The construction industry is built upon generational companies that adapt and grow as the industry demands. As the U.S. has steadily grown over the past century, so too have the structures we reside in, the offices we work in, the transport network that carries us around the country. All this needs the sustained input of companies that know the industry, that have grown with it, that get it. Island International Enterprises is one such company. Island provides spray-applied products to structural steel on commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings. Founded in the 1970’s, the company has a rich history made up of Irish roots. While this is something that the company is rightly proud of, it is not one to rest on its laurels and has grown into a multigenerational company with its foundations firmly embedded in the local community.
At the outset, Island International Enterprises was set up with a broad base. Its goal was to offer General Contracting to the construction industry– doing everything from spray fireproofing and spray insulation to intumescent coatings, drywall, and pre- engineered unitized facades. Tom Burk, Senior Vice President at Island International Enterprises acknowledges its broad base and explains how, over time, this has led to adapting methods of working. “It started as a very broad-based construction company and now it has broken up into specialized divisions.”
The Spray Fireproofing division focuses on Spray Applied Fireproofing and Spray Applied Insulation including Thermal Insulation, Acoustic Insulation and Spray Polyurethane Foam. In this division, the team provides clients with spray-applied coatings on structural steel, concrete and masonry in commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings and structures. Burk said, “We have a very long history of successfully completing very large and demanding infrastructure projects.” Island International Enterprises has tremendous Bonding capacity which makes it the Premier Fireproofing Company on projects for agencies such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The MTA and the LIRR. In 2016 Island was chosen to apply Spray High Density Fireproofing directly above the LIRR Railroad tracks on the Hudson Yards Project. Island worked around the clock while select tracks were put out of service from Fridays through Sundays for 2 years to complete this project.
No project came with a greater responsibility than the World Trade Freedom Tower. The Freedom Tower project consisted of 105 stories, also included on the same World Trade Site were the Vehicle Security Center and the Path Train station. Additionally, Island International Enterprises has also been working on La Guardia Airport since 2017; a project on which it completed work on every terminal and is expected to be completed this year. Other ongoing projects include redevelopment work on JFK Airport, The Google Building, The Spiral Tower and the Moynihan Post Office —which was converted into an extension of Penn Station in New York City. Island International Enterprises is not strictly limited to public infrastructure, with the team also completing highly successful projects for hospitals, pharmaceutical and biomedical companies across New York City, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Delaware.
Since its inception, the company has been on an upward trajectory. Island International Enterprises has seen a large amount of steady growth since the 1970s. “Constant steady growth,” is how Burk describes it. With the success that the company has experienced, it seems that this may be a modest assessment. He added, “If you note the projects that we’ve done, you see the growth. We went from working on office and warehouse buildings to the Freedom Tower – [which] was at the time the largest, tallest fireproofed building in the world. You can reach your own conclusions from that, but we’ve certainly seen sustained steady growth over the lifespan of our company”.
“It’s the story of a company with a team mentality, that promotes from within.”
Every successful company attributes their success to a number of factors. According to Burk, some major factors stand out in being key contributors: a superb workforce, a great office and management team, and strength across each of its divisions. “As a full-service company, we have our own servicing division with our own mechanics and trucking departments. We self-build all of our Proprietary Specialized Pumping Equipment, and we self-perform everything we do. We are basically a one-stop company for everything.”
This team is exemplified in the length of service that staff members have reached within the company. Incredibly, Island International Enterprises has workers who have been there for over forty years. Not only that, but their children and in some cases their spouses have joined the company too, making it a multi-generational family-oriented workforce. Burk said: “A lot of our workers have been with the company for their whole working career, and they’ve made a successful living here and supported their families and done very well, so that type of organization with that employee retention creates an atmosphere of great team spirit. It’s definitely a team mentality and again it’s been very successful. We take on the demands and challenges of our projects no matter what they are. We make every project situation work, sometimes we have worked around the clock, three shifts per day, seven days a week on projects. No project is too big for us to accomplish.”
However, despite the positive experiences, spending decades in business will invariably lead to challenges. The pandemic in particular proved to be a difficult period across the industry. Despite the pandemic disrupting every corner of people’s lives, Burk said that for Island, it gave the company an opportunity to demonstrate its adaptability. “We did not miss a beat in the pandemic”. The company’s projects were deemed essential by the state and the construction site workers and the mechanic and trucking staff were able to work throughout the pandemic, with the estimating and office staff that could work from home doing so. Burk said, “Thank God none of our people were permanently affected by the virus, but the Javits Center was going then, the Moynihan station was going, La Guardia Airport was going, and all those projects were essential projects and we worked throughout the pandemic, so I think that was a great accomplishment. The pandemic was one of the worst things that happened to us, obviously, but we were able to rise above it and keep going.”
The outlook for the company for the coming year is a positive one. As the industry maintains its recovery, Island International Enterprises is at the forefront of the landscape once more. “2024 – that’s a great outlook. We’ve been at LaGuardia Airport for seven years and we’re nearing completion on that. Meanwhile, we just started work at JFK Airport last year. We expect to be there for multiple years.”
It goes without saying that in order to succeed in business, you need hard work, expertise and a little bit of luck. Island International Enterprises is a company that shows how far you can go with the addition of a strong team. In summing up the company, Burk refers to the benefits harnessed from looking after staff, clients, and the local community. “It’s the story of a company with a team mentality, that promotes from within. Many of our members have had their whole careers with this company, which I think these days is unique because I think that whole concept of staying with a company you are proud to be a part of for your whole career is probably not the norm.”
