The Business of
CORNERSTONE CONSTRUCTION
Medicine
Building
A firm built on a solid reputation
Redefin
Shelters
of satisfied customers
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STORY BY SHANNON JAMES | PHOTOS BY SHANNON JAMES/ SUBMITTED PHOTOS
oaquin-based Cornerstone
Construction has left its imprint
across Shelby County for nearly two
decades.
The firm, which specializes in commercial
and residential buildings, was founded in
2002 by Luke Garret and incorporated in
2005.
Cornerstone Construction has been
offering construction services for 18 years.
While Garret sold Cornerstone in 2014,
the company has continued to thrive under
the ownership of Jeff Dean of Joaquin.
Jeff started working at Cornerstone as
supervisor in 2008 before purchasing the
firm and serving as president.
“I started out as supervisor,” says Jeff.
“Slowly, I started helping him oversee and
run the company until 2014, when he sold
out and I bought the company from him —
now I’m the new owner, or president you
might say, and have been since November of
2014.”
Jeff and his wife, Ashley Weeks Dean,
have two children, Dylan, 14, and Alaina, 8.
While Jeff is full-time owner and president
at Cornerstone Construction, Ashley is a
full-time stay-at-home mom and manages
her own home business specializing in
repurposed antiques, Southern Heritage
Design.
Being born and raised in Joaquin, Jeff
says he makes it one of his main priorities to
only order his materials and supplies locally
as a way to give back and invest in the
community. He says while there are plenty
of options for purchasing lumber and steel
online or outside of the county, Dean prefers
to keep his business within Shelby County.
“We use a bunch of subcontractors
around here to help us do a lot of these
projects. I try to use everybody local,”
says Jeff. “4C Electrical in Center -
Cornerstone Construction President and CEO Jeff Dean.
24 Business MATTERS | 2020 Spring Edition
Scooter Clark, he’s my main electrician.
I use Chrisco Bragg from Joaquin for
plumbing, Steel Building Supply in Center
is where I get the majority of my metal - and
Covington Lumber in Center for most of my
lumber and building materials.”
Doing business locally is just a good
practice, he says.
“There’s a lot of things I could do like
buying materials cheaper, buying them
online, getting shipments here, but I’d
rather buy from here,” Jeff says. “That’s just
what I like to do, that’s who I am, that’s what
I’ll always do.”
While he is a customer of Covington’s,
they are also a customer of his.
“I buy a lot of materials from Covington
and built them a large storage building last
year,” Jeff says. “I buy most of my steel from
Steel Building Supply and wound up making
them a new warehouse. You know, it all
comes back.”
Jeff has 14 employees working at
Cornerstone, divided into three crews; two
full-time metal crews and one full-time
carpentry crew. Dean says that he and his 14
employees stay booked and hardly ever wait
around for a project.
Cornerstone Construction is a licensed
contractor in the states of Texas and
Louisiana.
“We build mostly commercial and
residential steel buildings — everything
from buildings in your backyard to strip
malls,” he says. “Most of the strip malls
we’ve done are in the Dallas-Fort Worth
area.”
Fort Worth and Dallas residents may get
to see some of the craftsmanship produced
from Cornerstone, but almost everyday,
residents of Shelby County drive by a
finished Cornerstone Construction building.