Len Moser
Vice President, National Sports | Barton Malow
Len Moser has experienced good fortune over the course of his 34 years as a sports construction executive.
During his career at Barton Malow, Moser, now a vice president at the firm, has worked on multiple landmark projects, starting with Oriole Park at Camden Yards; the conversion of Olympic Stadium to Turner Field in Atlanta; Beaver Stadium renovations; and Daytona Rising, the $400 million makeover of Daytona International Speedway.
More recently, Moser is involved with the $1.4 billion renovation of EverBank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and college football’s Florida-Georgia game. Barton Malow formed a joint venture with AECOM Hunt for that project, which starts construction after the 2024 season with completion prior to the 2028 season.
Moser didn’t initially plan to get into construction. His goal was to be an electrical engineer, but soon realized during his freshman year at tech school in Melbourne, Florida, that his “brain wasn’t wired that way.” He transferred to Penn State in his home state of Pennsylvania and switched to construction management.
Barton Malow hired Moser in 1990, after he graduated from college. He was lucky to launch his career at Camden Yards, which influenced the design of many urban ballparks over the past 30 years. Bob Wyatt, at the time Barton Malow’s senior vice president responsible for the mid-Atlantic region, took Moser under his wing, starting with the Baltimore Orioles’ stadium.
“I didn’t know what I was getting into at that point,” Moser said. “Once I understood what the project was about, it was full steam ahead. It got me hooked.”
In Atlanta, Moser reconnected with Janet Marie Smith, the urban planner who helped spearhead Camden Yards, to transform the Olympic venue into a ballpark for the Atlanta Braves, as well as Philips Arena, the NBA arena that opened in 1999 for the Atlanta Hawks.
The 2001 renovation of Beaver Stadium, Penn State’s football venue, provided a homecoming of sorts for Moser. He grabbed the opportunity to return to Happy Valley as lead project manager for a $93 million expansion that increased seating capacity to 105,000.
Fast forward to 2024, and Barton Malow is back on campus working on $700 million in upgrades to the stadium’s west side.
“We’ve been fortunate to work there since 1999 and knew we had to work super hard for this one,” Moser said. “We wanted to keep the streak going on site.”
Daytona was Moser’s first job in motorsports and a monumental project to refresh the signature NASCAR track. For Barton Malow as a whole, it was riskier than the typical stadium development. Under the contract terms, the general contractor had to keep 100,000 seats in place for all events during construction, including the Daytona 500 race in February.
In addition, the builder couldn’t use inclement weather, such as hurricanes, as an excuse for delays during the 30-month timeline. As a result, Barton Malow relied on Moser to relocate to Florida as an officer to oversee the project and ensure that the project stayed on pace and was completed in time for the 2016 Daytona 500.
Moser’s not ready for retirement. Beyond the Jaguars’ project, Barton Malow is competing for the $400 million renovation of Camping World Stadium, as well as improvements to Bank of America Stadium, which all told is a $1 billion redevelopment.
“We’re doing a lot of renovations,” he said. “It’s all about square footage for these buildings, and in Jacksonville, it’s almost 1.9 million square feet we’re touching. You spend a little bit of money (multiplied) by the whole footprint and those dollars grow fast. It will be three seasons of construction.” . — Don Muret
