Learn why Boss & Mennie built two completely different luxury homes side by side
At Boss and Mennie, building the finest luxury homes in the Tampa Bay area means more than creating beautiful designs and high-end finishes. It means delivering first-class service and personal attention throughout the entire process, from the first conversation about what a client wants to the day they move in and beyond.
“My business partner Graham Mennie and I founded the company in 2005, having met in the corporate world,” begins Brandon Boss, Owner. “Graham was a mechanical engineer with a Six Sigma certification, which meant he was good at eliminating waste and improving processes. My own background was in quality control, and I had also gone down the Six Sigma path, so when we were brought together at Nestlé to work on several process improvement, waste reduction, and quality control projects, we hit it off both professionally and personally. Shortly after, we started doing historical restorations as well as flipping houses in our spare time, outside of the corporate world. Ultimately, we founded our company in 2005 with a focus to build single-family luxury homes with high-end in-house design, but over the many years we also gained valuable experience working on large commercial projects across several states including the Nike headquarters in Oregon and large projects from New York to New Mexico. Tragically, eight years ago, my best friend and business partner, Graham passed away but our company continued on, not only in name, but in keeping the same passion that it started with.”
Having spent over 20 years building in the Tampa Bay region, Boss & Mennie has watched the market shift over time, and those changes have influenced both the work the company takes on and how it approaches design. “One of the strongest current trends over the last ten years is the move towards more modern homes, or what some call the white box. People are gravitating towards that aesthetic, though I am not sure how long it will last. Interestingly, even within those modern exteriors, clients often still want something warmer or more traditional on the inside. I think certain things never really go away, such as the warmth of wood floors and wood cabinetry. A lot of the white cabinets that were popular even a few years ago are giving way to more traditional wood tones now,” Brandon reveals. With thousands of people moving to Florida every month, the local construction market is constantly evolving, with new ideas and concepts arriving regularly. But the one constant, regardless of style or trend, is that clients want quality, and that is what Boss & Mennie consistently delivers.
Two recent projects illustrate the breadth of what Boss & Mennie’s focus on quality looks like in practice. The first is a Belgian farmhouse in Odessa, set on a large lake front property. The clients had previously been working with another builder but were unhappy with both the design and the pricing. “They then came to us, and we went through the process of trying to truly understand what they were after and put together a design. Immediately, they said this was exactly what they were looking for and they were ready to go. This was a fun project because the house was designed to feel as though it had been there for a very long time by incorporating rough-sawn wood siding, reclaimed wood flooring, a cedar shake-look roof using a modern composite material, plaster walls with an instant sense of antiquity, rich wood cabinetry, and many other old-world finishes,” Brandon highlights.
Client vision
The second standout project began in St. Pete, where two business partners came to Boss & Mennie wanting them to design and develop a spec property on a piece of land they had purchased for just over $1 million. Unlike a typical custom client, they had no personal preference in terms of style, they simply communicated their budget and required square footage and asked the company to design something that would sell. Before the team were done building the house, their realtor had already sold it, and the buyer moved in soon after. The property had a coastal British West Indies look that the buyer ended up customizing further with the help of Boss & Mennie.
The company’s involvement in this project did not end there though. One of those two business partners owned the property next door, as they used to live there. During the hurricanes, that house flooded, so they decided to demolish it and build a new house for themselves. “It was knocked down, and we designed a new home on the same lot and ended up with two houses side by side that could not be more different. The one we built for them personally was a modern exterior with a warmer, more traditional interior. It had very high-end finishes, beautiful kitchen and bathroom fixtures, millwork, a gorgeous pool and a very custom fireplace. Then right next to it sits the British West Indies spec house. It is quite cool to see the two of them together,” Brandon concludes.
At the heart of Boss & Mennie’s approach is a commitment to understanding its clients, enabling the team to create homes that truly reflect their vision, whatever their preferred style.
