Steve Barrs grew up in his family’s business and his life has been centered on building ever since. Steve has branched out beyond land development to nurture his interest in serving local and international ministries and civic organizations. He and his wife Karen have 3 sons, 1 daughter in law and a new grandson.
Steve grew up in Newport News, attended Hampton Roads Academy, and graduated from the University of Richmond with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1991. Throughout high school and college, he spent his summers working for his father’s road construction business and joined the company fulltime after college.
His father, Carl, started C.A. Barrs Contractor in 1971. Since that time, the company has built more than 2,000 projects; including land development, road construction and commercial sitework. In 2002, Steve became President of C.A. Barrs Contractor.
Steve is also founder and owner of Yorktown Materials, established in 1999. This company has grown from supplying crushed stone to offering a variety of decorative stone, soils and hardscape products. Steve also formed the Chickahominy Environmental Bank in 2001, which creates and sells wetland credits in the James River Watershed.
In 2017, he and his wife opened Little England Mercantile, a retail lifestyle and furniture store. A 2nd location was opened in Virginia Beach in 2021.
Steve has just graduated from the Board of International Cooperating Ministries (ICM) after 16 years of service. This ministry has built over 3,000 churches in over 53 countries and translated the Foundations discipleship material in over 41 languages.
Steve also serves on the Board of the United Way of the Virginia Peninsula, Greater Peninsula Now, TowneBank, Gloucester EDA (Chairman 2020-2021) and is a member of the Peninsula C-12 Group since 2004.
Steve enjoys being on his boat whenever he can and working on their farm on Sarah’s Creek in Gloucester, VA.