Today we’d like to introduce you to Pete Antonow.
Pete, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
After co-owning a small construction company for several years, in 1988, I decided to open my own company under the name of Leader Builders.
We had humble beginnings – for the first decade, our office was located in my home and operated with a staff of three. In 2003, we moved to our current location which was specially designed for our type of business, with space for project meetings and a showroom. At that time, our business grew to multi-million in sales, and our field and office staffing grew to match that.
Originally, we focused on smaller projects such as kitchen and bath remodeling and we produced projects designed solely by outside architects. Over the years, we have transitioned to specializing in larger and more complex residential addition and remodeling projects. In the early 2000’s, due to popular demand, we also began to offer our own design-build services in addition to general contracting. These have become very successful, as the design-build method guarantees the construction cost, which works well if you are on a set budget. Today, about half of our projects are design-build and half are from outside architect drawings.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Being a medium-sized company, our biggest challenge is accepting the right balance of projects. While we are lucky to get many inquiries, we want to maintain the close working relationships we have with our clients and be able to take on and complete projects without unnecessary delays. This means we have to be somewhat selective about the projects we take on.
To address this challenge, we have a pretty detailed questionnaire to qualify projects before we do a site visit. We always ask about the scope of the project and the budget, to make sure we are a good fit for each other. After all, hiring someone for your construction project is basically starting a relationship. Asking a lot of questions, in the beginning, gives us both a good basis for this relationship into the future. As a result, we have thousands of successful projects and happy homeowners for 30 years and counting.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Leader Builders Corp. – what should we know?
Leader Builders Corp. is a design-build firm and general contractor specializing in residential additions and renovations. We’ve been serving Chicago, the North Shore, and the Northwest suburbs for 30 years and counting. Our recent projects include a Jefferson Park bungalow, to which we added dormers and converted the attic to living space while preserving the character of the house. We fully remodeled a three-story Lincoln Park townhouse, which now features an open floor plan and a stunning staircase. At a Park Ridge single-family home, we built a two-story addition, including a new kitchen and family room on the first floor and a master suite on the second.
We are known for our creative spacial solutions – we find inefficiencies in existing home layouts and optimize them. Often people come to us with requests for a new addition but end up saving money by us designing a suitable solution within the existing house. Of course, sometimes it happens the other way around, where they are hoping to achieve some goals within existing space and we’d recommend an addition in order to fully meet their needs.
One thing that sets us apart from others is that we treat all of the elements of our process as equally important: The foundation of our successful projects is a great design and the ability to listen to the homeowner’s needs. Accurate estimating keeps us competitive – we developed a proprietary software which permits us to estimate our labor and material costs extremely accurately and quickly. Scheduling and careful project planning make the project go so much smoother and eliminate the majority of surprises. Last but not least, our construction management includes close supervision of fieldwork and close communication with both the homeowner and the architect.
I’m most proud of the fact that our company has many clients who return to us with multiple projects over the years, as well as recommend us to their friends and family. That fact is a huge validation of our efforts and keeps us coming to work with enthusiasm every day.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I would define success in our industry as being able to keep both our clients and our employees happy and being able to retain both for a very long time. Separately, we are very glad that we are getting the types of projects which permit us to show off the quality of our work.
I’m also quite proud of the fact that we can give to our customers the majority of the projects at prices that are a good percentage lower than some of the other major local providers while keeping our quality and our process top-notch.
Pricing:
- 200K for a typical second-floor addition with 4 bedrooms and 2 baths
- 220K for a larger two-story addition with a kitchen on the 1st and a master suite on the 2nd
- 150K for attic finishing to bedrooms and bathrooms including dorming out sections of the roof
- 200K for the conversion of a typical two-flat into a single-family home with full remodeling
- Prices will vary depending on the size, finish degree, and location, so these are just budget guidelines to start the process
Contact Info:
- Address: 6327 Dempster St. Morton Grove, IL 60053
- Website: http://www.leaderbuilders.com
- Phone: (847) 965-0200
- Email: leader@leaderbuilders.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leaderbuilders
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeaderBuilders
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/leader-builders-corp-morton-grove-2
- Other: https://www.houzz.com/pro/leader-builders-corp/leader-builders-corp
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