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“I just love the look on everybody’s face the first day they get in and see what we’ve done,” said Brian Miller, Director of Operations for Nicholas & Associates, a construction management and contracting company which opened its first branch in Florida last year – selecting the Tampa Bay region for its expansion from Chicago.
Founded in 1978 by Nick Papanicholas Sr. at his kitchen table in the suburbs of Chicago, the company has grown from 2 employees to 175. Now run by his 4 children, they’ve further expanded the business, providing clients with construction management, design/ build, and general contracting services throughout Florida, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Miller credits their exponential growth to the company’s family values and great reputation. “Our clients will say we treat them like family,” Miller said, “We see clients and partners and we want to make sure that we have an enjoyable relationship with them.”
Focused on the education market, Nicholas & Associates has completed approximately $1.5 Billion in work since 2010 in “educational construction work, kindergarten through high school, additions, new construction, remodel, new football stadiums for the schools,” Miller said. As well as educational work, Nicholas & Associates builds “multi-family apartment complexes in Tampa, Milwaukee, and Illinois, basically start to finish - ranging from 200 units to 400 units, higher end amenity type.” In the last 5 years, they’ve completed more than $1 billion in work.
Already firmly entrenched in Illinois and Milwaukee, the company made the decision to open a branch here in Tampa, feeling “the time was right.” Miller added “This area is booming. We’ve got a lot in the pipeline and our owners decided it was time to open an office here.” While they may have just opened their branch here in August of 2022, they are by no means the new kids on the block. “We’ve been doing multi-family development construction here for years,” Miller said. “There have been a couple in Hyde Park that we’ve finished before we even had boots on the ground.”
Their current project, The Niche, is a state-of-the-art high end 250-unit apartment building with top-of-the-line amenities including a rooftop pool that overlooks the skyline of downtown Tampa, a fitness center, clubhouse, and even a golf simulator room. With Tampa’s exponential growth in recent years, the Niche will help to alleviate a strained housing market. With 80 of its 250 units going to be small 400- 500 square feet studios known as micro-units, they’ll be options “very affordable for students and young people,” Miller said. With built-in multipurpose furniture, “It’s a great use of a small affordable space,” according to Miller. Ideally situated “walking distance to downtown, walking distance to the Hyde Park shopping area, and right next door to the university of Tampa,” The Niche is slated for occupancy in December 2023, miller said. “We’re excited for people to start seeing it.”
A Member of the chamber since opening their branch here, Nicholas & Associates is currently serving as a mentor in the Chamber’s mentor-protégé program. “We first started with the Chamber in August of last year and we love it,” Miller said. “Networking, learning about the city and the challenges and opportunities here… it’s been very rewarding for us.”
Check out their feature on Fox 13 News, here.