Looking back at recent evolvements in the construction industry, Gary Wilkes is adamant that an intangible element is the most important and vital of all.

That intangible is management, says Gary Wilkes, the sole owner of Fort Myers-based Gary Wilkes Inc. general contracting company. Wilkes says he gained a "sense of belonging and equality" during a Navy stint that saw him do service in Vietnam. He started his working career as a fiberglass laminator on small boats, then switched to cabinetmaker and eventually progressed to becoming a building construction estimator, a project manager for increasingly large companies and finally to head of a company with around $15-million in annual volume today.

Explains Wilkes, 44, about his commitment to the philosophy of construction management, "there were times in the industry when the contractor only came into the picture after the owner and architect had decided on design, and this often led to adversarial situations. Owners would request modifications without being completely conscious of cost, and the end result would be that extra costs would be seen to be the fault of the contractor."

His point is that by construction management, all parties are in on projects from the ground up, effectively ironing out any cost problems before they even emerge.

Wilkes, who's been in the industry for 24 years, is quick to point out that the concept of this vital teamwork is nothing new (he himself obtained a degree in construction management in 1980) but that its implementation has only recently begun to become commonplace.

"Right now," he says, "you're seeing this happen with the school boards (of Lee and Collier Counties) and county government. The industry is shifting to construction management and a design/build concept. The owner puts together the essentials: architect and team, contractor and team and sub-contractor and team. Cost adjustments are left up to the contractor.

"We know costs," he says simply. "We know about costs involved in parts of structures that cannot be seen from the outside. That is the primary advantage of this kind of management. The aim is to stick to the budget established up front."

Another advantage of construction management, he says, is the joint decision by contractor and owner about the choice of sub-contractors and the emphasis on quality from their side as well.

By this, Wilkes alludes to the fact that because there is so much work available in Southwest Florida at the moment, many sub-contractors tend to be fly-by-nights, and by the same token, he says he himself will not take on more work than he knows he can manage. "I used to believe that size and volume was everything," he says, "now I know that control is the key.

Wilkes also knows all too well the positives and negatives of the local market. "Money is cheap, mortgages are cheap, so people are buying," he says. "This area is one of the hottest spots in the US at the moment, but our dilemma is the available work force."

Wilkes, a father of four boys ranging from a young teen to twin 10-year-olds to a toddler, employs 21 people in his business, but wife Nadine is not among them. She's a stockbroker and has her hands full in that respect, he says.

The company, which specializes in commercial projects, and was previously Wallace-Wilkes Inc., has completed more than 157 projects in the past 11 years, with activity covering the local five-county area and as far away as Ocala, Orlando and Daytona Beach. During that time, the firm has contracted more than $70-million in business. Recent local projects include churches in Cape Coral and Bonita Springs, a Robb & Stucky Patio Store, several post offices, some condominiums and several Eckerd drug stores, for which Wilkes has become especially well known.

Particularly close to Wilkes' own heart is the construction of churches, something he extrapolates by assisting with the building of churches as a "building missionary," as he puts it, in parts of South America. And, seeing beyond business here at home, he admits to gleaning pleasure from looking at the esthetics of the finished product.

Wilkes also belongs to numerous clubs and organizations -- he's an officer and director of the local Christian Chamber of Commerce and a member of both the Collier and Lee Building Associations, among many other professional groups. He describes his daily routine as being "all mapped out," not least from the crack of dawn when he assists Nadine with getting Alex, Kevin, Shaun and Grayson off to school, after which, "I basically manage the office."

This doesn't suggest he's lost the hands-on touch -- he's regularly on site, whether it takes him a quarter of an hour to get to a local project, or whether he has to make the haul to the other side of the state.

Wilkes declines to elaborate on his childhood, other than to confirm that it was not a happy time, and he is neither modest nor blase about the success of Gary Wilkes Inc. "I realized that if you want to do something, you can go as far as you want to, depending on your effort," he says.

And as for stress, if any, in the extraordinarily busy Gary Wilkes lifestyle?

Wilkes laughs.

"You learn how to manage it, too," he says.

Keith Bredt is a freelance business writer.