You are here: Home >> Leander-Cedar Park >> Business Profiles >> J.C. Evans Construction - Leander

J.C. Evans Construction - Leander

Attention: open in a new window.

Written by Susan VanDeWater Thursday, 07 September 2006

Company builds for the future

Although you may not recognize the name J.C. Evans, you’ll definitely know many of the structures built by the Leander-based contractor – Mansfield Dam, UT’s Disch-Falk field and the Women’s Softball complex, Micro-electronics and Computer Corporation, IBM and several state buildings around Austin.

Blake Kuhlman (far right) greets guests as 50th anniversary party. The excavation and general contracting company was incorporated in Austin in 1955 by Jake Evans, who began performing excavation work in 1939. After Evans passed away, the Evans family appointed Chief Financial Officer Blake Kuhlman president in 1982.

For most of its existence, the company specialized in commercial construction. However, five years ago, the company relocated to Leander and began focusing on subdivision preparation.

“A lot of the growth in the Austin area is heading north,” explained Rosemary Kuhlman, the company’s office manager and wife of president Blake Kuhlman. “We found the perfect piece of land in Leander and everything fell into place.”

The company, which has job sites all over Austin and in San Antonio, performs site work on subdivisions to prepare them for home builders. This includes excavation, laying water and wastewater lines and underground utilities and building curbs and streets.

With more than 700 employees, J.C. Evans Construction is ranked among the nation’s 400 largest construction companies. And according to Rosemary, business is good. But, it wasn’t always that way.

The economic downturn of the early ’90s left the company struggling financially. It was then that Blake Kuhlman conceived the idea of employee-ownership. Using their profit sharing pensions (with the blessing of the founding family), the employees bought out the Evans family, making J.C. Evans Construction 100 percent employee-owned. The influx of capital virtually saved the company, which continues to thrive today.

“We strive to be the ‘Company of Choice’ for our customers, suppliers, subcontractors, designers and employees,” Rosemary said. “It’s part of our mission and who we are.”

J.C. Evans Construction celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this spring. “It was staggering to learn how long some of our employees have been here,” Rosemary said. “We have a great group of people here. They’re like a second family to us.” J.C. Evans hopes to build on the growth of the recent years, as well as help the Cedar Park/Leander area continue to grow.