Zephan McMinn is a born and raised Sonoma County native. He has lived in Santa Rosa for his whole life. Married to his wife Sarah since 2006, he lives happily in Rincon Valley where him raise their four children.
Zephan comes from a family of builders, his father, Chris McMinn of McMinn and Associates, has been in construction and construction consulting since the mid-1970's. Zephan grew up on jobsites and his first projects were the family homes they lived in and various jobsites all over Sonoma County in the General Construction Trade.
While working construction since he was 15, Zephan officially began his professional construction career as an Owner's rep construction manager on the McDonald Mansion historical renovation in Santa Rosa, CA.
In 2007, Zephan and his father, Chris McMinn, lead the construction as the Construction Management Team for the complete historical restoration of this 150 year old historical landmark.
The McDonald Mansion or "Mableton" is the largest home inside the city limits of Santa Rosa, CA at 14,000 square feet. This one of a kind home was finished to exact historical accuracy of the Victorian all while having the utility systems of a commercial building.
Over the years last 20 years, Zephan has personally managed over 200m+ in total project value ranging from extremely high-end residential, to commercial, multi-family, remodel, tenant improvement, concrete tilt up, medical, and much more. Below is just a sampling of some of those projects.
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Zephan was at Blu Homes, a full design-build, pre-manufactured, contemporary, and net zero premiere prefab home builder from 2015 to 2020. Starting as Director of Project Management, he quickly rose to being promoted to the Chief Executive Officer.
Blu was called the "Apple of Green Prefab" by Forbes magazine, started in 2008 by Bill Haney & Maura McCarthy. Blu quickly rose to nationwide reach, by the time Zephan joined the company in 2015 it had over 300 employees, a 250k manufacturing facility on Mare Island in Vallejo and had hundreds of active projects all over the United States.
After installing and completing hundreds of homes across the US, including countless fire rebuilds from the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County from 2017, Blu Homes was sold to Dvele Homes out of San Diego in 2020.
At the beginning of 2020, Zephan Co-Founded Villa with James Connolly. Villa was originally started as "Habitat" and a turnkey design build manufactured home Accessory Dwelling Unit provider in California.
With the combination of the change in ADU laws in California and Covid-19 having the population being focused on staying in their homes. Villa quickly rose to become the largest ADU provider in the nation.
As the Chief Operating Officer, Zephan was responsible for all operations of a statewide, scaled, scattered lot design firm and construction company. He oversaw large teams that designed and submitted hundreds of building permits in over one hundred different jurisdictions in California and an onsite team that delivered up to fifteen homes every single month to over one hundred active construction sites all of over the state.
Zephan left Villa in 2023 to pursue other interests and to more active in his hometown. Villa continues to operate in California as one of the top ADU providers in California.
In addition to his construction experience, Zephan is a licensed and trained Attorney and a member of the California Bar Association and a certified mediator. He has been serving as an expert witness and construction consultant for construction disputes, mediations, and litigation for over 10 years. He is an expert in forensic construction contract, cost, and schedule analysis and fully understands the intersection of construction law, contracts, insurance, and the real-world work that happens on the site.
