Dave Kasten
A self-proclaimed “people pleaser,” David Kasten learned early on the joys of pitching in through helping and being there for his two younger siblings.
Dave is also an active, on-the-go type of guy – a trait he inherited from his Dad, who was always working on one project after another. Dave’s experience helping his dad on projects as a youngster, from holding a flashlight to fetching tools and materials to taking an active role in actually building projects, piqued his interest in pursuing a construction career.
During college Dave interned with both a residential and commercial builder and fell in love with the commercial construction model resulting from his work at Miller Valentine, where he met Peter Horton, Matt Packer, and Tom Rowe. But it was because of his experience working on the grounds crew with the Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team that he also discovered that working outside – and not at a desk – was ideal for his personality.
After earning his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Leadership and Management with a minor in Marketing from the University of Dayton, his college work and internship experience led him to pursue a construction career. Dave’s business education has influenced his unique approach to projects, looking at every one like a small business where the process, people, and materials need to be managed to a budget to achieve a goal.
Thanks to his successful internship work at Miller Valentine, post-college Dave was hired full time at the company and worked his way up to a construction manager role. Although he was satisfied in his career, Dave’s tendency to always be on the go led to him hungering for a new challenge: to be part of a smaller, tight-knit group of customer-centric construction and real estate professionals that allowed him to focus on and be the go-to resource for the Cincinnati market.
When Pete, Matt, and Tom founded Terrex in 2014, Dave jumped at the opportunity and ended up being the firm’s first official hire. At Terrex, Dave manages the entire construction process and led the coordination and implementation of the firm’s project safety program to keep staff safe while on jobsites. His “people pleasing” and active persona contributes to his penchant for going above and beyond clients’ expectations through visualizing what a project should be and proposing a solution to ensure the end result will look great.
From the beginning, Dave has played an integral role in many of Terrex’s projects – from the most high-profile ones to smaller mom-and-pop shops. Dave is an excellent problem solver when conditions arise during construction and works to find the best solutions for the client. For the Urban Stead Cheese project, a technically challenging job which involved renovating an existing building for a family-owned business to include an artisan cheese production area, the client had ordered a large milk storage tank for their operations. When it was delivered, there was no way to fit it into the building through the existing building openings. Dave developed an efficient solution to take apart a portion of the exterior wall so the tank could be set into its proper place and minimize the added costs to the owner. The other option was to return the large tank for a smaller one, which would potentially limit the client’s future operations.
Dave, his wife, three daughters, and son reside in Mason. Not being content to sit still even in his spare time, Dave is an avid runner and has participated in several half marathons and has done both the Columbus, OH Full Marathon and Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati – and plans to run yet another marathon in 2021 (the year he turns 40). Dave also follows and supports many local sports teams, including the Reds, the Bengals, the FC Cincinnati soccer team, University of Cincinnati Bearcats, and University of Dayton Flyers.