Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/119539
contractor of the year finalist | by Tom Jackson | TJackson@randallreilly.com Mitch Cox Johnson City, Tennessee Mitch Cox Construction, Inc. Year started: 1980 Number of employees: 35 Annual volume: $8 to $10 million Markets served: MOB, renovation, office and retail construction M itch Cox, CEO and founder of the company that bears his name, started his career developing commercial real estate, subcontracting the shells of buildings on his sites and using his own people to finish the interiors. As his hometown Johnson City, Tennessee, continued to grow and prosper so did Mitch's real estate business and construction division. "We started with one guy, then two, three, four and just kept hiring," Cox says. Some 75 to 80 percent of the work performed by his construction division was for his own properties, including shopping centers, warehouses and flex space projects. "We probably built 20,000 to 30,000 square feet of office space every year," Cox says. "We never ran out of work because if we finished with something we had in place, we'd just go build a spec office building. The business model of a developer with a construction capability, works well in a small market like Johnson City. "We can create more work than the typical contractor," Cox says. "We try to do as much design-build as we can. We've had an architect on staff for the last 10 Mitch Cox, president and CEO, Mitch Cox Companies or 11 years. Being multi-disciplined, having that architect on staff, and being able to do design-build has helped us in this down economy. It allows us to be a little choosier in doing what we know and what we're good at." Single vs. multifamily In 1997 Cox developed a 75-acre property for residential housing and mixed use. "For 20 years we avoided residential work. I used to pride myself on that," Cox says. "I found out that building residential is a totally different business. You use a different set of subs because EquipmentWorld.com | April 2013 51