The owner and president of GCM Contracting Solutions will be presenting his company’s latest innovations to an international audience of marina industry leaders in December.
Robert Brown, who founded GCM in 1988, will address the advantages of drystack automation and tilt-up construction at The Docks Expo, a three-day conference attended by marina and dock owners, boatyard operators, marine product manufacturers and distributors, engineers, consultants and government officials.
GCM has drawn international attention for its construction of a smart marina that will be the world’s first to feature stacker crane technology. Once completed, the fully automated, multi-level system at Gulf Star Marina on Fort Myers Beach will replace the traditional forklift method used in drystack boat storage with an electric railed solution, offering quick rack-to-water vessel delivery.
The Fort Myers-based company also is a leader in tilt-up construction, a type of construction in which the framework for walls is built directly on site, embedded with rebar and filled with concrete before cranes lift walls into place. Tilt-up is known for its supreme sturdiness, fire safety protection and hurricane resistance, and facilities often are built in less time and at lower costs than other traditional construction methods.
“The project at Gulf Star Marina combines two of our specialties – drystack automation and tilt-up construction – and I’m excited to showcase our latest innovations at The Docks Expo,” Brown said. “We’ve built many of Southwest Florida’s top marinas over the years, so when we began collaborating with an Austrian-based company in 2011 to co-develop technology to fully automate the storage and retrieval process for boats with no human operator, we knew we were charting new waters. We’re still four to six months from project completion at Gulf Star Marina, but our drystack technology already is the talk of the marina industry.”
Smart marinas using GCM’s stacker crane technology are attractive to marina owners, Brown said, because automation reduces personnel costs and increases a marina’s leasable cubic space by 30% to 50%, while boat owners appreciate being able get on the water within minutes of their arrival and face less risk of having their boats damaged by forklifts, hurricanes and fires.
The Docks Expo will be held Dec. 3-5 in Nashville, Tenn., and is produced by Marina Dock Age, a monthly magazine dedicated to marina and boatyard management. GCM and Gulf Star Marina were featured in the publication last year after the project broke ground.
In 2018, Brown also was asked to present an overview of ASAR, the company’s automated storage and retrieval system, to a worldwide audience of marine and boating executives at the International Council of Marine Industry Associations’ annual conference in Greece.
About GCM Contracting Solutions
GCM Contracting Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1988 by Robert Brown, owner and president. The Fort Myers-based company is a design-build general contractor providing turn-key construction services and specializing in architectural and structural design, tilt-up concrete construction, dry stack boat storage facilities, smart storage solutions for marinas, and coastal and waterfront erosion containment systems. The GCM family of companies includes GCM Contracting Solutions, Inc., Coastal Erosion Protection System, Safe Harbour Dry Stacks and ASAR. For more information, please call 239-334-8800 or visit www.GCMContracting.com.
