Spotlight AZ: Sundt

From transportation and water infrastructure to advanced manufacturing facilities, Sundt Construction has helped build Arizona’s economy since 1929. Headquartered in Tempe, the 100% employee-owned company is investing in new facilities, workforce training and technologies to support the state’s next chapter of growth. In this Chamber Business News Spotlight, Sundt’s Alex Charland discusses the company’s new Apache Junction manufacturing facility, its commitment to careers in the skilled trades and how employee ownership shapes its approach to building Arizona’s future.

Tell us about Sundt Construction and its footprint in Arizona. 

Alex Charland, president, advanced facilities: Sundt is headquartered in Tempe and has been active in Arizona since 1929. We have built the infrastructure and facilities that help communities and economies grow, from transportation and water treatment systems to mining, advanced manufacturing, data centers and other complex industrial work, just to name a few. 

We are also 100% employee-owned by more than 5,500 employee-owners. That matters because the people planning the work, managing projects and building in the field have a direct stake in Sundt’s long-term success. Our craft professionals, engineers, and support teams are building their own futures alongside the projects they deliver. 

Safety is foundational to that commitment. Sundt is the only company to have earned the Grand Safety Award three times by the Associated General Contractors of America. We see workforce development, employee ownership and safety as connected: We want our people to have the training, opportunity and ownership stake to build a long career and to return home safely every day. 

Sundt recently broke ground on a 65,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Apache Junction. What should Arizonans and the business community know about this project? What role does off-site manufacturing play in supporting Arizona’s construction growth? 

Our new Apache Junction facility is a meaningful investment in Arizona’s industrial future and in the people who will build it. The 65,000-square-foot facility will include manufacturing and fabrication space, engineering and design offices, and a regional employee training center. It is expected to create approximately 100 new jobs in its first phase, with room to expand as demand grows. 

The facility will allow us to manufacture modular components (especially mechanical, electrical, and process, or MEP, systems) for a wide variety of industrial, manufacturing, and infrastructure projects. Off-site manufacturing and fabrication give teams a more controlled environment to produce components with consistency and precision before they arrive at the jobsite. 

That has several benefits. It can reduce traffic and material movement in and out of jobsites, improve schedule reliability, and create safer, more predictable working conditions for our employee-owners. It also creates quality career opportunities closer to home for people in the Apache Junction community. 

Arizona’s economy is growing because companies are investing in advanced manufacturing and industrial production here. Our job is to help provide the facilities and infrastructure that make that growth possible. This facility strengthens our ability to do that while creating jobs, developing skills, and keeping more of that economic activity in Arizona. 

What does being 100% employee-owned mean for Sundt and its employees? 

Employee ownership means that, after meeting a one-year tenure and minimum-hours-worked threshold, every eligible employee can participate in Sundt’s ESOP. It is not reserved for executives, office roles, or a select group of employees. Craft professionals, skilled-trades workers and administrative team members all can become owners. 

That creates a different kind of workplace. Our people are invested in doing work safely, solving problems early, protecting quality and building strong relationships because they are not just working for the company. 

Employee ownership can also reshape retirement outcomes. We have seen people who spent their careers in the skilled trades or in administrative support roles build real retirement security that you don’t see in other structures. That is one reason we believe construction can offer an exceptional career: It is an opportunity to learn a valuable trade, earn a strong living, support a family, and share in the long-term success of the company. 

As an employee-owned business, we can make decisions with a longer view. We are focused on the health of our people, the success of our clients and the communities where we work, not short-term returns for outside investors. 

Sundt has emphasized semiconductor manufacturing expertise and created a dedicated Advanced Facilities Group. What differentiates your team in advanced manufacturing? 

Advanced manufacturing facilities demand a different level of planning, coordination, and execution. These are highly technical environments where precision, process reliability, schedule and safety all matter at once. 

Our teams, including our Advanced Facilities Group, bring together people with deep experience delivering complex industrial systems. We also have robust self-perform MEP capabilities, which gives us more direct control over critical work and helps our teams coordinate complex systems from preconstruction through installation and startup. 

