Promoter of the Year - Buildings - Awarded to Bill Childs of Chaney Enterprises

NRMCA’s Building Promoter of the Year Award is presented for outstanding contributions in support of concrete building promotion by an individual from an NRMCA Producer member. This year’s winner is Bill Childs of Maryland-based Chaney Enterprises. Bill has served on the boards and committees of many organizations at the national and state level and is the 2013 past chairman of NRMCA. He was involved from the start in helping shape the new Build with Strength program by providing direction and inspiration for NRMCA to address the critical low/mid-rise building market. From there, he put the ideas into practice.

 

In early 2016, Bill initiated a meeting with Maryland Ready Mix Concrete Association and NRMCA to discuss fire safety legislation in Maryland. As a result, the Maryland association and NRMCA hired a contract lobbying firm and quickly crafted legislation based on what the industry was already doing in New Jersey. The bill was introduced and committee hearings were held to debate the bill. Key testimonials from fire services and affordable housing groups along with industry representatives from Chaney Enterprises and NRMCA helped get the attention of the committee. At the behest of the committee chairman, the industry team worked with allies and opposition to amend the legislation and the bill was reintroduced in the Maryland House and Senate in early 2017. Hearings were held in February. Of course, the legislation is vehemently opposed by developers and wood industry groups.

 

Next, Bill leveraged an existing relationship with a large multifamily developer to bring a 446,000-square-foot project to the Concrete Design Center. NRMCA developed a design proposal that demonstrated a $2.1 million savings by switching the project to ICFs from stick framing. ICF shaved 13 weeks off the construction schedule and 30-50% from energy costs. The general contractor became engaged and conducted a cost estimate of its own. Bill and the NRMCA team provided installers to take advantage of hard number estimates for the ICF walls. Without Bill’s tenacity, the project likely would not have reached this point.

 

Mr. Childs will be presented his award at the NRMCA annual convention awards luncheon in Las Vegas on March 5, 2017.