Consulting may be its middle name, but Gulfcoast Consulting Group (GCG) does much more than that. Based in Fort Myers, the family-owned general contracting firm offers its clients every type of service needed to take a commercial project from concept to completion, including design/build, property development, site selection, construction management and finance coordination.
GCG’s commercial work can be seen throughout Lee County and includes: restaurants (Il Pomodoro, Mel’s Diners, Slice of Chicago); medical office buildings (Pacaya Bay, Freeman Medical, Emergency Vet Clinic, Advanced Heart Center, Lehigh Professional Center); and retail (B’Dazzled Boutique, Sun Harvest Citrus, South Seas Golf Pro Shop), just to name a few. Recently, the firm completed Tuscan Place, a three-story, 21,000sf mixed-use office building in Cape Coral consisting of medical, executive and general office space.

GCG wins Summit Awards for Contractor of the Year, Best Design/Build and Best Tenant Build-Out

Although the bulk of GCG’s work involves construction, what distinguishes the company is the service it provides before shovel meets ground and, in some cases, before the client sees the site.
“I work with clients to translate their dreams into a workable plan,” says GCG President Richard Byrd, who founded the company in 2001. “We’re not all or nothing. If a client wants us just to do the preconstruction development work, no problem. Or if someone has the architectural plans, that’s fine, too. It’s all about what our clients need for their particular projects.”
GCG’s ability to understand customers’ needs and execute their plans has helped it to succeed in a competitive and increasingly difficult market. Last fall, it swept the Lee Building Industry Association’s Summit Awards, winning the coveted 2009 Contractor of the Year, as well as Best Design/Build Project ($5 – $8 Million) and Best Tenant Build-Out Project (Up to $2 Million) for Pacaya Bay, a medical office building and surgery center in Fort Myers.
Diversified Staff, Innovative Approach
Richard Byrd credits the company’s success to GCG’s staff, which includes his wife, CEO Susan Byrd, his son Teely Byrd, vice-president, and daughter-in-law Lerin Byrd, director of marketing. According to Richard, all came aboard because of their qualifications, not because of family ties.
Susan joined the company in 2004 to manage the firm’s operations and accounting. She was ideally suited to the position, having enjoyed a successful career with General Electric Corp., managing its sales and use-tax audits division. In fact, while at GE, she co-created the e-Audit project, the first Web-based sales and use-tax auditing tool developed in the U.S.
Teely, a licensed general contractor, also was a perfect fit. Since growing up with a designer/developer father and donning his first hard hat at age five, Teely has been hooked on the construction end of the business. Previously, Teely worked on the North Collier Hospital Expansion project with Kraft Construction in Naples.
Lerin’s marketing expertise has been another vital component of GCG’s evolution, putting a high-tech polish on the company’s initial promotional efforts. Rather than relying solely on word-of-mouth, cold-calling, printed brochures and professional networking to get the firm’s name out, Lerin has capitalized on 21st century techniques to reach a broader market.
Not only has she developed a new logo and marketing materials for the company, she has created a user-friendly Web site and promotional videos to graphically demonstrate what GCG can offer clients. Besides exposing the firm to prospects in Southwest Florida, the videos’ purpose is to spark interest from out-of-town businesses that could generate local jobs.
“We attach them in our e-mails, in address links and through various online sites. It’s amazing how many people do respond,” says Lerin. As a direct result of the videos, the Byrds have met with several out-of-state architects who are interested in the market’s professional possibilities.
“We try to campaign for this area whenever we come across someone who’s not familiar with it and who could help bring business to our market. If we get one person to move here, even if we don’t do any work for them, that’s one more person who could be generating jobs,” says Susan.
Award-Winning Capabilities
For now, GCG is focused primarily on generating work for itself and its subs by familiarizing local commercial owners with what it can do for them. The company’s award-winning work on the stunning Pacaya Bay medical office building in south Fort Myers is an excellent example of its impressive design/build talents.
In addition to completing the property’s rezoning and site design, and obtaining the development order, GCG designed the contemporary, 30,000sf building and acquired all of the necessary permits on behalf of owner John D. Ritrosky, M.D., a local surgeon. The firm also worked with local lending institutions to obtain project financing.
