Building A Dream

Pritchett & Co. offer homeowners one-stop shop, sell, build and design services

Story by Hollie Deese
Photography by Reeves Smith

JD Pritchett grew up in Franklin, moving to the area as a little boy. His father and grandfather were both builders, but while home renovation is in his blood he was drawn more to the sales and management side than the actual construction.

“I never saw myself going down that path,” he says.

Licensed as a Realtor — now with Compass — he kept running into situations where his clients would ask for a good contractor to help with any renovations that needed to be done. But he realized no matter how amazing the property, big projects made them nervous or even scared them off completely. Not knowing the extent of work it would take to get the space the way they wanted made it difficult to know whether it was worth the investment.

When he and designer Kelly Lord were helping an actor from LA visualize updates to a home in Belle Meade, Pritchett realized he needed to offer contracting services himself, along with sales and design.

“In that moment I said I’ve got to do this,” he says. “We’ve got to find a way for our clients to have a one-stop shop with us. We just started initially offering it to clients, whatever their needs were. Now we do anything that needs to happen.”

The homeowners first fell in love with the view at 505, but they wanted to change the finishes and upgrade the style of the actual space to their liking. They also were remote and didn’t want to deal with a lot of different people, so Pritchett & Co.’s collective approach was just what they needed.

“The benefit of us working as a team is that he and I communicate really well together,” Lord says. “We’re both very detail-oriented, and you don’t find that with a lot of contractors — communicating so much with the designer on every little detail. I think that makes us unique.”

Lucas Smith joined Pritchett as a partner at Pritchett & Co. this year, too. An Auburn grad with a building science degree, he brings an expertise honed over years with Francis Bryant Construction in Birmingham that complements Lord’s designs and Pritchett’s project management.

“I always had an affinity for working with my hands and creating stuff, so that was probably the initial draw to construction,” Smith says. “I’m able to help people design a vision, and implement their vision, by utilizing my experience in the high-end custom world to get them where they need to be. And JD’s ability to direct people towards items that are sensible and that they’ll be able to recoup their investment on is very valuable.”

The result is a tight-knit group who make the entire process of making a dream home — a dream.

“I just think it’s a well-rounded team,” Pritchett says. “We can help with the knowledge of what is going to be valuable to the projects, what matters for potential resale in the future. If they’re putting $100,000 into this project, they need to know what they can sell it for when they’re done.”