The American Dream isn’t dead. It’s alive and well in a 60,000-square-foot steel structure taking shape in Ackerman, Mississippi that will eventually house machinery to produce kiln-dried lumber for the construction industry. Or in 70,000 square feet of production space in Athens, Georgia, for door manufacturer Steves & Sons. Or a seven-story, 126,000-square-foot building for a biofuel facility in Epes, Alabama.
The projects’ builder is Raleigh-based general contractor Cooper Tacia, which hit about $100 million in revenues last year with a portfolio that includes industrial and commercial structures, buildings for government and schools and multifamily developments.
The company was founded in 2003 as Southeastern Properties by John Cooper, 44, who is president and chief executive officer. Cooper’s introduction to the business world started after Hurricane Fran in 1996 when he and high school buddy Chris Tacia volunteered to clean up yards in their neighborhood in return for the right to sell the wood they collected. A few years later, they parlayed that youthful entrepreneurialism into buying 10 acres for a mobile-home village.
“The reason I was interested in trailer parks is because I grew up in one,” Cooper says. “The only people I knew who had any money were the people who owned the trailer park and the general contractors (his father worked in construction as a carpenter). My ambition in life was to be a GC and to own a trailer park.” He was then 18 years old.
Cooper was born in the Hampton Roads area, but was largely raised by his grandmother in a farmhouse on 6 acres of land in Harnett County near Sanford. He moved to North Carolina when he was 12.
He and Tacia sold the trailer park a few years later, and began building houses, again in Harnett County, starting in 2003. He enrolled in NC State in 1999, graduating in 2004 with a degree in civil engineering. In 2008, he and Tacia had just finished building their largest subdivision, with 35 lots and 10 “spec” houses, and they had purchased a local Coldwell Banker real estate brokerage franchise. Then, the financial crisis of 2007-09 slammed the real estate markets.
Residential property values collapsed, and in one year “our (home) sales dropped 60%,” says Cooper. On the construction side, the company was at one point down “to about four months of cash.” About that time, a college friend introduced Cooper to Van Nolintha, who was planning a restaurant called Bida Manda in Raleigh.
“I told them I don’t really do that kind of work, but I need the money real bad so I’ll do it,” says Cooper.
Before long, Cooper’s firm was building a variety of Raleigh dining establishments including Brewery Bhavana, Whiskey Kitchen and Crawford and Son (recently named a James Beard semifinalist in the outstanding restaurateur category.)
A willingness to pivot to new areas of opportunity as the old ones closed down has led to the company’s success. “Whenever something changed and a plan wasn’t working I’ve been willing to adapt,” he says. Good luck helps, too, he adds.
MAKE IT HAPPEN
Tacia left the company in 2021 to continue selling real estate in Sanford. He credits Cooper with having “determination and drive like nobody I’ve ever seen. If he puts his mind to it, he’s going to make it happen.”
The Great Recession wasn’t the only time Cooper’s determination would be challenged. More than a decade later, the COVID virus came calling, shutting down business almost overnight in early 2020. The company lost about 80% of its work over a six-week period. As cash again ran short, Cooper shifted strategy to focus on public projects, beginning
with an ABC store in Durham and a separate deal to construct a community center in Fayetteville. That work has expanded into schools (all elementary to date) and
airport hangars.
The two near-death experiences have made Cooper a believer in diversification. About 30% to 40% of Cooper Tacia’s revenue comes from industrial projects, 30% from schools, and another 30% or so from airports, community centers, and assorted municipal work. While the profit margin in the municipal market tends to be in the 4% range, slimmer than in other areas, the work is steady and often funded by federal aid, Cooper says. The company is exploring other opportunities such as wastewater projects, hospitals and chemical plants. Last year, the company hired former Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin to lead community relations and head an affiliated foundation.
In most instances, Cooper Tacia is essentially building a steel or concrete structure to house equipment or, in the case of the schools, students and administrators. As Cooper puts it, “What we’ve gotten good at is very technical electrical specifications and the process piping, which are things that you see in every type of industrial facility. We build the building and the manufacturer typically installs the (equipment) and plugs in
their machines.”
In construction, many are called, but few are chosen. The Associated General Contractors of America counted 36,300 construction “establishments” in North Carolina as of mid-2024, meaning they have a “fixed business location.” About 99% work out of a single location. Only a few handful grow to Cooper Tacia’s size, which now numbers 70 employees, including 35 in North Carolina. Fewer reach the size of Samet Corp., the Greensboro-based firm that posted N.C. billings of $1.1 billion in 2023, making it the busiest general contractor in the state for three straight years, the Triad Business Journal reported.
The Enviva Biomass relationship hints at how Cooper has built the business. It started
with a contract awarded through Mid-South Engineering to build a 4,000-square-foot administrative building for Enviva in Roanoke Rapids for $300,000 in 2012. (Mid-South was overseeing the work.) That was followed by a second contract to build a similar facility
in Virginia.
These projects evolved into a relationship directly with Enviva and the contract for the biofuels building nearing completion in Alabama, among others. That deal is worth $30 million, according to Cooper. Enviva, which completed a bankruptcy restructuring last year, is the company’s biggest long-term client. Mid-South has partnered with Cooper Tacia on six different projects over the years.
THE IMPACT OF BUILDING
Construction plays a major economic role, particularly in a growing area like North Carolina. Nationally, about 8.3 million workers were employed in the industry as of November, including residential work. In North Carolina, that number was 269,600, representing a 3% increase from the prior year, according to the Associated General Contractors of America.
The construction industry contributed about $41.67 billion to the state’s $845 billion GDP, or 4.9%, as of the third quarter last year. That compares with 4.8% in 2023 and 4.7% in 2022, per the Bureau of Economic Analysis. “This demonstrates a steady upward trend, with construction GDP growing faster than overall state GDP,” says Macrina Wilkins, a senior research analyst at the contractors’ group. Mid-sized construction firms like Cooper Tacia are a big part of this.
Projections are for further growth. The UNC Charlotte North Carolina Economic Forecast projects a 2.3% rise in the state’s GDP this year, including a 3.1% increase in construction spending. Promising areas include power projects, water and sewer plants, and data centers, according to a survey by the state contractors’ group. Major concerns include rising labor and material costs and interest rates.
Count Cooper among the optimists; he is busily laying the foundation for growth. “If you want to expand, there’s two ways to do it. You have to do bigger projects or you have to expand geographically,” he says.
Cooper Tacia is doing both. Its minimum project size has grown from a few hundred thousand dollars in the early years to about $8 million now. It added an office in Atlanta in 2024 to its locations in North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina. The company plans to open a location about every two years, with Washington, D.C. next up in 2026, says Cooper.
By Cooper’s account, it’s a good time to be building things. After topping $100 million in revenue last year, he expects sales in the range of $150 million to $200 million in 2025.
“For us,” he says, “the economy is definitely booming.” ■
