FEB/MAR 2010
Cover story: Scherer Construction & Engineering and CAMPUS USA Credit Union are Partners for the Community
Whether it is business or personal, there’s probably no better way to excel than by building relationships. There may be no business in the Heart of Florida which knows that better than Scherer Construction & Engineering of North Florida and CAMPUS USA Credit Union.
Led by President Doug Wilcox, a commercial general contractor, Scherer has spent 25 years building relationships as it built many of the commercial structures in Gainesville, Alachua County and surrounding areas.
That sense of relationship is best exemplified by the partnership Scherer has maintained for the last 14 years with CAMPUS USA Credit Union. Whether it is work or community involvement, both these companies are dedicated to building relationships and community.
In its 25 years in Florida, Scherer Construction & Engineering has been a leader in giving back to the community.
Scherer Construction believes its community is also its customer and wants to help build the communities it calls home. The company’s vision statement, “One team focused on integrity and accountability driven to be the contractor of choice by exceeding customer expectations,” extends to the community.
Employees are proud to be a part of the Scherer team and are committed to support projects that benefit the communities in which they live and work. Wilcox encourages and supports employee involvement. The company has a designated committee led by employees to develop programs and volunteer events to support the community. Scherer provides financial support to many local organizations and charities such as the University of Florida, Ronald McDonald House, American Cancer Society, Alachua County Humane Society, North Central Florida YMCA, Boy Scouts of America, local schools, Rotary Club and Salvation Army.
In addition to the financial support to local charities, Scherer has held food drives, gathered care packages, held construction presentations at schools and supported co-workers and their families on mission trips. Scherer also has volunteered time and expertise and donated materials and equipment to help complete concrete and site work on many Boy Scout projects, women’s shelters, community centers and Rotary Club projects. Wilcox feels these programs have built closer relationships with the community and have been rewarding experiences for the Scherer team.
“We have been very successful in our 25 years,” Wilcox said. “We participate in the community as a way to say thanks, but we also do it because it is the right thing to do.”
Wilcox has a strong, personal commitment to the community. He serves on the board of the North Central Florida YMCA, organizes fundraising events for the North Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of America and works with the Salvation Army on the local and regional level. He also has worked with children’s sports teams over the years.
He learned to swim and played youth sports at a YMCA and continued his involvement with the YMCA when his children were young.
“I especially liked that the Y had programs for girls that allowed dads to spend time and share activities such as camping with their daughters as well as with their sons,” he said. “I saw first-hand the good work the Y does, especially for young children and their families.”
Partially as a result of that connection, Scherer provides a yearly scholarship fund for swimming lessons to approximately 75 children who would not be able to afford it.
Being an Eagle Scout, Wilcox is an avid supporter of the Boy Scouts of America.
“Scouting taught me values like how to help others, cooperation, teamwork and the importance of helping the community,” he said. “I’ve seen my twin sons achieve the rank of Eagle Scout and have worked with their troops throughout the years.”
Throughout Wilcox’s career, he has made an effort to understand his customers’ business or organization. His initial exposure to the Salvation Army was in construction.
“The more I learned about the Salvation Army and the services they provided the more I liked the organization,” he said. “We have staff members on advisory boards in Tampa and Orlando and financially support the Salvation Army’s programs at a local and regional level.
CAMPUS USA is just as active in the community. It was one of the first credit unions formed after Congress enacted the Federal Credit Union Act in 1934. Chartered in 1935 as the credit union for the University of Florida, its membership eligibility has evolved over the years. After converting to a community charter in 1999, CAMPUS USA membership is now open to all residents of North Central Florida. CAMPUS USA, with assets of $1 billion, has over 60,000 member-owners and a strong belief in community involvement.
“We believe we are a leader in being involved in the community,” said Larry Scott, CAMPUS CEO since 1990. “Our focus is primarily to support programs that have a positive impact on children – especially the health of children.”
An example of their commitment to children’s health care is the CAMPUS USA Children’s Miracle Network Visa Credit Card, launched in 2001. A portion of each purchase made with the card results in a direct donation by CAMPUS to Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville. To date, this affinity card program has generated over $750,000 in contributions. With no deductions for administrative expenses, 100 percent of these contributions go directly to upgrading facilities, equipment and medical care for children at Shands. This is a program supported by Wilcox and Scherer.
“We have seen Shands Children’s Hospital make a huge impact on a child’s quality of life, and we feel honored and blessed to play a small part in helping them serve children from all over the state and country,” said Scott.
CAMPUS USA and its 228 employees also participate with and support Stop! Children’s Cancer, Take Stock in Children, March for Babies, United Way and many local schools and charities.
“I am proud of the care and compassion shown by our employees when it comes to serving others. Our goal is that the concept of partnership with the community carries over to the way we do business – with our members, each other and everyone else with whom we interact,” said Scott.
During their 14-year professional relationship, Scherer and CAMPUS USA have partnered on 17 projects – from relatively small remodeling jobs to stand-alone financial institutions.
But all those projects are dwarfed by the headquarters Scherer is building for CAMPUS USA in Jonesville.
The 95,000-square-foot, three-story headquarters will allow CAMPUS USA to put more than 250 employees in one location and enable the financial institution to improve on the service it has been providing for the community for the last 75 years.
The thing about relationships though is that for them to be effective, both sides must be coming from a position of strength, and that is exactly the case here.
Scherer Construction & Engineering of North Florida is a commercial general contractor that can do anything from a small remodeling job to a $35 million project.
