Cement Industries continues 55 years of tradition
Iconic company poised to meet latest building challenges
BY EVAN WILLIAMS ewilliams@florida-weekly.com

>>Thomas Hart Benton

A recreation of a Thomas Hart Benton mural depicting construction workers hangs behind Cement Industries

President Gay Rebel Thompson's desk, reminding visitors of the physical power and grace inherent in hard labor.

It also alludes to the challenges her company will face this year as it celebrates another anniversary. Cement Industries has been a supplier of building materials and a subcontractor in Southwest Florida's construction industry for 55 years.

"The figures in the painting are powerful," Thompson said, pointing to a place on the canvas where laborers bend and twist in toil. "And construction is fascinating to me. You start with a sheet of paper and when you're done you have office buildings and firehouses and police stations. It's an amazing process."

The Mid-Point Bridge sound wall, City of Palms Park, Germain Arena in Lee County and a fire station in The Keys made to withstand 200 mph winds are a few of CI's thousands of projects. Thompson has spent more than 30 years as president of the company her father William Brown Thompson and partner Harvey Woodruff Bamman founded.

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTOS EVAN WILLIAMS >>Cement Industries, Inc. President Gay Thompson

"My father recognized this area as the hub of the Southwest," she said. "That was when Cleveland Avenue had two lanes and stopped at Page Field."

CI originally existed on a one-acre property with three employees; since then it has grown onto 55 acres of land south of downtown. During five decades it built with wallboard, steel, lime, plaster, brick and stone, finally phasing those out in the 1970s in favor of precast/prestressed concrete as the building material of choice. CI went on to perfect a version of prestressed concrete called "Hollowcore," which installs more easily, muffles sound, reduces energy costs and stands up to high winds effectively.

The company has morphed many times over the years to deal with changing market conditions, Thompson said. The recent slump in real estate has been the latest hurdle. But even as CI's concrete sales dropped locally, the price of importing the raw material to make it rose internationally.

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTO EVAN WILLIAMS Cement Industries has been a supplier of building materials and a subcontractor in Southwest Florida's construction industry for 55 years.

Almost half the cement in Florida is imported from overseas, Thompson said. It comes from places like Sweden, Venezuela and Greece but is being bought up by places like India or China where the demand for building materials is still rising along with the populations, and driving up the prices.

"You've got this lack of business but the price of component materials are going up," she said. "You usually don't see that in a slow market like this. In the past three to five years there's been a global economic impact that I don't think we've ever felt. You wouldn't think that what's going on in Dubai would effect us here, but it does."

Also, the cost of shipping those materials overseas has doubled in the last few years, she said, because of a scarcity of ocean liners and since it takes about four years to build a new one.

The increases in price for buying foreign cement and shipping it began skyrocketing in 2004, Thompson said.

"But then we at least were busy," she said, thinking of a time just a few years ago when Southwest Florida properties were hot. "I just feel like we're constantly dealing with change. I have to tell you there was something unique in every one of the 33 years I've been here."

After all this time in sunny Southwest Florida, Thompson said inclement weather and volatile markets are things that make her life more interesting, even if stressful at times; it's all part of the sweet and sour charms of home.

"There's still a warmth and intimacy you can find on the Southwest coast that you can't find anywhere else," she said. "We're a little more relaxed, more laid back - and that's a good thing."