This week, at The Long Game studio, we had two conversations. One with a man who has put up more buildings in Miami than almost anyone alive. The other with a CEO who grew up on Florida job sites and spent three decades mastering the discipline, culture, and grit it takes to build at the highest level, before betting everything on a company of his own.
Both episodes are about construction. But really, they’re about something more fundamental and aligned with what we seek to understand at The Long Game - what it takes to build something that lasts.
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Brad Meltzer | President & Partner, Two Roads Development
Brad didn’t start in Miami. He grew up on Long Island, graduated from Tulane’s School of Architecture, and cut his teeth building corporate interiors for firms like Union Bank of Switzerland and Wachtell Lipton in New York City. He arrived in Miami in 1998 under what he calls the “happy wife, happy life" theory. His wife was born and raised in Coconut Grove, which ultimately brought Brad to Miami. His first project here was the Mandarin Oriental on Brickell Key, one of the city’s first true five-star hotels. Just recently, that same building was torn down to make way for a new ultra-luxury condo-hotel development, a full-circle moment that speaks to how long Brad has been shaping Miami’s skyline. He’s been building the city long enough to see his own projects reach the end of their lifecycle and make room for the next one.
Today, Two Roads is executing across Miami, Tampa, Las Vegas, and the Bahamas, with over $2.5 billion in construction loans closed in the past year. The Four Seasons Henderson in Las Vegas is 85% sold at over $2,000 per square foot. After about 30 years and 30+ towers, he knows a thing or two about what separates a building that sets records from one that never gets finished.
From framing houses on Long Island to CEO of Plaza Construction to President and Partner at Two Roads - Brad shares his mindset behind the climb.
1000 Museum: 10,000-pound exoskeleton panels shipped from Dubai, each barcoded to a specific position on the facade, and why the building was only completed because of decisions made two years before breaking ground.
Brad's zero-allowance philosophy, and how Two Roads hit just 1.4% in allowances on a $633 million GMP in Las Vegas.
Why most construction budgets blow up before a shovel goes in the ground, and what separates a project manager from a change order administrator.
The 52-story building in Edgewater that convinced Brad to join Two Roads, and how watching Taylor Collins and Reid Born handle a bad day revealed who they are.
How the Four Seasons Henderson is introducing vertical condo living to a Las Vegas market built around single-family homes, and why Nevada's trajectory is starting to look a lot like South Florida's.
The logistics of building in the Bahamas, when nearly everything has to be shipped in.
The one infrastructure challenge Brad believes could define, or constrain, Miami's next chapter.
What Brad tells young professionals in construction and development who want to build something that lasts.
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Michael “Mike” Neal | CEO, KAST Construction
Mike Neal is a native Floridian, a rare thing in Miami, who grew up in a working-class household in Hollywood, Florida, where his father, a union electrician, put him on job sites at 15 and made sure he understood exactly what he was working to avoid. Those lessons stuck. Mike went to the University of Florida, graduated into a $13,500-a-year job building Wyndham hotels for McDevitt Street, and spent the next 25 years rising through the ranks of one of the most culture-driven construction firms in the country. He learned client relationships from Trammell Crow, the largest private real estate operator in the U.S. in the 70s. He learned leadership during a high-stakes turnaround in Richmond, Virginia, where he inherited a broken office with angry clients, demoralized employees, and subcontractors who wanted nothing to do with the company. He fixed it, then quit, got burned by a company that couldn’t match its own promises, and eventually co-founded what would become KAST Construction.
Today, KAST is a $1 billion firm with offices across South Florida, a diversified portfolio spanning condos, multifamily, hospitality, and an emerging public sector practice, and a culture Mike has spent fifteen years deliberately engineering. He’s been through the Great Financial Crisis, the Covid supply shock, and every cycle in between. Today, he's not slowing down - he's engineering what the next version of KAST looks like.
How a father’s lesson on a rooftop in Florida set the direction for Mike’s entire career.
What Bob Street and McDevitt Street of McDevitt & Street taught him about culture, client loyalty, and the idea that repeat customers aren’t a metric, they’re the mission.
The Richmond turnaround: inheriting a broken office, rebuilding trust with clients who didn’t want to see him, and what it actually takes to shift a team’s culture from the inside.
Why Mike left a 25-year career he loved, got burned on a deal that was “too good to be true,” and what that experience taught him about culture as the single most important variable in any business.
How KAST survived the 2008 financial crisis, including Mike personally signing on loans, working out deals with lenders, and doing the right thing when it would have been easy not to.
The evolution from a captive in-house builder to a $1 billion independent firm, and the disciplined diversification strategy that’s now KAST’s competitive moat.
How Castle navigated the Covid cost spike, absorbed subcontractor increases that weren’t in the contract, and what “extreme ownership” looks like when the market moves against you.
The public sector initiative Mike has been building for three years, and why he believes it’s the key to building an evergreen business that can outlast any cycle.
What succession planning looks like when you’re 70 years old, running a $1 billion company, and thinking seriously about the people and culture you’ll leave behind.
Two builders. Two very different paths. One consistent theme: the companies and careers that endure are the ones built on relationships, culture, and the willingness to do the right thing when it’s expensive to do so.
Be great,
Jay Roberts
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