By: Jessica Perry
View Source (NJBIZ.com)

Community Builders founder Conor Evans, here with his son Jack, set out to establish a company that would bring people together. As an employee-owned enterprise, the business is also built to fit that frame. “Ownership and ownership mentality is just much richer and delivers better results than an employee mentality,” he said.

 

The Basics:

• Community Builders NJ launched in 2024 with support from top CRE firms
• Firm operates on an employee-owned model with local hiring focus
• Projects include senior living, urban multifamily, nonprofits
• Over $15K donated and 100+ volunteer hours logged in first year

Morristown-based Community Builders NJ Inc. launched in 2024 to a packed house of more than 150 commercial real estate leaders. The debut of the construction management firm at the Columbus Club drew leaders from SJP Properties, Vision Real Estate, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, Chilmark Real Estate Services, Hekemian, Gensler, Lincoln Property, Kimmerle Group, NK Architects and HDR; with co-hosts representing Sill Cummis Gross, Studio 1200, Valley Bank, Bohler Engineering and Kraus Marketing.

The fete attracted members of the CRE industry and leaders of the community at large, including state lawmakers, representatives from the office of U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (now the Democratic gubernatorial nominee) and the Morris County Board of Commissioners. It also included the presentation of pro-bono construction management services to Florham Park-based nonprofit Cheshire Home.

The combination of bringing people together and uplifting the collective offered more than an introduction, providing an experiential representation of what Community Builders is all about.

Founder and President Conor Evans grew up in a family construction business that spanned three generations; and always wanted to re-start it. Leading up to Community Builders’ 2024 debut, he says each step along the way in his professional career served as training to get to that point.

As of December 2023, Evans was the regional vice president of a large, 100-year-old firm based in the Midwest, and he realized he’d reached a tipping point in his career. It was either time to stop thinking about starting his own business, or else get the endeavor going. Two months later, he did just that.

“As I was writing the business plan of what I wanted to build, I was stuck on what to name it,” Evans told NJBIZ.

Looking back, his career had been defined by a progression from building structures to teams and then organizations. With this enterprise, Evans is now working to build community.

Community Builders is more than a name. It’s a “vision, a mission, an approach, and a business model. Who we work for, who we work with and to what ends,” Evans explained. It’s also what sets the company apart, he said.

Morristown-based construction management firm Community Builders launched in 2024.

 

“What type of structures serve the community? Cultural nonprofits, like museums and theaters. Health and wellness, education, worship, urban multifamily. … Each one of those sectors that serves the community all tend to be owner-operators” and oriented toward the company’s target audience.

Community Builders also works in the sports & recreation and social impact nonprofit spaces.

While Evans is happy to start modestly to get Community Builders established, where he’s making his plays is very specific.

Owing to its community concept, the business is concentrated in its native Morris County. And where possible, makes efforts to engage subcontractors within that area — or else local to a specific project at hand.

“We’re very targeted in where we work, who we work with. If we have a project in Morris County and all things being equal, we would much prefer to choose the Morristown mechanical HVAC,” for example.

As for what that work looks like, in these early years – Evans says he’s open to a wider diversity of project types now to help reach the company’s long-term goals of working with owner-operators on community-oriented spaces. “We’re trying to be scrappy,” he said.

Community Builders is more than a name. It’s a ‘vision, a mission and approach, and a business model. Who we work for, who we work with and to what ends.’

– Conor Evans, Community Builders NJ founder and president

 
Completed projects Community Builders has worked on include fitting out Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners’ new office last summer; work within senior living communities; the redevelopment of a former office park into Life Time Fitness in Parsippany; and more, Evans said.

Looking ahead – and trying to lean into smart growth – he noted Community Builders currently has three major projects in pre-construction: an urban multifamily in Morristown, a shelter expansion for a nonprofit and a food processing manufacturing plant.

He noted the company’s tagline, built for the time; built to stand the test of time.

Leaving a legacy

As an employee-owned enterprise, the business is also built to fit that frame. Under its bylaws, after one year of service, every employee must become a fractional owner of Community Builders. “I’ve didn’t want to work for another man’s last name and therefore I don’t want anyone to work for me that would work for my last name,” Evans said. “Ownership and ownership mentality is just much richer and delivers better results than an employee mentality, I believe.”

The arrangement should also be reassuring to customers. “In terms of a client proposition, and value proposition, a client has a higher level of assurance that no corners are going to be cut on the project because everyone on the project is an owner. They have a stake,” he said.

According to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, New Jersey is home to nearly 90 companies operating under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.

Ownership and ownership mentality is just much richer and delivers better results than an employee mentality, I believe.

– Conor Evans, Community Builders NJ founder and president

 
Noting ESOPs tend to prioritize local community giving, the Rutgers University New Jersey/New York Center for Employee Ownership also highlights a range of benefits due to the operational structure on its website. Those include employees receiving 5%-12% more in wages; larger retirement accounts than comparable companies; and a smaller chance of layoffs.

ESOPs also help strengthen communities by providing members – employees – with “secure financial futures,” according to the center.

Community Builders is not a family-owned business, but it’s built upon the foundations laid by the business Evans’ family did own when he was growing up. “Forthrightness, which to me that’s more than integrity. You can have integrity but not offer relevant information. To me, forthrightness is, regardless of whether or not the question is asked, offering critical information … Authenticity; we’re all just human beings trying to navigate ourselves through this new, crazy world,” Evans said. “Momentum and efficiency, and then ultimately excellence.”

