D&S Builders

SEVIER COUNTY COMPANY BUILDS HOTELS TO ACCOMMODATE MILLIONS

When folks visit the many tourist gems in Sevier County, they usually lodge there, too. In the past couple of decades, the Smoky Mountains, Dollywood and many other sites draw tourists from around the country–and they all need somewhere to stay.

Hotels can’t be built fast enough to house the masses that travel to Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and Sevierville, but Alex Davis, owner of D&S Builders, is working on that. His company is currently under contract to build seven hotels in the area. It’s a business he’s become intimately knowledgeable about in the past 15 years, ever since he partnered with a family friend, Howard Sexton, and started D&S Builders.

Of course, in 2001, the hotels were smaller than the elegant resorts his company constructs today. The value of the types of hotels D&S builds has gone up–the first hotel the company built was $50 a square foot, and now the hotels run about $130 a square foot.

His largest job to date is the impressive DreamMore Resort, Dollywood’s 300-room, 17-acre, 240,000-square-foot hotel.

“Gatlinburg has been a tourist draw for many years, but it’s exponentially grown. Last year we had 11 to 13 million visitors to the national park, and of those, probably 80 percent come through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Sevier County is kind of recession-proof,” Davis said.

GOOD EMPLOYEES, REPUTATION, DRIVE BUSINESS

To some extent, D&S Builders has also been recession proof. In fact, if banks hadn’t tightened up on lending to hotel investors, Davis said business would still have been booming during the lean years. He’s made sure the company doesn’t carry a lot of debt, which helped to keep the company in good financial shape even when there wasn’t as much work available. As it was, he slimmed down his crews but kept up steady work during the hard times. Now, he has about 50 employees and uses reliable subcontractors to aid with some of the work load.

Today, D&S enjoys a quality reputation that means Davis negotiates, rather than bids, 90 to 95 percent of its jobs. He occasionally has to turn down jobs from new customers, as his existing customer base has filled his work schedule with jobs through the spring of 2017. Davis also believes his company can do its best work by picking the right jobs to do.

“We look at a job and see if it makes sense and fits within the dynamics of our company and works with our schedule and load. There’s a whole checklist we go through to make sure that the work makes sense for us,” he said. “We do add to the client base, but we’re not going to be that contractor who takes on more than we can do.”

Davis said he started growing D&S about two years after he partnered with Sexton; he saw the opportunities for growth, and took them. In 2008, Davis bought the company from Sexton, who was sick with lung cancer and later passed away.
He credits the company’s growth to his employees, who he refers to as family.

“If you build a good staff, and the right staff, they want to grow because it means more opportunity for them,” he said. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of the family that works for us – they may not be my blood family, but the employees have become family. Twenty-five percent of them are going on 10 years or more with us.”
Two of his longest serving employees contribute valuable work and expertise to the company: Lee Edgar, his right-hand man and general supervisor, and Melton Hancock, his operations manager.

WORKING WITH OTHERS TO GROW

As for himself, Davis loves what he does, especially now that he gets to oversee projects from inception to completion.

“I enjoy the development part of my work, I like taking it from a blank piece of paper to the end of a project,” he said.

Davis also recognizes partners in business such as his Cat dealer, Stowers Machinery. D&S both rents and buys equipment from Stowers, including telehandlers, aerial work platforms and skid steer loaders.

“Stowers has always taken care of us. They always have what we need, when we need it,” Alex said.
Another valuable asset that has helped the growth of his business is the support of Sevier County and its cities. While there are challenges to working in a bustling tourist attraction–sometimes he can wait all day for a cement truck to make its way through the bumper-to-bumper traffic–the community’s support has been worth it. Davis said he couldn’t imagine working or living anywhere else.

His grandparents settled in Sevier County almost 100 years ago, and he loves the area. All of D&S Builders’ work takes place within a three-hour radius of Sevier County.

“Sevier county is a great place to do business–the cities really want to promote growth, so they work with you. Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg are all great to work with,” he said.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

This story first appeared in the Summer 2016 issue of On The Job magazine, a national magazine for those who own or rent building construction products and compact construction equipment. Download the story as it appeared in the magazine.

Visit D&S Builders’ website to learn more about the services the company provides.