Jhonny Leyva, President of Heroica Construction, Inc.

New construction, like this residential project, is a growing part of Heroica Construction, Inc.’s business.

The goal of building and passing on a family business is a cornerstone of the American Dream. In a way, that’s the tale of Providence, Rhode Island-based Heroica Construction, Inc., though this company’s story stands apart in many ways. Heroica Construction is the American Dream in fast-forward.

In 2007, Yonny Leyva founded Heroica’s Painting, Inc., the same year his son Jhonny Leyva graduated from Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, with a bachelor’s degree in business and marketing. Two years later, Jhonny purchased the business from his father and rebranded it as Heroica Construction, Inc. He began pursuing larger projects and, eventually, shifted the firm’s focus to the general contracting industry.

“My dad opened Heroica as a painting and drywall business,” Jhonny says. “We focused on the residential market. It was 2007, one of the worst times to start a business. The real estate market was way down and it was tough the first couple of years. Our first year in business, we had about $90,000 in revenue. Once you take out taxes and expenses, we really didn’t make any money that year. When I bought it from my dad in 2009, I wanted to go in a different direction and move us into the commercial market. We started going after bigger projects, and around 2015 started moving into the general contracting world.”

Leaping Forward

Since moving into general contracting three years ago, Heroica’s success has skyrocketed. In 2015, the company pulled in $1.2 million in sales. In 2016, that grew to $1.4 million and to $1.8 million in 2017.

“We’ve grown about 25 percent to 30 percent each year as a general contractor,” Jhonny says. “This year we’re projecting to hit $2 million or $2.3 million. Next year, I can see us doing up to $4 million. Now we have the foundation built. We have the technology we need and the people we need. Still, you want to be careful in how fast you grow. You want to measure yourself.”

A graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program, Jhonny has led his reimagined company to new heights, taking on various project types, including multifamily complexes and hotels as well as commercial, industrial and institutional work. He gives credit for the company’s success to his team, to the economy’s climb out of the recent recession, and to CommerceRI, a statewide Rhode Island initiative aimed at business growth and job creation.

“We went from doing projects of $5,000 to projects of over half a million dollars last year,” Jhonny says. “This year, we’ve signed contracts that are close to a million dollars, and we’re looking to expand that thanks to CommerceRI and its new initiative.”

“We’ve made investments in the company,” he continues, “making sure we hire the right people and investing in new technology for estimating and project management. Most of our success is based on the people we hire. We’re a service business; we don’t have a product. We always put the client first. We hire the right people who have the right mentalities and cater to the client. The clients see that. We’re not afraid to invest in what we need to make ourselves successful.”

Value of an Education

A large part of Heroica’s success has come from the company’s contracts in the education sector, particularly in higher education. In the last few years, Heroica has performed work for Brown University, Johnson & Wales University, and Rhode Island College—all of which are located in Providence. Jhonny was also chosen for inclusion in the Rhode Island School Building Task Force, a committee formed by Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner in 2017 to address some $2.2 billion in deficiencies found in the state’s 306 public schools.

“It was slow getting started in higher education,” Jhonny says. “We reached out to Brown and tried to get business from them. It took some time to get in the door. But once we got some small business, it opened the door to us. As you build your relationships with them, more and more work becomes available. Working for one [institution] opens the door to more [opportunities]. As an example, there’s Johnson & Wales—we’re doing a sizable amount of work for them—about $400,000 this year.”

In keeping with its roots, Heroica still self-performs painting and drywall contracts. This has frequently opened the door to additional general contracting work. That’s been the case with several of Heroica’s largest clients, such as the Foxwoods Resort Casino in neighboring Connecticut.

“At Foxwoods, we started out with a painting contract,” Jhonny says. “That opened the floodgates for general contracting work, with multiple fit-out jobs. We’re also self-performing all the painting work for several office buildings as part of the State of Rhode Island John O. Pastore Center.”

Other prominent clients of Heroica include the Achievement First Providence Mayoral Academy charter school in Rhode Island, which has frequently called on the company for construction management work, and Rhode Island College.

“We just did a ground-up project for Rhode Island College,” Jhonny says. “It was a $700,000 project that took about eight or nine months, installing an elevator. It required foundation work, underpinning, electrical, flooring and fire suppression. We worked with Otis and 15 other subcontractors on that job. It’s probably the hardest project we’ve done to date, building an addition to a building. The offices of the college’s president and vice president are in that building. We had to work nights, keep everything clean and deal with noise restraints. The project managers were very keen on making sure everything ran very smoothly. Keeping the [college’s] staff happy was key on that job.”

Recognizing Roots

As an immigrant from Colombia, Jhonny takes great pride in what he and his family have built with Heroica. He was 8 years old when his family moved to the United States. Though proud of his new home, he hasn’t forgotten where he came from—the full name of the city of his birth is Cartagena la Heroica, which inspired the name of the company.

“We’re a minority company,” Jhonny says. “We’re trying to grow through state initiatives the government has proposed to increase the number of minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses. I’m a big advocate for that. We want to make sure these businesses get a fair share of the work that becomes available. That’s my way of giving back, donating time and dedication to helping minority-owned, women-owned and veteran-owned businesses get to participate in the work that’s available.”

In 2017, Jhonny was awarded the prestigious George T. Downing Business Leadership Award at the Rhode Island Black Business Association’s 6th Annual Awards Gala. The George T. Downing Business Leadership Award is presented to one influential business leader recognized for outstanding business growth, increasing jobs and sales, and serving industry associations and community organizations.

“I try to be hands-off in management,” Jhonny says. “I feel like when bosses are on top of people it stops the growth. I’m all about improvement. Never be comfortable, never lay back. The mindset I put out there is ‘what could we have done better to make things better for the clients?’ I don’t think I’ll ever settle. That isn’t me at all. We’re always improving, always growing.”

“I grew up in a low-income environment, a place called Central Falls,” Jhonny says. “We’ve been in this country for 26 years. We started from the bottom. Now we’ve seen our company grow into a million-dollar enterprise. I could see the company become a $100 million company. It’s all right there.”