BCBusiness

24 BC BU S I N E S S .C A N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 24 A d a m B l a s b e r g T H E K I C K O F F : Coming from a family of builders and developers, Joshua Gaglardi started gaining experience in the industry at an early age. He cleaned construction sites as a kid and always knew that he wanted to one day be an entrepreneur in the same space. After a stint at Northland Proper- ties—which was founded by his uncle, Bob Gaglardi—the younger Gaglardi went off on his own and joined Integrated Construction before realizing his dream in 2018 by launch- ing Orion Construction in Langley. "It was challenging, but I thought it'd be more challenging to convince people to let a first-time builder with a brand-new company build their buildings," he admits. Orion is not your typical construction firm: the design-build contractor provides an all-in-one solution for clients and handles projects from inception to completion. "Without control, you can't do it the right way," says Gaglardi, who was a finalist in last year's EY Entre- preneur Of The Year – Pacific Region program. "If you're trying to provide the best solution for somebody, you need to have control over the whole process, provided that you have the experience and the ability to deliver on that." This year, Gaglardi is back in the same chair, but as a winner. "We had a bunch of momentum coming into the last year, and since then we have continued to grow and expand," he maintains. W I N N E R Joshua Gaglardi P R E S I D E N T , O R I O N C O N S T R U C T I O N A C T I O N P L A N : Even in the face of rising costs and interest rates, Gaglardi has successfully added new layers to his business. Orion Construc- tion ranked first on the Globe and Mail's 2022 Top Growing Companies in Canada list, and last October it levelled up from its focus on light industrial and commercial buildings to launch a multi-family program. The company broke ground on its first multi-family project—a six- storey, 84-unit purpose-built apart- ment in Langford—earlier this year. Given the lack of affordable housing in B.C., Gaglardi is excited to make his mark on the sector. "That's probably one of our largest growth segments coming up this year," he says. Orion is also branching into tenancy improvements, and Gaglardi is interested in bringing more services in-house, hence his decision to start a sister company, Astria Properties. Astria specializes in boutique indus- trial development projects. "We start buying properties and developing them and leasing them to tenants," Gaglardi explains. "We're just about to finish one in Kelowna—30,000 square feet on two acres that we're leasing to Canada Post for 25 years." It's a market segment that he claims was overlooked by bigger real estate players in town. Ultimately, as Astria lands development projects, Orion will get more construction projects. C L O S I N G S T A T E M E N T: Orion is cur- rently building a 330,000-square-foot automated food processing facility for Indian dairy supplier Nanak Foods in Surrey. The first building Orion ever built in B.C. also happened to be in Surrey. "There's one street, 194 Street, where we've built 12 or 13 projects," Gaglardi says. "It's a great client showcase: you can walk down and say we built this one, we built this one, and this one, and this one." Right now, Orion is working through a backlog of projects worth $1.4 billion, and revenue is expected to cross $200 million in 2025, accord- ing to its president. The team has also grown from 50 employees to 80 over the past year, and Orion is adding to its base in Langley with an office in Langford and another one potentially in Kelowna.–R.R. n W H AT ' S T HE BE S T L E A DE R S HIP A D V ICE Y OU ' V E E V E R R E CE I V E D ? Perseverance is key in this business. W H AT ' S Y OUR MO S T-U S E D A P P ? Professionally, Outlook, and we use Monday.com for project management, which has been super helpful. Personally, I like the Apple Health app. It's got lots of cool data. W H AT WA S Y OUR P R OUDE S T MOME N T IN BU S INE S S ? Being named the fastest grow- ing company in Canada [by the Globe and Mail]. [It's a large list] of over 450 people, and I never, ever thought that a construction company would be on the top of that list... when we found out we were in first place, I just thought that was crazy. A F T E R W OR K W E C A N F IND Y OU. . . Playing with my kids. Q+A

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