Contracting company moves to Garco Mill to accommodate growth

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Garco Mill has a new tenant: the project’s builder, Evans General Contractors LLC.

The Atlanta, Ga.-based company had been looking to relocate its Charleston office into a more vibrant space to support client needs and future growth. Hired by Weaver Capital to build the three-story, 53,000 square-foot Garco Mill Project, the company planned its new space early on, said Senior Vice President Darryl Strunk.

Evans now occupies 4,800 square feet on the second floor of the Class A office building, which it shares with the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. The company also has offices in Greenville, Savannah and Germany, and is in the process of opening up a Raleigh location.  

“Our new office better reflects’ Evans’ brand, culture, and where we are headed,” Executive Vice President and COO Jeff Jepson said in a news release. “As a relationship-based business, this location further strengthens those local market relationships.”

Founded in 2001, Evans is a national design-build, general contracting and construction management firm. While the company was previously doing business in the Charleston market, the first local office opened in 2017 at 4105 Faber Place Drive in North Charleston.

“Charleston felt like a really good market to establish an office,” Strunk said. “We worked throughout the Southeast already, but Charleston was one of the biggest contributors to our growth.”

Strunk was hired in June 2019 to grow the Charleston portfolio and said the biggest market here is the warehouse, distribution and manufacturing industry.

“It’s a big deal so we’ve just sort of grown with it,” he said.

One such project includes the new Charleston Chamber Social Services Hub — the 175,000 square foot office and health care facility across from the Navy Hospital in North Charleston — which Evans broke ground on last week. Construction is expected to be completed in 2022.

Strunk’s also trying to diversify the company’s portfolio by breaking into the life sciences and IT industry and hiring the right people that will help accelerate that growth.

The new Garco Mill office, he said, will be better moving forward for employees and future client relationships.

“We have a corner building with exterior access, good views and location to the revitalization of Park Circle as well as for lunch meetings on the outside,” he said. “We feel this area is a little more centrally located for us as we move forward.”