Some of the most important moments in a company’s history don’t come from a strategic plan. Rather, they come from a phone call, a trusted relationship, and someone willing to take a chance. For RC Andersen, that moment arrived courtesy of a longtime client named John Bancroft, and the ripple effects are still shaping the company’s growth today.
Bancroft, now a partner at JB2 Partners, has worked with RCA across three different companies over the course of his career. Along the way, he gave RCA its first-ever project, brought the team onto the New York Times printing facility renovation, and, most consequently, took RCA outside of New Jersey for the first time.
We often think about the company as the sought-after entity to do the job,” JOHN BANCROFT SAYS. “But it’s really the people. We like to build a team where we’re all wearing the same jersey.”
That belief was tested and proven, he adds, across “two downturns together” and “some very complex projects that showcased RCA’s boutique style of intimacy, creativity, and flexibility.”
At the time, Bancroft was with KTR Capital Partners, working on projects for Amazon, one of the firm’s biggest development customers. When an opportunity came up in Windsor, Connecticut, Bancroft chose RCA over several national bidders. Neil Ascione, now President of RC Andersen, was an up-and-coming Project Manager.
“Neil was pretty young, but it was clear he was a good leader with engineering substance and could handle new territory,” Bancroft says. The project was far enough away that the expansion was meaningful, but close enough that they could pull some of the subs they were used to, Bancroft notes. “It trickled down for us to expand, them to expand, and then bring some of their subs along to expand as well.”
For Ascione, that Connecticut project marked a turning point. “That was a change in direction that drastically shifted the way we work,” he says. “We now had to make new relationships, find new subs, vet new subs. When we learned that we could do it, we then thought ‘Where else could we do this?’”
The answer kept unfolding: Massachusetts, then Pennsylvania, then nearly a decade of work in Colorado. Now, RCA’s first opportunity in the Southeast has again come through Bancroft—this time in Georgia via his firm, JB2 Partners.
Ascione credits the relationship for his own growth as much as the company’s. “John coached me through that first project, and I became a better PM for it,” he says. “I developed my own skills because of his great guidance.”
RCA’s merger into STO Building Group (STOBG) raised an obvious question: would that same personal, relationship-first approach survive? Bancroft admits he was initially cautious. “I was a little worried I’d lose that boutique-style customer service,” he says. “But the benefits soon became clear. I’m seeing that RCA has expanded learning opportunities, systems, capacity, diversification of their sub pool, footprint, and reach. I really applaud STOBG for maintaining the sense of
ownership of the individual companies and allowing them to keep the culture consistent with what clients expect.”
Ascione and Bancroft agree that the ultimate goal is to have this kind of relationship. One that is built on trust, that has followed talented people across companies and state lines, and that proves that we’re all on the same team. And with the added bench of STOBG behind them, as Bancroft puts it, “The jersey now has a cape on it.”
