Started with signs
Robert Croskell Jr. founded CEI in 1985 as a sign maintenance company.
Signs led to poles. Poles led to the lighting and electrical work underneath them. Customers who trusted us with a parking lot started asking about the panel inside, then the rooftop units, then the plumbing, then the roof those units were sitting on.
Four decades later CEI holds commercial electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and roofing capability under one company, operates its own crane equipment, and still services parking lot lights and signs for some of the same kinds of customers we started with.
Commercial only
We do not do residential service calls. Every technician, truck, and process here is built around commercial facilities — restaurants, retail centers, warehouses, medical offices, schools, churches, multifamily properties, and municipal buildings.
Swift Construction
Swift Construction is our commercial construction and tenant finish division. Where CEI services buildings that exist, Swift builds and remodels them — tenant improvements, buildouts, and commercial construction across the metro.
Licensed, insured, and certified
– KCMO Business License 0626486400
– Johnson County Contractor License 2026-0000612
– City of Kansas City Contractor License 950621
– USDOT 735920 / MODOT 130499
– EPA-certified technicians, including A2L refrigerant certification
– General liability and workers’ compensation current; certificates of insurance available on request
Service area
CEI serves commercial properties throughout the Kansas City metro on both sides of the state line.
How we work
One dispatch number, staffed around the clock. Trades routed to the right on-call technician rather than a general answering service. Written estimates before project work, and change orders before scope grows.