Suffolk Construction embraces tech to remain on schedule and on budget
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 26, 2023

Pete Tuffo, president of Gulf Coast Region and National Gaming for Suffolk Construction, said the development industry is facing an inevitable evolution.

Rising project costs, lack of labor, high interest rates and elongated timelines are causing ripples throughout the development community, leading many companies to rethink how they complete projects.

Tuffo said while the industry has been slow — and sometimes reluctant — to adapt, as jobs become more complicated and labor gets more compressed, the best path forward is to rely more heavily on state-of-the-art technology. Suffolk has launched a series of programs and services to keep projects on schedule, improve efficiencies and reduce construction costs.

Suffolk is working on The Residences at 400 Central in downtown St. Petersburg. The team recently completed a record-setting concrete pour where more than 650 concrete trucks poured the foundation for the 46-story tower over a 24-hour period.

Suffolk’s projects also include the Tampa Edition Hotel and Residences, the Asher luxury residences, 1991 Main Street in Sarasota and the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Hotel and Casino expansion.

Suffolk has its own technology process called Plan + Control, which works alongside architects and developers to build a virtual model of a project from the start. By collaborating with the owner, architect and developer at the onset, they can get a strong sense of material orders before drawings are complete.

Tuffo said they’re also bringing on trade partners during the design assist process. Pre-Covid projects followed a simple routine: The project was designed, sent to bid and built. Now those trade partners are brought in early, which Tuffo said ensures they can better manage the budget. Those numbers are locked in during planning, which helps secure approximately half of the budget.

In pre-construction, Suffolk uses a tech called FIRMUS, which identifies design errors, scope gaps and discrepancies. They adopted the tech 18 months ago, and Tuffo said Suffolk is searching for other products to stay ahead of the curve and maximize efficiency.

“The more information you know, the better certainty you can give the numbers,” Tuffo said. “That tool we’re utilizing now helps us make sure the drawings are complete, and everything is in line with the trade partners’ estimates as they come in. Therefore there are no gaps, and that helps pick up time later down the road on other preconstruction.”

The company also created a smart lab that acts as an estimation software that uses historical data locally, regionally and nationally to provide estimates in the conceptual phase. Suffolk also uses pre-fabricated materials as much as possible, which requires fewer people onsite to perform the task. Tuffo said, “pixels are cheaper than bricks” and it’s more efficient to find inconsistencies in the model than in the field.

They also use an on-site system, which monitors what is being built and compares it to the 3D model of the project and tracks the progress of the build, which Tuffo said “limits the amount of any potential rework in the field.”

Tuffo said the Tampa Bay market has grown significantly in the last five to six years in “a really good direction.” But said hurdles like coastal high hazard and availability of trade partners have put even further pressure on developers to streamline their projects as much as possible.

“When I look at how the market has shifted over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a lot of fill-in in downtown areas, and projects themselves are getting larger and more complex,” Tuffo said. “The focus seems to be, has been and will continue to be on the higher-end residential market, which is a little insulated from the market issues that are impacting other areas.”

Pinellas County is insulated due to it being on a peninsula, which geographically puts the county at a disadvantage in drawing in skilled labor. The market in Florida is “hot in every region,” Tuffo said, which means unlike in prior years, it is increasingly difficult to draw in a skilled workforce from neighboring areas. While “fantastic trade partners” exist in Pinellas, Tuffo said more people are getting out of the industry than coming in.

Part of the answer Tuffo believes is to bring awareness of what trades are and what those jobs realistically look like to local high schools. Tuffo is part of the Florida Council of 100, which promotes economic growth in the state. He said the group has begun to work toward getting back into high schools to get young professionals involved in trades earlier.

“There needs to be an awareness program out there getting to young professionals early enough in high school, giving them a path potentially of getting an associate degree while working on perfecting your trade-in internship programs, whether it’s on summer internship programs or mentorship programs,” Tuffo said. “All of those need to be expanded in order for us to continue to keep up with the pace of growth that we have.”