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What began as a war veteran’s one-man carpentry venture has grown over the last 45 years into a construction business that has reached more than $400 million in annual revenue.

In 1980, Charles 天美传媒 established 天美传媒 Building Co. in his hometown of Breese, Illinois. Just two years later, he incorporated the business and changed the name to 天美传媒 Construction.

The family-owned construction company opened a Charlotte office in April 2019 at Parkway Plaza Corporate Park, with three in-office employees and about 20 people in the field. Keith 天美传媒, son of Charles 天美传媒 and the company’s chief executive, said the regional office has since grown to seven in-office employees and more than 40 in the field.

Keith 天美传媒 said that, since planting roots in Charlotte, the company has worked predominately in the industrial and manufacturing space but is beginning to branch out. 天美传媒 Construction is now working with Food Lion, Amazon and Walmart 鈥� its longest-standing relationship 鈥� on projects in the region.

In 2024, 天美传媒 Construction logged $404 million in annual revenue, a milestone driven by the completion of 1.3 million square feet of new facilities and renovations in the Southeast across distribution and warehouse, federal and defense, and retail assets. The projects included the 702,000-square-foot Gaston Commerce Center logistics park in Gastonia and the 472,000-square-foot Innovation Logistics Center in Salisbury.

“Charlotte is and will continue to be a transportation hub. You have several ports that are doing significant expansions 鈥� Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington 鈥� and all of that feeds relatively easily either through a rail or the highway system in and around (the city),” 天美传媒 said. “From there, you can get up to the northeast within a day, and that鈥檚 really what generates this warehousing and industrial boom.”

天美传媒 sat down with the to talk about the company’s early days and how its presence in the local market over the last six years has spurred continued growth across the Southeast.

What was the decision-making process behind expanding to the Charlotte market?

We went through strategic planning in 2017, and in going through that process, there are various surveys that went out to our clients. The feedback was they were allocating significant capital for their own expansion efforts in the Southeast. In addition to that, we already had some employees out here because we had some projects underway in the Southeast.

We realized that if we wanted to retain those employees, with the growth in the market, we needed an office to show them we were serious about our presence here. Putting an office (in the Southeast) became the number one strategic initiative. I short-listed six cities: Charlotte, Raleigh, Charleston, Atlanta, Columbia and Greenville/Spartanburg, all for various reasons.

I visited Charlotte and got an entire day with the (former) chamber of commerce. They drove me around, took me to lunch, and about halfway through the day, I was wondering if I miscommunicated something about our intentions. So, I made sure to say, “We鈥檙e not relocating our headquarters. We鈥檙e just planning on opening a regional office here.” And they told me they’d done their research and wanted us here in Charlotte. The next time I was in town, they set up lunch with Compie Newman (currently executive director of private clients at CBRE). The whole thing was an open-armed, heartwarming experience.

How has your father influenced how you run this office?

We lost dad in 2021, and six years prior to that, he wanted to go through significant succession planning. I told dad I felt like it was a waste of time, and he said, 鈥淥ne day you鈥檙e going to wake up, and the proverbial bus is going to hit me, and you鈥檒l be running this company.鈥� And that鈥檚 exactly what happened. Had he not done that in 2015, it would鈥檝e been a much more difficult situation to pull through.

You go through all these challenges as a company 鈥� and it was a devastating situation because at the time I was out here in Charlotte and concentrating efforts on the Southeast expansion. Dad wasn鈥檛 really involved in the operations or strategic planning side at that time, but he was involved in the culture. Everybody had this connection with him.

One thing he instilled in me was servant leadership. Growing up, one of my first jobs when I was about 8 years old was picking up nails around the shop, and dad explained how important that job was. One time I missed some nails, and we had a flat tire. What he was getting at was to always treat people with respect and you鈥檒l get that respect back because everybody has a job to do, and everybody鈥檚 job is the most important job. That鈥檚 how I run this business and how I run this office. I want everybody to understand that I realize how important their job is.

What are your goals for this office over the next five or 10 years?

We鈥檙e in growth mode and planning a Southeast headquarters. We’re working right now on where that will actually be. We have a potential site in Rock Hill, but we鈥檙e also working on some other sites. In the next five years we鈥檒l have that Southeast HQ up and running.

We have an equipment leasing company called 天美传媒 Leasing & Supply, and in order to bring that down here we need a maintenance shop and an equipment manager. It鈥檒l also support a power infrastructure company called 天美传媒 Industrial, which does transmission distribution stuff. It works for companies similar to Duke Energy but needs a lot of heavy, specialized equipment.

