Nashville’s vibrant music history earned it the nickname “Music City.” As the birthplace of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, WSM’s Grand Ole Opry, and the Nashville Sound, the city is a magnet for music enthusiasts seeking to visit, live, or work here. The expanding job market and abundant opportunities make it especially appealing to young professionals eager to advance their careers. Currently, Nashville’s top-performing sectors include advanced manufacturing, corporate operations, information technology, healthcare, and small businesses.
For those considering establishing an office in Nashville, we’ve curated a list of the finest office builders in the area. These firms boast significant industry experience, weathering economic challenges and deftly adapting to shifting industry trends. Guided by seasoned industry veterans, they prioritize client experiences and contributions, ensuring exceptional results.
R.C. Mathews Contractor
615 S 3rd Ave. Suite 500, Nashville, TN 37210
With more than 80 years of serving clients in the Nashville area, R.C. Mathews Contractor has become known for the quality and integrity of its work. The foundation of each project centers on achieving client satisfaction and fostering long-term relationships, allowing the firm to provide services customized to meet unique needs. Its clients are mostly from the historical, education, residential, non-profit, commercial, industrial, and healthcare sectors.
One of the firm’s notable projects, the 615 Third Office Build project, can be found in the SoBro downtown district in Nashville. This eight-story building features ground-level retail space, office space for five firms, and four levels of structured parking. The scope of R.C. Mathews Contractor’s work included working on 430 parking spaces, 13,000 square feet of retail space, 7,000 square feet of green roof space, and several individual balconies on each floor. In designing the project, R.C. Mathews Contractor adhered to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards, reflecting the firm’s commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency.
Crain Construction
2963 Sidco Dr. Suite 110, Nashville, TN 37204
In the years that it has spent contributing to Nashville’s development, Crain Construction has accumulated a vast amount of experience. Established in 1933, the firm’s expertise allows it to complete preconstruction, design-build, value engineering, green construction, and construction management projects. Its focus on providing quality, integrity, and client-centric services allows the firm to understand how to achieve success and client satisfaction. In fact, it attributes its continued success to the way it prioritizes meeting the needs of the people and communities it serves.
The 2963 Sidco Drive project can be found in Crain Construction’s corporate and adaptive reuse portfolio. Originally a warehouse, the firm transformed the space into a Class A office building to serve its new headquarters, as well as an office for a consulting firm. Crain Construction completed the project in two phases, with the end goal of creating a space that fosters creativity and collaboration. Some of 2963 Sidco Drive’s features include large front windows, an entry door repurposed from the old shipping dock doors, exposed and painted ductwork, and moveable glass partitions for large and small rooms. Crain Construction’s quality work on the project earned it the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Nashville Excellence in Development Award.
Skanska
5000 Meridian Blvd. Suite 100, Franklin, TN 37067
Skanska was established in 1887, making it the oldest firm on this list. Its long-lived existence in the industry serves as a testament to its stability and skill, as it has served clients from diverse industries over the years, including aviation, commercial, and healthcare. The firm works to consistently exceed industry standards for things like green construction, work safety, and business ethics, leading it to be recognized in publications like Engineering News-Record (ENR), Building Design + Construction, and The Business Journals.
In celebration of its 100th anniversary, LifeWay Christian Resources contracted Skanska to construct its new headquarters. In support of the client’s milestone, Skanska paid close attention to the quality of materials and construction techniques as it designed a flexible workspace. The firm’s efforts yielded a new 273,000-square-foot urban corporate headquarters with a 820-space parking garage. LifeWay’s Headquarters was built on Capitol Views as part of Nashville’s mixed-use urban development plan in the central business district.
Dowdle Construction
150 Athens Way, Suite 200, Nashville, TN 37228
Composed of many passionate and persistent employees, Dowdle Construction collaborates closely with clients to complete various works for public and private sectors. Its specialties include ground-up, reconstruction, and renovation-related services for work of any scale or scope. Dowdle Construction operates under the leadership of principals Glynn Dowdle, Allen J. Buchanan, and Chase E. Manning, all of whom have been in the industry for years. They have worked on projects for the restaurant, commercial, residential, and hospitality sectors, and each of them continues to look for ways to improve and refine Dowdle Construction’s operations and processes.
Dowdle Construction was tasked by Progress Inc. to construct an office and program space for business and non-profit use. The main focus of this project was to create a building that would support and train adults with disabilities, without exceeding the tight budget set by the client. Dowdle Construction partnered with Smith Gee Studio LLC to create a design that blends seamlessly with the area’s existing barn-style structures. The firm also made sure to take its client’s projected growth requirements into account. After the project was turned over, Progress Inc. began to use the building to provide employment training, senior services, and community-based day programming.
Hardaway Construction
3011 Armory Dr. Suite 190, Nashville, TN 37204
At 18 years old, L. Hall Hardaway Sr. founded Hardaway Construction to provide residential construction services. 26 years later, in 1950, it expanded to include a commercial division, after building more than 1,000 homes for clients in Tennessee and Alabama. L.H. Hardaway Jr. succeeded his father as president in 1975 before handing down the mantle to his own son, Stan Hardaway, in 1998. While Hardaway Construction is no longer under Hardaway’s leadership, it continues to pursue ethics, integrity, generosity, and compassion when working with clients.
Featured among Hardaway Construction’s Tennessee-based projects, Franke Foodservice Systems’ headquarters and warehouse complex is sized at 103,700 square feet. The office space was designed around the client’s business of providing equipment solutions and project management services for restaurant chains and retailers. In order to address this, Hardaway Construction used steel and glass to construct the headquarters and concrete for the warehouse, and made sure the design was flexible enough to accommodate long-term business expansion. For the warehouse, Hardaway Construction worked on approximately 122,000 square feet of dock space for loading and receiving operations. Once the project was completed, both the headquarters and warehouse received Silver LEED certification, reflecting the firm’s dedication to sustainable building solutions.
Flow Construction Company
3628 Trousdale Dr. Suite E, Nashville, TN 37204
Flow Construction Company was founded on the principle of fostering long-term relationships with clients and partners, which continues to guide its operations today. The firm’s general contracting and construction management services focus on being client-centric and sensitive, an approach that comes from the belief that a collaborative space produces creative, successful, and dynamic solutions for unique problems.
Most clients work with Flow Construction Company for tenant improvement, industrial, healthcare, retail, ground-up, and corporate projects. Since the firm works with different groups, its strategy involves being flexible and adaptable to whatever the client’s long and short-term needs are. Additionally, firm leaders Bubba Gramling, Greg Tamlin, Allen Lindsey, and Brad Ellis work to ensure Flow Construction Company does a thorough job. While Gramling and Lindsey are in charge of maintaining the firm’s relationships with industry partners, end users, clients, and contractors, Tomlin is mostly involved in managing project schedules, finances, and personnel. His goal is to make sure there are no unforeseen obstacles from pain points. Meanwhile, Ellis handles the firm’s operations, including goal setting, strategy planning, and finance and resource management.
