Profile

But they could just as easily be talking, quite literally, about driving.

The 2005 president of the Northeast Florida Builders Association (NEFBA) and founder of Brylen Homes and Custom Homes by Bryan Lendry became interested in automobile racing after his friend Ken Kuester, president of Lumber Unlimited, invited him to attend NASCAR’s Fast Track Driving School at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in North Carolina.

“It was one of those things where I was second-guessing my decision to even go,” says Lendry, a Massachusetts native. “It took me the first three days to get comfortable behind the wheel going that quick.”

These days Lendry is hooked on the three-day sessions, where he gets a chance to drive the same NASCAR vehicles the pros do.

“Taking off in that car is probably the most invigorating feeling you can have,” Lendry says. “You have all that power underneath your foot. It’s pretty intense.”

Lendry, 44, does nothing halfway. When the ABC’s Extreme Makeover: New Home Edition came to Northeast Florida, it was Lendry who headed the monumental effort required to build a 4,000-square-foot home in 96 hours.

And he spearheaded the high-profile project while running one of the region’s most consistently successful locally-owned homebuilding companies and serving as president of the state’s largest home builders association.

“Even as a child, Bryan was always focused,” says his father, Don, who came out of retirement to earn his real estate license and work as a sales consultant for Brylen Homes. “What really amazes me is how he has the ability to juggle so many balls and focus on all of them.”

Actually, the Lendry patriarch is largely responsible for instilling in his five children—Bryan, who has two brothers and two sisters, is the second-oldest sibling—the values and the work ethic required to thrive in business and in life.

Don Lendry, who enjoyed a 37-year career as a sales representative for Jostens, a yearbook publisher and commercial printer, says he tried to teach his children universal truths about customer service, ethical behavior and fair employment practices.

“The principles I used in my business were the same kind of common-sense things I wanted to pass along to my children,” Don Lendry says.

Lendry took those lessons with him to American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, a private institution where civic involvement was encouraged. He graduated in 1985, the school’s centennial year, with a degree in business management and an interest in homebuilding.

“I had a summer job one year during college doing construction with a remodeler,” Lendry says. “I wanted to run my own company, but my father advised me to work for another company first to learn the industry.”

So Lendry took a job as a management trainee with a national homebuilder and relocated to Atlanta. He watched, listened, learned—and excelled.

“A year later, they told me they had a promotion opportunity for me in Jacksonville" target="_blank">Jacksonville, Florida,” Lendry recalls. “I said, ‘Where? Are you sure it’s a promotion?’ But I came down here for a weekend and fell in love with the city.”

In fact, Lendry grew so fond of Jacksonville" target="_blank">Jacksonville that he actually passed up another promotion, which would have meant a move to Baltimore, when it was offered to him.

Seeking a more diversified background, Lendry soon left the national company and joined a local custom-home builder. Then, by 1992, he was preparing to start his own company, Custom Homes by Bryan Lendry.

Jeff Tabb, Lendry’s brother-in-law, was part of the new enterprise. “Bryan wanted to build his business with family members,” recalls Tabb, who now heads the company’s custom-home division.

Lendry’s brother Steve, now vice president of construction, also joined the fledgling firm along with Beth Antzaklis, now vice president of marketing.

“When we started out, it was just Bryan, Jeff, Steve and me,” recalls Antzaklis. “We worked out of the extra bedroom in Bryan’s house.” The company moved to a small office a year later.

Lendry’s first project was a 5,000-square-foot home in The Plantation. It had to be completed in five months in order to qualify for the NEFBA Parade of Homes, exposure Lendry considered crucial for a new company.

“I actually got several other jobs from the appearance of that project in the Parade of Homes,” Lendry recalls. The company’s homes have subsequently earned numerous parade honors.

In addition, the company built the 1995 Symphony Guild Showcase Home and has won the National Association of Home Builders Best in American Living Award as well as multiple Laurel Awards from the NEFBA Sales and Marketing Council and Aurora Awards from the Florida Home Builders Association.

But as his company grew, Lendry became more cognizant of the need to give back—to the industry and to the community.

“Bryan’s very sociable and gregarious, but he has a humanitarian side not everyone sees,” says Kuester, whose company is also known for its charitable endeavors.

Bill Wilson, executive director of Builders Care, agrees. Builders Care, which rehabilitates substandard homes for elderly and disabled Northeast Floridians, was the umbrella organization through which the Extreme Makeover project was accomplished.

“Bryan gets what we do at Builders Care,” Wilson says. “Not everybody does, but he gets it. He uses his personal assets and influence to do philanthropic things.”

Says Lendry: “Builders Care impacts so many lives in this town. Some of the stories are just heart-wrenching. It’s humbling to know how just a few man-hours can completely change someone’s life.”

Another trait for which Lendry is known is his industry savvy. While president of NEFBA, he worked to provide as much information as possible to builders and to buyers. In the process, he came to be regarded as something of a guru on market trends.

NEFBA’s jaxhomefacts.com Web site and the “great time to buy” promotional campaign were outgrowths of Lendry’s insistence that builders and buyers needed objective information to make smart decisions.

“Bryan’s a visionary. He really keeps a finger on the pulse of the industry,” says Kuester. “He has a great ability to forecast, and seems to know what to get into and what to get out of.”

That ability has served Lendry well in business. At first, he built only one-of-a-kind custom homes. But his early experience with production building made it easy to merge the two disciplines—and carve out a profitable niche in the semi-custom market.

“I found that a lot of people wanted nice homes, but they didn’t need quite as much square footage or all of the features [found in custom homes],” says Lendry. “So, I began building homes in the 2,000-3,000-square-foot range for less by working from a series of base plans.”

Buyers can mix, match and personalize. But by using existing plans as a basis, the resulting homes offer many custom-home features without the custom-home price tag.

This concept spawned some of Lendry’s most successful projects in communities such as Amelia Park, Bartram Park, Palencia, Ocean Oaks and Deerwood Point.

“My favorite part of a project is the design, the creative side,” says Lendry, who’s a single father with three children: Reese, 15; Kaylee, 13, and Chase, 9. “It’s really neat to be able to look at a piece of property and envision what can be done with it.”

Don Lendry couldn’t be more proud. “We instilled in our kids the idea that if you can dream it, go for it,” he says. “Don’t focus on the money. The money will come. Focus on the journey. Treat people right and do the right things.”??