Design-Build construction company with old-school values and beliefs

“I’d rather drive nails than eat.” Our founder Ralph said it and to this day, we live it. At our Design-Build construction company, we roll back our sleeves, we get dirty, we take care of business. To us, these aren't cliches, but instead, our working-man's mantra.

We're a rare breed at The Korte Company — a team of blue collars, white collars, architects and engineers all working together to build smart.

Our heritage is strong like our work ethic

In 1958, with little more than a truck, a saw and his good name, Ralph Korte founded The Korte Company.

Built on a foundation of strong Midwestern values, an innovative spirit and a tireless pursuit of quality, his company's reputation as a force in the industry took hold. While many twenty-somethings were going to rock festivals during the '60s, Ralph was busy with retaining walls and macroeconomics books. During the day, Ralph headed a small, hard-working company. At night, the man with no formal high-school education attended college and learned the business principles that would eventually grow his company into one of the country's leading builders.

As The Korte Company grew, we incorporated new building methods. In 1963, we paved the way for Design-Build delivery, 20 years before it was recognized by the rest of the industry. In the years that followed, we also added Tilt-Up Construction and Design-Build-Furnish to our list of advances.

Since 1958, The Korte Company has completed more than 2,000 projects throughout the nation. From million plus square-foot, $100 million distribution center Design-Build to neighborhood church construction, we take on each and every project with the same dedication and passion. After all, at The Korte Company, the job is the boss.

To build smart as a Design-Build construction company is to enable a better future

Streamlined processes, buildings that are user-friendly and structures that are easy on Mother Earth — that's how we define building smart. At The Korte Company, we pledge ourselves to always deliver forward thinking and unmatched building for our clients, while still keeping humility in knowing that there is always a better way to do something. It’s finding this better way that drives us. Frankly, it’s our passion.

We’ve established ourselves as leaders in commercial green construction and design by providing the latest with our Green Design-Build construction services. We’re members of the USGBC and have a tall list of LEED buildings we’re proud to have our name on.

We're an ISNetword certified company, meaning we take safety, insurance, quality and regulatory information very seriously. By being an ISN company, we can streamline complicated processes, meaning fewer incidents, better compliance, more smiling clients and jobs that are always on-time and on-budget.

The company we keep

More than 84% of our business comes from clients who have worked with us before. Given the competitive nature of our industry and the complexities of any given project, it's quite an achievement to be able to say this and it's something we're very proud of.

A few of our smiling clients include The Boeing Company, the Department of Defense, the US Army Corps of Engineers, NASA, Walgreens, the Wall Street Journal and the United States Postal Service.

At The Korte Company, we don't just work for the best, we partner with the best as well. We believe in strategic alliances based on mutual respect and trust. That's why we have been named ASA (American Subcontractor Association) Contractor of the Year three times. It also means that our subcontractors are paid on time and treated fairly. Our partners have helped The Korte Company retain its ranking in the top 100 Design-Build firms in the US every year since 1996.