was kind of like fate,” he says.
Steve and Jessie seized on the opportunity to re-establish their Canmore roots. They purchased a lot in Cougar Creek and worked on their new home together. “Jessie designed the house and I built it,” says Steve. “It was the best time I’ve ever had.”
With a new home base established, Steve left the Calgary company and began working exclusively for Canmore-based companies, first as a project manager for a local contractor, then as an independent cost consultant—and finally, in 2014, as the founder and president of Ashton Construction Services.
Rocky Mountain Soap Company | Canmore Office Rooftop Patio
Laying the Foundation
Steve didn’t have any start-up capital, so he started small, with a home office, a laptop, and a garage with a modest tool collection. He worked 80-hour weeks to get the business off the ground. The hard work began to pay off when he reached out to a business acquaintance—Cam Baty, who co-owns Rocky Mountain Soap Company (RMSC) with Karina Birch.
Cam and Karina had purchased a new building—the one that would become RMSC’s main factory and corporate head office—and Steve saw an opportunity to collaborate. He set up a meeting, and a few weeks later, ACS was hired to fully manage the $2 million renovation of a three-level building with a basement parkade and a dozen bays.
“It was a pretty big step,” says Steve. “I’d built things of this size and nature before, but never on my own. It jumped ACS forward, because I had to buy more tools and a new truck, and bring on more staff.”
ACS also hired a few employees, including the company’s first superintendent, Jon Robertson. “I started learning a lot about management and taking care of people,” Steve says. “Jon became a natural leader and started supervising projects when I couldn’t be there.”
Steve was a bit outside of his comfort zone at the time—but fortunately, he thrives on new experiences. There were a few bumps in the road, like there always are with construction projects, but Steve’s personal commitment to transparency and proactivity ensured the build stayed on track.
“We had some issues that caused us to start going over budget and I felt really bad,” says Steve. “I was nervous, but I told Cam and suggested paring back part of the scope to keep the project under budget.”
Cam’s response was simple. “He thanked me for letting him know before the money was spent,” Steve says. “Telling him right away established a relationship of trust, and allowed us to establish a protocol for regular budget checks and design adjustments. We finished the project on-time and on-budget.”
ACS and RMSC have enjoyed a strong, ongoing partnership ever since, with multiple completed projects under their belts.
Rocky Mountain Soap Company | Canmore Office
Seeking Mentorship
After that first RMSC project, ACS continued to focus on building its reputation and generating revenue, and in 2017, the company moved into a commercial space at 113 Bow Meadows Cres and bought its first bay.
”That solidified ACS as a going concern,” Steve says. Business was great—but at this point, Steve was at risk of burning out. He had a great crew and superintendent, but he was still doing physical construction work while handling most of the office tasks.
“I reached out to a few people for advice, including Brian Salzgeber (Canmore Woodcrafters) and Neil Tanner (Tanner Properties),” says Steve. “I also talked to Cam, who suggested joining a peer group.”
Steve decided to apply for the Grow Program, which helped him navigate some of ACS’s growing pains.
The Sensory Restaurant, Canmore | Photo: Lua Williams
Attracting Attention
Not long after, ACS won a $2 million contract to build The Sensory restaurant.
“That was when the restaurant industry took notice that we have the capacity to build big restaurants,” says Steve. The project kicked off a flurry of restaurant contracts and led to three separate contracts worth a total of over $2 million, all tied to 733 Main Street.
The building’s primary tenant had recently moved out, so the landlord decided to completely renovate the building. The building attracted two new businesses, Fergus & Bix Restaurant and Beer Market and a high-end shoe store called Shoes t’Boot.
733 Main Street, Canmore | Photo: Eva Urbanska
“It was a unique, cool project in an old building that was built in the early sixties,” says Steve. “We renovated the whole building to bring it all up to code with new fire alarms, heating, structural improvements and additions. Then we got the contracts to build the restaurant in one half, and the shoe store in the other.”
The Fergus & Bix and Shoes t’Boot projects required ACS to stay nimble and maintain its focus on value engineering, budget control, and timeline. “We had to make sure we could get those businesses up and running,” says Steve. “Because if their cash isn’t flowing, they can’t pay the rent.”
The end result was a show-stopper building that raised ACS’s profile once again. “It got us a lot of clout because we built it on a pedestrian-only Main Street,” says Steve. “We built it fast and it looks beautiful. It was designed by an iconic Canmore architect, Russell and Russell Design Studios, and we used local materials. It’s become an important presence in Canmore.”
