Shane Burnsed, Business Leader Central Florida, Gilbane Building Company

April 2026 — Central Florida is one of the most dynamic construction markets in the country, and Gilbane is leaning into that momentum. Invest: spoke with Shane Burnsed, Central Florida business leader for Gilbane Building Company in Orlando, about how the firm is balancing healthcare, education, tourism, and emerging sectors. “We’ve built a solid foundation in Central Florida and now we’re focused on strengthening it and building upon it for the long term,” said Burnsed.

What have been the key milestones and strategic shifts for Gilbane Building Co. in Orlando over the past year?

The past year has been very exciting for our Central Florida office. Gilbane has been operating in this region for more than 50 years, and 2025 marked a major milestone with the topping out of the Cape Canaveral Replacement Hospital, a roughly $410 million greenfield project just east of Orlando.

On the same campus, we recently broke ground on a new medical office building that will serve communities in East Orlando and Brevard County, which underscores the long-term growth we see in this corridor. At the same time, we’ve been very intentional about deepening our relationships with organizations like ABC of Central Florida, the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools, ACE Mentor and other local nonprofits. Those partnerships are central to how we support workforce development and keep our teams engaged in the communities where we live and work.

How is Gilbane positioning its Central Florida operations within the broader national footprint of the company, and what differentiates the Orlando market?

Gilbane has a 150-year history and a strong national reputation, and we carry that legacy into Central Florida. Across the company, our core markets include healthcare and education, and those sectors are just as important here as they are nationally. We partner with major healthcare systems, K-12 districts and higher education institutions to deliver projects that support their growth. Gilbane’s broad experience across major markets, including institutional, cultural, hospitality, public sector, and beyond positions us well in Central Florida.

What differentiates Orlando is the scale and importance of tourism and hospitality in the local economy. We work closely with theme park owners and operators on their long-range building programs, and since the slowdown during COVID, we’ve seen a robust rebound from 2023 to today. Those investments create spin-off opportunities in hotels, transportation, and aviation. Central Florida gives us a unique mix of steady institutional work and large, experience-driven destination projects – all of which Gilbane is well-prepared to support.

How would you describe the state of the construction and development industry in Central Florida?

It’s a diverse and resilient market. Population growth continues to drive demand for housing, education, transportation, and healthcare, while tourism and entertainment generate another layer of large-scale projects. That breadth creates opportunities for contractors of all sizes, but it also adds complexity. Owners are more focused than ever on cost certainty and schedule discipline because financing conditions and input costs can shift quickly.

Our response has been to lean into collaboration and transparency. We partner closely with clients and trade partners to plan projects in a way that prioritizes safety, anticipates market volatility, and looks for efficiencies. At the same time, the biggest challenge we see across the industry is workforce – having enough skilled people, across both general contractors and trades, to deliver the volume and sophistication of projects Central Florida is generating.

What shifts are you seeing in mixed-use and other complex developments across the region?

As more large, mixed-use projects come to market, the ability to staff and sequence them effectively becomes a bigger constraint. That’s where approaches like prefabrication are moving from innovative to standard practice. Ten years ago, you might have thought of prefabrication as something reserved for a small subset of projects; today, we’re using it much more broadly to reduce man-hours on site and move work into controlled environments. That improves predictability, quality, and safety. It also helps us manage labor constraints because we can do more with the same number of people. Across Central Florida, you see mixed-use, hospitality, residential, and institutional projects benefiting from these approaches as owners look to de-risk delivery without compromising on design or experience.

How is Gilbane leveraging innovation and technology to enhance efficiency and improve project outcomes?

We’re involved early in the preconstruction phase. That allows us to collaborate with design partners and owners to deploy technology where it can make the biggest difference. Tools that integrate with BIM help us perform more accurate and efficient quantity takeoffs for materials like concrete and steel, which drives better cost models and earlier conversations about scope and design options.

When owners understand true cost and schedule implications earlier, they can make informed decisions and avoid redesign cycles that delay projects. We’re also utilizing AI-driven solutions for document management and project information control. The goal is to get our teams the right information faster, reduce administrative rework, and improve coordination. That leads to better decision-making in the field and more predictable schedules.

What strategies are you using to recruit, train and retain talent in Central Florida?

We go straight to the source and invest in talent pipelines at multiple stages. With ACE Mentor, we work with high school students who are exploring architecture, engineering, and construction, helping them understand what careers in our industry actually look like. That program also gives us a chance to offer externships where students can spend several weeks in the summer shadowing our project teams or working in the office alongside estimating, accounting, and VDC/BIM staff.

At the college level, we partner with institutions like Seminole State College and UCF to support their construction and engineering programs, offering internships that often extend beyond the summer and into the academic year. Interns who have a strong experience tend to come back and ultimately join us full time. Internally, we run our Rising Contractor program to help newer or smaller trade partners build their business acumen and capacity, so the broader ecosystem grows with us. All of this is about building and sustaining a workforce that will carry our industry into the future.

How is Gilbane involved in local community efforts across Central Florida?

Community engagement is inseparable from our business strategy. Here in Orlando, we partner closely with the local economic development organization – they’re located in our building – to understand what industries are growing, what companies are coming into the market, and how we can support that activity. We also stay active with community organizations like Second Harvest Food Bank and client-affiliated foundations such as the Orange County Public Schools Foundation, which provides scholarships to local students.

United Way is another major partner for Gilbane nationwide, and in Central Florida we support the Heart of Florida United Way through fundraising, volunteerism, and participation in panels that tackle regional issues. Our annual charitable golf tournament is a great example of how we bring clients, partners, and employees together; the proceeds go back to charities throughout Central Florida.

Looking ahead, what are Gilbane’s strategic priorities over the next three to five years?

We’ve built a solid foundation in Central Florida and now we’re focused on strengthening it and building upon it for the long term. That starts with deepening our presence in healthcare and education, because population growth will continue to drive demand for new facilities and complex renovations in both sectors. In hospitality and entertainment, we intend to remain a trusted partner as theme parks and related destinations invest in new attractions and guest experiences.

We’re also focused on emerging sectors like advanced manufacturing, technology and data centers, where Florida – and Central Florida, in particular – is becoming increasingly competitive. Finally, we see significant opportunity to leverage the expertise of  Gilbane Development  to pursue projects where we can bring both construction and development capabilities to the table and help accelerate high-impact projects across the region.