by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
One enjoys working with his hands doing interior trim, building houses and doing renovations.
The other enjoys dealing with clients, managing the business and creating good relationships with clients.
Together they are Barnett Builders - David and Greg Barnett, a father-son building team who build custom homes, spec homes and renovate extensively.
The company was originally called Capital City Interior Trim when they lived in Tallahassee and David worked alone doing mainly interior trim. They relocated to Jacksonville, when Greg’s mom took a job here.
When Greg joined the company, they decided to do business as Barnett Builders because the name is more recognizable as a building company than just an interior trim company.
The company builds and renovates homes from Intracoastal West to Downtown.
They currently have two homes in the Springfield area under construction, which will start in the low $130’s.
They also purchased homes in the Isle of Palms area and knocked them down to make way for new modern homes. The builder’s model home, a 4,100 square foot, fully upgraded, split level with a three-car garage currently for sale right under the million dollar mark.
The Barnetts perceive the Isle of Palms community’s focal point is its navigable, and recently dredged, deep canals. The company currently has four projects in the works there and has plans to continue refurbishing and rebuilding the neighborhood after these four projects are complete.
Since coming to Jacksonville a year and a half ago, Barnett’s signature trait has been re-inventing existing neighborhoods.
“The Isle of Palms area consisted of older 1960’s style cinder block homes,” said Greg. “We went in and built two new homes and remodeled two.”
In the past 18 months, they have built three houses and remodeled four.
Each home is unique in that David does most of the work himself. From framing the homes to hanging cabinets, his projects contain a personalized investment.
“We do our own interior work,” said David. “We do our own framing, windows, doors, siding, cabinets, flooring, interior trim and more. If you think about it, that’s a lot of work we don’t have to hire a subcontractor to do.”
“We can deliver a house in four to five months,” said Greg.
His role is as manager of the company and as the eye for the customer.
He helps them choose and design cabinets, flooring, tile and other interiors for his father to install. He also handles the accounting for the company, scheduling and other customer service items. Greg has his real estate license, so the company can handle a whole job from land acquisition all the way to completion of construction.
David has been building homes since before his son was born. His father and uncle started building homes in Connecticut after World War II, so he is a second generation builder and his son is a third generation builder.
Though, it almost didn’t turn out that way.
David earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Hartford and a master’s degree in analytical chemistry from the University of Massachusetts. After college, he went to work for a pharmaceutical company and did not like the traveling, so he decided to follow in his family’s footsteps and start building homes.
David started his building career in Pennsylvania and then Chicago over 30 years ago.
“I spent 18 years in Chicago building homes in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana,” said David. “They are all kind of connected. At one point we built the largest family home in Indiana. It was over 10,000 square feet.”
David and his family moved to Tallahassee where he built more homes and did several renovations before moving to Jacksonville a year and a half ago.
Greg attended college in Tallahassee, but decided he wanted to get his real estate license and go into business with his father instead. Greg hopes to grow the business and carry on the third generation tradition of building homes in Jacksonville.