Ongoing speculation that Southwest Florida’s commercial construction could be slowing to a stop doesn’t seem to faze contractors Don Brooks and Richard Freund. As Florida natives and principles of Brooks & Freund, LLC in Fort Myers, they know something about trying times and say that the current commercial market isn’t so bad.

“The trying times were when things were so busy that people had a difficult time getting subcontractors and building materials,” says Brooks. He admits that while rising material costs and last year’s hike in impact fees seriously hurt some area contractors, Brooks & Freund remains busy at commercial job sites throughout Southwest Florida. The company has yet to lay off any of its employees, and in fact, is in the process of hiring additional staff.

“The demand is there, so we still see a lot of activity,” says Freund. “Actually, there are a lot of opportunities in the market right now. Many business people are moving forward with their projects,” including a growing number who are relying on Brooks and Freund to get their projects off the drawing board and out of the ground.

Founded in 2000, Brooks and Freund is a multi-faceted firm providing general contracting, construction management and design-build services to a wide range of commercial clients. The company was established following the merger of commercial contractors Brooks, Inc. (founded in 1980 by Brooks, a native of Fort Myers) and F&D Construction, which Freund started in 1996. Both owners have extensive experience in the building industry.

Brooks worked in various trades over the years before opening a homebuilding firm in Fort Myers in 1979. He made the transition into commercial construction in 1984.

Freund has worked in the commercial contracting business in Florida since his 1985 graduation from the University of Florida, where he earned a degree in building construction. He moved to Southwest Florida in 1990 to work for a developer prior to starting F&D Construction.

Since merging eight years ago to become Brooks & Freund, the two partners have overseen the construction and management of successful commercial projects spanning the tri-county area and Sarasota. Over the years, the company has built everything from churches and schools to banks, retail strip centers, car washes, self-storage facilities, fire stations, clubhouses and municipal buildings, among others.

“We learned a long time ago not to pigeonhole ourselves into any specialty market,” notes Brooks. “Basically, our market is anything except single-family homes. We have the personnel to cover all aspects of commercial construction, including multi-family and apartments. And therein lies our success.”

Both Freund and Brooks attribute it to the company’s “talented core of dedicated, hard-working employees,” some of whom had worked with one or both partners even before the merger. “We also feel fortunate to have close, working relationships with quality local subcontractors and suppliers who take great pride in their work.”

The company also has an excellent reputation for working in tandem with clients to complete projects within budget and on time, or in some cases, ahead of schedule. “What’s even more important is that we deliver the quality that (the owners) are expecting and that we demand, as well,” Freund says. “We hold ourselves to the highest standards.”

Major Multi-Family Projects

Stock Construction was aware of this when it hired Brooks & Freund to help it meet delivery dates at several large condominium projects. “We usually build the projects we develop, but with 700 units under contract at one point, we needed some outside assistance,” says Bob Imig, president of Stock Construction. The builder is among the Stock family of companies, which offer a variety of real estate-related services.

“I talked to numerous general contractors throughout Southwest Florida before making a decision about who would work with us on projects totaling more than $100 million,” he says. “It all went to Brooks & Freund.”

The first of their three collaborations was the construction of 138 multi-family units in Vivante, overlooking Charlotte Harbor in Punta Gorda. Brooks and Freund also built 190 multi-family units for Stock at Paseo in Fort Myers, and a portion of the 335 multi-family units in OlŽ at Lely Resort in Naples.

Imig says that from an architectural standpoint, Paseo was “as big a challenge as a builder will ever have.” He explained that while most multi-family projects of its size have no more than six floor plans, Paseo has 33 different building configurations and 21 different floor plans. Two of them won 2007 Aurora awards for superior multi-family architectural design from the Southeast Builders Conference.

“It was extremely challenging to value-engineer the project to the point where it was cost-effective to build” without sacrificing the superior
finishes and workmanship that Stock demanded. “In working with Brooks and Freund, I had total trust and confidence that their team was going to do the job the way my team would do it,” says Imig. “It was a tremendous relief to realize we would have the quality, the service and the ability to meet the tight time frame for delivery (approximately 18 months from the start of
construction).”

