Creative Builders receives 2024 Philanthropic Spirit Award

Building Community

The Creative Builders Inc. family makes giving back part of its bottom line

You would expect to find words like “building” and “developing” among the core values of Creative Builders Inc. (CBI), recipient of the Philanthropic Spirit Award.

For 50 years, the general contractors have been building and developing financial, medical, multifamily and student housing, restaurant, light industrial, and other commercial projects in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. Locally, the quality of CBI’s work is evident in the Elliott Davis building, South Ridge, Furman University’s North Village, and the current renovation and expansion of Neighborhood Cancer Connection (formerly the Cancer Society of Greenville County).

But William H. McCauley III has slightly different meanings of “building” and “development” in mind. To CBI’s president, building lasting relationships is as important as constructing any corporate campus, and developing successful employees has as much value as any multi-use commercial development.

“Every company has the revenue side, the financial responsibility side, and the operational side,” says McCauley. “What most companies really fail to work on is the development of its people.” This commitment to personal relationships may be part of the reason the company has been named one of South Carolina’s Top Workplaces every year since 2017.

“A lot of it has nothing to do with me,” says McCauley, who took over CBI after graduating from Clemson University in 1993. “We’ve got individuals who have been with us for over 30 years. I’m just blessed to be in a place of stewardship of the company, and we want to support those who helped us get where we are and give back.”

Focusing on what McCauley calls “the ministry component,” the company has found many ways of giving back. CBI’s portfolio boasts more than 60 affordable multifamily and senior living developments, including the current Gateway at the Green workforce housing project, the Renaissance Place senior living community, and the Preserve at Logan Park, built on the site of the demolished Scott Towers public housing complex. And the list of local organizations, causes, and projects the builders have supported with time, talent, materials, and funding stretches into the dozens.

Currently, McCauley says CBI is “pretty all-in” on the $4.5 million renovation of the Neighborhood Cancer Connection, which broke ground last year near Prisma Health’s Greenville Memorial Hospital campus.

“Everybody’s really excited about the new facilities,” says McCauley, who has served on the organization’s board. “They’ll be providing services to cancer patients in our community who don’t have the financial wherewithal to get them somewhere else.”

Another cause near to McCauley’s heart is the SEAL Future Foundation, which provides wellness, education, and career support to veterans. “They perform at such a high level,” says McCauley, “and then to integrate back into society is really difficult for them.”

The Community Foundation of Greenville and Habitat for Humanity of Greenville County also frequently benefit from CBI’s support. And the company recently contributed a sizable donation to Upstate nonprofit Touched by ALS—a fitting tribute to CBI’s founder, McCauley’s father, William H. McCauley II, who died of the disease in 2012.

“It does make me extremely proud that we’re a company that’s focused on a bigger picture and not just the bottom line,” says the younger McCauley. “It’s a blessing to be in a place where we can pass the blessings forward.”