A local business in the southern Minnesota area just got more local for the Waseca community.
James Bros. Construction has been operating in the excavation and construction industry since 1978 in Elysian. The company expanded in 2024 with a location in Waseca, nearly a year after the death of the company’s founder Wayne James.
James started the company with a passion to build a business that would serve the community and offer a place for him to work alongside his family. Born in Waseca and a graduate of Waterville-Elysian High School, he did just that by starting James Bros. in 1978, the same year he married his wife Teri.
James always had a vision to build a shop in Waseca and he did just that in 2017 after purchasing land that had easy access into town and noticed a need for landscaping in Waseca. The Waseca location started out as just a shop to store landscape supplies for the business.
After James’ death in June of last year, the family decided to build an office at the Waseca location. They made the necessary upgrades to the location and added outdoor bunkers for different types of landscape rock. The grand opening for the location took place with a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 11 with the shop opening up for business the following Monday.
James’ wife Teri, daughters Shannon Kuball and Lisa Cage, sons Justin James and Jacob James, and several dedicated employees serve Waseca, Elysian, and its surrounding communities by keeping James’ name alive through his business.
“We offer anything you could think of that you might need for landscaping,” Shannon Kuball said about James Bros. Construction.
The company works throughout all of Minnesota, and when asked if the company will ever consider expanding to other locations outside of their offices of Elysian and Waseca, Kuball said that nothing is out of the question.
“We’d have to make sure that it’s a good fit for the company and the community,” Kuball said. “We’ll always be keeping our eyes open.”
On top of the Waseca expansion, the company decided to honor Wayne with a scholarship in his name. The Wayne Orval James- Community First Scholarship awarded its first three winners this year from three different schools.
The company wanted to give scholarships to schools in all of the communities that James Bros. Construction operates in. It gave a $500 scholarship to one student at Waseca, one at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton (JWP), and one at Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (WEM).
“We decided it was important to find ways to give back to the communities, because without them, we wouldn’t have a business,” Kuball said.
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