Jerry Meek is the Founder and CEO of Desert Star Construction and celebrates being in business since 1978. He is honored to lead what has been defined by clients and industry colleagues as “the best team in the luxury home business.” Jerry is known for building great teams and constructing the most complicated custom luxury projects by putting people before profits. The combined annual sales revenue of DSC clients’ companies is in excess of $3.6 trillion dollars and growing, affirming Jerry’s belief, “We’re not just building the American Dream – we’re living it.”
Chicago-born Jerry credits his parents for forming the foundation of his character and his company. “My mom encouraged me and taught me to love people. My father taught me discipline and raised me up in the construction industry,” Jerry says. “I was working on job sites with Dad at age five.” At 14, he bought a truck to start a tree trimming business. He hired an adult to drive it because he was too young. At 18, he created a carpentry business with his father.
Desert Star Construction was born with a focus on excellence and integrity, advancing from the construction and remodel jobs “that no one else wanted” to becoming an award-winning landmark commodity that regularly completes Arizona’s most prestigious Personal Resorts®. The last decade has been focused on continuous growth and expansion of the DSC brand, leading to the creation of Desert Star Concierge® in 2015, a proactive maintenance company for DSC built projects as well as homes built by others. Today’s DSC has grown from its foundation starting with a Skil-Saw and a cord to having nearly $200MM of work in progress.
In the process, DSC’s results have been published in more than 30 magazines and earned honors such as multiple Gold Nugget Awards, Phoenix Home & Garden Home of the Year, Southwest Contractor, and NAHB Custom Home of the Year. In 2017, Jerry was the first-ever luxury custom home builder to receive Phoenix Home & Garden’s Master of the Southwest, an award program in its 30th year that recognizes the best in design and craftsmanship.
What means the most to Jerry is the relationships he has built with his clients and teams. Community involvement has been a wonderful byproduct of these relationships with great opportunities to assist others. One such rewarding accomplishment was being the founding president of the Phoenix Dream Center Foundation. In this role, Team DSC® received the Heart of Business Award and Community Spirit Award for building a new commercial kitchen that has since served over 5.5 million meals to individuals in addiction recovery, human trafficking, and foster care programs.
The most recent project was “The Rescue Project,” where the cost, materials and labor were taken on by Desert Star Construction in combination with the significant support of our trades and Arizona’s design community to renovate 10 “Dream Rooms.” Over the years, these rooms have become the sanctuaries for 712 young survivors of human trafficking between the ages of 14 and 26. Additionally, 162 babies were born to these bright, young women as a result of the care and guidance provided by this groundbreaking program. “It’s not the money you make, it’s what you do with it,” Jerry says.
Jerry continues to enjoy time with Carol, his wife of over 40 years, and their two adult sons, Jeremy and Jonathan. He loves travel, hiking and the outdoors. He is honored to be a guest speaker at various colleges and loves to help others succeed. He has written two books and serves on the Advisory Board for M360.tech and International Board of Advisors for Black Pearl Mail.