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For anyone who’s followed demographic and population trends in Florida over the past few years, Jonathan Russell’s story will sound familiar. About four years ago, while in his mid-30s, he relocated from Houston to St. Petersburg, giving up a promising career with Turner Construction Co., one of the largest contractors in the country, to follow his entrepreneurial dreams.
“I moved to Florida from Texas and did not know one person,” Russell says. “I started a company from scratch. It wasn’t my father’s, and nobody gave it to me. I had my savings account and my 401k, which I basically depleted to get to get this thing off the ground. Four years later, we have two offices, in Sarasota and St. Petersburg, and a dozen employees.”
As owner and president of St. Pete-based Partners Development & Construction Group, Russell has quickly made his mark on his new home. The company’s first big win was an extensive renovation of the Venice Assembly of God, now known as Lift Church, and that $3 million job opened the floodgates. The firm has since completed a wide variety of commercial projects, including a new office building for Cushman & Wakefield in Tampa and the new headquarters of insurance giant HCI Group Inc., also in Tampa. It also builds homes, mostly in Manatee and Sarasota counties.
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