Gil Andres could have sold. Private equity was buying Texas contractors by the dozen. National firms would’ve written the check without blinking.
He gave the company away instead.
In 2017, Gil transferred 100% ownership to the people who’d been building alongside him for decades. Not to a holding company. Not to investors looking for a five-year flip. To superintendents. Project managers. Field crews. The people who actually show up when plans fall apart.
That wasn’t sentimental. It was the most structurally sound decision he ever made — because employee ownership is the mechanism that keeps this team intact. And an intact team is the only thing that produces certainty on a complex project.
100%
Employee-Owned
2017
ESOP Established
~250
Employee-Owners
206+
Combined Leadership Years
Most contractor websites stick "Employee-Owned" in a badge and move on. Here’s what that badge actually produces.
Ownership creates retention. Every ANDRES employee receives company stock annually — no cost to them. That equity grows tax-deferred, compounds over time, vests across a multi-year schedule. Walking away means leaving real wealth on the table. So people don’t walk away.
Retention creates continuity. The construction industry loses 68.2% of its workforce every year. Let that land. Two out of three people on a jobsite in January won’t be there in December. ANDRES’s leadership team averages 20-plus years together. The PM who solved the rebar crisis at Cabana? Same PM who caught the scheme error at Knox Street before it cascaded across 46 units. That kind of institutional memory doesn’t exist at firms cycling through new hires every 18 months.
Continuity creates certainty. Plans break on every complex project. Every one. The question is whether the people in the room have already solved something like it — together, on the last project, and the one before that. That’s not a talking point. That’s a compounding advantage no new team can replicate, regardless of how talented the individuals are.
The chain: ESOP → Retention → Crew Continuity → Better Outcomes for You.
Employee ownership: 100% since 2017. Structure: S-Corporation ESOP.
Every employee receives 6–10% of salary annually in company stock — no cost to them. At a $135K salary, that’s $10,800/year in equity. Add the 3–4% 401(k) employer match (roughly $5,400/year), and a five-year estimated equity per employee lands between $61,000 and $70,000.
Nationally, the average ESOP balance is $132K versus $64K for non-ESOP retirement accounts (NCEO/ESCA). ANDRES employees are building that same compounding advantage.
Because ANDRES is a 100% S-Corporation ESOP, the company pays zero federal income tax — an estimated $1–2M+ retained in the company annually. That cash goes back into equipment, people, and project capability.
Construction industry turnover runs 68.2% annually (2025, The Resource Company). ESOP contractors benchmark at less than 50% of industry average (NCEO study, 160 companies). ANDRES’s 5–7 year vesting schedule creates a peak retention curve at 10–15 year mid-career employees — exactly where institutional knowledge compounds most.
Verification: CertifiedEO verified.
Gil Andres started in 1955. Twenty years old, project engineer for Henry C. Beck Company in Shreveport. Over six decades he built the landmarks that define the Dallas skyline — Reunion Tower, Fountain Place, Crescent Court. He founded ANDRES Construction in 1991 from an office in a building he’d built himself.
By 2017, the company was worth selling. National firms were consolidating Texas contractors. PE shops were acquiring construction companies across the Sun Belt. The exit was right there.
Gil didn’t take it.
He transferred 100% ownership to the team. Not to a holding company. Not to outside investors who’d optimize for EBITDA and exit in five years. To the superintendents, project managers, and field crews who showed up every day and solved the problems that actually mattered.
That decision cost Gil the premium a PE buyer would have paid. What it bought was permanence. The team that built Cathedral Guadalupe, The National, and three decades of complex Texas projects isn’t going anywhere. They own the company. They are the company.
When you hire ANDRES, you’re not hiring a contractor that might look completely different next year. You’re hiring a team with a financial stake in long-term performance — not quarterly earnings, not a portfolio exit, not a management buyout timeline.
Here’s what that produces on your jobsite:
The same superintendent shows up. Not a new hire learning your project on the fly. The person who’s been solving problems on ANDRES projects for 15, 20, 35 years. They know the subcontractors. They know the inspectors. They know what’s going to go wrong before it does — because they’ve seen it before. Different building, same instinct.
Decisions favor the project, not the quarter. Employee-owners don’t cut corners to hit a margin target for an outside investor. The tax savings from the ESOP structure — $1–2M+ annually in retained cash — go back into the company. Better equipment. Better people. Better outcomes.
Turnover doesn’t reset your team. At a PE-owned competitor running 68% annual turnover, the crew that starts your project may not be the crew that finishes it. At ANDRES, the 5–7 year vesting schedule and compounding equity create a retention curve that keeps experienced people on your job from preconstruction through closeout.
Jonathan Haywood, 25 years at ANDRES: "No single person is the same, but the approach is. Consistency, market experience, transparency, and an overall client experience."
That’s what 25 years of staying produces. Not a slogan. A pattern.
Wade Andres — 35 years. Wayne Wilson — 35 years. Jeff Kempf — 28 years. Jonathan Haywood — 25 years. Randy Bessire — 25+ years. Stephen Miller — 22 years. Brian Wildman — 21 years. Carlos Trevino — 15 years.
Eight leaders. Combined 206-plus years at one company. In an industry where the average tenure barely survives a single project cycle, this isn’t a recruiting statistic. It’s the structural advantage that no hiring spree can manufacture.
The team that builds your project has been building together for decades.
Talk to us about your next project. The people you meet in preconstruction are the same people who’ll be on your jobsite at closeout.