For Ed Cannatelli, size doesn’t matter. But time sure does. And time has dictated how the second-generation general contractor built his business.

“I’ve been a general contractor my whole life. My dad was a builder, my uncle was,” says 47-year-old Coral Springs resident. After moving to Florida from Connecticut, he started Pompano Beach-based Cannatelli Builders in 2003. “What was unique about the Florida market was there wasn’t a lot of integrity with the companies in place,” Cannatelli says bluntly. “People would be surprised when I showed up on time.”

That punctuality and honesty ¬– “quality work at a fair price” – earned his business a lot of referrals. Cannatelli would do “a couple little jobs for people I knew,” and then get calls from their family and friends. Nine years later, Cannatelli Builders is a fully staffed, fullservice contractor. “We don’t work out of a truck,” Cannatelli says. “We have offices, a field manager, and superintendent. We have weekly job meetings, because clients find it important to be involved.”

And some of those clients have big names: Cannatelli Getting it Done built the Florida Panthers’ Den of Honor at the BB&T Center, a 5,000-square-foot living history of the team with display cases featuring old jerseys, gear, and memorabilia. (That’s about one-third the size of an NHL rink full of team tributes.)

He’s also wrapping up a $3.5 million project in Lake Worth, building 12 townhomes ranging in size from 1,900 to 2,300 square feet as affordable housing for artists. The project is called Urban Arts Lofts and is funded by a federal grant that the city’s community redevelopment agency is using to buy up and renovate or rebuild foreclosures.

But the company still takes on smaller projects, including residential remodels and additions. They also just finished an expansion at Tavalino’s Restaurant in Coral Springs. “We did the bar and entertainment area with alcove-reflected lighting, a lot of LED lighting, and an all-lit onyx bar that’s curved and lit underneath,” Cannatelli says proudly.

One of the company’s draws these days is being what Cannatelli calls “a one-stop shop kind of deal.” And that goes back to Cannatelli’s focus on time.

“Back during the boom, we had a unique experience where the architects would be so busy, and we would wait an extended period of time – and it would kill the job,” Cannatelli explained. “So we brought somebody in-house to do our own revisions and our own drawings.”

That not only sped up the process, it gave clients more control and flexibility to make changes.

“We just opened [in late November] a new showroom next to our facility and have our corporate headquarters, interior design, architecture, and general contracting services under one roof,” Cannatelli says. “A client doesn’t have to go out to find all these things: renderings, 3D drawings where you walk through the house, everything’s here.”