Beyond the manufacturing facilities themselves, one area where our teams have developed significant capability is industrial water and wastewater treatment with a focus on water reuse and recycling. Those systems are essential to the next generation of sustainable semiconductor and advanced manufacturing facilities, and they require a high degree of technical understanding and disciplined project delivery. 

What differentiates Sundt is not simply that we build large facilities. It is that we understand the integrated systems inside them and can bring the right people, processes, and self-perform capability to execute demanding work with fewer handoffs and less uncertainty. Our teams know how to work collaboratively with clients and trade partners to identify issues early, manage risk, and keep projects moving. 

Which innovation tools are having the biggest impact at Sundt, and why is Arizona a strong place for companies to embrace innovation? 

We have embraced AI because construction has many real-world challenges it can help solve when it is supported by clean, reliable data and guided by experienced people. Technology is most useful when it helps our teams make better decisions, improve safety, increase productivity, or see potential problems sooner. 

We are also investing in automation in practical ways. Sundt is partnering with Bedrock Robotics on automated excavators. We have deployed a robotic survey device to regularly walk a major jobsite, and we have piloted semi-autonomous heavy-equipment systems on solar fields. These tools can help improve consistency, capture better jobsite information and allow skilled people to focus their time where their judgment matters most. 

Arizona is a strong place to embrace innovation because it has shown a willingness to welcome and test new technologies. Phoenix was among the cities willing to pilot Waymo alongside San Francisco, and Bedrock Robotics shares roots with that same ecosystem. That openness matters. 

There is a positive feedback loop at work in Arizona. The state’s willingness to support advanced technology companies has helped attract major investment. In turn, those projects have helped cultivate builders, trade partners, and skilled workers capable of delivering some of the country’s most demanding industrial systems. That makes Arizona even more attractive to the next generation of advanced manufacturing and technology companies. There is a reason Semicon is moving permanently to Arizona. 

Why is Arizona a great place to do business, and how does Arizona fit into Sundt’s growth strategy? 

Arizona is home, and it will remain central to our growth strategy. We build across the country, with a focus on fast-growing markets that value collaborative project delivery, but headquarters are here. 

We are active in Arizona across our full range of work, from heavy civil infrastructure to industrial, institutional and commercial projects. We built our training facility and Center for Craft Excellence in Phoenix, we’re underway on our dedicated off-site manufacturing facility in Apache Junction, and we are preparing to expand our headquarters into a full campus in Tempe. 

Those investments reflect confidence in Arizona’s future. The state has a growing economy, an increasingly diverse industrial base and a business community that understands the importance of infrastructure, workforce development, and long-term partnership. Sundt intends to keep investing alongside our fellow Arizonans. 

Recent news has highlighted Sundt’s Apache Junction manufacturing investment, safety recognition, outreach to Pima JTED and ACE Mentor, and acquisition of IPS. What do these milestones say about where Sundt is headed in Arizona? 

Together, these milestones show a future-focused, long-term strategy. We are investing in the capacity, people and partnerships Arizona needs to continue growing. 

Our Apache Junction facility will expand our off-site manufacturing and fabrication capabilities. Our safety recognition reflects a commitment to the wellbeing of the people doing the work. Partnerships with organizations such as Pima JTED and ACE Mentor help introduce young people to construction careers and create pathways into the skilled trades. And our acquisition of IPS strengthens the self-perform electrical and instrumentation capabilities we can bring to increasingly complex work. 

We are also the largest provider of U.S. Department of Labor-registered construction apprenticeships in Arizona, with seven programs offered in English and Spanish through our training campus near downtown Phoenix and community-college partners. Participation has quadrupled over the past two years, and we anticipate that growth to continue. 

That’s the future we are working toward: an Arizona where people can build rewarding careers, businesses can grow with confidence, and the infrastructure and facilities being built today support a thriving state for generations to come.