Essex Builders Corp

Essex Builders builds apartment blocks, not additions. The Canton firm is a general contractor and construction manager working for owners and developers — multifamily, mixed-use, office, retail, healthcare, biotech, religious and education projects — and says plainly that it is not a homeowner-facing home-services contractor. Its name turns up in the trade press across two decades. In 2010 it secured a $3.6m contract from Just-A-Start Corporation to build Elm Place, a 25,000 square foot mixed-use development in Cambridge. The following year The First Church in Salem, Unitarian, picked it as construction manager. A 2023 item paired the firm with developer LAR Properties, and its permit file carries a ten-unit Newburyport conversion along with mixed-use and demolition work in Somerville. David O'Neil founded the company in 1984 after a stretch as a developer, and it now lists Stephen Foley as President and Michelle O'Neil as Senior Vice President. On safety it points to OSHA 30 for every supervisor, CPR and First Aid certification in the field, and safety awards from both ABC and AGC. One claim does not survive a check against its source. The company's site advertises an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau; BBB's own file for Essex Builders Corp is not accredited and explicitly Not Rated, because BBB says it lacks sufficient information — a file that also carries no complaints and no government actions. The same file dates the business to 1982 and names David O'Neil as President, both at odds with the company's own account of a 1984 founding and a different President. For an owner or developer lining up a multifamily or institutional build in eastern Massachusetts, this is a long-established construction manager with a visible project list; check the BBB claim against the BBB file yourself, and ask for references on a project of your size. A homeowner looking for a remodeler is in the wrong place.