Skanska’s small business incubator has led to $740M in partnerships

David Delancey’s father worked in construction, but he said he never saw it as a career for himself, calling it “rough, outside work.”

He attended the University of South Florida on a basketball scholarship, before pursuing a career on the administrative side of the construction industry in city management. It wasn’t until his brother studied construction management at Florida A&M University that Delancey reconsidered his career path.

“We started talking more about it and he was just like, ‘Look, man, it’s a part of us, you know? You grew up in it as well, so why don’t you look back into it?’” Delancey said.

He did, starting his own firm, One Day Came, in 2004. Two decades later, Delancey returned to USF to see how his Tampa, Florida-based company specializing in education and parks construction could improve by studying in Skanska’s Construction Management Building Blocks Program.

Skanska USA started the Building Blocks program in 2007 to help smaller, diverse companies grow and manage business challenges, but also to find opportunities to work for and with larger firms, according to Tracy Hunt, general manager for Skanska’s Florida operations. The U.S. arm of the Sweden-based contractor has partnered with USF since 2021.

The free, multiweek courses cover a variety of topics, including contracting methods, insurance bonds, safety requirements and sustainability, Hunt said. Skanska employees teach classes on human resources or site logistics, for example.

Then, ideally, the program also forges a partnership that both Skanska and the company can capitalize on. 

“Ultimately the goal is we want to get them in, and we certainly want them to start working for us, but if they can go out and have a job going with us and the job going with five of our competitors, then the whole community’s growing, right?” Hunt said.

Since 2007, the Building Blocks program has educated about 800 companies and led to approximately $740 million in contracts with Skanska, Hunt said.

Building a future

One Day Came is one of those firms to go into business with Skanska. The two companies have entered the pre-construction phase on Just Elementary School and Stewart Middle School in Hillsborough County, Florida, an existing campus that is being demolished and rebuilt into a $70 million new school, Delancey said.

“I got in this program and I knew right away that I was going to learn quite a bit,” said Delancey. “Small companies, we’re in our space, we’re in our lane, but we do know that there are other things that we can learn to get better, to work a little faster, to work a little more efficient, to become better for our clients.”

Delancey described the elementary school project as his firm’s biggest opportunity in 20 years, as he’s worked on a continuing work contract with Hillsborough County on other education projects.

“My confidence with this business has gone through the roof because of the resources that Skaska has in place for me as a mentor has just really changed a lot for me,” Delancey said. “It has changed everything for me when it comes to this business.”