GCL Builds has a rich history, dating back to the frontier days in the US Pacific Northwest.

In 1883 Newton T. Lease began a freelance carpentry business in Cascade, Montana. He formalized the company in 1886 as Lease & Leighland. The company moved to Seattle, Washington in 1939, operating in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. In 1989 the company name had evolved to Lease Crutcher Lewis.  Mark Garland first met Bill Lewis in 1978. In 1996 Mark became general manager of the Seattle company. The same year it rebranded itself as Lewis Builds, the popular general contractor it is today.

In 2002, in response to requests from an established Hong Kong based client and other west coast clients, Mark opened the Canadian offices of Lewis Builds, both in Vancouver, British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario.

Mark acquired all of the shares of the Ontario corporation in 2009. Bill requested that Mark rename the company without the word “Lewis”, and Mark changed the name to “LCL Builds”. Although this caused some identity confusions, the collaboration between the two offices continued at a brisk pace. When we built the Trump Tower in Toronto, the 26 person site staff included several Seattle interoffice transfers.

In 2021, maintaining its same branding and business numbers, the company name replaced an L with a G for Garland and is now known as GCL Builds. We enjoy a decades long reputation for creative concept design advice, development management skills, comprehensive preconstruction services and design assist contracting. It is satisfying to service repeat clients, project after project. Our preferred operating territory is the Greater Hamilton and Toronto areas.

Thus we draw on Seattle roots, with century old business practices. Today, GCL Builds is a proud, employee owned, Canadian general contractor and construction manager.

We look forward to another great century!