Kelley Construction looking for ‘hotbed for growth’

The Louisville-based general contractor opened what it is calling its Gulf Coast office mainly to have a local presence that would help it build a local work force, company president Joe Kelley said in an interview.

“Locals want to work for someone they see,” he said.

The company plans to use the new office initially to help build petroleum industry business along the Gulf Coast. That work, which amounts to about 20 percent of the company’s revenue, has taken the company’s jobs from as far west as Corpus Christi, Texas, to as far east as Tampa, Fla., Kelley said.

For now, the company is leasing office space. But as the work done out of that office increases in volume, Kelley said he expects the company would build its own office.

A logical next step would be for the company to do construction for some of the many chemical plants in the region, he said.

He thinks the area will be a “hotbed for growth for the next 20 years.”

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