“As with all of our design/build assignments, we considered the long-term use, maintenance costs and complexity of the product, and worked closely with the client, design team and subcontractors to identify ways to trim costs without sacrificing the quality or architectural integrity of the project,” says Teely, whose team designed through the construction process.
“Also, being on the job site each day allowed us to find immediate solutions to anything that came up as construction progressed,” he says. On-site cameras and live Internet access further enabled GCG and the client to monitor the project 24 hours a day.
Pacaya Bay was completed under budget and on schedule, despite the economic downturn, the unexpected addition of a deceleration lane on the frontage road and other challenges. For example, to accommodate Dr. Ritrosky’s busy schedule, GCG team members typically met with him at night and on weekends.
The same was true as GCG was building out Ritrosky’s 7,000sf Plastic Surgery & Cosmetic Arts center within Pacaya Bay. To receive certification as an approved American Health Care Administration (AHCA) Ambulatory Surgical Center, the facility’s design had to conform to specific codes and criteria. When the surgery center’s original architect failed to meet the requirements, GCG quickly brought in a new architect to redesign according to AHCA standards. Because of its fast action, the project received AHCA approval without affecting the construction budget or time frame.
Outreach and Exposure
GCG hopes to be ahead of the game when the market turns around. But until that day comes, it is proactively pursuing new ways to succeed.
“One reason we won Contractor of the Year last year was because in spite of the difficult economy, we kept all GCG team members employed and more productive than ever,” says Lerin.
To do so, the company scrutinized all expenses and employee responsibilities, and asked for employee input on innovative ways to increase business. Based on their suggestions, GCG developed a Construction Consultation Program (a free service for prospective clients) and a Referral Rewards Program (for referrals resulting in contracts), along with new and better ways to solicit for and track subcontractor bids.
Another way to spend less and make more green was for GCG to go green whenever possible by fully utilizing the Internet. All construction plans and specifications are now uploaded and distributed electronically, eliminating 90% of the operating budget for paper, toner and printing costs. Also, to save on postage, GCG publishes a monthly online newsletter to keep existing and prospective clients, subcontractors and industry professionals abreast of news from GCG.
Lerin says that GCG’s videos may now be viewed by an even wider audience via various video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and Viddler. Apparently, it’s working. Based on queries from northern states, the company’s videos are gaining traction nationally — particularly the one that juxtaposes scenes of snow storms with shots of Southwest Florida’s sunny beaches. In fact, GCG’s Web site now includes a link to Lee, Collier and Charlotte county government sites to address questions concerning business expansion incentives.
In addition to working with economic development organizations in Southwest Florida, GCG also is pursuing public and government work, and looking into available programs in the private sector. “Before, we never really had to look outside this area for work,” says Teely. “But now we’re out there creating our work and looking at projects in different geographic regions,” such as hospitality projects in Chicago and New York City.
Furthermore, the firm is developing a marketing campaign aimed at investors in Germany and Switzerland.
“We never lose sight of what makes our company tick, but we’re trying to be as creative as possible and not limit ourselves,” says Lerin. “With so many businesses struggling, we realize you have to adapt with the times if you want to survive.”
Thanks to inexpensive land and “highly negotiable” construction costs, the Byrds say that now is the perfect time for end-users to build new space or build out existing space. But they warn that this golden opportunity won’t last indefinitely. “As jobs start to grow, so will the construction market,” says Susan.
GCG fully expects to be around as that occurs. “We have the vision to see beyond the current, troubled economy and understand that there are still needs out there” that GCG plans to identify and meet.
“But we’re not just looking out for ourselves,” adds Lerin. “We’re looking out for the community as a whole. That’s what we all need to do.”

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