CRB’s Manker Hire: A Strategic Bet on Preconstruction Dominance

KANSAS CITY, MO – November 25, 2025 – In a move that speaks volumes about the shifting dynamics of industrial construction, CRB has appointed Tyler Manker, P.E., as its new Senior Project Director for Preconstruction within the company’s Food and Beverage division. While leadership appointments are routine, this particular hire is a significant strategic signal. It underscores a crucial industry trend: the monetization of planning. By bringing in a leader renowned for explosive growth and operational discipline, CRB is placing a heavy bet that the future of competitive project delivery lies not just in the build phase, but in mastering the complexities long before the first shovel breaks ground.

A Strategic Play for Market Leadership

Manker is not just another seasoned executive. He joins CRB from MBW Construction, LLC, where, as an Equity Partner and Executive Vice President, he steered the firm from a $7 million regional player into a nationally recognized design-build powerhouse with over $120 million in annual revenue in just five years. This is the kind of track record that turns heads and signals intent.

CRB is already a formidable force in the sector. In 2022, Engineering News-Record (ENR) ranked the company 8th among food and beverage manufacturing service providers and 36th among its top design-build firms. This appointment is clearly aimed at consolidating and expanding that position against top-tier competitors like Dennis Group and Haskell. The food and beverage construction market is experiencing robust momentum, with Industrial SalesLeads identifying 69 new planned capital projects in December 2024 alone and cross-border investments surging to $7.2 billion by mid-2024. In this heated environment, efficiency and predictability are paramount.

By placing a proven growth catalyst like Manker at the helm of preconstruction, CRB is reinforcing its value proposition. As Tom Rychlewski, CRB's Vice President for Food and Beverage, noted in the announcement, “Tyler’s arrival reinforces our commitment to construction as an essential driver of our integrated project delivery model.” The message is clear: CRB sees expert-led preconstruction not as a preliminary step, but as a core competitive advantage to win and execute the next generation of complex facility projects.

The Rising Power of Preconstruction

The strategic emphasis on preconstruction reflects a broader evolution in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. For decades, the construction phase was seen as the primary value driver, while planning was often a siloed and sometimes rushed precursor. That paradigm has been inverted. In today’s world of volatile supply chains, tight labor markets, and increasing project complexity, the most significant value is created—or lost—during the preconstruction phase.

Intensified early-stage planning allows teams to de-risk projects by identifying and solving problems on paper, where the cost of change is negligible. This is where crucial decisions about sustainability, technology integration, and operational workflow are made. The rise of digital tools has supercharged this trend. With 74% of AEC professionals now using AI in building projects, particularly in design (48%) and planning (42%), the preconstruction phase has become a hotbed of innovation. Digital twins, AI-driven automation, and cloud-based collaboration are no longer futuristic concepts; they are essential tools for optimizing schedules and budgets.

Furthermore, modern construction methods like prefabrication and modular building, which can slash construction schedules by up to 50%, are entirely dependent on meticulous preconstruction. These methods require seamless integration between engineering, design, and supply chain logistics from day one. A leader in preconstruction is therefore not just a planner but a conductor, orchestrating a complex symphony of disciplines to ensure flawless execution down the line.

Fortifying the ONEsolution™ Model

Manker’s appointment is also a direct reflection of CRB’s deep commitment to its proprietary ONEsolution™ delivery model. This approach is an advanced form of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), a framework designed to eliminate the adversarial relationships and inefficiencies of traditional design-bid-build models. Under ONEsolution™, the owner, designer, and builder operate as a unified team from the project's inception, often under a single contract with shared risks and rewards.

This model’s success hinges on a culture of trust and intensive early collaboration. By bringing all stakeholders to the table at the earliest stages, the ONEsolution™ process aims to align goals, define success, and foster a “project-first” mentality. Preconstruction is the engine room of this model. It is where the collaborative culture is forged and where the detailed planning occurs that enables the delivery of cost and schedule certainty.

Manker’s role is to supercharge this engine. His experience in disciplined execution and client-centered delivery is a perfect fit for a model that promises to move clients from “concept to operations with speed, safety, quality, and confidence.” As Manker himself stated, “CRB’s approach to integrated delivery is redefining what’s possible... I’m excited to contribute to a team that treats construction not as an endpoint, but as a vital part of the innovation process.” His leadership is expected to further refine CRB's preconstruction offerings, ensuring that the promise of a seamless, integrated process translates into tangible results for clients building increasingly sophisticated food and beverage facilities.

This strategic hire is a clear indicator that for CRB, and indeed for the industry at large, the race to build the future of food and beverage manufacturing will be won long before anyone steps onto the job site.