Expanding the Team
Then ACS secured its first major Devonian Property Group project: The Slopes at Stewart Creek, a $15 million luxury multi-family condo development with 8 and 40 units, including 16 adaptive chalets, 16 chalet suites, and 8 alpine lofts. This project marked the beginning of a new phase of growth for ACS,
ACS had to assemble a new team to handle large-scale commercial projects, but fortunately the increase in revenue made this possible. Tara Lockwood and RJ Bender handled project management and Laurie Cantello began managing the office. The company hired Toby Ianson, ACS’s first large-scale project superintendent, as well as some tradespeople to help Toby in the field.
“All the while, we were building our commercial portfolio,” says Steve. “Tara couldn’t handle all the projects, so we hired another project manager and some more superintendents, and all of a sudden we had four commercial teams.”
According to Steve, ACS has never had trouble finding staff. “We seem to stand out as a great employer and we pride ourselves in taking care of our people as well as we can,” he says. To accommodate its growing team, ACS also moved into a new commercial space and purchased a second bay.
“Then COVID hit and we had to go remote,” says Steve. “It was challenging because our culture is so strongly based around in-person communication and collaboration. But we kept working and ended up having a great fiscal year.”
ACES Award Winners 2022 – Mack, Tara & Jeremy
Growing Together
ACS signed a new contract with Devonian Property Group, just a couple of years after the first. This one was for The Meadows at Stewart Creek, a residential development project worth $25 million.
By hiring ACS during this period of early growth, Devonian gained a unique partner. The developer had the experience to manage large projects, but it didn’t yet have the necessary systems in place. As a result, ACS’s large-scale commercial processes were built around Devonian projects—and Devonian gained a level of customization the company might not have received otherwise.
Years later, Steve says ACS is like an extension of Devonian’s team. “We’re flexible and dedicated, and they’re able to lean on our skills instead of having to build their own in-house construction staff and team to handle the day-to-day work,” he says. “And they’ve allowed us to grow and build a really high quality product. If you talk to realtors that move people into these developments, there are no deficiencies.”
Ashton Construction Services Team 2021
Writing the Roadmap
To give everyone more space—due to the ongoing pandemic and ACS’s continued growth—the company added a top floor to the office. Then ACS shifted its focus to developing a vision and core values, and figuring out how to scale. A firm called Amplify Advisors helped ACS streamline its finances and accounting, and Entrepreneurs’ Organization helped the company develop a strong strategic plan that echoes Steve’s values and vision with added insight from key ACS staff members.
ACS’s vision includes:
- Delivering high quality projects on time and on budget, every time
- Leading the industry in safety
- Client-driven, customized service
- Community and environmental responsibility
The company’s values, which focus on happiness, relationships, honesty, accountability, and passion, are a critical factor in every decision ACS makes.
ACS Team Summer Event 2023 | Mack, Laurie Cantello, Steve Ashton & RJ Bender
A Growing Concern
As ACS grew, Steve’s daily responsibilities did too, even with the staff members he’d put in place. In addition to his primary role, he’d also taken on a number of volunteer roles within the community, including joining the board of Canmore Community Housing (CCH), where he took on the role of Chair, and sitting on the BOWDA Board of Directors.
ACS’s office staff had more on their plate at this point, too. So the company brought Lesley Bannister PMP into the fold as Operations Manager. “She’s been a game-changer because she streamlined sales, pre-construction, and operations overall,” says Steve. “From there, it was much easier to streamline our projects overall.”
With all of these changes, however, Steve never lost sight of his vision and values. He expanded the team with those values in mind, selecting people he knew would help maintain those values and the corporate culture they inspired, even when he wasn’t around.
If you ask Steve what his biggest challenge has been over the years (or learning opportunity, as he prefers to say), it’s been learning to delegate tasks and lean on his employees’ individual strengths.
“Management has been so interesting,” says Steve. “If you compare a workforce to geese and how they fly, you can learn to leverage everybody’s skills, merits, and qualifications. You can move back and forth, draft off people for a bit, and move people into different positions. The people in these positions now are trained in the ACS way. They have experience. And they’re fully empowered.”
Canmore Community Housing’s Stewart Creek Rise Groundbreaking – 2024
Empowering the Team
The ACS team now has three separate divisions under Lesley’s leadership: tenant improvements and commercial led by Tara Lockwood, major commercial led by Darby Ogle, and multi-family residential led by Dallas Williams and Bronwyn van Zyl.
