A well-known former Chattanooga trucking executive has joined with a longtime real estate developer to start a new homebuilding company in the city.
Eric Fuller, former chief executive of U.S. Xpress, and developer Marcus Lyons started LFG Homes, with their first project underway and two more in the pipeline.
Work already has begun at the Rogers Branch development, where they'll put up 113 single-family homes and townhouses in Ooltewah, Lyons said.
He said by phone the 276-acre site is at Ooltewah-Georgetown and Raydoe roads near Cambridge Square, with the first homes in the $30 million project slated to be ready in the last half of the year.
"The Ooltewah area is one of the most sought after submarkets in the county," Lyons said.
Fuller headed the Chattanooga trucking and logistics company for six years before it was purchased by Knight-Swift Holdings for $808 million last year.
(READ MORE: Knight-Swift to buy U.S. Xpress)
He left the company co-founded by his father, Max Fuller, and joined the nonprofit The Company Lab as executive in residence before collaborating with Lyons.
Fuller said he and Lyons started talking last fall, and they formed LFG Homes early this year.
"He (Lyons) had been thinking about starting a homebuilding company to keep up with demand that would be both the developer and homebuilder focusing on managing most aspects of taking a property from raw land to a fully built and developed community," he said in a statement. "Marcus is one of the sharpest real estate minds that I've met, and he is great at envisioning what a piece of raw land can become."
Fuller said his background is operations, so he has learned everything he could about homebuilding and development.
"Operations at its core is a set of processes and work flow that is executed by a team with the knowledge and experience to execute the job, and then it's management's job to ensure that there is accountability to ensure that each step is followed to the specific expectations," he said, adding that's true regardless of the industry.
Lyons said his Lyons Group development company had grown a lot over the last 10 years and that occurred with a small team.
"In this time we have grown to over $100 million in stabilized real estate assets with another $100 million under development and have built a business with good properties that hold good reputations," he said.
(READ MORE: Apartments planned near Hixson Pike)
But, Lyons said, he knew in order to take Lyons Group to the next level, he needed help building a larger team and managing people, so it was time for a true CEO.
"We have always been good stewards of our investors capital, but we knew we could grow bigger, faster and in different areas with the right team," he said.
Lyons said he and Fuller knew each other from their children's school and the former trucking company CEO is passionate about building teams, managing investors and the day-to-day operation of a business such as building homes and developments.
"We came together to start LFG because we had similar vision and drive, along with knowing that timing was right for a company like we envision," Lyons said. "We talk all the time about how complimentary our skill sets are and how division of labor is simple when you both can easily identify both your strengths and your weaknesses."
Last month, Fuller said, the company broke ground on Rogers Branch, which will hold 65 homes and 48 townhouses priced in the mid- to upper-$300,000 to mid-$400,000 range.
He said two other properties are under the company's control that will likely make up its next developments. One is in North Chattanooga in the Lupton City area and another potential project in Collegedale, Fuller said.
The Lupton City area project involves 47 acres and is designed as a luxury home community with connectivity to a future greenway and availability to Lupton Drive and Access Road, according to the company.
"With these developments, we currently have around 400 homes over the next couple of years in addition to the current projects in the Lyons Group pipeline," Fuller said. "We are actively looking for new land opportunities for subsequent communities and will be launching a fund over the summer to drive our growth."
Fuller said he and Lyons complement each other.
"We each have the areas that we enjoy and excel at, and there's not a lot of overlap," he said. "Each of us brings a specific and unique skill set to the company. We have hired a strong team with extensive experience in the industry that is excited about starting something from scratch and doing it the right way from day one."
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.