Client Spotlight- Newkirk Novak Construction Partners

Building with purpose — and partnership from Country Club Bank

For Newkirk Novak Construction Partners, construction isn’t just about projects. It’s about people and the clients they serve, the teams they lead, and the communities that will live with the results for decades.

“We started this company with one goal in mind,” said co-founder John Novak. “To do great work grounded in personal connections to our clients, our design and build partners, and our employees.”

Newkirk Novak launched in 2017, when Novak and co-founder Lynn Newkirk took what Novak calls “the biggest leap of our lives”, leaving stable, successful careers to build something new and different. 

Between them, they brought 40+ years of industry experience. They also brought a clear vision: to build a firm where trust and relationships could be cultivated naturally. If they could create an environment like that, they felt, then good clients, projects, and profits would follow. They were right.

That mindset has helped Newkirk Novak grow into one of the largest contractors in the Kansas City metro, with more than 60 employees today. For Newkirk, the “why” matters as much as the growth.

“About 90% of our work is community-based,” Newkirk said. “It’s a project type that somebody’s going to use, right here in our metro area, and they’re probably going to use these facilities and benefit from them for generations. That’s what drives us in our work.”

A banking relationship built on straight talk

When they started the firm, Newkirk and Novak needed more than a place to open accounts. They needed a partner, and Country Club Bank was a fast, easy choice compared to other banks.

“A true partner tells you what you need to hear,” Novak said. “Not what you want to hear.”

That practical, honest guidance has shown up in pivotal moments, from helping to establish Newkirk Novak’s construction bonding relationship to navigating major financial decisions alongside their ownership, such as the purchase and renovation of Newkirk Novak’s new headquarters building, which the firm occupied in December 2024.

Just as necessary, Novak said, has been the recent transition of Country Club Bank’s ownership to FNBO. He appreciates the alignment and fit.

“A change like that can be disruptive, but knowing who FNBO is culturally, and their commitment to remaining a family-held business that serves other family-held businesses, really matters to us.”

For Newkirk Novak, the pattern and similarities of Country Club Bank and FNBO are familiar: build relationships, do purposeful work, and stay grounded in what got you here.

“Country Club Bank and FNBO have amazing people, they support them, they get out of their way, and they give them the tools and resources they need to be successful,” said Novak. “We share those operating principles as well.”

Newkirk says that though the days may be long sometimes, the images of their work being used — kids walking into a new school, firefighters moving into a new station, neighborhoods gaining public spaces — make the team effort well worth it. 

“Construction’s hard,” Newkirk said, “but when you believe in what you’re building, you don’t mind going the extra mile, and that’s pretty neat.”