Architect, builder carries family tradition

Published 10:15 am Friday, February 23, 2018

When Tim Thomas arrives at his office every morning, the seasoned builder and accomplished architect’s day might have any number of things in store.

“Today, construction companies are mostly specialists — they specialize in new homes, renovations, church designs, or recreation …,” said Thomas, owner and main operator of Milledgeville’s Otis Thomas Construction. “We specialize in getting the job done. Our guys will sometimes tease me because they don’t ever know what I’m going to be doing — I could be driving a backhoe, using a shovel, or swinging a sledgehammer on a day-to-day basis. We may even be cutting grass. We specialize in construction from the ground up, and whatever it takes to get the job done, that’s what we do. 

As the owner of a business that bears his father’s name, Thomas has worked in the construction industry for the entirety of his adult life. Having entered the business with no formal training and no experience past building miniature houses out of wood, in the early 1940s Otis started his business in Milledgeville and quickly gained a reputation as a skilled builder.

“My father always believed in building structures of integrity, and structural integrity evolves by way of functional designs and quality craftsmanship,” said Thomas. “Once you have those two components, your work will stand, and honesty is number one. If you’re honest, your customer tends to trust you, and if you don’t have that trust factor, you won’t have any customers. I just piggyback off the ethics and standards that he laid, and we’ve been successful ever since.”

From the time he started his business in the ‘40s to the time he passed it on to Tim in 1992, Otis Thomas built countless buildings in and around Baldwin County, of which several still stand to this day. Among his most well-known structures was the Ebony Lounge, a well-known Macon nightclub that hosted such musical greats as Otis Redding, James Brown, B.B. King, and The Commodores. 

“Culver Kidd was actually the one that recommended my father build that club,” said Thomas. “He was building the structure for another person, I think to make a warehouse or something, and Culver Kidd said, ‘Otis, you should put an entertainment center there’. So he did, and it was very successful.”

Since taking the business over from his father in 1992, Tim has extended his father’s reputation as a skilled and honest builder throughout Milledgeville and across the country. In more than 25 years as principal owner, the younger Thomas and his team have designed houses and commercial structures across Georgia and the southeast, and have even provided their services to a buyer as far away as Portland, Oregon. Otis Thomas stands out noticeably from other construction companies in that Tim is simultaneously a trained architect and a seasoned contractor. Very seldom does one see an architect design specifications for a building and go outside to help dig its foundation, but Tim said his hands-on approach is the only way he knows how to build. 

“It’s my passion,” said Thomas, when asked how much he involves himself in construction’s dirty work. “I have guys that get on the backhoe for me, but I don’t feel like I’ve worked unless I dig the foundation along with my guys … If I can’t put my hands on it, I don’t feel as though I’ve completed the project.”

In carrying the success of his father’s business into a new generation, Thomas is quick to acknowledge the people that have helped him along the way. At different times, Thomas’s wife, Kimberlyn, his kids De’Andre’, Brandon and Courtney, his sister, Mary Johnson, his cousins Jerry Thomas and Jesse Reaves, and family friend Cedric Davis have all contributed to the business’s success, and Otis Thomas might be pleased to know that his life’s work is still very much a family affair.

“I used to ride with my father when I was younger, and when we got to work, there was no talking on the job. We were producing — we were working” said Tim. “At the end of the day, he would stop, and as we left the job, we would look at our progress day-by-day and he would say ‘That’s a fine job’ … I do the same thing.”

Otis Thomas Construction is located at 917 N. Wilkinson St., Suite 5. The business can be reached by phone at 478-452-8903.