Hunter Wilhelm has the type of fearless exuberance you’d expect from a young business owner. The 26-year-old CEO of landscaping and hardscaping firm Wilhelm Properties greets you with an authentic blend of confidence, competence and charm.
“I love what we do; it’s never the same job. There’s something new every day,” says Wilhelm. “That’s what motivates me. We might be doing a landscape job on Concord Road one day and the next we’re going to Franklin to do a hardscape. It’s always something different.”
Wilhelm founded the company in 2016 while he was still a student at Brentwood High School. But it didn’t begin as a way to make some side cash, or as a hobby. Unless you count the actual running of a business as a hobby.
“I really don’t know where the interest in landscaping came from,” he says. “I just thought I wanted to own and run my own business. I liked it then and I still do. The business aspect – setting goals and then challenging yourself to see if you can beat them or not – is the part that I really enjoy.”
After graduating from Brentwood High, Wilhelm enrolled at UT-Knoxville where he would eventually earn a degree in landscape design with a business minor. But those plans were put on hold. No, he didn’t opt for a gap-year; he was sidelined by a serious medical condition that resulted in a bilateral sequential transplant, otherwise known as a double lung transplant.
Wilhelm was born with pulmonary hypertension, a condition where the lungs outgrow the body. As a youngster he says he was “in and out of the hospital” several times but, since it’s all he ever knew, he never dwelled on his condition.
“I played baseball, I was the manager of the football team at Brentwood and had friends on the team,” he says. “I was totally satisfied with my life and how I was. But by the time I got to my senior year of high school, my condition deteriorated to the point that I couldn’t have a normal conversation without panting or running out of breath.”
He had no choice but to have surgery so, when a donor became available, everything else, including his business and college career, had to pause. “I had just graduated from high school, so it was the summer of my rising freshman year at UT,” says Wilhelm. “UT was pretty cool with it, so my freshman year was delayed until 2019.”
Once he had recovered and regained his strength, his first semester of college went off without a hitch. That was until the spring semester when the pandemic shut down the world. It was a precarious time for everyone, especially a pulmonary patient.
“In the beginning when everyone was making a big deal about it obviously, as someone with a lung problem, there was some concern if I were to get it,” says Wilhelm. “My doctors encouraged me to get the shots when they became available. I got the first but not the second.”
Eventually he contracted the disease, but he was asymptomatic. “The only reason I knew I had Covid was because it was Labor Day weekend, and I was going to the lake with my family. My dad is an international pilot for FedEx, so we all got tested and mine came back positive. But I was lucky and did not feel anything.”
Wilhelm takes anti-rejection medication but otherwise lives his life with no restrictions. He’s an avid golfer.
Upon graduating from UT in 2022, he returned to Brentwood where he was able to devote his attention full-time to Wilhelm Properties. Today the company has two full-time crews: one dedicated to landscaping, the other to hardscapes. “Our plan is to grow the company but we’re not going to force the issue,” says Wilhelm. “We’re going to stay busy, and we’ll add crews as needed.”
This time of year, a good portion of the company’s business is derived from aerating and overseeding lawns. “We also do a ton of plant installs and maintain beds and shrubbery. We plant a lot of mums in October and November is a great time to install trees and larger shrubs.” Wilhelm says that glory maples, oaks, redbuds, dogwoods and tulip poplar trees are great choices for a Middle Tennessee landscape.
Hardscapes can be built at any time of year. However, if you want something in time for next season, now is a great time to call to schedule a consultation. “Depending on the scale of the project, the job can take anywhere from a week to two months,” he says. “We have a computer-based design program that provides the homeowner with a realistic rendering of the finished product.”
To schedule a hardscape consultation or to inquire about landscaping service, reach out to Wilhelm Properties at
615.484.6854 or send an email to hunterwilhelm@gmail.com.