The third generation to lead the general contracting firm started as a masonry firm in 1952 by his grandfather, bricklayer Lawrence Floyd Jennings, Jon Jennings oversees about 350 employees and a large portfolio of projects in the Richmond and Washington, D.C., regions.
Larry Jennings, L.F.’s son and Jon’s father, joined the company in 1965 and helped expand the business into general contracting. In the 1980s, the company made another business shift, building a backlog of large-scale private projects for commercial developers.
The firm now serves the mid-Atlantic region, with offices in Falls Church and Richmond, and counts among its clients Target, Whole Foods Market, Federal Realty and Trammell Crow. Its projects include retail properties in Western Henrico County, the adaptive reuse of Carytown Place in Richmond, and offices for First Potomac Realty Trust, Willco, Kastle Systems and Peterson Cos.
Coming from a long line of real estate developers, Kettler got his start in real estate in 1974, remodeling apartments while still a student at George Washington University. He left school to focus on work. Discovering a passion for community development, he founded real estate development company Kettler in 1977.
Founded in 1977, his company has developed more than 30,000 multifamily units, 10 million square feet of commercial space and more than 75,000 homes in 40 master-planned communities, as well as numerous mixed-use communities in the Washington, D.C., area.
While Kettler was still in his early 20s, Fairfax developer John “Til” Hazel Jr. advised him to buy up as much land in the county as he could — advice Kettler took seriously. His first big development was Sully Station in Centreville, a 3,000-home community. Over the years, Kettler has been involved with developing major Northern Virginia projects like Tysons Corner Center, The Boro and One Loudoun, as well as some developments in North Carolina.
Kettler entered the Tampa, Florida, market this year with the March groundbreaking of Gas Worx, a 50-acre mixed-use development in the Ybor City neighborhood.
A 25-year Dollar Tree veteran, Williams serves as senior vice president for the Fortune 500 discount retailer’s real estate portfolio, a position in which he leads Summit Pointe Realty, the entity developing Summit Pointe.
A downtown Chesapeake district being built around Dollar Tree’s 12-story corporate headquarters, Summit Pointe includes three apartment communities, restaurants, offices and public park space. Ultimately, it’s expected to encompass 1.75 million square feet of office and retail space and more than 1,400 apartments. In July, Venture X, a global coworking franchise, announced it is leasing 18,543 square feet in the 555 Belaire office tower in Summit Pointe.
Dollar Tree formed the Summit Pointe Realty subsidiary in 2015 after its $8.5 billion acquisition of North Carolina-based Family Dollar Stores.
Williams joined Dollar Tree in 1998 as vice president of portfolio management, a post he held until 2019 when he was promoted to senior vice president. He began his career as an accountant for KPMG in Norfolk after earning his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Old Dominion University.
Hallmark is lead developer of the $2.3 billion GreenCity development underway in Henrico County that plans to include a 17,000-seat arena billed as the nation’s greenest concert venue, as well as hotels, retail, office and residential space.
An architect, he moved to Virginia in 2018 from Los Angeles, where he designed the Crypto.com Arena, formerly the Staples Center, and founded the sports architecture division at Ellerbe Becket.
Hallmark was set to be lead developer for Capital City Partners’ Navy Hill project in downtown Richmond, which would have replaced the shuttered Richmond Coliseum. The $1.4 billion plan was ultimately voted down by City Council in early 2020. Hallmark and his business partner, Susan Eastridge, were also part of the team that proposed a second project downtown in 2021 — a new tower anchored by VCU Health System offices — but that, too, won’t be happening. VCU Health backed out of the deal earlier this year, paying $73 million to a third party to fulfill a bond debt.
Hallmark founded NBBJ Sports and Entertainment in 1995 and built retractable roof ballparks Safeco Field in Seattle and Miller Park in Milwaukee.
As the development partner to fashion and music superstar Pharrell Williams, MacMillan-Whitaker has achieved a significant level of prominence in Hampton Roads, but she’s no flash in the pan.
MacMillan-Whitaker has worked in the commercial retail industry since 1985, representing national retailers throughout the mid-Atlantic region. She also founded Commercial Real Estate Services, which merged with Ellis-Gibson Development Group in 2016 to form Venture Realty. The company has developed more than 6 million square feet of commercial projects in Hampton Roads, worth more than $600 million.
