About
A studio founded in 2015, still building the way it started.
Gilk is a Tampa design-build studio that Garrett Gilkey, a former NFL player, founded in 2015 and owns today. It has designed, built and renovated high-end homes across South Tampa and a Michelin-starred restaurant in Tampa Heights, opened a second market in Colorado, and now takes on a small number of projects at a time.
Track record
A decade of building, and the numbers behind it.
Tampa, at volume
From a single crew in 2015 to a design-build firm delivering more than $11 million of work in its biggest year, with its own architecture and design team, across Bayshore, Hyde Park, Palma Ceia, Beach Park, Davis Islands, Seminole Heights and the Motor Enclave. The systems that ran that volume, the gate model, the open-book draw package, the vendor and lien process, are the ones every Gilk project runs on today.
A second market, built from scratch
Gilk qualified to do business in Colorado, earned contractor licenses in Jefferson and Adams counties, delivered a mountain custom home in Evergreen, and developed a commercial and residential pipeline from Denver to Pueblo West. Opening a market twelve hundred miles from home is its own kind of project, and the playbook for it is written down.
The years
How a single crew became a studio.
- 2015Founded
Garrett Gilkey founds HGC Design Build in Tampa with a single crew, after a playing career with the Cleveland Browns and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and a master’s degree in engineering.
- 2017First projects
A $500,000 restoration of a Hyde Park bungalow sets the pattern: old houses in South Tampa, rebuilt around the people in them.
- 2019Rocca
Gilk designs and builds the original Rocca in Tampa Heights, then the expansion in 2021 and 2022: a full dining room and the Cenetta added to a restaurant that was already open and already busy.
- 2021Growth
Named Tampa Magazine’s Best Home Builder of the Year in 2021 and again in 2023, with an architecture and design team of its own and four straight years above $8 million of work.
- ColoradoA second market
Qualified to do business in Colorado and licensed in Jefferson and Adams counties, Gilk delivers Saorsa Ranch, an off-grid mountain estate at 9,200 feet in Evergreen.
- 2023One star
Rocca earns one Michelin star, the first in Tampa, and holds it in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide. Gilk’s Founder is a partner in the restaurant.
- 2024The Gilk brand
HGC Design Build becomes Gilk: one name, a new identity, and the same license, address and people behind it.
- NowA lean studio
Gilk takes on a small number of projects at a time and works them from the first sketch to the last warranty walk, with every cost visible to the owner and no decision that costs money made without written approval.
How we work
Two contracts, eight gates, and a number you can trust before you sign for it.
Two contracts, on purpose
Pre-construction is its own engagement, paid on an hourly retainer, and you keep the work product no matter what. The construction agreement is signed only once trades are bought out and the budget is real, cost-plus with an open book, convertible to a guaranteed maximum if you want one.
Eight gates
From kickoff to certificate of occupancy, the project passes through eight decision points. At each one we assess, we decide together, and you receive something in writing. Your Gilk lead walks every gate with you on site.
Every week, every month
A standing owner, architect and builder meeting. Daily logs and photos you can open any time. A monthly draw package with every invoice behind it. The builder fee is the only profit in the job, never layered on labor, never applied to material you buy yourself.
Talk to Gilk
Tell us what you are building.
Send the drawings if you have them, the address and an idea if you do not, and a sentence about what matters most to you. You will hear back from someone who can make decisions, not a sales team.
office@gilk.com