For over 20 years, State LLC has delivered construction services across the Mid-Atlantic — one project at a time, one relationship at a time.
State LLC was built the same way we approach every project — with consistency, accountability, and attention to detail.
What began as a hands-on operation has grown into a trusted partner for commercial and residential construction across the region.
We didn’t scale through shortcuts. We built this company project by project, client by client.
That approach still defines how we work today.
At State LLC, leadership isn’t removed from the work.
Scott Barbour & Michael Strauss are directly involved in every project — from planning through execution. That means faster decisions, tighter oversight, and a level of accountability you don’t take out larger, you dont get from other firms.
You’re not handed off. You’re working with the people responsible for the outcome.
Michael Strauss has over 25 years of experience in construction, with the majority of his work focused on multifamily construction and commercial buildouts. He has also overseen design-build projects and Trees-to-Keys developments.
Michael is the managing partner of State LLC, a hybrid construction company capable of operating as either a Class A general contractor or a single-trade contractor. He is involved in all aspects of State LLC’s wide range of construction services, as well as the management of its two offices. His responsibilities include legal matters, estimating, payroll, insurance, value engineering, sales, and vendor relations.
Mr. Strauss helped create a unique business model that benefits State LLC’s trade partners by providing the resources needed to effectively manage customer due diligence while allowing vendors to participate in the process. In addition to State LLC’s construction divisions, his other business ventures include single-family rental procurement and management, as well as hotel ownership. These businesses provide a broad range of skills and resources that his trade partners can utilize.
Mr. Strauss began his career as a painting contractor, operating from the basement of his Atlanta home. He later expanded the company to two offices serving clients throughout the East Coast. Prior to founding State LLC, Michael worked in various sales and management positions. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with majors in management and marketing from Montclair State University, which he earned in 1991.
Michael was born in New York and raised in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City. He currently resides primarily in Atlanta with his wife and four children. He has coached youth sports for more than 40 years, broadcasts for a junior hockey team, and is a longtime, long-suffering fan of several professional sports teams. Attending concerts is Michael’s go-to source of recreational enjoyment.
Scott Barbour is Principal and President of State LLC, a premier multifamily and commercial renovation contractor that has served the Mid-Atlantic region for more than 22 years. From offices in Baltimore, Alexandria, and Atlanta, Scott and his partner, Michael Strauss, lead interior and exterior renovation programs for REITs, multifamily property owners, and institutional operators. The company also has a specialty practice in lead-paint remediation and paint stabilization.
Scott did not begin his career in construction. He graduated from Penn State University with a degree in marine science and spent the early part of his career as a biologist in Maryland, designing offshore artificial reefs and diving in the Chesapeake Bay.
His transition into construction began through sales. After managing territories in pharmaceutical and cardiac-equipment sales and being promoted to General Manager at CardioDynamics, Scott met the two partners behind an elastomeric paint startup in Atlanta. He joined the company to develop its Mid-Atlantic region, and what began as a paint company has since grown into a full-service multifamily and commercial renovation firm.
Scott’s work spans value-add renovations, common-area and amenity redesigns, full-building exterior re-skins, and ground-up commercial design-build projects. State LLC maintains national supplier accounts that allow the company to provide quality materials at competitive prices without the corner-cutting often associated with the low-bid market.
State LLC’s longstanding client relationships include Berkshire, Brookfield Properties, Southern Management, LiveBe Communities, Kay Management, and Home Properties’ legacy portfolio. Several of these partnerships extend back more than two decades.
State LLC was built around a single principle: every customer should have complete confidence that the company will deliver what was promised at the price quoted from day one. Scott and Michael personally walk every major project. Pricing is established upfront, change orders are handled honestly, and warranty support often extends beyond the written terms for longstanding clients.
A father of three sons and a lifelong skier, Scott lives in Maryland and works out six days a week. He believes the best contractors are those who never stop being present on-site.
Our field leadership team ensures every project is executed with precision and consistency.
Erin is the reason a State job starts on time. She sources every material a project needs, prices it out, and makes sure it’s on site and ready the day the crew shows up — not the week after. On occupied buildings, where every day of delay is another day of disruption for the people living and working there, that’s the difference between a schedule that holds and one that slips.
She came to construction the way a lot of the best people do — by doing it herself. Renovation was a passion long before it was a job, and all that hands-on work gave her something you can’t get off a spec sheet: she knows materials by feel, knows what actually shows up looking like the sample, and knows what’s worth paying for. For the last 2 years she’s brought that instinct to State’s projects full time, handling estimating and procurement across the board.
Credentials:
Fun fact: Erin’s happiest with a good book or at a concert — and usually manages both in the same week.