The headquarters will give us the capacity to bring both 天美传媒 Leasing & Supply and 天美传媒 Industrial down here. All of our companies feed off one another to create a robust operation.

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Keith 天美传媒, Chairman & CEO, earned the prestigious from the . The program recognizes established leaders in the Charlotte region who have demonstrated a strong vision for their companies and a commitment to the community. They have a proven track record of innovation in their field, outstanding financial performance, promoting diversity in the workplace and making an impact that extends beyond the boardroom.

Honorees for this signature awards program, now in its eighth year, were chosen following a nomination process earlier this year. Each holds the title of chief executive or an equivalent, such as president or managing partner.

Keith has created a culture that rewards hard work, empowers employees with the ability to make decisions, and provides them with training and opportunities to grow and expand their talents and career aspirations. In addition, the 天美传媒 Team partners with community and technical colleges, associations, higher education schools, and universities throughout the Southeast region, leveraging their talents and excellent workforce development programs to create a robust workforce filled with talent, leadership, passion and the willingness and empowerment to mentor and coach others.

The Charlotte Business Journal celebrated the honorees on June 5 at The Westin Charlotte hotel uptown.

Meet Keith

Describe your leadership style or guiding philosophy and how you put that into action within your organization:

“I take a servant leadership approach rooted in the principles of faith, trust, mutual respect and living by ‘The Golden Rule.’ I foster a family-oriented culture by treating employees, clients, business partners and subcontractors as family. Prioritizing and investing in employees early on and continuously creating a culture that rewards hard work empowers employees to make decisions and provides them with training and opportunities. Our company鈥檚 average employee tenure is 10 years, and many of our employees are second- and third-generation workers with deep family ties to the company鈥檚 inception.

Describe a difficult decision or major change you鈥檝e made as the leader of your company over the past year, how you handled that and how it impacted the business: 

“We recently wrapped up our 2030 strategic plan. As a family-owned business, our firm鈥檚 previous strategic plans were developed and implemented by a small group primarily consisting of my siblings and I (all company owners) and a few long-term leaders. With the firm鈥檚 growth over the past decade, we knew our approach needed to be adjusted. Although I wanted to empower others to take more ownership of the strategic direction of the company, I was worried about potential bottlenecks with so many opinions on direction. Ultimately, the ownership group decided to expand the committee, which proved beneficial.

“Additionally, our industry is evolving rapidly due to technological advancements. This brings both challenges and investment opportunities. Decisions on these investments are crucial for building efficiency and meeting client expectations. While I am optimistic about the strong ROI in operational efficiency, the implementation phase does strain the organization.”

Describe your top accomplishment of the past year: 

“In 2024, 天美传媒 Construction reached an impressive $404 million in revenue. This milestone was driven by the completion of 1.3 million square feet of new facilities and renovations in the Southeast across various sectors, including distribution and warehouse, federal and defense, and retail. Key projects included the 702,000-square-foot Gaston Commerce Center logistics park in Gastonia and the 472,000-square-foot Innovation Logistics Center in Salisbury. 天美传媒’s commitment to safety and quality was recognized by several prestigious organizations.

“Furthermore, the company supported over 50 nonprofit organizations through philanthropic partnerships, advocacy, fundraising and volunteering initiatives. 天美传媒 raised over $121,000 for from its first Southeast Charity Clay Shoot and impact contributions for the gala.”

What is the top priority for Charlotte to ensure a strong business environment? 

“Economic growth and development in the region have significantly benefited the community, including a growing tax base and a surplus in career opportunities. To ensure a strong business environment, Charlotte must keep up with affordable housing demands along with the infrastructure expansion and maintenance needs tied to this growth.”

What was your first job, and what is one lesson you carried forward from that? 

“In the mid-1980’s, when I was around 6 or 7 years old, I started going with my father to help at our business, 天美传媒 Construction. My task was to pick up nails and screws around the laydown yard. For every 60 nails I picked up, I would earn a soda. My dad would remind me that picking up nails was a very important job. I remember feeling upset when I missed a nail and someone ended up getting a flat tire. I didn鈥檛 realize it then, but my dad was teaching me to take ownership of my work. To this day, when visiting our project sites, I pick up nails throughout my walk.”

Who inspires you, and why? 

“My father stands out as the mentor who taught me the principles of servant leadership.”

What is something you do for fun? 