Other Commercial Work

In addition to the 500+ units it built for Stock Construction, Brooks and Freund recently completed construction of its own new corporate headquarters building on Independence Circle in Fort Myers, Embassy Suites at I-75 and Corkscrew Road in Estero, and numerous retail strip centers.

Currently, the company is working on several retail and mixed-use projects in south Lee County, including: Harbor Plaza (approximately 45,000sf of retail in front of The Harborage on U.S. 41); Corkscrew Commons (an 80,000sf retail center on Corkscrew Road near I-75); and Alico Lakes (a mixed-use retail/office complex planned for approximately 50,000sf at the northeast interchange of I-75 at Alico Road).

Farther north, at Treeline Avenue and Colonial Boulevard, Brooks and Freund is working on the 45,000sf first phase of Arborgate, a 68,000sf, multi-phase retail center by Timberstone Development. Timberstone has also contracted the firm to complete what is now called Palm Pointe Shoppes (formerly The Avenue Shops), a 237,000sf retail shopping center, north of College Parkway on U.S. 41 in Fort Myers.

Brooks and Freund renovated the first phase of the original six-phase plan for the previous owner, who sold the project to Timberstone. Rather than renovate the remainder of the center, the developer has decided to raze and rebuild it. Brooks and Freund is now constructing buildings for phases two and three.

The company also has three banks under construction in Lee County (including a three-story building for Riverside Bank on College Parkway) and several large, multi-family projects underway in all three counties. Its two major projects in Charlotte County include Acapulco (a 10-building condominium project) and Gulf Breeze (a 49-building apartment complex with 171 one-, two- and three-bedroom units and a clubhouse).

Later this spring, the contractor expects to break ground on 120 units of senior housing at Renaissance Preserve, off Michigan Court in the City of Fort Myers, and 306 upscale, garden-style apartments at Astor at Lely in Collier County. Both projects are scheduled for completion in 2009.

Meeting Diverse Needs

Freund says that despite the number of projects the firm is building, “we’re not so busy that we’re refusing work.” Further, he says, their work isn’t necessarily finished when a building is ready for occupancy. “Particularly if we build for a client, we’ll always take care of tenant improvements, no matter what they need. We’ll install a doorknob for our clients if that’s what they need.”

Brooks agrees that making a client’s project successful is the company’s top priority. “We don’t want to be the reason the (building owner) can’t attract tenants to lease their space. If we’re given a project to build, we believe it’s our obligation to see it through to the end and be available for any additional work the client requires.”

That attitude has endeared Brooks and Freund to all of its clients, including individual owners and users, as well as local developers with smaller projects. “I would never consider using anyone other than Brooks and Freund. They did a completely professional job,” says Lloyd Mandel, who hired the company last year to build Shoppes at The Forest. Located on the east side of South Tamiami Trail, the 12,000sf strip mall offers six retail units and a drive-through.

Although the owner of Mandel & Simms Real Estate, Inc. is an experienced broker and leasing agent, he’d never developed a project on his own. Nonetheless, he started construction on July 1, just in time to avoid last year’s impact fee hike.

“(The project) took a little longer than expected because in the middle of construction, I decided to put in a drive-through and a sewer system in order to allow more types of businesses to locate there,” says Mandel. “But even with what I threw at them, Brooks and Freund finished this project in nine months, which is remarkable. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find another builder who could meet their construction schedule.”

Mandel says he was also impressed by the company’s follow-through and attention to detail. “They have a great in-house system of checks and balances that saved me from making a second payment for a permit application that I didn’t realize I’d already paid. And they’ve been absolutely fantastic about addressing every request of mine, even something as minor as adjusting the timers on the security lights.”

According to Freund, “It’s really a team effort that starts with the owner and extends to the laborer on the job site and the support staff in our office. We’re very hands-on and take a lot of pride in what we do.” It shows in the growing number of word-of-mouth referrals and repeat clients the company has garnered over the years.

“Dealing with Brooks and Freund is such a positive experience because when they tell you something, you know it’s true,” adds Brian Stock, founder and CEO of Stock Development. “That makes for a good partnership, which we’ve enjoyed with them.”

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