How Did You Do That?

James Phelps thought about starting his own business for a long time. He turned the idea over and over in his mind while: learning about the trades at Milwaukee Tech, working in the Milwaukee Public School district's facilities department, rehabbing houses on the side, getting his undergraduate degree in finance and finishing a commercial real estate certificate program. One evening, sitting with his two brothers on the stoop of a property they were renovating, the plan for that business finally began to take shape. It was early 2008, the U.S. was deep into the Great Recession, and the workload was thinning out at the construction firm where two of them worked. James understood project management, Jalin understood construction and Clifton knew administration. By the end of that year JCP Construction was born. JCP Construction now has 35 employees and has either managed or worked on some of the city’s highest-profile projects, including the Bader Philanthropies headquarters,