Fort Point Capital announced on November 3 that it has completed a recapitalization of Gulf Pride Paving, LLC, partnering with CEO Michael Jenner and founder BJ Sellers. Gulf Pride is based in Gulfport, Mississippi, and provides paving, civil construction, soil stabilization and concrete work to general contractors, property owners, and commercial, government and industrial customers across Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. Terms were not disclosed.
The asset.
Gulf Pride sells what it calls a complete surface infrastructure solution. It self-performs whole projects, from civil work and soil stabilization through paving and concrete finishing, rather than subbing out pieces of the scope. Fort Point Partner Brooke Ablon pointed to exactly that: the company’s “ability to self-perform projects in-house, combined with its strong customer relationships.”
Self-performance is the thing buyers pay for in this niche. A contractor that owns the crews and equipment for the full surface package controls schedule and quality, keeps more of the margin, and becomes the default call for repeat GCs and owners. Jenner said the company has expanded its team, fleet and geographic footprint over the past several years; the deal is meant to speed that up.
The buyer.
Fort Point Capital is a Boston-based lower middle market private equity firm founded in 2010. It says it has raised more than $625 million across three funds and invested in more than 60 companies. It targets service-oriented businesses with up to $125 million of enterprise value, writes equity checks of up to $50 million, and does control buyouts, add-ons and founder recapitalizations. Field and route-based services and industrial, testing and engineering are among its listed sectors.
Fort Point is not a construction-only specialist, and that is the point. Its pitch is a generalist services playbook: management build-out, sales, pricing and add-on acquisitions. Principal David Gagliardi said the firm wants to help Gulf Pride “expand its capabilities and geographic reach across the Gulf Coast.”
Paving as a services business.
The structural angle is how the buyer frames the business. Paving and site work has traditionally been bought by strategics and asphalt-integrated consolidators. Fort Point is underwriting Gulf Pride as an essential, repeat-customer service business, with maintenance and resurfacing work for property owners alongside new-build site packages.
That framing has been showing up across civil and site work this year. Southern Paving & Milling’s purchase of Carolina Site used a rollover-and-co-president structure, Construction Partners kept adding site and underground capability in Florida with S.E. Cline, and Craft Work Capital entered civil with Alpha Infrastructure. Sponsors are treating self-performing site contractors in growing Sun Belt markets as platforms, not just bolt-ons.
What it means.
If you own a paving, site or concrete company, the buyer pool now includes generalist services sponsors, not just strategics and asphalt producers. They will look hard at how much of your work is self-performed, how repeat your customer base is, your mix of public versus private work, the age and ownership of your fleet, and whether your footprint can grow into neighboring markets. “Recapitalization” here means the founder and CEO kept a stake; get clear on how big it is, how it is valued, and when you can sell it.
Own a civil or site work company?
Schryver & Co. advises trades owners with roughly $5 million to $100 million of revenue and $1 million to $5 million or more of EBITDA, depending on the vertical. If you are weighing a recap, a private equity partner, or an outright sale, reach Will at will@schryverco.com.
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