HAVEN:
INTERVIEW WITH TIM AND BRANDEN MCDONALD CENTRIC GENERAL CONTRACTORS
12 September 2024
I met Tim McDonald through The Gold Collective a few years back and immediately liked him. His humble, steady, and kind demeanor put me at ease as we sat and had coffee. Little did I know at the time, because of his humility, the grandness of his success. He and his son Branden have built their business, Centric, on a firm footing of foundational principles, putting people and relationships first. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit with Tim and Branden over lunch in beautiful St Helena… sitting for hours, we explored the importance of trust, balance, and finding your people. I hope you enjoy getting to know them a bit below."
Centric General Contractors is one of the most respected builders in the California Wine Country, with 60 employees and work that spans a range of scales and project types. Historically, their work has leaned toward luxury residences, but increasingly their projects have shifted to commercial work – largely wineries and luxury hotel properties. Relationships form the foundation of their work and, regardless of project type, this father-son team pursues work based upon the client and team, and based on the belief that at the end of the day the process is as important as the product.
This is a home-grown company with deep roots – a product of four generations in the Napa Valley. The result is a company defined by the deeply collaborative relationships that make for success in this industry. Since its founding in 2005, Centric has averaged an annual growth rate of nearly 20%, as the firm has been able to take on new and larger projects – a trend they expect to continue.
Tim has spent a lifetime in construction, founding his first construction company right out of college, before selling and assuming a management role. Not long after, he followed his entrepreneurial spirit again and started Centric General Contractors.
Born and raised in St. Helena, Branden comes to the business from a background in film and television. He started with the company working weekends and summers while in school. After seven years in Los Angeles, he moved back to Northern California in 2011 to join Centric General Contractors full time.
We are conductors in the symphony of construction."
MQ: As a father-son team, you have something very special. How do you navigate the internal relationships of a family-run business?
Tim: There are a lot of stories of families who work together. When I made the offer to Branden to join the business, I took it seriously, studied it a lot and structured it to make sure it would work, and it has. There is nothing better than knowing that this person has your back, both in business and in life.
Branden: I knew that if I was interested in joining, I would need to earn it from the bottom up, and that’s what I did. Essentially, I started in the mail room.
MQ: You are lucky to have each other. How do you maintain the level of construction integrity necessary for this caliber of work?
Tim: We maintain high hiring standards. It is the basis for everything, and enables us to perform at the level we do with consistency.
Branden: We consistently strive to find the right solution for each project, and we rely on a trusted group of professionals to do that. We’ve built a tight community who we are nothing without. It’s 100% relationship based.
MQ: Trust is foundational to the success of our work and the relationships we’re building with our clients. How else do you maintain your high standards?
Tim: We focus on the long term when making business decisions. When something goes wrong on a project, if it’s a gray area, we take care of it without question. Our goal is for our clients to write what I call, “happy checks.”
MQ: That’s an inspiring perspective. How else do you engender trust with your clients?
Tim: We start here in the office, building trust and loyalty from the inside out. We prioritize long-term relationships, hiring people for careers, not for special projects. We also structure bonuses to incentivize employees building strong relationships with our clients first and foremost. A profitable project, without a happy client, is not a success.
Branden: We spend a lot of time trying to help our team see the big picture. We encourage them to step back, so they understand how each piece contributes to our ability to reach our goals. Essentially, our company values reflect Tim’s moral code.
MQ: Other foundational principles?
Tim: Transparency and honesty are the big ones.
MQ: What defines success for you?
Tim: We have clients that are on their third or fourth project with us. That is what success looks like to us.
Branden: Here’s a great example. A couple, who had worked with Tim to build their home, barely escaped the 2017 Atlas Fire, and their home was destroyed. One of the very first calls they made, as they were fleeing their beloved home, was to Tim, asking him if they could be first in line to rebuild.
MQ: How do you forge that kind of trusting relationship with your clients? And your teams?
Branden: We meet over wine and talk about any issues. We keep in mind that our goal is service.
Tim: In our business, there is risk. There are always hiccups. It’s how you handle them that determines the outcome. Those who are in it for the long-term recognize that, and you get through any issues together. The best teams are those who choose to trust.
Branden: Once you establish trust, efficiency goes through the roof, it really does. Our new tagline, “Trust Builds,” is a reflection of that.
We consistently strive to find the right solution for each project, and we rely on a trusted group of professionals to do that. We’ve built a tight community who we are nothing without. It’s 100% relationship based."
MQ: You are so busy with work across residential, winery, hospitality and commercial sectors. What do all of your projects have in common?
Branden: What all of our work has in common is that it is resident or guest-facing, with a high level of design. For example, we’re working with Olson Kundig on a new Six Senses hotel, which is high-end hospitality. It is driven by brand standards and budget, but most importantly, by guest experience. It’s imperative to know how to apply the budget where it matters for the best outcome so that owner and operator standards are met without sacrificing the final design and ultimately, the user experience. It’s a complex effort, whether a high-end hotel or residence.
MQ: What we do is so complex. It’s new every time: a different site, different timing, different conditions, different clients. How do you navigate this?
Branden: We build each team to fit the needs, goals and personality of the client. Internally, we play to our team’s strengths by pairing complementary skills with project deliverables.
Tim: The key is balance. It’s like a three-legged stool. The client, the design, and the construction are all equal parts in the effort. If one isn’t showing up, it topples.
MQ: What are your long-term goals?
Tim: We’re in a growth phase that we expect to continue. As we grow, it’s important that we maintain the right mix of projects, working on a range of scales. While we’re working on bigger projects than ever before, we still love the small ones.
MQ: If there is one thing you would love for people to take away from our conversation, what would it be?
Branden: Let’s remember that, at the core, we are a service industry. That outlook colors everything we do. Our primary goal is for our clients to have a good experience.
Tim: Our message is mostly about trust and integrity, and the importance in this industry of building relationships. To us, success lies in our ability to build and maintain those relationships for the long term. In the end, if we don’t do it correctly, it’s not worth doing.