And with its employee-owned structure, even if Evans’ sons don’t want to get involved, the values and the business can endure. His family’s influence is also represented in the fresh Kelly green used in its logo. The shade alludes to his great grandmother, who came to America from Ireland.

Teamwork, dream work

At Community Builders, Evans believes the structure also helps retain employees. So far, he says there’s a four-person team at work. However, Evans said he is currently hiring for two positions, including a senior project manager.

He also finds the company’s mission has helped attract individuals with shared values.

“When I’m interviewing potential teammates, and when potential teammates are interviewing [the company], they immediately gravitate to the vision, the mission, the approach, the business model.” It comes across as offering an alternative option because, Evans conceded, “For as much as I love the industry, it’s a tough one.”

The ethos of community is also a part of employee onboarding and activation. The interview process at Community Builders is extensive. It begins with an initial 30-minute meeting and subsequent steps including getting together with an advisory board member, a written submission and meeting the existing team.

The Community Builders team

 

By the Numbers: In 2024, Community Builders logged over 100 volunteer hours and donated $15,000 to nonprofits.

 

Evans explains that after an initial three-month probationary period with Community Builders, employees must become involved at either the volunteer level or a committee level with a civic nonprofit in the area.

Largely, “I don’t care what the cause is, but they have to become involved,” Evans said. “It’s part of the employment and the job description.”

Then after a year of service with the company, employees must either join a board or a committee.

“I like to say, not only is it good business, but it’s good for business,” Evans explained.

In 2024, the organization logged over 100 volunteer hours and donated $15,000 to nonprofits. Earlier this year, Community Builders made a three-year, $60,000 investment in Morris Arts. The contribution established the company as a founding supporter of the local nonprofit’s Corporate Community Champions program. Evans has been a board member with the group since 2022.

“Both of our organizations share a focus on community, making us natural partners,” Morris Arts’ Executive Director Tom Werder said at the time.

For more than 50 years, the organization has worked to build community through the arts in Morris County. “We are in this community Sunday through Saturday, not just Monday through Friday during business hours. That’s powerful in that there is a higher degree of ownership to both the Morris Arts’ and Community Builders’ missions and approaches,” Evans explained when the announcement was made in February. “And that mutual alignment is why it was an easy choice on where we would allocate our funding support. Morris Arts and Community Builders are in it, together.”

The continuation will help support both the Commercial Real Estate and Arts in Health breakfast events, as well as Morris Arts’ annual gala, Great Conversations, and the Giralda Music & Arts Festival. This year, the outdoor concert featuring the New Jersey Symphony takes place June 21.

Speaking with NJBIZ, Evans noted he could make several smaller contributions to various groups, but the volume brings significance. “I want to be one thing in one place, as opposed to many different things and many different places — where you end up being nothing,” he said.

“I think Community Builders has received a lot over the course of the last year, year-and-a-half, and I don’t want to be a taker. I want to be a giver,” Evans added.

Lessons in Leadership

Community Builders is “very intentional” in its pursuit of balanced growth. “These first three to five years, we are focused on hitting singles,” Evans said, employing baseball terminology.

“There are plenty of general contractors that in their first five years, take on a ton of work and then implode because they’re chasing revenue. Any kind of revenue — and sometimes with the wrong clients who play games on the back end of projects putting finances and relationships at risk,” he said.

When it comes to becoming an entrepreneur, Evans says one thing he’s learned is it isn’t just a one-time gamble. “Me taking a large portion of my retirement and putting it into the business was not a one-time step off the ledge,” he explained. “It’s every single day I’m having to gamble with the future,” to make smart bets on how to reinvest and grow the business and its impact.

Earlier this year, Community Builders made a three-year, $60,000 investment in Morris Arts. From left: Community Builders founder Conor Evans, Morris Arts Director of Development and Marketing Dominique Tornabe and Morris Arts Executive Director Tom Werder. – PROVIDED BY MORRIS ARTS

 

To ensure longevity and value, Evans says he leaves a significant cushion in reserves, until he’s ready to up the ante again.

Helping inform the process, Community Builders operates in tandem with a 12-member advisory board, including a finance committee. Comprised of area brokers, architects and other industry players, Evans says the overall group meets quarterly.

He also carries with him examples and lessons from other figures in his life, as well as his own military experience, and a lot of it comes back to service. “What’s the one thing that I can do? What’s the one thing exactly? And this is the one thing,” Evans said. “I am a builder. I love to build. Absolutely love it. To me it’s not just building structures.

“Yesterday I interviewed a candidate, and I said, we can’t guarantee you that we’re going to be around in five years, but you’re young, you’re capable, and if you have an interest in someday going for it … this is the opportunity and this is the time.”

With his small-ball strategy at work, Evans measures success through reoccurring relationships and business, continuing to live the mission and by hopefully offering a different example of how businesses can run. “And the downside is, well, we may not be around in five years. You can look back and say that we did a lot of good in the meanwhile. And so that’s kind of my approach, is five years from now, I may be working at Lowe’s – which would be great – but I can at least look back and say, well, what was that worth?

“It was worth a lot. I want to live the mission first.”

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