June 2017

78 BUILD / June 2017 , The Next Generation of Long Island Construction Jack Kulka, the name that transformed Hauppauge’s industrial landscape. Armed with an ingenious combination of foresight, passion, and dedication, Jack Kulka is considered to be among the greatest business men of his generation on Long Island, and one of the first to recognize Hauppauge’s potential of becoming amajor business center. As development spread across what was once the small town of Hauppauge, Kulka was quick to realize the opportunities. Jack Kulka and Kulka Construction, a commercial construction firm, first started offering its Construction Management and General Contractor’s services almost 40 years ago. His hometown of Hauppauge is now the 2nd largest industrial park in the United States, houses some of the country’s largest manufacturers and Kulka Construction was responsible for almost 80 percent of the construction inside the park. What immediately set Kulka apart from other companies was the family atmosphere with which the company conducts their business. Even with a staff of highly experienced professionals, when undertaking new client, Jack and his team ensured that the client became a part of the Kulka family. Now the legacy will be passed on to the next generation of the Kulka Family, and the company’s future looks bright under the new leadership of Jack’s only son, Devin. Almost forty years ago, it wasn’t Jack Kulka’s dream to get into development and construction. A graduate of New York University College of Engineering, Jack initially wanted to be a lawyer; but as he jokingly puts it, his parents wanted him to get an ‘honest’ job. Jack describes himself as more of a people person than a planner; he prefers to interact more with people rather than with concepts on paper or abstract ideas. He quit his first engineering job after just three days and left the aerospace industry behind for the world of construction. Jack has since been hard at work. After stints with electrical contractors, Jack settled down with a general contractor and eventually struck out on his own. With the foresight of an entrepreneur that was way ahead of his time, Jack was quick to present solutions that would leave his mark on the world. And that was exactly what he did in 1978. After an energy blackout in Hauppauge that left residents and workers without power for days, Jack helped found the Hauppauge Industrial Association and Jack became the association’s first president. Jack identified the need for a unified body to give a voice to the booming industrial economy of than small, Hauppauge Industrial Park and get leverage with the utility. Thirty-eight years after the founding of Kulka Construction, the torch has now been passed to Jack’s only son, Devin. As energetic and zealous as his father, Devin has become the company’s new visionary innovator and leader. While keeping many of the same values his father put into place, Devin is implements modern technology and processes into his business practices, setting Kulka Construction up with a more contemporary technological approach to construction management and for exemplary success and growth for years to come. Beginning from scratch, Devin began work as a concrete laborer, so it is safe to say that he has been involved in almost every stage of the building process. Learning every part of the long rigorous process, he transitioned into electrical work before becoming the Assistant Superintendent on a project, building one of the largest pharmaceutical facilities in New York. Perhaps, this is in part, due to Devin’s household values. Growing up with a man as admirable as Jack Kulka, enabled him to learn from quite an early age, the passion, dedication, and mental fortitude required to keep a company on the cutting edge and moving ever forward. Since beginning his professional career, Devin has been a key figure in several large-scale projects, including the building of Lumber Earth, Perfume Center of America, Contract Pharmacal Corp, and the Hampton Inn of Rockville Centre. Because of his pivotal role in the construction of the second largest private solar field on the east coast and the largest open loop geo-thermal system for a pharmaceutical facility, Devin was asked to be the Keynote Speaker at the 2016 PSEG Long Island Energy Efficiency Conference. Devin is now successfully using modern technology to overhaul the organization, managing projects and streamlining the team’s processes for maximum efficiency; which, in turn, helps minimize the client’s costs and the time taken to complete a project. “The latest technology used aids in targeted networking, information sharing and business advocacy for business leaders to further explore the horizon,” Devin says. 1704BU12