Courtesy W.M. Schultz Construciton
By Rod Bacon
The Schultz family has a long history of providing high quality construction services in the Capital District and beyond.
Between a company started by William J. Schultz in 1970 and another subsequently launched by his son, William M. Schultz, in 2000, clients have benefitted from their expertise for 55 years.
William J. Schultz left his family’s 30-acre vegetable farm in Colonie in 1955 to join the U.S. Navy, where he was trained as a radioman. According to his son, following his four-year hitch he decided he “wanted to do something else with dirt” and took a job with Hoffman Excavating, a utility company in Colonie. He worked there for several years and in 1961 moved to Rosen-Michaels, a precursor to The Michaels Group. The company had its own land development arm called Glenmont Development Corporation and he was its general manager.
“They would buy a parcel of land and it might be wooded or a farm field, and they would hire an engineer to design street layouts and determine the maximum number of houses permitted by zoning codes,” said Schultz. “Then Glenmont Development would do all the land clearing, utility installations, and road construction.”
There was a recession in late 1968 resulting in very little call for new housing starts. Because builders no longer wanted to develop raw land Rosen-Michaels decided not to continue with its Glenmont Development subsidiary.
Always having had an entrepreneurial spirit, he took a leap of faith and started Schultz Construction, Inc. in 1970. He purchased two pieces of equipment from Rosen-Michaels as well as a small dump truck, with which he did road construction and underground utility work for private land developers and builders as well as installing underground utility pipelines for potable water, sewer collection, and drainage systems for municipalities.
His only employee at the beginning was Robert Swartwout, who ran the road grader building roads and doing earthwork.
As his customer base increased the roster included Rosen-Michaels, The Michaels Group, Charlew Builders, Marini Homes, LLC, and Paulsen Development.
He also contracted with municipalities in the Capital District that included the Town of Colonie and the Saratoga County Sewer District. His reach extended to Western Massachusetts and Utica, New York, as well.
At its peak, Schultz Construction employed more than 150 people and had annual revenues of $25 million.
While still a teenager his son came on board. Over the years he helped maintain the heavy equipment, was a laborer on various projects, a cost estimator, project manager, foreman, and marketing manager.
“I enjoyed working for my dad and learned so much that I felt I was capable of continuing on with what he taught me and running a construction company,” Schultz said.
Which is exactly what he did.
“In 1999, my father decided to retire to North Carolina,” he said. “He asked me what I wanted to do and I didn’t hesitate for a minute. I told him I wanted to start my own business.”
He incorporated as W.M. Schultz Construction, Inc. in 2000. During 2001, his first full year in business, he employed nine people and had $2.5 million in revenue.
Between 2001 and 2008 the contracts were evenly divided between site work for local land developers and installing underground utilities for developers and municipalities.
“I call that wet utilities because they were carrying some kind of liquid, whether it was potable water, collecting sewage from housing developments or municipalities, or storm drainage catch basins,” he said. “We were repairing existing systems and installing new ones.”
This business model continued through most of 2008, when there was a housing crash. The Dow Jones Industrial Average went from a record high of 14,000 points in 2007 to 6,500 points in early 2009.
“A total of 2.9 million homes were foreclosed on and that changed a great deal of our work,” Schultz said.
In 2010 he shifted gears and the company predominantly took on public work.
Schultz said that from 2001 to 2009 the company grew from $2.5 million in annual revenue to $13.1 million. Following the 2010 shift in focus the revenue soared to $21.1 million, the next year it reached $36.3, topping out at $43 million in 2013. Revenue for 2025 is $41 million.
Clients during this period included the New York State Department of Transportation (NYDOT), the New York State Office of General Services (NYOGS), and various municipalities in the Capital District and Western Massachusetts..
Due to the labor-intensive nature of the work the number of employees swelled from 90 to 160.
In 2015 the company underwent what Schultz describes as a “strategic marketing shift” toward what he calls “complex and demanding work.”
“Opportunities presented themselves to reconstruct and expand wastewater treatment plants and potable drinking water facilities, and we’ve been doing that since 2015,” he said.
This type of work requires fewer workers than were previously needed so the number of employees has shrunk to 26 in the office and 47 in the field.
Among the company’s core values, worker safety is very high on the list. Schultz shared a story that illustrates this. An engineer who was working with a company crew witnessed something that he said he hadn’t ever seen in his 25-year career. A crew installing an underground utility was digging a ditch to a depth of nine or 10 feet. To do this an excavator drags a trench box behind it to ensure the earthen walls don’t collapse. As the excavator moved forward a worker noticed a tool had been left behind in the trench. Rather than allowing the worker to get into the unsupported section of the trench, the excavator operator backed the machine up so the worker could safely retrieve the tool while standing in the trench box. This took approximately 15 minutes but the safety of the worker made the delay worthwhile.
This is just one example of why the company has achieved Safety Training and Evaluation Program (STEP) Diamond status from Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) National. It has also been recognized by the Northeastern Subcontractors Association (NESCA) with a Gold Safety Award for achieving 86,580 man-hours worked in 2024 with no lost workday incidents.
Community involvement includes participation in the Franklin Community Center’s snack-pack program as well as its backpack program before school starts. They are also working with Sleep in Heavenly Peace to build 20 beds in their shop.
To address what many consider a growing problem, they support the Building Hope Through Action (BHTA) program of the New York State Office of Mental Health. They collaborate with industry partners Harrison & Burrowes Bridge Constructors, Pike Construction Services, Laborers Union Locals 157 and 190, and the Plumbers & Steamfitters Union Local 7 to promote best practices in suicide prevention and mental health support.
For further information about the company go to wmschultz.com.