Churchill McGee was named the 2020 Small Business of the Year during Commerce Lexington’s annual Salute to Small Business awards ceremony, which was held virtually in late September. The construction company also won in the business success category. The other category winners were Elaine Allen, LLC, for minority business, AU Associates for entrepreneur and CASA of Lexington for the nonprofit community impact category.
Houston Hall, of Forcht Bank (right), presents Patrick McGee with Commerce Lexington’s Small Business of the Year award
“Our people and our culture are the top priorities of our company, and without those things we can’t serve our clients and the community,” said cofounder and managing partner Patrick McGee. “We have weathered many ups and downs throughout the years, but we have never sacrificed our top priorities.”
Nathan Churchill and Patrick McGee were classmates and friends in elementary school in Lexington. They founded their eponymous company in 2003. The partners’ first business purchase was an insurance policy, and their first project was a house they bought to renovate and flip.
Churchill McGee has grown from two employees to 45, with offices in Lexington and Louisville. The firm offers general contracting, construction management and design/ build services for new commercial build projects and commercial fit-up projects. The company’s clients are in a variety of industries, including offices, retail, health care, restaurants and hospitality, throughout Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee. Some of the local projects completed by Churchill McGee include the Blue Grass Airport façade, Ballard Apartments, the Salvation Army Thrift Store on New Circle Road, Sedona Taphouse and several renovations to buildings owned by the University of Kentucky.
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Churchill McGee’s local projects include Sedona Taphouse in Palomar Centre
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As well as a façade at Blue Grass Airport
“2020 has not been without its challenges and fears, though we consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have been operating at or near normal capacity,” McGee said. “Our backlog of projects allowed us to maintain profitability and focus on sales, and the pandemic created space for us to be innovative in our business.”
Churchill McGee’s stated principles are “make money, give back and have fun.” From the company’s earliest days, McGee and Churchill agreed that 5 percent of the company’s net profits should be given back to the community. In June, Churchill McGee opened a “Give Back” space for the community adjacent to its West Main Street office. The 4,000 square-foot gymnasium has basketball hoops and soccer goals, and can also operate as a meeting space with a kitchenette for nonprofit organizations to use at no charge. To pay for ongoing operating costs of the Give Back building, Churchill McGee also built Main Street Self Storage on the same property, a commercial enterprise that incorporates green-building features such as stormwater mitigation via permeable surfaces.
In 2013, Churchill McGee added a division called D9 Interiors for drywall, insulation, metal framing and other installation services typically provided by subcontractors. Three years later, they added C3 Concrete, a division providing demolition, structural steel, precast and flat concrete, the installation of bridges and culverts, and other types of site work. Both divisions have since been consolidated under Churchill McGee’s scope of provided services.
“It is tough coming up as a small business, and that doesn’t mean just in Lexington; this is an issue for any small business,” McGee said. “We could not have been as successful as we have been without the support of the community, Commerce Lexington, being a member of [Commerce Lexington’s Business Owners Advisory Board] and other leadership programs.”
“We could not have been as successful as we have been without the support of the community, Commerce Lexington, being a member of [Commerce Lexington’s Business Owners Advisory Board] and other leadership programs.”
Filling out the application for the annual Salute to Small Business awards is a worthwhile exercise in itself. The process “forced us to dig down deep and think about who we really are,” McGee said. “As far as winning the award, we were caught a bit off guard.”
Employees held their own watch party in the Give Back building behind the office. While watching the live video feed, they realized the Commerce Lexington “surprise patrol” team was out front to present the award to a very surprised and appreciative crew. McGee noted: “Like the words on the wall in our quiet room, we remembered we are gritty, we love what we do, we are supported by our local community and vice versa, we have a great company culture, we are fun, and we love to give back.”