January 21, 2025

Jonathan Russell, an All American dual-sport athlete who played football and baseball for East Mississippi Community College, launched a Florida-based construction company five years ago that was on track to top $30 million in revenues by the end of 2024.

Russell is president and CEO of Partners Development & Construction Group, a St. Petersburg, Florida – based company he created from scratch that now has a second office in Sarasota, with plans to open new locations in Orlando, Florida, and Nashville, Tennessee.

The company’s build list includes commercial office buildings, retail spaces, churches, medical centers and high-end residential properties. Projects include construction of a 65,000 square-foot building that headquarters TypTap, a subsidiary of insurance giant HCI Group Inc., one of the largest privately owned companies in Florida, and a 115,000-square-foot building multi-story office building in Tampa that houses some of the area’s most influential clients.

The company also builds luxury residential properties in the Sarasota and Tampa areas for wealthy clients. One residential property under construction is a 15,000 square-foot waterfront home, while the other will top out at 28,000 square feet.

“We build for a lot of high profile clients,” Russell said.

He is constructing the new residence for the Glazer family on Longboat Key, Florida, which owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise and the Manchester united Football Club, which competes in the top tier of English football.

Russell’s meteoric rise in Florida’s construction industry has not gone unnoticed. In October of 2023, he was named among the top “40 Under 40” for 2023 in Florida by “Business Observer.”

His life today is a far cry from his beginnings growing up “on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere” in Lauderdale County north of Meridian.

Russell’s father is a former high school teacher and coach. His mother worked for nearly 30 years with Atlas Roofing Corp. in Meridian before recently retiring from the business’ parent company of Hood Companies.

Russell was a standout high school athlete in both baseball and football, who played for Southeast High School before transferring to Quitman High School for his junior and senior years after his father was hired there as the head baseball and football coach.

Russell was heavily recruited in high school by several colleges and major universities, but wound up landing at EMCC in August of 2003, playing for then football coach and athletic director Tom Goode, and baseball coach Bill Baldner, who led that program for 22 seasons.

Russell, a quarterback in high school, was hoping for a position as the signal caller at EMCC, but there were already two senior players in that position. He also had high school experience as a kicker and punter and filled those roles during his time at EMCC.

“I ended up playing my last couple of snaps as quarterback my freshman year at Scooba and never played that position again,” Russell said.

Goode retired before Russell’s sophomore year and was replaced by Roger Carr, who previously played 10 seasons in the NFL, primarily with the Baltimore Colts.

“He was a really good coach and completely changed the culture of our football program,” Russell said. “We went from having four or five football coaches on staff to about 20 coaches.”

Russell was also an All State baseball player in high school and was a pitcher for EMCC during his freshman year.

EMCC Dean of Scooba Campus/College Advancement Tony Montgomery was an assistant baseball coach at the time who assumed the head coach position in 2006 after Baldner retired. Montgomery recalls Russell as a tall, lanky kid with natural athletic abilities.

“Jonathan had a lot of talent, both on the football field and the pitcher’s mound,” Montgomery said. “He was one of those players you knew had the potential to do great things.”

After graduating from EMCC, Russell transferred to Mississippi College, where he also played football and baseball, earning All American honors in both sports. A punter on the football team, Russell’s average of 42.5 yards per punt ranked second in the nation during his junior year. In 2005, he set a school record with a punt of 80 yards during a game against Mary Hardin-Balor and another school record with 586 total punt yards during another football game.

In baseball, he was named the ASC East Division Pitcher of the Year in 2005 and led the ASC in innings pitched and strikeouts. He sat out the 2006 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery to repair an injured elbow ligament, only to return the next season to earn another All American rating.

He wound up getting picked up by the McKinney Blue Thunder, an independent professional baseball team in Dallas, Texas that competed in the Continental Baseball League. The team lasted one year during the 2008 CBL season. 

After a short stint with the team, Russell bounced around from the University of West Alabama and the University of Alabama trying to complete his undergraduate degree in Environmental Science like his father, before moving to Houston, Texas in 2011, where he began working in the construction field.

While in Houston, he finished the couple of remaining classes he needed for his degree at the University of Houston and Houston Baptist University and was able to transfer them back to Mississippi College to earn his bachelor’s degree there. He later reenrolled at the University of Alabama, completing an online Master of Business Administration program. While in Houston, Russell worked for Turner Construction Company, a global construction company with projects across the U.S. and in 30 countries.

Russell worked his way up in the company, serving as an executive in business development, project management and pre construction. After a visit to South Florida, he decided to move there and open his own business.

“I just fell in love with the place,” Russell said. “I fell in love with Tampa, Siesta Key and all the way south to Naples,.”

 Russell cashed out his 401K and savings, packed up and moved to St. Petersburg in 2019, after giving Turner Construction Company a six-month notice. He hadn’t even finished unpacking after his move to Florida when he met an architect who also hailed from Mississippi.

“He said, ‘I've got a project I may can get you on. I can't give it to you. There's two other contractors involved, but we need a third to meet with the client.’ I said, ‘Man, I'll take whatever I can get.’”

The project was for a $3 million renovation and addition to Lift Church, formerly Venice Assembly of God. While the other two contactors showed up with a team of professionals to make their pitches before the church board, Russell entered alone.

“I was thinking in my head, ‘What do I say? How do I present myself? I don't have any team members. I don't have an office. I don't have anything,’” Russell said. “I said to myself, ‘You know what? Just be honest and tell them who you are, and do what you say you’re going to do.’”

Russell was awarded that contract. He took the money earned from the project, hired a second person, and opened an office. The company has been growing ever since. Russell now has 13 employees, with plans to add more.

Hiring good people and keeping them has been the key to his success, Russell said. He offers a full benefits package to his employees that includes health, dental and vision. Russell pays the cost for the benefits packages in full, not only for his employees, but for their families as well. He also offers an unlimited 401K match.

“Now that we have a good team in place, we are starting to take off,” Russell said.

Shortly after moving to St. Petersburg, Russell met the woman to whom he is now married, Nicollette, while hanging out on St. Petersburg Beach.

“She is my rock,” Russell said. “I definitely would not be where I am now without her.”

The couple has two daughters, Abbigail Jean, who turns 3 next March and Addilyn Sue, who was born in the spring of 2024.

Russell said it has been about 10 years since he’s visited EMCC’s Scooba campus, but he would like to bring his wife and daughters to visit so they can see the place where he attended school.

“I would love for them to experience Scooba, and a little of where I came from, as well as what I did when I was a student growing up,” he said. “It would mean a lot to me to show my girls, the old football field where Daddy played?”