Mount Pleasant Town Hall Magazine

27 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.MPTownHall.com MOUNT PLEASANT Town Hall doing business and adapting to the ever-changing world of construction for nearly nine decades. “We’re a family-oriented company,” Will McKnight pointed out. “People have been here a long time, and they bring a lot of pride to the company. For example, Tim Rich is the superintendent for the Mount Pleasant Town Hall job, and he has two sons who work with him.” “On every project, we focus on safety, teamwork, efficiency and integrity, ensuring that our customers get the best product in a timely manner,” he added. McKnight’s own family has played a monumental role in the company’s success as well. His father, Mason McKnight Jr., joined the business in the mid-1950s. Not long after, the company abandoned the residential market. “Dad built three or four houses and realized he didn’t want to stay in that business,” said McKnight, a graduate of Georgia Tech. “They went into commercial construction, building along the East Coast, from Virginia to Florida.” Later, in the 1970s, Will McKnight and his two brothers came on board, and again, the company adapted to the winds of change in the construction business. “There weren’t many shopping centers being built, so we went into the government sector with HUD housing projects,” he said. “But when Reagan was elected president, that business conked out, so we went into defense work, as well as schools and municipal work.” It certainly didn’t hurt that several military installations were nearby, including Fort Bragg, Fort Gordon, Fort Stewart and Warner Robins Air Force Base. McKnight said 75 percent of the company’s work in the 1980s was with the Department of Defense, adding that, by 2008, the DOD work had “played out.” That’s when McKnight Construction turned mostly to projects for schools and municipalities. Today, 90 percent of the company’s business is government work, McKnight said. Will McKnight’s two siblings eventually left to start their own construction companies, but his daughters and their husbands now make up McKnight Construction’s fourth generation of family members. Jane Marie Kinsey is the vice president and chief financial officer, while her husband, Joe Kinsey, a civil engineer, is a project manager. Blakely Downs is in marketing, and her husband, Ryan Downs, directs the company’s real estate holdings. In addition to Mount Pleasant’s new Town Hall, McKnight Construction has left its mark on the Lowcountry with building projects at Rollings Middle School of the Arts, Alston-Bailey Elementary School, Alston Middle School and Sand Hill Elementary School in Dorchester County. The company is usually working on 10 Among the projects on McKnight Construction Company’s resume is the Dorman High School Early College and Career Center. Will McKnight now serves as president of the company his grandfather founded.