Company name change is great party excuse!

Marty Gibbs, vice president and general manager of The Christman Company’s Knoxville and Chattanooga operations, left, with Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett at the party.

It’s actually been four years since The Christman Company, based in Lansing, Michigan, acquired Knoxville’s Rentenbach Constructors Inc. in a merger of the two privately-held firms. But Rentenbach had continued to operate its offices in Knoxville and Greensboro, North Carolina, under the Rentenbach name.

Until last month.

From now on, the company will operate under The Christman Company name. To celebrate that milestone, the company recently hosted a fun cocktail party in downtown Knoxville. It was a huge networking opportunity, as is often the case when people with mutual interests come together. The Standard event venue was filled with folks attached to the construction industry in some way. And politicians, of course. You could tell by the noise level that people had plenty to talk about.

The Old City Buskers played upbeat tunes from the rafters. Holly’s Eventful Dining provided victuals and drew rave reviews, particularly for the little crab cakes.

Marty Gibbs making a few remarks.

Marty Gibbs, the vice president and general manager of the Knoxville operations, which include Chattanooga, made brief remarks from the steps leading to the upstairs area where the band was playing, “The Christman purpose is to ‘unite great people in great achievement,’ ” he said, adding that the merger with the larger firm will provide the Knoxville operations with increased ability to pursue and deliver great construction projects throughout an eight-state southern region and beyond.

Rentenbach Constructors Inc. was founded in 1946 and supervised much of the war-time construction of the city of Oak Ridge, as well as the majority of the manufacturing facilities that housed the “Manhattan Project” for the United States Army Corp of Engineers.

The Christman Company is even older. Founded in 1894, it is one of the country’s leading professional construction services firms. It is employee-owned and has more than $800 million in annual construction revenue.

Now, about that party . . .(Disclosure: The Christman Company is a Moxley Carmichael client. All photos in this post are by Colby McLemore.)

From left, Cheryl McKenry of The Christman Company, Knox County Commissioner Evelyn Gill and Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero.

Architect Doug McCarty, left, of McCarty Holsaple McCarty, with Knoxville Vice Mayor Duane Grieve, also an architect.

Patrick Birmingham, left, the new vice president of philanthropy and government relations at Covenant Health, with Kelly Headden of BarberMcMurry Architects.

From left, Thomas Rooks, Jeff Cole and Frank Bills, all of The Christman Company.

Alan Carmichael and Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch.

Scott Mullens, left, with Larry Jones of Proffitt & Sons.

From left, Wes Stowers of Stowers Machinery; Tony Spezia, CEO Emeritus of Covenant Health; and Marty Gibbs.

Pamala and Joel Poteat. She’s a Realtor; he’s with UT-Battelle.

Former Knoxville Mayor and current City Councilman Dan Brown and his wife, Cathy.

Mary Flanary and Randy Merritt of The Christman Company.

Scott Bird, left, of Moxley Carmichael, with Mayor Madeline Rogero and Jacob Kulhanek of The Christman Company.

Cheryl McKenry, center, with Laura Wallace, left, and Jennifer Sheehan, both of Covenant Health.

An animated Wes Stowers, left, chats with Jeff Roth of Quality Machine and Welding Co., Inc.

From left, Dianne Lassiter, Marty Gibbs and Carol Frederick, all of The Christman Company, and Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett.

Terry Self of Interstate Mechanical Contractors.

From left, Richard and Bette Bryan, David and Sandy Martin and Mary Frances Tucker.

From left, Charlie Mink of BESCO, Marty Gibbs, Danny Edsell of Covenant Health, and Cheryl McKenry.

Jeff Johnson, left, of McCarty Holsaple McCarty, and Ford Little of Woolf McClane.

Tony Spezia, left, and Danielle Hemsley of Johnson Architecture enjoy a conversation.

Tim Blair of Massey Electric, left, chats with Wes Stowers.

Commissioner Evelyn and Michael Gill with Rick Emmett, the City of Knoxville’s downtown coordinator.

Laura Goff Parham of Laura Goff Designs and Dewayne Akins of The Christman Company.

Skyler Sinclair caught in mid-conversation. He’s with ShoffnerKalthoff.

Knoxville Chamber CEO Mike Edwards, left, with David Crigger of the University of Tennessee and Marty Gibbs.

Rusty Baksa, with Land Development Solutions.

Marty Gibbs with David Collins of McCarty Holsaple McCarty.

Mike Collins of MC Painting.

Kevin Diegel and Jacene Phillips of Studio Four Design.

Marty Gibbs with Mike Keller of Studio Four Design.

Chuck Griffin of BarberMcMurry Architects and Wes Stowers, right, in conversation.

Mayor Tim Burchett, left, with Bette and Richard Bryan.

Geoff and Leah Overmyer. He’s with Proffitt & Sons; she’s a teacher.

Architect Daryl Johnson chats with Cheryl McKenry.

Alex Fago of Covenant Steel Warehouse.

Butch Hale and Cheryl McKenry, both of The Christman Company.

Cheryl with Mary Martin of BarberMcMurry Architects.

Laura Goff Parham and Don Horton of Horton Built Environments Consulting.

Deputy to the Mayor Bill Lyons flanked by Mayor Madeline Rogero and Marty Gibbs.

Lucinda Moore of the University of Tennessee with Cheryl McKenry.

Love this picture! From left, Michael Gill, Duane Grieve, Tony Spezia, Mayor Tim Burchett, Jeff Roth, Scott Bird and Alan Carmichael.

Every guest left with a lovely book about the history of Rentenbach Constructors.

The Poteats had Marty Gibbs sign their copy.

Finally, here are a few snippets of the Old City Buskers performing during the event:

 

 

Filed under: Business, Downtown, Events, Knoxville. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Company name change is great party excuse!

  1. Pam Rhoades, on November 29th, 2017 at 11:53 am said:

    This was a fun celebration!

  2. Cynthia Moxley, on November 29th, 2017 at 11:56 am said:

    Pam: It was a good one! Thanks for coming to video the event for the MoxCar Minute and the Blue Streak!

  3. Cheryl McKenry, on November 29th, 2017 at 5:28 pm said:

    We had a blast! Thanks to everyone that came out to celebrate with us!

    Cheryl McKenry
    The Christman Company

  4. Cynthia Moxley, on November 29th, 2017 at 10:17 pm said:

    Cheryl: Great, great job by your team! Very good vibes and mega networking! Wonderful crowd.

  5. Pingback:Want the mayor at your event? Pick the best date! – EventCheck Knox

Leave a Reply