For ACS’s clients–even long-term clients like Rocky Mountain Soap Company–these organizational shifts have been incredibly smooth.
“I might be involved in some initial discussions—I’m still doing a lot of lead generation,” says Steve. “But our Senior Project Managers take it from there, developing the budget, the schedule, and the program. Tara led the last major project we did for RMSC, a rebrand of their flagship store on Main Street. It was very special and very custom.”
One of the projects Lesley has been focused on is Canmore Community Housing’s Stewart Creek Rise Project, an 18-unit development with a mix of three-bedroom row houses with attached garages, and two-bedroom stacked duplex homes.
As a previous member of the board, Steve understood CCH’s needs. So when the organization sent out a new RFP years later, ACS was able to relay their expertise and experience to win the project.
“We got the project because of my experience with the inner workings of Canmore,” says Steve. “These not-for-profits need to be able to get certain approvals from politicians to move their projects forward, and we wanted to join them to help Canmore residents together.”
One of the projects Lesley has been focused on is Canmore Community Housing’s Stewart Creek Rise Project, an 18-unit development with a mix of three-bedroom row houses with attached garages, and two-bedroom stacked duplex homes.
Banff Sport Medicine Canmore Office Opening
As a previous member of the board, Steve understood CCH’s needs. So when the organization sent out a new RFP years later, ACS was able to relay their expertise and experience to win the project.
“We got the project because of my experience with the inner workings of Canmore,” says Steve. “These not-for-profits need to be able to get certain approvals from politicians to move their projects forward, and we wanted to join them to help Canmore residents together.”
Once the contract was in place, Lesley took over. She hired a new project manager named Dallas Williams, who worked with Kamil Franek, an ACS superintendent and Alex Kuczera, a project coordinator.
“Those guys have developed a great relationship with CCH,” says Steve. “Kristopher Mathieu, the executive director, is really impressed with them—and they’re running with it. It’s a great example of how this transition toward empowering my staff has paid off. I’ve seen what Lesley can do, and now I trust her to drive these kinds of projects.”
When Lake Louise Ski Resort needed a construction partner to obtain appropriate permits and manage the construction of a 9,970-square-foot multi-family residential building, the company hired ACS—and Darby showed the team that Steve isn’t the only one with community connections to leverage. “She’s got a long-time personal connection with Lake Louise–her husband even works there,” says Steve.
Darby worked to develop a relationship with Parks Canada. Together with the owner of Lake Louise Ski Resort, she pushed the project forward and got the permits they needed to get started.
Celebrating a Year of Triumphs
The business Steve Ashton launched in his garage in 2014 now operates out of a three-story building with a commercial warehouse, a 6,000-square-foot operating center, two bays, three meeting rooms, a kitchen and lounge, and outdoor spaces for staff to enjoy. It’s big enough to house more than 30 employees, 10 vehicles, and all the tools and office resources ACS has accumulated over the past decade.
“My wife did all the interior design, and it’s very modern,” says Steve. “It’s a state-of-the-art, industry-leading office that allows a lot of flexibility for hybrid work.”
ACS Operations Centre, Canmore, Albera | Photo: Eva Urbanska
For Steve, this physical space, populated by people who believe in ACS’s vision and values, validates the idea that all the hard work over the past 10 years is paying off. But it’s the external validation that matters most, whether it comes in the form of feedback from a happy client, or a community award. And 2023 was a big year for awards.
Last year, the ACS was honoured to receive the Bow Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Workplace of the Year Award. Bow Valley Immigration Partnership also recognized ACS as a signatory to the Bow Valley Workplace Inclusion Charter for:
- Building a workforce that’s 40% women in a male-dominated industry
- Continuing to host training sessions for DEI and 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion
- Establishing sexual harassment policies
- Providing education on plain language
- Accommodating diverse cultural traditions and holidays
BowValley Chamber of Commerce – Business Excellence Awards Winners 2023
“It goes to show that we need to keep our culture top of mind and always improve it,” says Steve. “We’re an equal opportunity employer, and we hire and promote based on core values, merit, qualifications, and achievements. I want that for my kids. I want that for my community. I want that for my wife.”
He credits the hard work of ACS’s staff and the company’s strong vision for these awards. “We have this great vision that everybody values, and it helps us attract the right staff,” says Steve. “Along with our community dedication, it all just comes full circle.”
Want to know what the next decade will bring? Join us on our journey of growth and community involvement by following us on social media and subscribing to our newsletter.
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