What began as a side venture while coaching college athletes has grown into an emerging commercial construction company with ambitions to capitalize on South Louisiana’s industrial expansion.
Jay Marks spent 17 years as a collegiate strength and conditioning coach, including stops at LSU, the University of Miami, Southern University, the University of Memphis and Tulane University. While coaching, he began investing in real estate and studying construction, initially envisioning a business focused on acquiring and renovating distressed properties.
A turning point came after reading Building Atlanta, the autobiography of construction entrepreneur Herman J. Russell. Inspired by Russell’s story of building a lasting business for future generations, Marks decided to pursue construction full time. He left coaching in 2022 and went into construction full time after Hurricane Ida displaced his family from their home for nearly a year.
“My ultimate goal was to be coaching in the NFL and I was going that route pretty fast,” Marks recalls. “I was meeting the right connections to network with different coaches and players, and I thought that was going to be my life. Then, leaving a job where I know every month I have a paycheck coming in to something unknown where I didn’t know how I was going to provide for my family, was very scary. It was scary, but my wife and I talked about it, we prayed about it, she had my back.”
The company’s earliest projects included roofing work and residential renovations following Ida. Since then, Marks Construction has steadily expanded into commercial work, including historic renovations, church projects and community facilities. One of its largest completed jobs was the renovation of the historic St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Donaldsonville.
Marks says the company relies primarily on subcontractors while adding internal staff and strengthening its project management capabilities. Marks said the company’s biggest challenges remain access to capital and increasing bonding capacity, both critical to pursuing larger projects.
Looking ahead, Marks hopes to position the company as a preferred contractor in Ascension Parish as industrial investment accelerates across the region. He also plans to pursue joint ventures with larger contractors and expand the firm’s reach beyond Louisiana.
For Marks, however, the mission extends beyond business growth.
A Donaldsonville native, he says he returned home with the goal of helping improve the community that shaped him.
“When I got out of coaching, I came back, I joined organizations and I told them I want to come back to my hometown to make it better,” Marks says. “That’s why my wife and I bought our first investment property there, because we wanted to make the people’s lives better who live there.”
