Mackey, left, and Jenkins in Tekton’s new office on Forest Hill Avenue.
A new commercial construction crew in town is looking to bridge social divides while helping to prepare the next generation of builders.
Tekton Builders is finishing up its first full year in business while preparing to launch a related nonprofit: a workforce training program called Builder Academy of Richmond.
The company – its name a derivation of “architekton,” the Greek word for master-builder – is led by New York City transplant Stephen Jenkins, CEO, and president Carter Mackey, formerly with DPR Construction.
The duo met in church and developed a friendship that led to their business partnership. The venture represents a striking-out-on-his-own for Mackey, who has 20 years in the commercial construction industry.
It’s also a change in career for Jenkins, whose background varies from restaurant management and customer service to small business ventures and, most recently, serving as a personal assistant to several notable Richmond executives, including the late Richard Sharp, former CEO of Circuit City, and Charles Luck III, chairman of Luck Companies.
Jenkins, 52, said those relationships connected him with other prominent players in the Richmond business scene that he now brings to Tekton.
“That gave me access to a group of people here in Richmond who really care about this place,” he said.
Referring to his and Mackey’s partnership, Jenkins added: “I think that this represents the new Richmond. There’s this polarizing culture that we’re in right now, and here you have two men who are polar opposites with a common concern and care for this city. That has brought us together.”
While they operate as equal partners, with Mackey handling operations and the in-the-field work and Jenkins focusing on finances, HR and business development, they structured their co-ownership so that Jenkins owns a majority stake in the company – 51 percent – to establish Tekton as a minority-owned business. They said they did so with the goal of potentially qualifying for state- and federally funded projects, such as those under the state’s SWaM certification program for small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses.
Tekton is the builder on Fulton Hill Properties’ expansion of its Haxall View apartments, adding 12 units on top of the Glavé and Holmes Architecture building in Shockoe Bottom.
“We could have had a 50-50 relationship. We could have had the inverse of that,” Mackey said. “But I think as a minority-owned SWaM business, there are federal and state programs that are within our sweet spot that (the designation) will allow us to have access to.”
Since incorporating last July, the firm has finished one project: an interior buildout for Fulton Hill Properties at 11 S. 21st St. in Shockoe Bottom. Mackey said that project led to its current one with Fulton Hill: a 12-apartment addition on top of the Glavé & Holmes Architecture building at 21st and Main streets, expanding Fulton Hill’s adjacent Haxall View apartments.
Mackey, 42, previously worked on Fulton Hill’s renovation of the Lady Byrd Hat building on Richmond’s Canal Walk, when he was a regional manager with Virtexco Corp. Before that, he was a senior project manager for Shelco.
A VMI graduate, Mackey has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and received an MBA from the University of Richmond. Jenkins, who attended grade school in New York City and boarding school in New England, has a bachelor’s in communications from Barrington College in Rhode Island.
Mackey said the firm would focus on projects ranging from $1 million to $10 million in value, though he said it would also be open to smaller projects.
While in business for a year, the firm more recently moved into its new office space, setting up shop a month ago in a 900-square-foot space that it’s leasing at 7840 Forest Hill Ave., across from Huguenot High School. Mackey said they selected the location for its proximity to Chippenham Parkway and access to various areas of town.
The firm is also increasing its staff, recently hiring a Hampden-Sydney graduate as a project engineer and aiming to fill its new space with a staff of about eight over the next six to 12 months. Jenkins stressed that the firm’s staff would exemplify diversity.
Mackey said they have spent “a couple hundred thousand dollars” getting Tekton off the ground. He declined to give a specific amount or share the firm’s revenue targets.
While starting up Tekton, the team has also been laying the foundations for its Builder Academy of Richmond, which Mackey described as a 12-month program that would rotate students ages 18 to 25 through commercial construction trades with a specific curriculum. Students would be schooled in four aspects of the building industry: general construction, an early trade like concrete or site work, a finish trade like flooring or paint, and a specialty trade like lighting, plumbing or electrical.
Mackey said the goal of the program is to ensure a local workforce for an industry that he considers at risk.
“Every owner you talk to will agree that, 2018 and beyond, there’s going to be a ton of work here in the Richmond market, and quite frankly, there’s a lot of us that are concerned about where we’re going to get the labor to put this work into place,” Mackey said. “Apprentice programs are dying out, and the unions, which are not very strong here in Richmond, those programs have dwindled.”
Mackey and Jenkins said the academy would also aim to bridge social divides and provide an entry into the industry for workers seeking hands-on training.
“I’m a big advocate for education, but I know that not everybody is equipped – not just financially but in their personal makeup – to go to college right out of school,” Mackey said. “I believe the construction industry is a viable means for folks in poverty to come out of poverty and into the middle class, and to make a really good living providing for families.”
Added Jenkins: “At the core of it, we both believe that work is good. I’m here today because of work. This is a way to not give somebody a handout, but give somebody a hand up.”
The duo is working with Glen Allen-based Avail Marketing, whose services include nonprofit foundation management, to help manage the academy. They have assembled a board that includes Jenkins as chairman, Mackey as vice chair, and a group of local businessmen including Hirschler Fleischer attorney Nathaniel Story, Capital Interior Contractors owner Carter Baldwin, residential builder OCC Group co-owner Jeff Cutillo, Reed Smith attorney Robert Luck, and Mike Bellamy, director of capital projects for Kaiser Permanente in Washington, D.C.
Bellamy’s son, Scot Bellamy, is the firm’s recent project manager hire.
Mackey said they are aiming to launch the academy in the upcoming school year.
