One Team, Two Names: Inside the Layton-Abbott Partnership

When Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital opened its doors in Tacoma, WA in May 2026, patients, families, and hospital staff walked into 260,000 square feet of brand-new space designed with kids in mind. Ask who built it, and you’ll get two answers. Both are right.

Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, WA as constructed by Layton Construction and Abbott Construction

“The people of Layton-Abbott are an amazing representation of the [STOBG] organization, and they should be very proud of that,” said Brandon Kristol, Associate Vice President of Hospital Operations at Mary Bridge. “They are one of the only reasons that we will open this facility.”

That’s not a small thing for a hospital executive to say about a construction team.

The Family Business, Just a Bigger Family

Layton Construction and Abbott Construction are both members of STO Building Group (STOBG), a family of 14 construction firms operating under common ownership across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Each company within STOBG keeps its own name, leadership, and culture. What they share is a backbone: bonding capacity, technology, trade relationships, and, when a project calls for it, people.

Most construction partnerships run through a joint venture. Two companies form a new entity, negotiate a split, and figure out who gets final say when the two sides disagree.

Layton and Abbott skip that step entirely.

“It’s not a joint venture,” said Abbott President and CEO Troy Stedman. “We’re under common ownership, which makes this a true partnership.”

Layton Vice President Matt Reel puts a finer point on it: “There’s no dominant partner. We’re working together on these projects. We’re one team.”

Reel would know. He spent 12 years at Abbott before joining Layton in 2021, so he’s sat on both sides of this particular partnership. What he found on the other side wasn’t a different company so much as a familiar one. “We have very similar cultures and values,” he said.

Almost a Decade in the Making

The partnership traces back to Layton joining STOBG in 2019 and Abbott following in 2020, a pairing that made sense from the start. Both are family-founded companies with long regional histories: Layton in Utah since 1953, Abbott in Seattle since 1983.

The broader STOBG organization is made up of companies aligned culturally that built their reputations the same way: through repeat clients and a refusal to cut corners.

According to Reel, “We know we can lean on our partner companies, like Abbott, and they will jump in, roll up their sleeves, and integrate into the team seamlessly to provide support in any way we need.”

Proof in the Numbers

Over the past seven years, the Layton-Abbott partnership has delivered more than $1.25 billion in combined project revenue across the Pacific Northwest and Southern California. Eighty percent of those clients have come back for a second project.

Mary Bridge is the most visible recent example: 34 emergency department treatment rooms, 10 operating rooms, and 82 private patient rooms, built by an integrated Layton-Abbott team that treated the project as one job, not two contracts running in parallel.

“We have done successful projects with Layton in California and projects in the Northwest,” Stedman said. “With STOBG, we’re able to take on more work because we don’t have to have all those resources within each individual brand. We’re able to pool our specialties and resources together to support one another.”

A Model Validated from the Top

No one has watched this partnership work more closely than Paul Drecksel. First as Chief Operating Officer of Layton, and later as head of STOBG’s Western Division, which includes Layton, Abbott, and Structure Tone Southwest in Texas, Drecksel spent years overseeing exactly the kind of cross-brand collaboration that built Mary Bridge. That track record is a big part of why he was recently named President of STOBG, now leading all 14 firms across the organization.

“Being part of STOBG has accelerated Layton’s ability to serve clients nationwide, all without losing our identity as a company built on relationships, accountability, and community trust,” Drecksel said.

Abbott has had a mirror version of that experience, keeping its Pacific Northwest roots and leadership intact while gaining access to a national network to call on when a project demands it.

What’s Next

The two companies have completed seven other projects together, with more pursuits in the queue.

“Our experience of collaborating with one another is going to increase,” Reel said. “We’re going to identify more of our unique strengths so we can deliver our clients’ needs.”

With Drecksel now leading STOBG and both companies continuing to grow, the Layton-Abbott partnership stands as a working example of what the STOBG model was built to do: let two strong, independent companies operate as one, without either one losing what made it strong in the first place.

Ask Brandon Kristol what that looks like from a client’s chair, and the answer is already built and open in Tacoma.

Have questions about Layton? Or have a project coming up? Check out our portfolio and or contact us to discuss.

About Layton Construction

Layton Construction is a privately held national general contractor, delivering predictable outcomes in commercial construction since 1953. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, Layton operates from 16 strategic offices across the United States, employing more than 1,700 construction professionals who serve diverse markets including healthcare, education, commercial office, industrial, hospitality, and multi-unit residential. Founded on the core values of honesty, unity, safety, and quality, Layton has built a reputation for excellence in complex project delivery while maintaining strong partnerships with clients, architects, and trade partners nationwide.