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Some careers are chosen. Others, it seems, were always waiting.
As a kid Russell Alleman was captivated by the plans for fancy houses stacked on counters at Lowe’s and Home Depot, the kind of houses he never saw in small town Rayne in Acadia Parish, where he grew up. When his mother noticed his fascination, she bought him graphing paper and furniture stickers, and young Russell spent hours designing and accessorizing floor plans he’d someday forget—though, as it turned out, his mother never would.
Fast-forward through an accounting degree and six years working for the state of Louisiana, and Alleman found himself staring down his 29th birthday with a creeping sense of restlessness. “I just didn’t like being in an office.”
One weekend brainstorming with friends was all it took to crystallize what he already knew. The following Monday, he was researching how to become a contractor. Within two months, he had passed his exams, secured his insurance and obtained his residential contractor’s license. Then he sold his house and used the equity to purchase two lots in Prairieville.
He built two spec homes side by side and didn’t breathe a word of it to his parents until Manchac Homes had begun to prove itself.
When he finally told his mother, she mailed him a package. Inside were cardboard tubes—the kind used for blueprints—containing the house plans her son had sketched as a boy. “I took it as proof I’d chosen the right career path,” Alleman says. Those drawings now hang, framed, in his office.
What followed was a decade and a half of steady, deliberate growth. The early years were spent building spec homes. By year three, Manchac had landed its first custom home and by late 2019, business had exploded, Alleman says, and he’d secured his first multimillion-dollar contract. New visibility culminated in a 2020 Industry Innovator of the Year award from the Home Builders Association of Greater Baton Rouge.
Today Manchac’s projects range from $2 million to $15 million, with a portfolio that includes the Beverly Hills-designed showpiece Modern Reflections on False River and a house in University Club with a $200,000 limestone staircase that took six months and a village of tradespeople to achieve. “I am living my childhood dream,” Alleman says. “I feel like I’ve been blessed in life.”
In their own words
PERSONAL BEST
Modern Reflections, a False River house designed by a Beverly Hills architect.
PHILOSOPHY IN THREE WORDS
Honesty. Integrity. Quality.
DOING IT RIGHT
Even before I ever signed a contract on my first custom home, I knew that everyone had a bad story about a contractor. I’m very happy 15 years later because I know that at least I’ve changed that for our clients. Some people I can see it in their eyes, they want to shoot me with all the meetings I call for planning, but it’s only because I want to make sure that whenever we do something, it’s done right. So that once the homeowners move in, if they’re calling us, it’s to go drink a beer or go to a barbecue or a housewarming party. Not because something went wrong.
TECH TALK
Technology plays a big role in my projects. We have a customized project management system built around our company’s processes. It handles everything—from bidding and proposals to scheduling, financials and integration with our accounting software. We’re also starting to use AI—like uploading house plans where you can click on appliances to see specs or use voice commands to pull up information.
HOT OR NOT
What I’m excited about is that the home is becoming the design in itself. It doesn’t require so much furnishing or artwork to look great. We’re seeing a lot of design incorporated into the house before the first drape is hung. Overhyped? The white and gray houses with the black windows. I’m over it.
WILD REQUESTS
In a project that we completed about two years ago in University Club, there was a $200,000 staircase and it took a village to get it done because there were a lot of different trades involved. It’s limestone slabs, but it’s all mitered edges so it looks like one monolithic place. That was the most complex and craziest request. And we absolutely nailed it.
FUTURE BUILDERS MAY CRINGE AT…
I don’t know, but whatever it is will probably have something to do with AI and the automation of things in the future. But our houses are still going to be standing in perfect condition.
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