When leaders at the North Rutherford YMCA recently decided they needed to create more space for childcare, they wanted to do so without adding more square feet or shutting down their facility.

They gave Dow Smith Company a call and met with Service & Small Projects Division PM Ryan Sanford. Ryan was able to implement a plan to take down a wall between two offices and use that space to make an area for older kids. 

“The work here for the YMCA is the perfect picture of what SSP can provide to our clients,” Ryan says.

The SSP Division was created after considering the calls of clients who were telling us they needed small projects done and they couldn’t get anyone to show up and make that work a priority.

“The YMCA needed this project done. It’s a big project to them but it’s really a small project when it comes to general contracting,” Ryan says. “So to get a general contractor, especially one of our size, to come in and do something this small–I think most clients find that would be really difficult. Most people don’t answer the phone for things like this. For us to have this division that we can devote to projects like this for our clients is just exactly what SSP is.”

The benefit of hiring Dow Smith Company for small projects is that we’ve got an entire team with decades of experience dedicated to these types of jobs. DSC employees Steve Williams, who has been with the company for almost 23 years; Bardo Urdiera, who has been with the company for 18 years; and Daniel Isabell, who has been with the company for more than a year; all worked on the project at the YMCA.

“In this small project, we’ve got ourselves plus we have six subcontractors working,” Ryan says. “We have a flooring contractor, we have a glass contractor, we have a masonry contractor, we have the HVAC contractor, the electrical contractor, and even a sprinkler contractor. We’re able to come in and hit this really hard. We had to do some work in the existing childcare area and we were able to only close that for three days and they were able to open back up.”

Ryan says the relationship that Dow Smith Company has with the YMCA is evidence of our company’s deep roots in the community. 

“The relationship with Dow Smith and the YMCA goes back 15 years,” Ryan says. “Dow was on the board and they needed a pavilion out front by the soccer areas. We built a pavilion out there that they used during soccer season but they were also expanding their summer program. So that was the start of the relationship and I think it’s going to continue to expand.”