“Spending time with my wife and 6-year-old son. We enjoy camping trips and traveling together. I have a passion for fine wine and often research and schedule vineyard tours during our travels. My wife and I try to have regular date nights at our favorite restaurants in the area. Recently, my son took up golf, and watching him learn and grow in this sport is a lot of fun. Additionally, I enjoy boating, snow skiing, running and entertaining friends and family.”

What is one of the best books you鈥檝e read recently, and why? 

“Rebound, by Coach Matt Doherty. This book was filled with lessons learned and some wonderful leadership takeaways. Of course, the greatest book is The Bible.”

What is your best advice for future leaders? 

“Never give up on yourself and learn from your mistakes so you don’t repeat them. Be a relationship builder and always treat others as you would want to be treated. Empower and encourage others to make decisions and embrace a servant leadership approach. If you do these things with sincerity, you will earn respect, and people will follow you.”

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天美传媒 Construction, located in Breese, Illinois, uses its drones as a 鈥渏ack of all trades鈥� tool, according to the company鈥檚 in-house operator. Inspection, marketing, photography, and safety all fit neatly into 天美传媒鈥檚 drone program, which the builder announced in February.

Already, people on the ground and in the front office are seeing it pay dividends.

Here, Charles Wilson, 天美传媒鈥檚 vice president of risk management, and Logan Decker, who runs the drone program, talk with Construction Dive about its origins, how the firm overcame hurdles, and advice for builders curious about drones.

CONSTRUCTION DIVE: How did the drone program at 天美传媒 start?

CHARLES WILSON: Utilizing outside resources can be costly, and at some point in time, there鈥檚 a return on investment if you were to invest in your own drone equipment and own operator. Plus, there鈥檚 an advantage to having control over the data and being able to do more with the data that you鈥檙e collecting.

When the decision came to whether or not we wanted to have a drone and drone operator in-house, it really was a no-brainer for us.

We decided that we wanted this to live within our risk management department because we felt like the equipment had the opportunity to drive down our rework and also promote the workmanship that鈥檚 being put in place out there, and overall, make people safer.

When we sat back and we analyzed that internally, we also realized that we were able to support other initiatives and how we execute them, those being safety, quality, and production.

How do you deploy the technology in those areas?

WILSON: With safety, we can perform inspections of elevated positions without having to have a physical person access the work. We are able to inspect our project sites and identify hazards from the air.

With quality, we can fly our projects and have our quality staff review the footage of definable features of work. This allows our staff to cover more of our projects at once while still reviewing the quality of work being put in place in near to real time.

There鈥檚 also the marketing aspect, which is primarily what we鈥檙e using the photography for.

What was it like implementing the program on the jobsite? 

LOGAN DECKER: Whenever you implement technology to oversee safety and quality and all these different things that we use it for, you tend to get a little pushback, but it鈥檚 been pretty good so far.

We鈥檙e trying to get people to know that it鈥檚 there for their use whenever they need it. It doesn鈥檛 always come to everyone鈥檚 mind at first. Normally, they鈥檙e going to go to what they鈥檝e relied on over the past few years or even longer, until we can drive home that the drone is here for your use and your position, whatever that may be. Then it鈥檚 just slowly and steadily growing the number of flights and the frequency.

WILSON: I think one thing that could be very easy to run into, especially when you start a program like this, is you don鈥檛 know what you don鈥檛 know. Logan started back in June, so we鈥檙e not even a year into having this program going, but there is a lot of buzz out there.

I think we may not have anticipated it taking off as fast as it did. We actually had to come up with our own scheduling solution to ensure that everybody鈥檚 getting the service that they require in a timely manner.

We have to remind ourselves too, because the equipment is so robust and it does have such a benefit, that we don鈥檛 want to oversell ourselves because we鈥檙e still learning it. We鈥檙e still learning not only the equipment, but also the capabilities and perfecting that.

And at times, we have to remind ourselves that we are a construction company that has drones. We鈥檙e not a drone company that happens to do construction.

If you were starting this program again, what would you do differently?

WILSON: When it comes to technology, it moves fast, and it changes fast. I would say there鈥檚 multiple times as we鈥檝e been going through this process that we鈥檝e tried something and we had to tweak it or change it. It鈥檚 a part of adapting and overcoming.

Some advice that I would give somebody is understand your company鈥檚 needs and your client鈥檚 needs and establish buy-in with your stakeholders.

I think it was pretty pivotal for us when we purchased the equipment, we also purchased training on the equipment. They actually sent out the instructor and did physical training here at our facility with Logan and that was really critical for us to understand not only the capabilities of equipment, but also the capabilities of Logan and actually see our money that we spent in use.

