GDG Founder and President

Mr. Ortega began his career working for award winning Architects Borroto and Lee in Miami’s Coconut Grove. He then went to work for Michael Lee Adams and Associates while attending architecture school at the University of Florida.  MLA and Associates was responsible for developing many apartment projects in Gainesville, Jacksonville and the Tampa Bay area. Michael Adams opened a Clearwater office in 1979 to assist Fred Bullard in developing the Feathersound Golf Course Community and the Queen’s Harbor Community in Jacksonville. As the design arm of the Bullard group Ortega was involved in all of the company’s projects from design through completion. Over the years, Adams and Ortega developed and designed over a half a billion dollars in apartment buildings, condominiums, townhome projects, shopping centers, office buildings and recreational facilities. They also designed clubs and restaurants including the now famous Penrod’s Nikki Beach Club on south Miami Beach.

In the 90’s Ortega got involved in the Recreational/ club industry designing and assisting health and fitness clients such as Lifestyle Family Fitness centers grow from 1 club in Lakeland to 15 clubs, and Shapes Fitness Centers and Gold’s Gym expand in the Tampa Bay area. He also assisted Smith and Wesson in developing their Firearms Training Center and Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts a project which has set a standard for new gun ranges. Ortega was also responsible for the Remodeling and Expansion of the Feathersound Country Club in Clearwater, Eastlake Woodland Country Club in North Pinellas and the Remington Country Club in Kissimmee.

Starting with Alta Mer, in Sarasota and followed by The Garrison on Harbor Island Adams/Ortega set a new standard for custom luxury condominium living, bringing million dollar condominiums to Golden Gate Pointe and Downtown Tampa for the first time. Ortega soon started working to develop a project in the Channelside District of Tampa where he built 15 loft units at 1000 Channelside which was completed and sold out in 2006.

Chairman/CEO

Dr Giannini will be involved in all aspects of the Development.  Specifically, Dr. Giannini is responsible for all aspects of transaction management, including structuring and raising debt, equity capital, managing the Development and providing on-going support and direction to the team. In the past year, Dr. Giannini has concentrated on site identification, architectural design and approval, market analysis and building deep industry relationships with general contractors, management companies, lenders, engineering firms and governmental agencies.

Dr. Alex Giannini is an experienced investor, entrepreneur, developer and businessman who has created and sold a number of successful business ventures.  After graduating from dental school in 1988, Dr. Giannini developed, built, opened and acquired new dental offices in southwest Florida. As founder of Comfortable Care Dental Group, his company grew from a small dental office into a large dental practice management company which Dr. Giannini eventually merged in as a partner in Heartland Dental Care, a $225 million and 1500 employee company. In 1997, Dr Giannini started a dental practice management company which  besides helping dentists track their practice’s back to financial health, evolved and became the basis from which Dr. Giannini expanded into managing other businesses which involved the client owner-doctor’s real estate holdings.

Having been a successful and recognized expert in the dental practice management field and business,   Dr. Giannini is a visionary leader and has a special gift for recognizing exceptional land development opportunities as evidenced by the acquisitions of his recent properties which recently each appraised for approximately $10 million or more than their respective purchase price. Another special gift is his ability to attract exceptional professional talent, and create “best practices teams” of individuals and firms especially suited for each business venture.  By utilizing this “best practices approach,” Dr Giannini brings the best available executive talent with focused expertise specially tailored to each business venture.

CFO

Mr. Yanez has over 20 years of corporate finance experience.  He has focused on real-estate finance since 2000.  Mr. Yanez most recently served as a Director of Pacific Security Capital, a vertically integrated real estate services company that provides advisory, capital markets, development and investment sales services to the real estate industry.  Prior to joining Pacific Security Capital, Mr. Yanez held a variety of executive positions for companies ranging in size from regional mid-market enterprises to large international organizations.  He was a principal in a commercial real estate consulting practice in Florida and was formerly the VP of Finance for a NYSE listed corporation. Mr. Yanez is responsible for all the financial matters related to the development, construction and management of the hotels. He is primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the business. He is also responsible for financial planning, record-keeping,, financial reporting to management and communicating financial performance and forecasts to management.

The talented team of GDG is very capable of undertaking the challenges involved in the development process from beginning to end. > View Our Projects