Rob Christy, Founder, Suncoast Permits
In an interview with Invest:, Rob Christy, founder of Suncoast Permits, discussed the company’s role in supporting builders, developers, and contractors. “We help streamline the permitting process with expertise and efficiency,” he said, emphasizing the importance of compliance and minimizing delays. Christy also highlighted the company’s focus on leveraging technology and fostering strong relationships with municipalities to expedite approvals.
How is Suncoast Permits supporting businesses in the Tampa Bay region?
Suncoast Permits is a trusted partner for builders, developers, and contractors. We help streamline the permitting process with expertise and efficiency. We provide permitting solutions across residential and commercial projects, ensuring compliance and minimizing delays. Our team’s knowledge of local regulations and the relationships we have with municipalities allow us to keep projects on track for our clients.
What are some key highlights for Suncoast Permits over the past year?
I’d say the strategic growth and innovations in our services have helped better support high-volume builders and developers. We’ve broadened our offerings, optimized digital tools, successfully completed thousands of permits, and made advancements on phase one of our client portal, which will offer enhanced permit tracking, improved submission processes, and increase transparency for our clients. We’ve focused our efforts on strengthening our partnerships with builders, architects, and contractors to improve the overall permitting process and client experience.
What role does digital permitting or automation play in expediting approvals?
We’re focusing on improving our internal operations by building a client portal to better track permits coming in and permits going out and collect data along the way. Through this, we can analyze data, share it with our clients, and find errors and inconsistencies that need to be addressed to improve project timelines. They say “information is only useful when it can be understood,” so our goal is to understand the data, the frequent or repeated rejections, and the common areas of delay and then find ways to mitigate or solve those inefficiencies..
There’s a lot of new tech in the construction space — really interesting things, whether it’s out in the field or interfacing with a client portal through a government office. Improvements are coming, although adoption moves rather slowly. I encourage the industry to embrace the idea of adopting technology and all that can be done because it’s one of the few ways we can reduce costs. Many things feel fixed on the cost side, but there’s major room for improvement in efficiency. Suncoast is committed to implementing these innovations in ways that benefit our clients.
What are some major challenges you’ve faced over the past year related to construction permitting?
It’s changing all the time. New building codes, new zoning regulations, hurricanes, and unforeseen storms — these are all factors that contribute to increased permit review times. Currently, municipalities are inundated with storm damage permits, which rightfully go to the front of the line, unfortunately causing new construction projects to wait. The storms have definitely affected coastal permitting, especially in areas near the affected regions. There’s always increased regulation, whether it’s building code or land development code. Unfortunately, government struggles to make the process easier. Government agencies face constraints due to operational inefficiencies such as staffing and technology. The intent is always good — local municipalities want safer structures and things built in a better way — but that isn’t always the outcome.
There are always challenges. It’s a very interesting space, navigating between private and government sectors, trying to successfully manage all the companies we work for, ensuring their permits stay on schedule or ahead of schedule without creating too much friction at the government level. We have to walk a fine line in managing those relationships.
What would you say makes Tampa Bay such a great location for your business to operate and grow?
The entire state of Florida is a great place for construction and always has been. We love Florida, and we’re trying to expand more on a daily basis to cities across Florida and beyond to other states. Tampa Bay has been a wonderful place to start and grow a business. It continues to be a top destination for development. We’ve had a thriving economy for many years due to population growth and a pro-business climate. Those things alone have been such a blessing for the success of my business.
If you were to look at Tampa Bay compared to South Florida, although prices have risen, the cost of living and the cost of real estate is relatively more affordable. Tampa Bay is still an attractive spot for builders and developers. Tampa Bay continues to lead in growth and development — it’s exciting! We have great professional sports teams, colleges, beaches, and a very underrated food scene. It’s really a great place to live and raise a family.
How has the demand for your services evolved recently, especially in light of recent construction and development trends?
As busy as the state has become, with more regulation and requirements for permits, it always positively affects our business and the niche we’ve created. It’s nice to have a team like ours that supports builders and developers through the permitting process, whether we’re helping identify what’s required or navigating the many digital portals, which are more difficult than people might expect. Suncoast adds tremendous value through the relationships we provide, the network we’ve created, and the industry knowledge we’ve acquired through many years of experience.
What is your outlook for Suncoast Permits in the near term, and what are your top priorities moving forward?
I’m all about technology and improving efficiency. More digital transformation, cities moving towards automating permitting, and AI-based compliance checks would be really interesting. I think there will be stricter regulations, which will create the necessity for the Suncoast team to help navigate what continues to be more and more difficult. There’s a push for faster project timelines, but there needs to be technology in place to meet that demand.
I like to be on the forefront of figuring out how to make the construction industry better. What can I do, given the set of rules that are in place? How can we weave in and out? At the end of the day, it’s about the community. How can we get the homeowner moved in faster or a business operating sooner? These are all questions that drive our commitment.
If a business owner comes to me — say they’re opening a salon or a restaurant — the impact we can have on them is tremendous. If we can get the permit a month or two earlier than expected, that could be the difference between making or breaking that business. We take our job very seriously because we understand the positive impact.
We’re always pushing for improvements, any way to streamline — whether it’s technology, government regulation, or state-level changes that allow permits to be obtained faster. Whatever it takes, we find a way. My saying is, “Find a way.” I tell my team, “I know it’s hard, but find a way.” You have to push through and have the grit it takes to be successful.
Do you foresee the latest trade tensions with Canada and Mexico having a material impact on your operations or your clients’ operations?
I just have an opinion and speculation. What we’re facing right now in the housing industry is a housing affordability crisis. How do we solve that? What’s going to happen? Typically, it’s something we don’t know until it hits us, and we have to deal with it.
I don’t know how tariffs will affect construction costs, the price of lumber, or materials. It would be wonderful if they reduced those costs — maybe not immediately, but in the long term. If prices come down, you’ll see the prices of homes come down.
Secondly, we need more efficient ways to operate through permitting. Governments need to use technology, AI-driven tools, to rapidly review plans and cut through some of the regulation. Builders are fine with regulation — just tell them what it is and get it done quickly. Tell us the rules, and we’ll abide by them, but we need the process to move faster.
Whatever tools we can create on the tech side to help governments, builders, and architects design code-compliant plans and have governments review them quickly using AI would make a huge difference. I saw a statistic recently: 24% of construction costs are wasted due to permitting delays. That’s a huge number and something that can absolutely be fixed.
It will take the willingness of both public and private sectors to open their eyes to new technologies and find new ways to operate. The acceptance of tech, like ChatGPT and other tools, is amazing. How do we expand on that? How do we create large language models that understand local land development codes and building codes, and can rapidly identify discrepancies or deficiencies in plans? Instead of waiting 30, 60, or 90 days for manual reviews, these tools can assist humans and help us move much faster.
I’m always a glass-half-full person. I see these things happening and am in conversations with tech companies that have really cool solutions. I’m very positive and want to see it happen soon.
Going back, I don’t know how tariffs will affect things. I think we’re all waiting and hoping for the best. There may be some short-term pain for long-term gain.
