Written by President of Complete – John G. Minor, CGC, CFM, LCAM
2024 The rearview mirror…
As I look back on the 27 years of Complete, I remember the great projects the fantastic outcomes as well the places we were where we should not have been. Synergy is a wonderful thing, and I believe it pushes all things, business, Love, relationships all of it.
In 2024 we saw many organizations that were not sure how we could help but they trusted someone and decided to allow us to lead them through the forest. For those clients who gave us their trust and allowed us to serve we are eternally grateful. When someone hires Complete, it is not for our fancy website or sweet talk but instead because there is a problem, and they need to know how to solve it. That is what we do, study and test then consult and advise. No one calls us on blue sky days but instead we receive calls when the sky is dark and time is short.
For whatever reason this is where we have evolved as a company, building damage forensics. We essentially answer four questions over and over…
- What’s wrong– This is a study of the as built conditions and identification as to what portions are not performing as required or expected.
- What caused it – Somewhere in the details of the construction there is a failure and reverse lap or an eccentrically loaded connection
- Whose fault is it – Design or installation failure to follow building code or just common sense?
- What will it take to fix – The repair requirements in detail
- How much will it cost – The big question and the one people focus on the most.
In 2024 we received many of these challenges and dispatched them one after the other. We did so with a great team augmented this last year with new experts and increased experience.
Highlights from this year
People
Paul R. Semmes, PE, FRSE, CGC
Paul is a gem and I am super pleased to have him here to serve our clients. Paul has 40 years of building starting with a career serving the US Navy and then building and restoring properties from one end of the state to the other from Pensacola to Key West. I have worked with Paul for more than 15 years and I was grateful when he made the decision to come to work with Complete for the rest of this trip. His knowledge of the industry as both a general contractor and engineer is hard to match but his relationships of trust and respect in the industry are impossible to overstate. People trust Paul for good reasons.
Jesus Rauls, PE
Paul brought with him an addition to our S. Florida team a wonderful and widely talented engineer in Jesus. His width of knowledge is a testimony to his understanding of what is important in this life with a background as an artist in wood carving and fine carpentry. These hands-on skills make for a resource for our clients that allow them to feel confident that we have the right people on the job that are looking for a quality of construction that is beyond good enough but is true and right. You cannot be a sculptor without a dedication to perfect. Jesus is in the process of obtaining a CGC license and will widen his ability to help our clients as he grows in this role.
Jason Painter
With the addition of engineering staff we needed to hire support for these team members and Jason has been a star in this role. He is an engineering student in Pensacola at the University of West Florida. We have found hiring people with a scientific engineering mind set works best in pushing data out. These people think differently and question everything it is best to keep them with people who think the same way. Jason will become a full-fledged engineer with our group and when he graduates will have already learned many of the skills necessary to see the problems that plague our clients and the solutions they require.
Donna Sumrall
Donna joined our administrative and construction management team this year at our Pensacola office and has become a wonderful addition and huge asset. Her caring and calm nature comes thru as she fields the phone calls and emergency requests she receives on the daily. Kindness is the first thing I require in our staff and in this Donna is well equipped.
Victor Camargo, Architect
Victor is an architect licensed in Brazil that joined the team at Complete and has been a great addition to the team. Working hand and hand, we have completed construction on our first house in Brazil designed by Victor. He also helped to bring our historic office space to life and make it a home for Complete in Pensacola. We look forward to working me with Victor this year on our South Florida team to get his Architecture license (AIA designation) in the state of Florida and the US.
Ana Minor, Business Development Design Services
This year has been the beginning of many wonderful new improvements at Complete. None quite as special as the addition of Ana Minor to our group. Ana hold a degree in business and fashion with a great eye for design. She has been an instrumental part of the team and provided a whole attention to aesthetics that Complete previously did not possess. Her ability to take our projects and make them shine is unique and greatly appreciated. Ana runs our social media and interior design interests’ working hand in hand with our architect Victor. Having the style in addition to the function has been very exciting for our group as we grow to serve our clients. Ana’s background in Brazil is bringing international clients, customers and a worldly point of view. Her style blend modern and contemporary construction with sleek interiors that fit an evolving customer base.
John G. Minor, CGC, CFM, LCAM
I as president of Complete obtained my community association manager license this year as I wanted to best understand how to serve our condominium clients. This year has been a tremendous year of change for condominium associations throughout the state following the collapse of Champlain Towers South and the resulting Senate Bill 4 D. These rules will change the face of condominiums for the better but in the meantime are a very difficult challenge. Like all challenges some people have met these requirements head on and with a sense of responsibility and some have not. We are being careful to only work with he best, those that understand the challenges and are willing to do that which is right not always that which is easy.
Read a recent WEAR TV article featuring John on SB 4D CLICK HERE
The rest of the Team continues to thrive as we grow our presence on the Gulf Coast and begin to make inroads in south Florida where I now spend much of my time.
New Offices
Pensacola
TeamComplete is proud to have a new permeant home in the heart of the Downtown Pensacola Historic District.
511 E Government St, Pensacola FL, 32502
Miami
Our Miami office now works out of the WeWork offices located in Brickle City Centre.
78 SW 7th St, Miami, FL 33130
Clients & Projects
We had some great clients this year including Bay Haven charters Schools in Panama City. We were able to go back to their 2018 response from Hurricane Michael and drill down to the nickels documenting the good decisions that were made and the reason for the expenses that saved these schools and protected these children and staff. These schools were just down the street from the City of Lynn Haven where we were very successful in their appraisal process also following Hurricane Michael. We love being there for our neighbors
Hurricanes & Storms
Hurricane Helene
In Hurricane Helene this meant head to Tallahassee a town that has not taken a direct hit from a hurricane that I can remember. This capital city town home to FSU and FAMU is a wonderful home to shade trees and legislators in equal abundance. This is where we initially thought the storm was headed but as time got short, she pushed ever so slightly to the east missing the capital city and further punishing towns that got it last year in Perry and Horseshoe Beach. Helene was 700 miles across as she came ashore and this was the reason she swamped so much of the Florida coast from Sarasota to Tampa and up the Big Bend before she broke the hearts of our friends in Western North Carolina. This is an important lesson from storms in that the energy is in a storm is not always correctly measured in mph of top wind speeds but sometimes in sheer width and breadth. Helene was a monster in that regard and what she lacked in Knots she made up for in rain and storm surge.
Hurricane Milton
Holmes Beach – Sentinel set up # 1 – We met up at Holmes Beach where the Chief of Police was fantastic and understood our need to get to the beach and provided us access and welcome. These small-town chiefs are the lifeblood of a community, and we love working with them and getting them info that helps them prepare and understand with real data the challenges their community is going to face and then provide them access to real time data as the storm comes ashore. Holmes Beach got the first Sentinel set up of the storm and just the second of all time. The sentinel is a groundbreaking piece of engineering and remote sensing equipment that for the first time ever takes the data both wind and flood simultaneously and records same for analysis. I conduct a survey of the community as a licensed FAA 107 remote pilot with my unmanned aerial vehicles so I can capture the before conditions and then do the same after so we can have a better understanding of just what the damage signature of a particular event with known wind speed and flood height characteristics. The set up went well in Holmes Beach and we left there with a knowledge that this town still battering back from Hurricane Helene would look a whole lot different the next time we would be there to visit.
Owners Representative & Engineer of Record
We have found ourselves back closer to the fire providing hard construction management and engineering services than we have in years. I have found that I love this work and it reminds me of the early days when I made my bones tearing apart hundreds of homes and light commercial projects as a young contractor. These new projects are top of the line and mostly luxury residential which seems to be a good fit for our group.
