Much of Hoffman’s recent work has centered on large-scale advanced manufacturing projects, including Intel’s Fab 52 in Arizona, the Casa Grande facilities expansion, Project Alpha and other semiconductor manufacturing campuses throughout the Southwest and Idaho. The company is also building hyperscale data centers and continues to deliver landmark projects, helping position it for continued growth.

Hoffman was ranked No. 10 on ENR’s Mountain States and Southwest Top Contractors list with reported regional revenue of $1.77 billion in 2025.

Andy Certosky is a vice president overseeing Arizona at Hoffman. He sat down with Regional Editor Annemarie Mannion to discuss the firm’s successes and challenges and the trends likely to impact the industry in the future. The following Q&A has been edited and condensed.

Craft resources are constrained more than ever right now in the industry. Coming up with good ways to attract people to our jobsites is super critical. For Hoffman, it’s running a safe, clean and efficient jobsite. So the word gets out in the community. It’s like ‘Hey, if you want to go somewhere where it’s safe to work, where it’s clean to work and where the job’s organized and run well, you can go [to a Hoffman job] and get your stuff done.’ We try to create that environment for the craftworker. And that’s for everything on these megaprojects, from the busing and getting people to and from the craft parking lots to having food trucks set up so that they can get a variety of different foods. And obviously on the jobsite, you have porta potties and facilities that are readily accessible. So every time they take a break, they’re not having to walk 15, 20 minutes to and back from the restroom.

By the time our owners are talking to us, they already need these projects up and running. So, more than ever, there is a shortened cycle of design-bid-build. Now we are typically building these projects a lot of times before we even have a permit in hand. We’re having to work with the owner, the designer and the authority having jurisdiction, whether that’s a county or a city, and [we are] making sure that all players are on the same page as we start that work. The relationship with our owners and our architects and even the craft, that’s [become] more critical over these past four years on those [mega] projects.

It’s definitely a global market. In terms of the supply chain piece of it, we’re trying to work with our owners and the designers as early as possible to identify the electrical and the main mechanical equipment, whether that’s air handlers, chillers or boilers—the stuff that really has those long lead times. [We] identify that and get specs created for that before the drawings are completed so that we can get that stuff ordered and get that procurement cycle running as quickly as possible so, by the time the building needs it, it shows up on time. The sooner you’re in line with these manufacturers of this critical equipment, the better off you are. On the tariff front, the earlier we can get our orders placed and lock in that pricing, [that helps] the owner understand that that number is locked in, and [we] have that in the contracts. That’s key. And where possible, we buy locally from the U.S. [so that we don’t] have to worry about the tariffs—with steel, iron, rebar, for example. The last [tool] you have is making sure your budget has a contingency on the owner’s side, in many cases, or if it’s a lump sum, on our side, to deal with that possible tariff risk down the road.

We’ve been building in the Southwest region for over 30 years now. A large portion of that work has been in the high-tech manufacturing sector, especially with Intel. [We are continuing] to build that relationship with the owner, growing through those projects and turning over a high-quality product time and time again. Hoffman [has] a lot of repeat business that comes from longstanding relationships.

I think the industry [and the country] is kind of nervous about what AI is going to do to jobs. On the general contractor and trade side, it’s a fairly safe place [to be for a job]. If you’re a young person looking to make a career, you’re not going to be too worried about AI taking over your job. We’re fairly AI-proof as far as that goes. [Regarding market sectors], data centers, mission critical and high-tech manufacturing are still going to run pretty hot. We tend to diversify our product portfolio—we always try to not get too heavily weighted in one sector. We always have some commercial work, government projects, higher education and manufacturing. High tech and the data centers are a big piece of it as well. Spreading the projects and the type of work we do to as many different sectors as possible has always been a key initiative for our company.