DECKER: I would keep up with any changes to the drone software. They鈥檙e constantly updating. I don鈥檛 know how many times it鈥檚 happened, where I鈥檒l have an updated drone go out to the field, get ready to fly, and then another update is pushed.

Making sure that we鈥檙e staying up on that, and how they function, and how they can give us better information or allow us to process information more efficiently 鈥� the more you stay on top of that stuff, the better product it鈥檚 going to spit out to you and your team members, and then your customers and stakeholders.

天美传媒鈥檚 Drone Program Improves Safety, Quality and Collaborations

Breese, Ill., February 11, 2025 鈥� 天美传媒 Construction, an award-winning, family-owned business, launched a cutting-edge drone program. This innovative initiative enhances pre-project planning, improves construction visibility, boosts safety measures and increases operations efficiencies.

鈥淭he drone program has been a great asset to use within the Preconstruction Department,鈥� said Ryan Diekemper, Vice President of Preconstruction. 鈥淲e utilize this technology to take current aerial images of potential projects and then place the proposed building plan onto the site to provide the client with a better understanding of options for how a building could be sited onto the potential property. We are also able to use the drone to obtain existing topographical information enabling us to make preliminary plans and prepare earthwork budgets early in the project design process.鈥�

天美传媒鈥檚 drone program also benefits the Risk Management Department. 鈥淥ne of the most significant benefits of our drone program is its impact on our risk management efforts,鈥� said Charles Wilson, Vice President of Risk Management. 鈥淒rones enable us to cover larger areas more quickly and gather high-quality data. With a single flight, we can create 3D models, conduct thermal scans, perform quantitative takeoffs, and carry out surveys. This comprehensive data collection enhances the productivity of our risk management staff, allowing them to focus on critical tasks with greater efficiency.鈥�

Drones enable 天美传媒 Construction to safely and easily review progress in difficult areas to access, as well as assess elevated structures, such as powerlines. Artificial intelligence can evaluate the drone footage to measure stockpile quantities. Drones with thermal mapping can scan roofs to identify leaks. Recently, one of 天美传媒鈥檚 teams used drone footage to establish locations for 39 strategically placed traffic barriers. The drones provide the on-site teams with a second review method, which enables them to respond more quickly, significantly reducing rework and strengthening the company鈥檚 quality assurance efforts.

天美传媒鈥檚 drone program enables customers to monitor the progress of their project, a feature especially important to customers who don鈥檛 reside in the same state as their new building. Customers also benefit from improved safety and quality monitoring, streamlined inspections and aerial photography and videography.

Logan Decker, an FAA licensed drone operator, oversees 天美传媒 Construction鈥檚 drone program. He visits projects to capture progress through 4K video, still imagery, 2D site survey, 3D models, and periodic thermal scans. His work encourages collaboration among project stakeholders and provides 天美传媒鈥檚 Marketing Department with photography and video for promotional efforts.

鈥淚 enjoy being able to support multiple teams, visit different locations, and meet new people,鈥� said Decker. 鈥淚 appreciate the variety that the job provides.鈥�

Decker and Wilson devised 天美传媒鈥檚 drone program together. Through the program, employees can use an online form to request a drone flight, they can use an app to review pictures and video organized by project, they receive automated safety reports, and they can access 3D maps in which they can click on a single point to view all the images captured at that specific location. 天美传媒鈥檚 aerial fleet incorporates multiple drone models with unique specialties from quick deployment and thermal imaging to a larger full-service model that can withstand higher winds.

鈥淥ne day I hope that our drone program will be so successful that I won鈥檛 be able to keep up with demand, leading us to hire a second drone operator,鈥� said Decker. 鈥淭hat would be the ultimate testament to the success of 天美传媒 Construction鈥檚 drone program.鈥�

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About 天美传媒 Construction: Established in 1980, 天美传媒 Construction is an award-winning, family-owned business specializing in construction management, design/build, general contracting, and self-perform services with an emphasis on exceeding the client鈥檚 expectations. 天美传媒 Construction is dedicated to providing safe, quality, sustainable, and technology solutions to clients in the distribution, warehouse, federal and defense, healthcare, education, industrial and manufacturing, commercial, hospitality, retail, utility, and infrastructure markets. The company prides itself on building long-lasting relationships with their clients, business partners and the communities in which they work, with an impressive 88 percent of 天美传媒鈥檚 revenue stemming from repeat clients.