One of Chattanooga’s biggest companies has bought a building it erected nearly four decades ago with plans to transform the structure into its new headquarters in a multimillion-dollar renovation.
EMJ Corp. subsidiary Equitas Management Group has purchased One Park Place on Lee Highway for $5.5 million, according to the company.
EMJ is one of the nation’s largest builders, ranking No. 238 in the Engineering News-Record, a trade publication, top 400 contractors in the nation with more than $400 million in revenue last year.
Reggie Vachon, Equitas’ executive vice president, said plans are to relocate to EMJ’s new three-story home in early 2023. He said EMJ is shifting from CBL Center II near Hamilton Place mall, where it has been for many years.
“The exciting part of the acquisition of One Park Place is that it was the first office building EMJ built,” Vachon said in a telephone interview.
He said EMJ built the 57,000-square-foot structure in 1984 as the corporate headquarters for CBL Properties, the national shopping center developer and operator that also calls Chattanooga home. One Park Place was EMJ’s second location it occupied.
“In a sense, EMJ is going home,” Vachon said.
Jack Bowen, president and chief executive officer of EMJ Corp., said Chattanooga is where it all started for the company.
“We take a great deal of pride in constructing some of the Scenic City’s most iconic buildings and are pleased to return home,” he said in a statement.
EMJ has 230 employees, including 130 in Chattanooga, according to Deron Smith, the company’s executive vice president for marketing and communications. The company has about 100 people in Dallas, he said in an email.
Bowen, a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga graduate with more than two decades of construction experience, was named the company’s CEO last year after serving in a variety of roles with EMJ. He succeeded Burt Odom, who shifted to a new role as chairman of the board of directors.
Vachon said One Park Place was purchased from a company associated with Chattanooga businessman Emerson Russell.
He said EMJ Construction and Equitas will be the major tenants in the building.
Vachon said Odom was an estimator for EMJ at the time One Park Place was constructed, and former CEO Jay Jolley was a project manager for the company on that job. Jolley’s father, Edgar M. Jolley, founded the construction company in 1968.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.