New York-based Plaza Construction is throwing its hat into the ring of local commercial real estate by opening a new Central Florida office, seeking high-profile Orlando work to help expand its profile in the state outside of Miami.
The company opened its new regional office in Tampa in late December, and is currently looking at office space in Orlando for a small service center.
Todd Fultz, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of construction experience on projects in the hospitality, office, multifamily, retail, aviation, education and sports markets, will lead the new Plaza office as managing director for Central Florida.
“We’ll be fairly aggressive,” he told GrowthSpotter on Wednesday. “We like to focus our pursuits on the challenging projects, something that differentiates itself. A lot of that tends to be in dense, urban residential. The hospitality market is a big focus and one we think will grow a lot in Central Florida. We also think there’s a lot of growth opportunity in office.”
Plaza Construction is one of South Florida’s largest full-service general contractors and construction management firms. Since opening that office in 2002, the company now has more than 250 staff responsible for $2.2 billion in South Florida projects.
Fultz previously served as vice president of the Central Florida region for Manhattan Construction, and as a project executive for DPR-Hardin Construction. He has been a part of numerous high-profile commercial building projects in Tampa, and in Orlando has worked on multifamily in the Central Business District and a former AirTran (now Southwest) airplane hanger at Orlando International Airport.
A Tampa native and resident, Fultz currently serves as chairman of the board of the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC).
Plaza will be looking to fill multiple new project manager and superintendent positions in the Central Florida office, fielding candidates from Miami and those outside the company, Fultz said.
Its new focus on the Tampa and Orlando metro areas is buoyed by strong market fundamentals. In Orlando, building construction starts are projected to total more than $19 billion over the next five years, or an average of $3.7 billion per year from 2018 to 2022, according to Dodge Data and Analytics.
Plaza was selected in 2016 to manage construction of the 79-story 99 Hudson Street building in Jersey City, to be the tallest building in New Jersey. In Miami, the company’s projects have included the 63-story One Thousand Museum by Zaha Hadid Architects, the Ritz-Carlton Residences Miami Beach, the 67-story Marquis Residences, the 42-story 1100 Millecento and the 43-story Icon Bay building.
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