With a 30-year legacy, Renaissance Development Corp builds stunning luxury lakefront properties in Atlanta
With a focus on creating exceptional quality and lasting value, Renaissance Development Corp (Renaissance) continues to be one of Atlanta’s most sought-after builders. Warren Sirzyk, President, has been in business since the early 1980s, when he originally came to Atlanta from Montreal, Canada.
“With a background in high-rise construction and commercial development, I started by building high-rise condos for a Canadian client in Canada. Having built a few projects for them, I was asked to build one of Atlanta’s first midrise concrete condos. I later met my wife and eventually went into business for myself. I began by building custom luxury single-family homes, handling renovations, and some small office pro-jects. I hold a degree in Civil Engineering and another in Management, and I am meticulous with all structural elements. At present, we work on a mix of spec homes and fully custom luxury builds, roughly 70 percent custom and 30 percent speculative,” Warren opens.
Experience across styles
That depth of experience and technical know-how plays a vital role in distinguishing Renaissance in Atlanta’s bustling homebuilding market. Over the course of his career, Warren has also provided expert witness services for attorneys in the Atlanta area, offering professional guidance on single-family home disputes and structural issues. Beyond building and renovating, Renaissance is committed to helping clients identify and resolve problems on existing homes. Warren’s expertise empowers him to take on a wide array of projects, no matter the style.
“I recently completed a large contemporary modern home, one of perhaps half a dozen I have built over my career in that style. However, most of our homes are traditional or transitional in character. My per-sonal taste leans more towards transitional, with a mix of different elements like brick, stone and cedar roofing. On certain projects, we like to use steel windows and steel doors as accent features, and equally we use the full gamut of HardiePlank and other types of siding and soffit options depending on the aesthetic we are going for. We have also completed what I would describe as modern farmhouses, which are traditional in appearance from the outside but more contemporary inside,” Warren adds.
Significant projects
A concrete illustration of that versatility is two recently completed multimillion-dollar custom homes in North Atlanta. Both sit on a lake, which is unusual within the city limits, making them particularly special. Lakefront properties inside Atlanta are extremely popular, especially if they are centrally located near shopping, schools and amenities, thereby making them increasingly expensive to acquire and develop. Al-most all of Renaissance’s custom builds in Atlanta include pools and normally feature five-to-six bedrooms and seven-to-nine bathrooms, with most spanning between 5500 and 8000 square feet.
“Alongside all our projects in Atlanta, we are currently developing our own subdivision of 14 lots in Brookhaven, Georgia. The roads have just been completed, and we will begin construction in early May. We have developed smaller subdivisions on our own before, some even a little larger than the one we are building, but this is our most significant current one. Furthermore, we are working on two new large custom homes involving demolition of existing structures followed by full new builds,” he shares.
Across every project, Warren remains personally involved, a quality that is especially valued on complex builds that can be stressful for clients as they need to make several significant decisions. As Renaissance celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, he reflects on the role this personal touch has played in shaping the company’s reputation over four decades.
“I am not the kind of person who enjoys being in the office, I tend to be site every day working hands-on across all my projects, even when I have project managers in place. This is partly because I prefer to keep a close eye on everything. Right now, I am building a home for a second-time client whose parents’ house I also built. By following families as their needs change and their children grow up and build their own homes, we foster long-term relationships with clients, which is a source of pride and success for us at Re-naissance,” he reveals.
Despite his hands-on involvement in the construction process, Warren is clear that the right people are essential to delivering at this level. Like many companies in the construction and homebuilding sectors, finding and retaining skilled tradespeople remains a challenge. Warren’s solution, which has brought tangible results, has been to develop talent from within. “When I find someone younger who seems capable and has the right attitude, I invest in training them,” he says.
“For instance, I have developed a couple of project managers that way over the years. One was a carpenter who is fluent in Spanish, which is invaluable when working in the Atlanta region, and who has been working with me for six years. Another has worked for me on and off for nearly ten years. Both came to me when they were young and inexperienced, and I trained them over the years to become the professionals they are today. That approach is something we will continue with to ensure a strong workforce. Whenever we find somebody with the right attributes, we usually bring them on, whether as an employee or a trust-ed subcontractor across our projects,” he ends.
In a market full of volume builders, Warren’s personal investment in the construction process ensures that each project is constructed to the highest quality standards while fostering strong client relationships.