Crane company keeps elevating post-recession

The Fort Myers-Naples operation of Sims Crane and Equipment — Florida's largest crane company — had a lot of ground to gain back after the crippling construction slump that began in 2008.

A decade later, the unit has done that and more, outpacing 12 other Sims locations from Tampa to Tallahassee over to Jacksonville and down to Orlando and Miami. A third-generation family business founded in 1959 by Tampa ironworker Tommy Sims after a gruesome thumb injury forced him out of work, Sims Crane is based in Tampa.

As 2010 approached, Sims' 2-acre Lehigh Acres equipment yard had scant equipment. And it had only an occasional employee, tower crane operator Kenny Brass. Back then, Brass got dispatched out of Tampa or Miami for jobs that popped up in Fort Myers and Naples. Roughly 20 to 30 hours of work marked a good week.