After Hurricane Florence struck the Cape Fear region last year, a general contractor with a new main office in downtown Wilmington was ready to roll to work on more than two dozen damaged schools in New Hanover County.
 
Monteith Construction Corp., which traces its roots to Canada but came to North Carolina in 1998, had already worked on New Hanover County Schools projects in the past, including Gregory’s renovations and Hoggard’s gymnasium, and was in the midst of more projects for the school system, including the new College Park Elementary School building on Oriole Drive off South College Road.
 
“We have a relationship with them, and we told them we’re here for them,” Bryan Thomas, president of Monteith, said about working with the school system. “That’s kinda what it’s all about for us.”
 
“We were able to mobilize our crews,” Thomas said, “and I think we helped with 28 school campuses” after the September storm caused water damage to hundreds of buildings in the Wilmington area, including schools.
 
Not long before Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, Monteith, led by owner John Monteith, was showcasing its new headquarters in a historical building in downtown Wilmington.
 
In June, the Wilmington-based construction firm moved into the more than 7,000-square-foot building at 208 Princess St. The company, which also has offices in Raleigh, Myrtle Beach and Charleston, South Carolina, had outgrown its office of more than a decade at 32 N. Front St.
 
“We polled everybody in the company, and everybody loved being downtown,” said Thomas, who worked his way up to the role of president after joining Monteith in 1999.
 
The previous downtown Wilmington office had about half the space, 3,400 square feet, and was bought by a financial firm in 2017.
 
Before Monteith’s more-than-$1 million purchase of the circa 1914 former Knights of Pythias building, it was being renovated for an events center and retail space, but eventually went back on the market.
 
The three-story building contains Monteith’s main office room, conference rooms, accounting department and its 3-D virtual construction laboratory.
 
The building also holds space for the company’s project managers and project coordinators as well as Monteith’s preconstruction, human resources and hard-bid estimating departments.
 
Thomas said one of the highlights of the renovation project is the rooftop deck, which has postcard-like views of Wilmington.
 
In addition to overhauling its own office space and being involved in school construction and renovation, Monteith has done work for New Hanover Regional Medical Center and Wilmington International Airport, among many other local projects.
 
After opening its first U.S. office in the Charlotte area in 1998, Monteith was awarded the bid to renovate the main terminal of ILM in 2001(It’s working on the airport’s current expansion project as well). With that project, the firm began to plant its roots here, a model it replicated in Raleigh and recently in Myrtle Beach and Charleston. The company opened its first Wilmington office in 2005.
 
“We move as the opportunities present themselves. As a smaller company, we have the flexibility,” John Monteith said in a 2011 Greater Wilmington Business Journal story about the company’s growth.
 
Thomas said the company is licensed to work on projects in North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as Virginia, a state that’s anticipated to be a source of future growth.
 
But construction isn’t all the company focuses on. In addition to partnerships with local organizations, the company also sponsors Camp Schreiber, a weeklong summer camp in Canada for male youths from Wilmington. The camp, according to Monteith’s website, highlights teamwork, character building, educational goals and leadership through activities. Along with the week at camp, Camp Schreiber also provides tutoring and extracurricular activities during the year.
 
The main goal, according to the website, “is to motivate and reward deserving teens who are pursuing their dream of higher education.”
 
In a message to employees, John Monteith has said, “One highlight of my life has been Camp Schreiber.”
 
Other than information on the firm’s website, the company rarely touts its connection to Camp Schreiber. But its community outreach shows itself physically in the new Wilmington office, where the company has incorporated pieces made by Kids Making It, a nonprofit program that trains at-risk children in the art of woodworking.
 
The company also designed its new office expecting to stay there for a while.
 
Thomas said, “We did build it with room to grow.”