Innovatus Projects sponsors the Illawarra Basketball Association. (Pictured: Innovatus Projects director Nick Halakatevakis with Illawarra Hawks players Brad Ballinger and Massimo Hobbs). Photo: Innovatus Projects.
The founder of a Wollongong success story has been quietly taking it to the big boys in Sydney — and winning.
Nick Halakatevakis is the founder of Innovatus Projects, a locally grown commercial construction and fit-out company that has been transforming locations of all sizes into custom-built spaces since 2017.
From humble beginnings, the company has been claiming landmark jobs, edging out Sydney companies to land projects like a complex restoration of Customs House, a heritage-listed government site that required a careful balance of modern functionality with historic preservation.
More recently the company completed a refurbishment of the Sydney Opera House Green Room — a live-site delivery with heritage constraints and constant scope revisions. The company led the project with zero disruptions to performance schedules.
“It goes to show we don’t need to be based in Sydney CBD to be doing this kind of thing,” Nick says.
The Innovatus story has much humbler roots, however.
Having worked in the building industry for 20 years Nick put all his savings on the line to launch the business from his garage-turned-home office in September 2017.
It would be four nerve-wracking months before a hairdressing salon in Wollongong decided to take a chance on the hungry, fledgling firm.
“It was awesome to finally have some income flowing in — I could finally justify the move to my wife,” Nick laughs. “I thought great, we’ve cracked our first project, now we have something to build on.”
And build he did. A retail food store came a few weeks after, followed by more small-scale projects. Customers were happy and as word spread, the work snowballed. By the end of the 2018 financial year Innovatus had secured its first major project — the $3 million Port Kembla Coal Terminal project.
Innovatus has since expanded its footprint beyond Wollongong to Sydney, but also regional NSW, Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne.
Nick attributes this trajectory as much to the projects Innovatus loses as to those it gains.
“By the time we’re pricing a job up, we’ve already had conversations with private certifiers, so we price correctly, we explain to the client why it’s priced that way and what the risks are if they diverge. It’s a bit of an education piece for the clients on where the risks lie if they don’t do it properly. That doesn’t always win us the job,” he says.
“At the end of the day if we don’t get the project, we move on.”
Nick at Customs House where his company Innovatus beat a dozen other construction businesses to land (and nail) a complex restoration. Photo: Innovatus Projects.
It’s also about systems.
“I’ve been doing this 30 years now so I have seen systems that work, and ones that don’t work,” Nick says.
“We use an online construction platform in the business that allows clients to jump on, see where their project is at, costings, information they need to supply or that we need to give to them — everything. We upload daily video footage of what’s happening onsite for the client to see.
“That systemisation and transparency make the clients comfortable.”
But Nick’s story is not just about big buildings — it’s about big ideas.
He is the driving force behind Wollongong’s Friends of Industry networking nights, a grassroots movement that’s gaining momentum.
Attendees often call this quarterly networking event “the best networking event in Wollongong” thanks to its relaxed format and genuine relationship-building focus. It aims to bring businesspeople from all sectors together to network and help each other out — no fee, no expectations and not a penguin suit in sight (unless you want to, of course).
Nick founded the initiative after a Sydney construction-industry networking organisation declined to stage an event in Wollongong.
“I thought I’d give it a go, but thought there was no point keeping it construction industry only — why not open it up to all industries?” he says.
“We have accountants, lawyers, hospitality workers, small businesses, corporate workers and everything in between.”
Attendance has grown from 15 at the inaugural event to an average of about 50, with the biggest event attracting a crowd of more than 100.
“There are no name tags, no speeches or anything boring. The idea is to come in, have a drink, shake hands, pass cards around and see what happens,” Nick says.
“If you want to come for 10 minutes, come for 10 minutes, if you want to close the bar, close the bar … By 9 pm we usually wrap up the event but there are usually at least a few people who kick on.”
The next Friends of Industry networking event takes place on Thursday 26 June, from 5:30 to 9 pm at The Illawarra Hotel, 160-164 Keira Street, Wollongong.