Mackey, left, and Jenkins in Tekton’s new office on Forest Hill Avenue.
A new commercial construction crew in town is looking to bridge social divides while helping to prepare the next generation of builders.
Tekton Builders is finishing up its first full year in business while preparing to launch a related nonprofit: a workforce training program called Builder Academy of Richmond.
The company – its name a derivation of “architekton,” the Greek word for master-builder – is led by New York City transplant Stephen Jenkins, CEO, and president Carter Mackey, formerly with DPR Construction.
The duo met in church and developed a friendship that led to their business partnership. The venture represents a striking-out-on-his-own for Mackey, who has 20 years in the commercial construction industry.
It’s also a change in career for Jenkins, whose background varies from restaurant management and customer service to small business ventures and, most recently, serving as a personal assistant to several notable Richmond executives, including the late Richard Sharp, former CEO of Circuit City, and Charles Luck III, chairman of Luck Companies.
Jenkins, 52, said those relationships connected him with other prominent players in the Richmond business scene that he now brings to Tekton.
“That gave me access to a group of people here in Richmond who really care about this place,” he said.
Referring to his and Mackey’s partnership, Jenkins added: “I think that this represents the new Richmond. There’s this polarizing culture that we’re in right now, and here you have two men who are polar opposites with a common concern and care for this city. That has brought us together.”
While they operate as equal partners, with Mackey handling operations and the in-the-field work and Jenkins focusing on finances, HR and business development, they structured their co-ownership so that Jenkins owns a majority stake in the company – 51 percent – to establish Tekton as a minority-owned business. They said they did so with the goal of potentially qualifying for state- and federally funded projects, such as those under the state’s SWaM certification program for small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses.
Tekton is the builder on Fulton Hill Properties’ expansion of its Haxall View apartments, adding 12 units on top of the Glavé and Holmes Architecture building in Shockoe Bottom.
“We could have had a 50-50 relationship. We could have had the inverse of that,” Mackey said. “But I think as a minority-owned SWaM business, there are federal and state programs that are within our sweet spot that (the designation) will allow us to have access to.”
Since incorporating last July, the firm has finished one project: an interior buildout for Fulton Hill Properties at 11 S. 21st St. in Shockoe Bottom. Mackey said that project led to its current one with Fulton Hill: a 12-apartment addition on top of the Glavé & Holmes Architecture building at 21st and Main streets, expanding Fulton Hill’s adjacent Haxall View apartments.
Mackey, 42, previously worked on Fulton Hill’s renovation of the Lady Byrd Hat building on Richmond’s Canal Walk, when he was a regional manager with Virtexco Corp. Before that, he was a senior project manager for Shelco.
A VMI graduate, Mackey has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and received an MBA from the University of Richmond. Jenkins, who attended grade school in New York City and boarding school in New England, has a bachelor’s in communications from Barrington College in Rhode Island.
Mackey said the firm would focus on projects ranging from $1 million to $10 million in value, though he said it would also be open to smaller projects.
While in business for a year, the firm more recently moved into its new office space, setting up shop a month ago in a 900-square-foot space that it’s leasing at 7840 Forest Hill Ave., across from Huguenot High School. Mackey said they selected the location for its proximity to Chippenham Parkway and access to various areas of town.
The firm is also increasing its staff, recently hiring a Hampden-Sydney graduate as a project engineer and aiming to fill its new space with a staff of about eight over the next six to 12 months. Jenkins stressed that the firm’s staff would exemplify diversity.
Mackey said they have spent “a couple hundred thousand dollars” getting Tekton off the ground. He declined to give a specific amount or share the firm’s revenue targets.
While starting up Tekton, the team has also been laying the foundations for its Builder Academy of Richmond, which Mackey described as a 12-month program that would rotate students ages 18 to 25 through commercial construction trades with a specific curriculum. Students would be schooled in four aspects of the building industry: general construction, an early trade like concrete or site work, a finish trade like flooring or paint, and a specialty trade like lighting, plumbing or electrical.
Mackey said the goal of the program is to ensure a local workforce for an industry that he considers at risk.
“Every owner you talk to will agree that, 2018 and beyond, there’s going to be a ton of work here in the Richmond market, and quite frankly, there’s a lot of us that are concerned about where we’re going to get the labor to put this work into place,” Mackey said. “Apprentice programs are dying out, and the unions, which are not very strong here in Richmond, those programs have dwindled.”
Mackey and Jenkins said the academy would also aim to bridge social divides and provide an entry into the industry for workers seeking hands-on training.
“I’m a big advocate for education, but I know that not everybody is equipped – not just financially but in their personal makeup – to go to college right out of school,” Mackey said. “I believe the construction industry is a viable means for folks in poverty to come out of poverty and into the middle class, and to make a really good living providing for families.”
Added Jenkins: “At the core of it, we both believe that work is good. I’m here today because of work. This is a way to not give somebody a handout, but give somebody a hand up.”
The duo is working with Glen Allen-based Avail Marketing, whose services include nonprofit foundation management, to help manage the academy. They have assembled a board that includes Jenkins as chairman, Mackey as vice chair, and a group of local businessmen including Hirschler Fleischer attorney Nathaniel Story, Capital Interior Contractors owner Carter Baldwin, residential builder OCC Group co-owner Jeff Cutillo, Reed Smith attorney Robert Luck, and Mike Bellamy, director of capital projects for Kaiser Permanente in Washington, D.C.
Bellamy’s son, Scot Bellamy, is the firm’s recent project manager hire.
Mackey said they are aiming to launch the academy in the upcoming school year.
Stephen & Carter – congratulations on the strong start!
Congrats to Carter and Stephen!