by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
When Mark Downing started his current job four years ago, he had no idea he was getting a second family — one that just keeps growing and growing.
Downing is a managing partner of Cornerstone Homes. The self-described family guy has seen the company almost triple in size since 2003 but says that his co-workers there still feel much like family to him, albeit a very large family.
“I work with an extremely talented bunch of people,” he said. “I’ve gotten to know them well and consider them to be my extended-extended family.”
As managing partner of Cornerstone Homes, Downing handles sales, marketing and administrative duties which include managing the staff and land acquisitions.
He said the number of employees has gone up drastically since 2003 and reflects the business the company does.
“Since I’ve joined, we’ve constructed 70 homes in 2003, 68 homes in 2004, 80 in 2005 and 183 in 2006,” Downing said.
Cornerstone isn’t Downing’s first bout within the building industry.
Downing, 46, was previously in the building material supply business for 20 years and was most recently with the Builders First Source Jacksonville group as company president.
His background in sales, management and building supplies has laid the groundwork for his longtime desire to build homes.
“I’ve been selling to builders for years and finally had the right opportunity to become a builder. It is an area that has always interested me,” said Downing.
Downing was born in Atmore, Ala. where he lived until 1975 when his family moved to Jacksonville. He graduated from Terry Parker High School in 1979 and then went on to graduate with an associate’s degree from Florida Community College at Jacksonville and then majored in marketing at the University of North Florida.
In 1983, he went to work for Holmes Lumber Company. There, he worked on inside sales for about one year and then outside sales for about 10 years before becoming a sales manager in 1999 and, later, the president.
“I stayed there until 2003 before leaving,” he said. “That’s when my career with Cornerstone began.”
Downing was familiar with Cornerstone’s membership team and liked the company’s customer service philosophies and so decided to join in March, 2003.
“We’re extremely focused on the customer experience and trying to perfect it. Customer service, in turn, should turn in to excellent customer satisfaction,” he said. “I work hard on the process all the way through and we hire a third party organization to survey our customers to measure their satisfaction.”
Unlike a production builder, Cornerstone allows people to make changes, said Downing. “Unlike a custom builder, however, we don’t allow people to come in right from the beginning and make their own plans from scratch.”
“We’re a real high-touch company, he added. “We have a lot of customer interaction.”
Cornerstone schedules roughly 12 meetings with each customer throughout the construction process and also maintains contact with them by phone or e-mail at least once a week, he said.
Some other Cornerstone values that attracted Downing were integrity, honesty and hard work ethic.
“Those core values pay off,” he said. “We have a referral rate of 90-95 percent and we think that’s a pretty good rate.”
Downing lives in the Deercreek community on the Southside. When he’s not working, he likes to teach Sunday school class at East Point Baptist Church or exercise. He also enjoys spending time with his family. He has been married to Becky, a housewife, for 20 years. They have three children, Joshua, 18; Danielle, 16 and Caleb, 11.
“They (the kids) are also all involved in sporting activities, so we spends a lot of time attending those,” he said.
He is a member of the Northeast Florida Builders Association and its Sales and Marketing Council.