Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Colin Garrett attended West Orange schools from kindergarten through high school, and was lucky when quite a few of his close school friends joined him at Texas A&M.

He said they brought the small-town feel to College Station, which made the transition easier to handle.

After a pit stop in biomedical science, he switched his study to construction science. It was a natural progression, as Garrett’s father and best friend at the time started G&G in 1986.

Coming up through high school, he would work summers for his dad with the demolition crew or concrete crew.

“It was an immediate attraction once I settled into the construction science program at A&M; it felt like the place where I needed to be,” Garrett said.

Professional start

He and his father planned for Garrett to work for a large company in Dallas for a few years post graduation to see how they did things and bring that knowledge back home to expand G&G.

That added to his perspective, which comes naturally for someone with a self-admitted “lofty vision.” Thinking outside-the-box about growth is a must.

He and his wife, Natasha, bought the company when there were three employees.

Still, they never foresaw the size and scale of what the company has become.

“It has exceeded every expectation, every dream, every hope that we ever had for this company,” Garrett said. “Now, we have offices in Orange, Beaumont and Port Arthur. Orange is our executive hub. That is where our corporate headquarters are. We were founded in Orange, we have remained in Orange so we wanted to stay an integral part of Orange.”

G&G Enterprises expanded operations to Beaumont approximately seven years ago for greater exposure.

When the move was made, there were 11 employees. Today, there are 58 employees.

Garret attributes the growth to:

• Being in the right place at right time;
• Doing what they say they are going to do;
• Delivering quality work for the right price safely; and
• Giving the owners the best of all the worlds they deal with.

G&G Enterprises expanded its superintendent and project manager base, support staff through a dedicated quality management position and created a dedicated safety division.

Company leaders have also grown human resources, business development and marketing within the operation.

“It takes a lot to grow a company to this size,” Garrett said. “It takes even more to keep it going. Our goal doesn’t stop here. We have larger plans for G&G Enterprises. We look to our 15-, 20- and 25-year plans. My wife and I are continuing to expand our vision to incorporate our children to eventually turn this over to them.”

Giving back

Garrett said G&G leaders have always known the company’s success comes from the community it serves.

That means they become advocates for their clients and identify numerous area charities to support through the donation of time, resources and money.

One of the most recent moves made headlines across Orange County and beyond when the West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District announced a G&G Enterprises donation of $1 million.

The move, celebrated in late May, led to the board of trustees granting G&G Enterprises exclusive naming rights to the newly constructed West Orange-Cove Event Center.

The center’s state-of-the-art facilities and versatile spaces provide a platform for sports competitions, performances, community gatherings and educational programs.

It was unveiled for the community with the high school graduation this year.

Superintendent Dr. Rickie Harris said West Orange-Cove is grateful for G&G’s commitment to investing in education and fostering community development.

Garrett calls Harris a visionary, adding it is exciting to watch him work methodically to grow the district with facilities that meet the needs of current students and those coming decades from now.

“He really cares and loves that district,” Garrett said. “It is infectious.”

Garrett said it was a blessing to graduate from West Orange, go off to college and come back home to grow a local company.

“Being able to give back to the place where this all began is a huge honor and a humbling experience,” he said. “Even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined being able to have that much financial impact on any organization, let alone being able to do that for the school that I graduated from.”

The name

A committee inside G&G Enterprises was developed to go over ideas, and that committee has selected a name for the West Orange-Cove Event Center.

Company officials and school district officials still must meet to discuss where signs will be placed. There are some subtle nuances to go through regarding the size of the signs and where they will be located.

“I would anticipate having some type of a ceremony that is somewhere in the first part of this next school year,” Garrett said when explaining when it would all be unveiled for the community.