CONSTRUCTION COMPANY IS BUILT TO LAST
[Reprinted from the Mississippi Press * Gulflive.com/mississippipress * July 29, 2009]

" Construction company is built to last ". ......Like their brochure says, " Entrust your project to a company that is built to last ". The employees of Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. Builder, Inc. have experience in everything from commercial construction and renovation, educational construction and renovation, medical construction, churches, parks and recreation, designing and building and construction management. It's hard to choose a company that prides themselves on strong leadership, attention to detail, expert craftsmanship and high quality resources.

CEMETERY RESTORATION PROJECT TO WIN AWARD
[Reprinted from the City of Biloxi Information Source, October 22, 2008]

Photo after Katrina

Photo after Renovation

"We knew going in that Mr. Thompson had experience in restoration projects," Mayor A.J. Holloway said. "This project presented him a number of unique challenges, from locating and re-connecting pieces ......."

Cemetery restoration project wins award...

The city's project to restore the Biloxi City Cemetery will be recognized next month by the Mississippi Associated Builders and Contractors.

City contractor Kenneth R. Thompson Jr. of Greenwood and Gautier will receive a first place merit award at the association banquet on Nov. 7 in Jackson.

The merit awards honor contractors "whose work exemplifies the high degree of quality that is common within ABC membership," according to the association.

The $300,000 FEMA-funded project involved a 40,000 square-foot beachfront section of the cemetery, the most storm-ravaged part of the burial grounds. Some gravesites in that area date back to the early 1800s.

The restoration included repairs to more than 200 headstones and 10 tombs, and installation of a new brick and wrought iron fence facing the beachfront.

"We knew going in that Mr. Thompson had experience in restoration projects," Mayor A.J. Holloway said. "This project presented him a number of unique challenges, from locating and re-connecting pieces of dozens of broken headstones, to finding the correct material to rebuild them, and doing it all without desecrating nearby gravesites. He and his team did excellent work on this important job, and this statewide recognition from his peers is much deserved."

To see photos of the cemetery from before and immediately after Katrina, click here.

To see photos from the dedication of the restored cemetery, click here.

KENNETH THOMPSON BUILDERS: A FAMILY AFFAIR
by Bob Darden
[Reprinted from the Greenwood Commonwealth
Families in Business Special Section, July 18, 2007]

Kenneth Thompson, center, has built a successful construction company, Kenneth Thompson Builders, from the ground up. His daughters, Ashley Thompson, left, and Kim McNeer, help keep things running smoothly. Thompson said having his daughters in the business frees him up to do other things.

In the past 25 years, Kenneth Thompson has seen his construction company grow from a small outfit that did home remodeling to an award-winning commercial builder.
He’s made it a point in the last few years to keep the business, Kenneth Thompson Builders, a family affair.

“I worked for other contractors and decided to go into business for myself. When I started out, my aunt had a house fire. That’s the first thing I did when I started out — housing,” said Thompson, 52.

It wasn’t long before Thompson had other house renovation work. About six to eight months into the effort, Thompson started building new homes from the ground up.
Still, Thompson dreamed of more lucrative work, namely commercial construction.

“To get into commercial construction, you had to have bonding capacity. I had to save up some money to get the required bonding capacity,” Thompson said.

Once Thompson was bonded, he got out of the home building and renovation business once and for all.

Today, Kenneth Thompson Builders focuses exclusively on commercial construction. “That’s 100 percent of the work — no houses,” Thompson said.

The company, based in Greenwood, employs 35 full-time employees and has recently opened a satellite office in Gautier on the Gulf Coast.

The company’s construction business, he said, falls largely into three categories: historical renovation, commercial renovations and new commercial construction. The company has also done park and recreational work for various municipalities throughout the state.

“We’re covering most of the state,” he said, regarding the company’s far-flung operations. The company also holds contractor licenses in Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Kenneth Thompson Builders has received seven excellence in construction awards from Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade organization.

In addition, the company in 2006 received the organization’s STEP award for the development of its safety programs.

Thompson will proudly cite three Greenwood projects his company has been involved with. The first is the Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s Physical Rehabilitation building, a new, from-the-ground-up building. The other two are the historical renovation of Staplcotn’s headquarters in downtown Greenwood and the renovation of Viking Range Corp.’s Distribution Center on U.S. 82.

Thompson said he got his start working for fellow contractor Glenn Miller and he credits his former boss for a lot of his success. “He gave me a lot of opportunities to do a lot of different things,” Thompson said.

Thompson received a degree in building construction from Mississippi Delta Community College. He remains a dissertation shy of receiving his degree in architecture at Mississippi State University.

Thompson said he entered the workforce and started a family and simply didn’t have time to complete his dissertation.

“I came back and went to work,” he said philosophically. Thompson’s daughter, Kim McNeer, said she didn’t think of construction as a career choice.

“Never in a million years did I ever anticipate that I’d be in the construction industry. I was a banker. He called me one day and said, ‘I need someone who knows how to run a business,’” she said. Six years later, McNeer is serving as the company’s office manager.

Her sister, Ashley Thompson, who has been with the company for three years, serves as project manager as well as project estimator and coordinator.

Having family on the payroll frees Thompson up for other projects.

“As the years go on, I realized that I wanted my family in here with me. I really enjoy my family,” he said.

“I used to have to look at every check, write every check. Attend to all the business,” Thompson said.

Now, his daughters can help run the family business.
“The Lord has blessed us,” he said.