Danny Meyer could have lived anywhere when he moved to the United States in 1992. Meyer called his American friend and asked for a good place to raise a family and start a business. The friend's response?
"He said to move to Henrico County," Meyer said.
That's exactly what the South African native did.
"My friend advised me that the best school system was in Henrico County," Meyer said. "I had a 5-year-old daughter, and he said the place you want to be is Henrico County."
Five years later, Meyer, along with friend Rich Robertson, founded Dallan Construction, Inc. At first, the two handled every aspect of the company's operations. Now, Dallan's payroll consists of 20 employees.
"Our core business is tenant improvement work, and that is either first or second generation build out space in an office," said Meyer, president of Dallan. "When the office is being built, we'll come in and do the build out, or if a company that already occupies a space moves out and a new company comes in, we will remodel it."
Dallan's projects include Parham Place II (a 30,000-square-foot office complex), World Access (located in Innsbrook), Schrader Road Office Condos and many other tenant improvement projects.
Meyer believes that Dallan brings a unique dynamic to their business relations.
"Both myself and my partner come from the other side of the fence where we were the client, and we have seen how general contractors have responded to the client," Meyer said.
This experience has allowed Meyer to gain an understanding of how successfully interact with clients.
"Mostly, there was an 'us vs. them' situation, and we didn't like it. We preferred the team approach," said Meyer of his experience with contractors before starting Dallan. "We felt that we needed to work with the client and with the architect instead of against them."
Apparently the clients have started to catch on. Dallan has placed on the Richmond Times Dispatch's Rising 25 (the area's fastest-growing small businesses) list each of the past four years, finishing first in 2003 and second in 2004. Meyer is quick to credit the community's support for Dallan's success.
"Here I've come from another country, and people tell me 'unless you're from this part of the world, you're going to struggle.' I was in Henrico when I started my business and grew my business, and it's grown from the two of us to 20 on our staff," Meyer said. "The percentage of work coming out of Henrico to help us get to that is very high. I would say absolutely, Henrico is very friendly in helping a business get started."