“We offer a broad range of commercial-construction services, including institutional, educational, aviation, industrial, retail and health and medicine,” said Wilcox. “If you have the need to build, we can do it for you, and this is a great time to make it happen. We have plenty of capacity and are ready to go to work.”
Wilcox has been with Scherer Construction since 1986, first working as a draftsman, superintendent and project manager in the St. Petersburg office, before coming to Gainesville in 1988 to open the office here.
In its 75 years in the community, CAMPUS USA has grown tremendously as a financial institution – started by seven University of Florida professors as a credit union dedicated to serving the university and Shands employees. That’s what it was when Wilcox discovered it.
“When I came here in 1988, my wife was a nurse at Shands, so we became a member of Campus Credit Union,” Wilcox said. “My first bank account was in a credit union, so it was natural that we started the relationship with CAMPUS.”
CAMPUS USA celebrates its 75th year in the community in March. Today, it manages assets of more than $1 billion and has more than $750 million in loans while serving members along the Interstate 75 corridor from The Villages to Lake City.
“We are financially fit and are proud to serve a wide variety of consumer needs from basic checking accounts to consumer loans to sophisticated commercial loans,” said Scott. “We certainly have ample funds and remain ready to work with qualified borrowers.”
Much of the credit of the success at CAMPUS USA goes to Scott, his staff and its wise fiscal policy, but some of it comes from the relationship with Scherer Construction.
“Because we have done so many projects together, Doug and his people know what we need,” Scott said. “We know how to build financial solutions. Doug knows how to build buildings. The more time we have to spend on construction management, the less time we can spend on what we need to do. If we weren’t working with Doug, I probably would have to have someone on staff familiar with building construction..
“After 17 projects you might think there would have been a conflict, but I can’t think of a harsh word we have ever said to each other,” Scott said. “I have to believe that this has been mutually beneficial to both companies.”
Wilcox agrees that it is a partnership that works well for both.
“Until we started working on the headquarters building, CAMPUS accounted for about 5 to 7 percent of our annual business,” he said. “With the headquarters building, they became a much bigger part of our business in the last year. For the first project, there was a learning curve. The second time that learning curve was smaller. The third time we were almost on autopilot. We always use the same leadership team on our end. That saves us time, and as a result, it saves CAMPUS money.”
Scott says he did not have to look too far when it came time to find a builder for the credit union’s headquarters.
“This building was a culmination of a lot of effort,” he said. “We were in the planning stages for about 10 years. We are consolidating all aspects of our services into one building. We think of this as an iconic building for us. We have watched Doug’s company grow and become more diversified. He has literally grown with us. As we looked at qualified contractors for a 95,000-sqaure-foot building, we thought Scherer, with Doug’s leadership, was ready for that challenge. Doug and his people are accountable. He deals with you with integrity, and he recruits and retains qualified staff and subcontractors.”
The relationship with CAMPUS USA has helped Wilcox develop a business model.
“Our business is very fluid,” he said. “We’re always looking toward the next job, and if you think about it, we are constantly working ourselves out of a job. It is important to me to keep that customer happy, so he wants to use us for that next job. I have had clients who were friends of mine, and I was often warned that if I wanted to keep them as friends, I should not do that. But they all remain friends. I have never had an issue with a client that could not be resolved with a phone call or face-to-face meeting.”
Wilcox believes that a job is not done right if the client does not want to do the next job with you.
“We certainly don’t want to leave them thinking that they want to do the next job with someone else,” he said. “I operate under the golden rule. That’s the way I was taught by my father. Because of that we were still picking up work – even in this economy. It is all about relationship building.”
Additionally, Scherer and CAMPUS USA have partnered in other ways, with the financial institution providing resources for some of the construction company’s projects.
Wilcox recalls a mini-storage complex where he was the general contractor. At the last minute, the developer decided against moving forward. Scherer became the developer, CAMPUS USA the current lender, and Wilcox and Scherer still owns the property today.
On another occasion, Wilcox says he was building a manufacturing facility in the airport industrial park. Shortly after the building was complete, the manufacturer went bankrupt.
“We bought the building with a group of partners,” said Wilcox. “CAMPUS financed that, and it all got done in two weeks. Campus has certainly helped us through the years. We borrowed to expand the business – to build up our fleet of vehicles and for our office building. I echo Larry’s words, that this has definitely been a mutually beneficial relationship.”
Another benefit for Scherer of the partnership with CAMPUS USA is that it has allowed Wilcox to build additional relationships with other business owners who stand ready to work with him again when the opportunity presents itself.
One of those relationships is with Ken Creel, who owns AERSI, an automotive repair business in the Northwest Industrial Park, specializing in Lexus, Toyota and Scion. The relationship goes back to 1995, when Scherer built the structure currently used by AERSI.
“I knew nothing about building or financing,” Creel said. “Doug walked me through the entire process, including permitting, which took six months. The building went up on time and on budget. It was always clean during construction. Every time I had a question during construction, someone here could answer it. We’ve been in the building 15 years and have had some upgrades. I just pick up the phone and tell Doug what I want.”
Things went so well that Creel later worked with Scherer on two spec buildings on his property.
“Doug even helped me develop a relationship with CAMPUS, making the construction that much easier,” said Creel. “The spec buildings were sold, so it was a successful venture for everybody. I believe that when you do business with people everyone should win. This has been good for the credit union, for the community, for the industrial park, for my customers, for Scherer and for me. That’s a win for everybody.”
It is obvious that these are two partners who have helped to make each other successful, and with both of them running their businesses and community involvement through relationship building, it has been a win-win for them and the community.
