Tino McFarland, 46, started McFarland Construction with minimal resources during the aftermath of the recession in 2007-09. With little work available, McFarland and his wife, Tamara, pressed forward as the sole employees, using their townhome’s third bedroom as office space.
Now in its 12th year, the company reported revenue of $36 million in 2020 after working on a variety of government, financial-services, energy, health care and education projects in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Its 2021 revenue will be about the same, he says.
“As we’ve expanded our footprint, we now have a number of strong clients that we’ve built relationships with, that we have long-standing agreements with, that we partner with and are trusted by.”
Recent projects include work at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and UNC Charlotte’s Marriott hotel. McFarland Construction offers design-build, general contracting and construction management to its clients. It has a satellite office in Fayetteville.
McFarland, who has a bachelor’s from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University, credits the company’s success to resourcefulness, strategic planning and a good work ethic. It also benefits from having 13 different nationalities represented on its team, McFarland says.
“The way we behave, how we consider others and how we bring diverse thoughts into our solutions shows up well,” he says. “We’re a very diverse company, and that makes a huge difference in how we fit into the marketplace.”