Chris Caicedo is a dedicated Construction Superintendent with more than eight years of experience in the construction industry and a proven track record of directing field operations on complex projects from groundbreaking to final closeout. Over the past year, he has served in a superintendent capacity, where he has been responsible for managing on-site crews and subcontractors, enforcing safety and quality standards, coordinating daily field logistics, and proactively resolving issues in the field to keep projects on schedule.
Throughout his career, Mr. Caicedo has played a key role in several notable projects, including the Skyline Electrical Project, Highland Park Paint Project, and Skyline Paint Project. His hands-on leadership, attention to detail, and commitment to operational excellence have contributed significantly to the safe and successful delivery of these initiatives.
Clients, trade partners, and stakeholders value Mr. Caicedo for his clear, concise, and dependable communication style. He is committed to fostering strong working relationships in the field and ensuring that crews, subcontractors, and project teams remain informed and aligned throughout every phase of construction.
Driven by a passion for continuous growth and new experiences, Mr. Caicedo looks forward to achieving a longtime personal goal of visiting Tokyo, Japan, a destination he has long admired for its innovation, culture, and history.
Jim brings nearly six decades of architecture and construction expertise to State LLC, having served as a Principal in both disciplines throughout his career. He joined State in 2025 with a reputation for service, imagination, and professionalism.
For more than 40 years, Jim was a Principal at DCI Construction Management, Inc. (originally the construction management arm of Design Collaborative, Inc.), leading contract administration, owner’s representation, and full CM services across Maryland and New York. Earlier, he served as a Principal at Design Collaborative providing integrated architecture and CM services, ran the Design Build Division at Baltimore/Washington-area GC Porter Brothers, Inc., and began his career designing multi-family and high-density housing in New York.
Jim studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pratt Institute, and City College of New York, and is affiliated with B.O.C.A., N.F.P.A., the Health Facilities Association of Maryland, and P.A.N.P.H.A. He lives in Columbia, Maryland.
With 30 years in the construction industry, I bring a rare combination of hands-on mastery and unwavering attention to detail to every project I take on. My career began at 14 and grew into a 20-year specialization in natural stone work, where I had the privilege of training under old-world Italian masons and earning my credentials as a master stone mason — a foundation that instilled in me a relentless standard for precision and quality that I carry into every trade and every job.
For the past 4+ years, I’ve channeled that same exacting approach as a Project Manager with State-LLC. Across three decades, I’ve accumulated a broad range of specialized skills, certifications, and trade knowledge too extensive to fully capture here — each one held to the same high standard I set for myself on day one.
For me, good enough never is. I lead with curiosity, patience, and an uncompromising commitment to doing the job right — for the craft, for the client, and for the people who will live and work in what we build.
When I’m not on a job site, you’ll likely find me teaching myself something new just for the joy of it — whether that’s diving into history, animal behavior, or the long arc of human progress. Lifelong learning isn’t a discipline for me; it’s simply who I am.
Susan Register brings more than 26 years of construction finance and operations experience to State LLC, where she has overseen the company’s financial and compliance functions for the past decade. On the financial side, she handles detailed job costing that sharpens future estimating, purchasing, and full-service bookkeeping. On compliance, she keeps State’s insurance, licensing, and permitting current and in order across every jurisdiction the company works in.
Susan’s standout strength is managing construction loan draws. On loan-financed commercial and industrial projects, she consolidates the full stream of vendor payment applications and invoices into the single monthly payment application submitted to the bank for each draw — specialized work that ownership groups and lenders depend on, and a key reason State is equipped to take on larger financed builds. Earlier in her career she ran the draw process on three commercial and industrial projects ranging from $18 million to more than $40 million, with monthly draws running into the millions.
Her path to State runs through nearly every corner of the industry. She started as a project coordinator and project accountant for a general contractor specializing in retail build-outs, then served as project manager for an architectural metal fabricator, managing the entire process from raw-material purchasing through fabrication and on-site installation. She went on to lead the construction division of an electrical contractor as operations manager before moving into large-scale commercial and industrial construction accounting. That breadth gives her a rare, end-to-end understanding of how a project’s finances, logistics, and field realities connect.
Yennifer is an experienced Project Manager responsible for leading projects from concept to completion while ensuring they are delivered on time. With strong leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills, She coordinates cross-functional teams, manages project timelines, and oversees resources to ensure successful outcomes.
Throughout each project, Yennifer works closely with Staff to monitor progress, identify risks, and implement effective solutions. By fostering collaboration and maintaining a focus on quality and efficiency, She helps drive continuous improvement and delivers results that support business growth and customer satisfaction.
Hands-On Ownership
Quality Execution
Client-First Approach
Community Commitment
Our footprint continues to grow — without losing the hands-on approach that defines our work.