Currently, Venture Realty is partnering with Williams, who’s a Virginia Beach native, on Atlantic Park, a $335 million surf park development that broke ground in March at the city’s Oceanfront. Atlantic Park’s first phase is expected to open in summer 2025.
MacMillan-Whitaker helped organize Williams’ initial Something in the Water festival in 2019 in Virginia Beach. Venture is also partnering with Williams and California-based Oak View Group on a proposal to redevelop the former Military Circle Mall site in Norfolk into Wellness Circle, an arena-anchored mixed-use development. The project’s future remained uncertain as of early August, waiting on action from Norfolk city government.
Serving as CEO since 2016 and chairman since 2017, Bechtel is the fifth generation to lead his family-owned global engineering, construction and project management company. Ranked the nation’s second largest construction company by Engineering News-Record, Bechtel Corp. has completed more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries since its 1898 founding in San Francisco.
The firm’s portfolio includes massive infrastructure and industrial projects across the world. In November 2022, Bechtel Corp. was selected to design and build the first phase of Intel’s $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility near Columbus, Ohio. Other notable projects include the Ankara-Gerede highway in Turkey and Crossrail’s Elizabeth Line railway in England.
Brendan Bechtel, a Middlebury College and Stanford University graduate with business and engineering degrees, previously served as the company’s president and chief operating officer and was elected chairman at age 36. He sits on the board for the Business Roundtable and chairs its infrastructure committee. He is also a trustee for the National Geographic Society and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Gadams and his firm are known for their commercial and residential projects, but he has also led community-based projects like the restoration of the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts.
Gadams founded Marathon in 2000. He is also one of the founders of the YPO (formerly Young Presidents’ Organization) Virginia Chapter.
A Downtown Norfolk Council member, Marathon focuses on the historic restoration of landmark buildings. Notable projects the firm has repurposed into apartments in Norfolk include The Rockefeller (formerly the Union Mission building), Icon Norfolk (formerly the Bank of America building) and Savoy Apartments (formerly the Hotel Savoy).
An investor and member of the board of directors for ReAlta Life Sciences, a clinical-stage biotech company, Gadams also serves on boards for the Benedictine Schools of Richmond and the Slover Library Foundation. He volunteers for Saint Patrick Catholic School.
Gadams is a marathon runner who has competed in more than 25 races, including a 150-mile ultramarathon through the Sahara Desert. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from James Madison University.
Milkovich joined Rand, a privately owned, nationwide commercial general contractor specializing in retail and restaurant construction, tenant interiors and building renovations, in January 2019 as its CEO. He succeeded Linda Rabbitt, who founded the company more than three decades ago.
Before that, Milkovich served as CEO of First Potomac Realty Trust, where he led the real estate investment trust’s $1.4 billion sale to Government Properties Income Trust in 2017. He has worked more than 30 years in commercial real estate and was also president of Spaulding & Slye Investments and a regional director for Goldman Sachs.
Rand is one of the Washington, D.C., region’s largest general contractors and specializes in retail and restaurant construction, tenant interiors and building renovations. Among its biggest projects are the interior of Marriott International’s 785,000-square-foot headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, and Noblis’ headquarters in Reston. Headquartered in Alexandria, it also manages regional offices in Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; Austin, Texas; Denver; and Salt Lake City. Its sales total more than $400 million annually.
Milkovich received a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Maryland, which he attended on a football scholarship.
Lawson’s president and CEO since 2016, Hardee has been with the company for more than half of its 51 years. He oversees a 190-employee real estate development, construction and management company.
In June, Lawson held a grand opening for Market Heights, a 164-unit apartment community in Norfolk, and the company is near completion of 80 units at Miller’s Rest Apartments in Lynchburg. It also has large residential projects under development in Woodbridge, Roanoke and Richmond.
A Gulf War Army veteran, Hardee graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1987. He serves on TowneBank’s Portsmouth board, as well as Southeast Virginia Community Foundation’s board and Virginia Housing’s Rental Advisory Board.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: Life is more about giving than receiving. We are where we are in life because people in our past believed in us and gave us an opportunity — it is our responsibility to prepare the future generations to lead.
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Stephen Ballard
Gary Bowman
Lisa Chandler
George B. Clarke IV
Jon Jennings
T. Richard Litton Jr.
