Keith Poettker, Chairman & CEO, Poettker Construction

In an interview with Invest:, Keith Poettker, chairman and CEO of Poettker Construction, explained how the strategic use of data and artificial intelligence is sharpening the company’s operations. He also highlighted the need for affordable housing for sustained growth, and emphasized the unique advantages of the Charlotte region. “We are excited about 2026 as our backlog is up roughly 30% year-over-year. That tells me that the last half of 2026 and probably all of fiscal year 2027 will be pretty strong, robust revenue years,” he added.

Reflection on this past year, what milestones best illustrate your progress?

We are a servant leadership organization, and it was encouraging to receive for the first time recognition from the Charlotte Business Journal as a finalist for best workplace of the year. That was a big blessing, showing that what we are trying to promote is actually happening. 

On the revenue side, we anticipated 2025 being somewhat of a flat revenue year because of financial underwriting restrictions on private development and we are pushing projects out. However, we are excited about 2026 as our backlog is up roughly 30% year-over-year. That tells me that the last half of 2026 and probably all of fiscal year 2027 will be pretty strong, robust revenue years.

How has technology shaped Poettker’s performance in terms of creating efficiencies for teams and/or innovating other tasks?

We had a strong year on the safety side in terms of implementing a lot of different training and oversight recommendations, along with utilizing a lot of data analytics in our safety program to manage, especially, high-risk categories for us. Now we are using some artificial intelligence as well, wrapped into that risk management program, to hone in on data analytics both on the safety side and the quality side. 

We are also tracking that as it relates to scheduling and digging into a little bit of the oversight and personnel side of things as well. It is helping us hone in on where we need to spend our time as leaders. I want to understand where the organization needs me to spend my time. I want to spend my time on tasks, on issues that I can help promote and coach people up. If I can understand that, then that is going to help me.

What makes the Charlotte region and even the broader Carolinas an ideal location for your company, and how is it different from other markets in the region?

I would start by saying that the state of North Carolina has done a good job. The Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina sought to promote and recruit foreign direct investment into the state of North Carolina. Once you have that at a macro level, where the state is competing against some of the top states across the United States and winning, then where do they see that foreign direct investment going? It is being attracted to the Charlotte region because of a lot of different things, and key among them is the financial sector. Additionally, the workforce environment, especially the youth and the technology workforce environment, attracts that investment as well. 

The Charlotte region is a growing area, but it still has quite a bit of land availability around it, which makes it a strong candidate for manufacturing investment, headquarters investment, and pharmaceutical investment, which are major capital real estate projects. 

From there, as long as we can keep up with our infrastructure to support that growth, you should be able to capitalize on all of that, especially as Charlotte is also strategically located. You have the Port of Savannah, the Port of Charleston, and the Port of Wilmington. You have a lot of product export, or import product, coming into the United States and coming in from those Southeastern ports. If you look at the railway system and the highway system, a lot of that can also easily feed into the Charlotte market. Then you get into warehousing and distribution. You get into e-commerce opportunities. We are also seeing the data center opportunities come in from the technology side because of the growth in the region. 

Charlotte is positioned pretty well to capitalize on different markets and different things that are happening with regard to this robust growth environment as a city and as a region.

For your organization, what market sectors and what project types are you expecting to drive your demand over the next few years?

Here in the Charlotte region, the industrial market sector has been strong for us. That is both speculative product and build-to-suit product. We are anticipating strong market sectors on the manufacturing side. We are doing a lot of work for Fortune 500 retailers, like distribution center projects. 

We do expect, with all of this growth, a lot more mixed-use development as infrastructure gets built out and you have that opportunity to present additional mixed-use development, as well as education, EMS, police, 911 facilities, and similar projects. All of that is vertical construction, which we specialize in and that we can capitalize on.

How do you see the company’s role evolving as both a builder and a contributor to the region’s economic vitality through community partnerships?

That is one of our core missions in our enduring strategies document: our community and philanthropic effort to live, work, and play in the communities and give back within those communities. That is a requirement that individuals whom we employ, including myself, must participate in. We recently had our second annual clay shoot, in sponsorship of Dream on 3, where we raised $44,000 for that organization. We also do things for the Boy Scouts. Every one of our leaders has different areas that they try to focus on, that they are engaged in. The Make-A-Wish Foundation is another one that we participate in as well as the Good Fellows Club in Charlotte. 

There are quite a few opportunities that come our way that align with what we want to spend our time supporting. I will say that on the workforce side and on the development side, we need to support plans for affordable housing, which is a requirement to have a robust workforce. That is a big concern of mine. I have seen other cities and municipalities locking workforces out of the community because housing is unaffordable. That has to happen in a variety of ways. It can happen with infrastructure, and it probably needs to happen with mass transit as the city and the region grow in order to present opportunities for other areas for affordable housing. 

What are your top priorities for the next two to three years, and what is your outlook?

We are pretty heavily involved in a lot of industrial development projects and also retail projects here in the Charlotte region. We are planning a Southeast headquarters. That will not happen in the next two to three years but certainly in the next five years. That is in the planning stages, and that will be in Charlotte, or most likely in the Charlotte region. I am working through that right now. We are excited about manufacturing, as we have lots of opportunities on the manufacturing side. I do think that the next two to three years here in the Charlotte market are going to see significant growth, especially on the data center side. I am a bit concerned about power utilization and how we are going to support the infrastructure side of that, but we will see how that all shakes out.