Stansell was founded and grown in the Tampa, Florida area, which has been our home base for the past 20 years. In the early days, McDonald's was our only client in the state. It wasn't until 2014 that we brought in a second Florida client, and 2019 before we expanded into our first market outside of Florida.
Today, Florida is our largest and most established market. We've completed over 1,200 projects here, ranging from new construction to minor remodels, and supported more than 15 national-brand clients across the restaurant, retail, medical, and petroleum sectors. Two decades in one state has given us real familiarity with the different municipalities, long-standing relationships with our trade partners, and established brand recognition throughout the state.
Our Tampa-based office is also where our accounting, human resources, technology, and admin teams work out of, along with much of our leadership. Roughly 80 families at Stansell call Florida home.
One thing that set this project apart was the approach to communication. We implemented a weekly recurring meeting with our construction manager and program lead to talk through challenges in real time and keep everyone aligned. This helped us get ahead of issues that had previously caused communication gaps, especially when it came to permitting.
The City of Coral Springs requires what's called an ancillary permit — basically a separate permit for specific trades or activities beyond your main building permit — for just about everything on a project. We ended up having to obtain and close out over 30 ancillary permits on this one alone, which added a significant layer of coordination that doesn't come with every restaurant construction project.
