LEGACY AND SCALE-UP
Terry Geluch, Joe’s dad, founded Naikoon Contracting Ltd in August 1980 in the small community of Masset (population 800), Haida Gwaii, off the west coast of British Columbia. After spending the summers of his childhood on construction sites with his father, Joe purchased and relaunched the company in North Vancouver in 2010. Joe’s success was noticed quickly. In 2015, he was a Business in Vancouver 40 under 40 winner. Under Joe’s leadership, Naikoon has grown into a fifty-person digitally sophisticated construction management company and certified Passive House builder, delivering high-performance residential and commercial projects across BC. The company has averaged 23% revenue growth over the past decade.
Naikoon’s team has delivered a wide range of bespoke homes for over fifty families, emphasizing high performance and energy efficiency standards, including multiple Passive House and Net Zero Carbon builds, years before these labels were widely prevalent. To advocate for industry adoption of green building materials and techniques, Joe devised and managed ‘Midori Uchi’—a showcase home that was deemed to be one of the “greenest homes in Canada” when built in 2017. Naikoon’s progressive sustainability record is well-recognized in the industry, having earned the title of “Custom Home Builder of the Year” seven times by the Canadian Home Builders’ Association at the regional and national level, as well as dozens of project awards.
LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
Under Joe’s vision and leadership, Naikoon is now fully digital, utilizing 4D virtual design and construction (VDC) delivery methods across projects, from small houses to multi-storey commercial buildings.
Recently, Naikoon’s BIM expertise caught the attention of BC Housing, the province’s housing agency and its largest developer of affordable housing. The digital technologies deployed on Naikoon’s projects address the “missing middle” in BC’s housing crisis and have become important case studies that Naikoon shares with the residential building community through support of BC Housing (Birds Wing Passive House Plus VDC Case Study and West 38th - BIM Virtual Design and Construction for Shop Drawing Process: Optimization in Residential Projects showcase the use of BIM and VDC for project delivery of small complex multi-unit projects). British Columbia needs 610,000 new homes by 2030 and Naikoon’s adoption of digital technologies shows that this is not only possible, but profitable for residential builders. Demonstrating the value of and incentivizing these building typologies is a necessary step to motivate the market.
Joe has also led the company’s investment in timber panel prefabrication—a system that relies entirely on the company’s VDC capabilities. The company has become a leader in the use of mass timber technology on highly complex commercial projects, including 1 Lonsdale and oN5. Built on difficult zero-lot line sites, the use of mass timber and prefabricated systems allowed the structures for 1 Lonsdale and oN5 to be built in 10 and 13 days, respectively. Case studies were conducted for both projects by the Forestry Innovation Network’s naturally:wood program to share “the innovative wood technology/design and construction methods used” with others. Joe’s vision of Naikoon has enabled the firm to efficiently deliver small to mid-sized projects—the majority of commercial projects undertaken across the country—utilizing leading industry technology.
As a small business owner, Joe demonstrates that digital transformation and innovation can happen at any scale. He has proactively invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the adoption of virtual design and construction at Naikoon and brought on a team of international experts to advance the organization’s building processes. He remains resolute in his conviction that the technologies utilized in large commercial and infrastructure projects can be applied in smaller projects and in any segment of the Canadian construction market. His focus on the residential home market is a deliberate commitment to address the inefficiencies and waste that contribute to the housing supply crisis impacting cities across the country and have been felt acutely in the Lower Mainland.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
Joe has built Naikoon as an example of how to bring the advantages of prefabrication, BIM and digital technologies to small construction projects. He has been happy to share his experiences and the library of case studies of Naikoon’s experiences have been a source of inspiration for others in the industry. Joe has given dozens of interviews, served as an expert on building podcasts, and spoke at industry events, such as BuildEx, to share information with the broader industry. Joe’s work is particularly important in the light of BC’s pressing housing crisis and the need to modernize the housing sector. His work is relevant to thousands of construction firms across the country.
Since 1980, Naikoon has provided tens of thousands of apprentice hours to Indigenous employees across BC and has had periods where 50% of the workforce were local Indigenous peoples. Annual bursaries are provided to the high schools on Haida Gwaii and on the North Shore to support and encourage youth to pursue a career in trades. Joe has also formed valuable partnerships with the Squamish Nation Training & Trades Centre, BCIT, and other entities to support First Nations employment.
IN THE COMMUNITY
Outside of Naikoon, Joe has dedicated time to industry efforts, including being a founding member of Canada’s Net Zero Energy Housing Council, a member of the Executive Board of Directors of the CHBA-BC Technical Research Committee, serving as Chair of BCIT’s Carpentry Advisory Committee, and holding terms on multiple municipal Advisory Design Panels. He founded ‘Construction Cares’ in 2017 which has gone on to raise over $65,000 for MPS research; a cause he came to care deeply about after building a new home for the Purcell family whose son has the condition.
