From sketch ideas to concrete shapes. It’s a concept that brought two Lebanese-born Miami men together in business a few years ago and they’re rapidly carving out a name for themselves in the high-dollar home market.

Jad Lahoud

"That’s our company slogan and that’s exactly what we do," said Jad Lahoud, 36, managing partner in the Coral Gables general contracting and real estate development firm of Lahoud & Hardan, 1450 Madruga Ave. "You give us a sketch idea and we’ll give you a concrete shape.

"Basically, we build custom homes for people and we also build ‘spec’ houses and sell them. We work with architects, designers and directly with homeowners, and we build houses in a range anywhere from $500,000 to $6 million."

Lahoud & Hardan is only 7 years old, but it is making big waves in the South Florida real estate market with not only the ultra-luxurious houses it builds, but also with its exquisite build-out and re-modeling on high-end condominiums and older homes. The company recently sold two houses it had built in Pinecrest for $1.5 million each, and that is without finished interiors, which will add another half-million dollars to the final cost of each.

"It was a challenge for us," Lahoud said. "Everyone said, ‘You are setting a niche market and it’s not going to work. When you put the house on the market for $1.6 or $1.7 million unfinished, how can you expect the homeowner to have the vision to come and buy it?’ But, we believed in the concept that anybody who will spend that much money for a house wants to choose the smallest details. So, we completed the houses from the outside, even the landscaping, and we left the interior detail for the future homeowners to put their personal touches on. Both homes sold very quickly and sold at the asking price, not a penny less."

Lahoud & Hardan does both residential and commercial work and lists such clients as Coral Gables’ Biltmore Hotel; Sirgany Enterprises, which owns several stores at Miami International Airport and in the Shops at Sunset Place; Nick Buoniconti’s Key Biscayne penthouse apartment, and an American Express vice president who had the company undertake the total renovation of a South Miami home he purchased.

"We do whatever the client wants," said Lahoud, a divorced bachelor who lives in Kings Bay Estates. "We’ll demolish a house and re-build one to the client’s specifications. Or, we’ll work with them to remodel a house to their satisfaction. We’ve done a lot of work like that."

It is quite by accident that Lahoud is in business with Nazih Hardan. Lahoud came here from Beirut, Lebanon, at the start of the decade with the intention of expanding his Middle East-based traffic sign manufacturing company into South America. Hurricane Andrew sidetracked him by damaging the CocoPlum home he had bought and he contracted Hardan to do the repairs. A close working relationship developed and Lahoud was so pleased with his contractor’s work that he sold his traffic sign business and formed a corporation with Hardan.

"It was a perfect combination, he and I," said Lahoud. "We mixed his technical knowledge with my business knowledge and found an ideal balance. We try hard to believe and feel what the homeowner feels and we don’t lie or play games. If something is going to take six months to finish, we don’t tell them that we can do it in three months just to get the job. And, we are with them every step of the way, until their home is completed."

Lahoud, who hopes to take the oath for United States citizenship later this year, said he feels privileged to be in this country.

"American people and everyone who lives in the United States should be really proud of what they have," he said. "It really is the land of opportunity and the land of freedom."

For more information on Lahoud & Hardan, call 305-666-6687.