New Addition to Deliver Much-Needed Space at Growing Journey Group

This paid piece is sponsored by Journey Group.

It’s not often that a construction team gets to build its own office.

But Journey Group project manager Tyson Ronne, superintendent Tyler Hill and their team have spent the past six months creating the space that will serve their company’s growth needs now and into the future.

“I think everyone is really excited about the space,” Ronne said. “We’ve been crammed for the last couple years and have had to make outside accommodations to house certain teams, so it will be great to have everyone under one roof in a new space.”

His own office will be part of the 16,000-square-foot addition to Journey’s corporate headquarters at 4500 W. 58th St.

“The intent is that almost all of Journey Construction, as far as project managers and support staff, will be in the new addition, as well as Black-Top Paving and SFC Civil,” he said. “We actually just saw the first-run layout of where everyone will be sitting, so it’s definitely a unique opportunity for us to be working on our own space.”

When Journey moved into its original 23,000-square-foot building in 2016, the plan was that it would accommodate the company’s office needs for seven to 10 years.

“But our CEO, Randy Knecht, challenged us to think about the future, so we purchased enough land for an expansion,” said Darin Hage, vice president of Journey Construction.

“We had about 25 people working in the office when we moved into the building in 2016. But as we brought on more talent and took advantage of some growth opportunities, it became clear we needed to expand faster than that. Once the new office is done, it will give us 108 total permanent workstations.”

Journey began planning for a new addition before the start of the pandemic in 2020, but the shift to remote-hybrid work and then back to the office put construction on hold.

“For the last year and a half, we’ve been full to the brim,” Hage said. “Every space has been taken for a while, and we’ve had to get creative with facilities. We renovated a space at our shop to temporarily house team members, and we’re leasing space across the street from our office for others. We have some areas that are hybrid work, but for the most part, everyone is in the office.”

Journey plans to continue the layout and design of its original office in the new addition.

“You’ll see a lot of glass, inside and out,” Hage said. “Before we moved into this building, our old office had a lot of solid, hard walls, and with the interior glass, we bring in natural light and create a lot of transparency, where you’re seeing people in their offices and in meetings.”

Journey’s central hub will remain its large employee break room in the original part of the building, but the addition will bring multiple new meeting spaces and small collaboration areas, including an additional training center and boardroom.

“It also allows us to create more of a courtyard wrapped around the building, between the patio off our original hub and the new addition,” Hage said. “So we feel like we’ll get some good outdoor space where employees can work or spend time outside.”

For the team building the addition, “it’s been going very well,” Ronne said. “The interior portion is well into finishes, we’re starting to have ceilings go in, casework is starting to go in, and we’re a couple weeks out from flooring going in on the second floor. We’re working from second down to first, so everything is progressing very nicely.”

It’s also convenient to have the “client” – also his colleagues – right next to the building site.

“It’s great to get input from other team members, and if you need an answer on anything, you can just go over there, and there’s no need to set up a formal meeting,” he said. “Our team takes pride in delivering for our owner group. They don’t generally get exposed to construction day to day, so to see that, I think, is eye-opening and enjoyable for them – and they see the progress being made daily and weekly.”

And while the new addition is on track for employees to move in early next year, this likely isn’t the last building Journey will be doing for itself.

“Even with the new space, we don’t have much extra space,” Hage said. “As soon as we move in, we need to start planning for our next steps. With our rate of growth, we know we’re going to be push up against it soon.”

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