Laying a foundation for growth: creative partnership wins an architect and construction company a seat at the military's table.

• Position: CONSTRUCTION

Marty Moser does a lot of driving as the head of Barnhill Contracting Co.'s building division. The Tarboro company has projects across the state, and Moser's path often takes him past military bases. His eyes are on the administrative buildings, the barracks, the training centers. "I want to see our company banner on one of those buildings more than anything," he says. "And it's going to happen."

Barnhill is one of a growing number of contractors drawn to the military-construction market, which is particularly robust right now. The Defense Department is in the middle of a $7 billion blitz in North Carolina, a wave of spending and building that began about three years ago, according to the N.C. Military Business Center in Fayetteville. Base realignments and closures elsewhere are expanding military operations in the state, with bases gaining new military units, including two major Army commands.

Barnhill has long provided paving and grading services to the military but hadn't served as a prime general contractor in its vertical building business. "Looking at our company's footprint ... it very closely matches the military," he says. "From a market standpoint, it made sense to say, 'Hey, our footprint's here, they have a need for construction, let's look at how we can get in.'" Barnhill began bidding on military jobs in 2007 but soon hit roadblocks.

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'They are looking to hire companies that have experience working with the military. If you haven't worked as a prime [contractor] and can't show all these barracks or training facilities, they see that as a negative," Moser says. "We had built dorms for UNC Chapel Hill and training facilities for municipalities and private clients. A barracks and a dorm are similar, but in the eyes of the military, they are not the same thing."

Barnhill had to get creative. The company had long worked with Fayetteville-based SFL+A Architects PA on schools and other projects. It's typical for a contractor to be the lead in those partnerships. But the team switched roles, with SFL+A becoming the lead contractor on military proposals. SFL+A qualified as a small business under federal rules, with annual revenue of less than $30 million. Putting the architectural firm in the lead role enabled both to take advantage of the government's mandate to award a portion of its contracts to small businesses.

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