(Photo of Derek Robbins by Greenville Headshots)

Derek Robbins was at lunch when his phone rang. The voice on the other end told him the general contractor had walked off the job of building the new Floor and Decor store on Rivers Avenue in North Charleston, and the Atlanta-based retailer needed someone else to take over construction. Robbins dropped his fork, headed directly to the site, and was ultimately hired to finish the project.

If there’s a singular moment that ignited the explosive growth of Robbins Construction Group, that phone call was it. The Floor and Decor in North Charleston, which opened in 2019, was the first of 17 stores (and counting) that Robbins has built for the specialty hard-surface flooring company. Along the way, Robbins Construction Group has evolved from a one-man startup to a commercial construction powerhouse with projects in several states throughout the Southeast.

“In one sense it feels like it’s been forever, but in the other it seems like it was just yesterday,” said Robbins, whose company celebrated its five-year anniversary in January. “A lot has happened in a short period of time. We feel like we have a solid foothold in the construction industry, and we feel like we’re a major player.”

Project by project

Robbins’ company was only months old when Floor and Decor hired him to finish the North Charleston store. Robbins, who has over 40 years of experience in the construction industry, started Robbins Construction Group with no staff, working the phones and taking on projects that were too small for the competition. Its 30 employees recently moved into a new 9,000-square-foot headquarters, and it was No. 3 on the list South Carolina’s 50 Fastest Growing Companies by Integrated Media Publishing.

Starting his own company “was always a goal of mine,” Robbins said. “And then being in Charleston and seeing the amount of growth, seeing the amount of opportunity, I just felt like it was the perfect time. I told my wife, ‘If I don't do this, I'll probably regret it the rest of my years.’ She said, ‘If you want to do it, I'll support you.’ So, I started in an office by myself, and I had a lot of contacts that gave me some help. So just through some generous acts of kindness, we started project by project.”

What’s allowed Robbins Construction Group to come so far, so quickly? Robbins employs a design-build approach in which architecture, engineering, and construction are all handled in-house, which typically results in lower costs and faster build times. It uses a cloud-based platform that allows clients to access real-time information on their projects. And it takes a client-centric approach — searching for ways to add value, keeping in mind potential future expansion, and making decisions that can help owners save money both in the present and in the future.

“What we say is, we do construction different,” Robbins said. “People dread having to build a building or renovate, because they know it's going to be painful. It’s like buying a used car — people dread buying a used car. And we try to take that pain out of the process. We are very communicative. We're an open book. We just tried to make it a seamless process as much as we can.”

The Southeast and beyond

Clearly, that approach has resonated with clients. Robbins’ list of recently completed projects include Floor and Decor locations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. It opened a second office in Greensboro, North Carolina, and has some mixed-use apartment and hotel projects coming up in the first quarter of 2025. And then there’s a project many Lowcountry residents are familiar with— the Park Circle redevelopment for the city of North Charleston, which includes the world’s largest inclusive playground.

The project consisted of demolishing the existing structures in Park Circle, and then constructing a new 16,600-square-foot community center, a farmer’s market pavilion, and the 55,000-square-foot playground — which contains elements that are able to be enjoyed by children regardless of any physical, mental, or emotional disabilities.

“That was the largest project for us at the time. We gave it the same treatment we give all our projects, and we gave them the same amount of attention,” Robbins said. “The city has come back and said, ‘We want to figure out how to partner with you on other projects.’ And so, we're working on some projects with them right now, because we were on schedule, we were under budget with them, and they just love our approach.”

Robbins’ project portfolio has also expanded to include automotive dealerships, industrial buildings, interior upfits, even an addition to the Le Creuset office in Charleston. And as the company grows, so does its geographic footprint. “We've also had the Floor and Decor team say, ‘We have projects in Arizona and Texas that we want you to participate in,’” Robbins said. “So, we're not afraid to travel.”