Mercedes Homes won't put you up in a Benz, but it can set you up in a stylish dwelling. The employee-owned company builds and sells single-family homes in 80 communities in Florida, Texas, and the Carolinas. One of its largest markets is the Orlando area. Mercedes Homes operates through three primary subsidiaries: MHi Mortgage, BDR Title, and Space Coast Truss, which offer everything from mortgage financing to truss design and building materials. Mercedes Homes' properties range in price from about $100,000 to more than $500,000. The family of founder Howard Buescher controls the company he began in 1983. Faced with mounting debt and liquidity problems, Mercedes filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009.

Permasteelisa North America Corp.,the company's cladding division makes and installs exterior facades of large buildings. A subsidiary of Italy-based Permasteelisa, the company has completed complex glass and metal cladding work on projects across the US, including Seattle's distinct Experience Music Project and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, both designed by architect Frank Gehry. Permasteelisa North America also designs commercial building interiors and fixtures for offices, restaurants, and showrooms. Projects include the Condé Nast cafeteria, Vespa boutiques, and Brooks Brothers shops.

Lee (LBL) makes going to the hospital a little less painful. LBL is an architectural, planning, and interior design firm that specializes in health care (hospitals, care centers, and medical centers), academic, institutional, and corporate projects. LBL's clients include universities, city and county governments, federal agencies, public and private real estate developers, nonprofit organizations, and investor-owned firms across California. The firm has designed buildings for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the University of California, Davis, and most recently, renovated Stanford University Medical Center. Principals Ken Lee, Erich Burkhart, and Ken Liu founded the firm in 1986.

TDIndustries, the specialty contractor installs heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC); electrical; and plumbing systems in commercial, industrial, and multifamily residential buildings. TD also offers facility services including repairing and upgrading mechanical systems. The company maintains HVAC systems for the Houston Airport System and Rice University, among others. TD works primarily in Texas, but also has operations in Arizona. High-profile projects have included work on the Texas Governor's Mansion and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Chairman Jack Lowe Jr.'s father founded the employee-owned company in 1946.

MARCOR Remediation provides industrial, environmental, and construction site remediation. Its services include asbestos abatement, wastewater treatment, emergency spill response, disaster recovery, and storage tank management. It also provides decommissioning and demolition, duct cleaning services, and geotechnical and environmental drilling and sampling. Projects have ranged from mold remediation in a California hotel to clean-up operations in hurricane-battered Florida and Louisiana, to the decommissioning of contaminated gun ranges for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. In 2009 the company became a subsidiary of demolition and remediation firm Nuprecon/CST.

Thomas Concrete Industries, Inc. is one Georgia's largest producers of ready-mix concrete. Its products are used for commercial and residential projects and include high-strength, colored, exposed aggregate, and architectural concrete. The company operates about 50 plants in its home state and in North and South Carolina; it also has a fleet of mixer trucks. Thomas Concrete Industries is owned by Thomas Concrete Group AB, a Swedish conglomerate which also includes Fardig Betong and Thomas Beton. For Thomas Concrete Industries, the strength is in the mix.

Suncoast Post-Tension makes buildings stronger. Operating from around 15 locations primarily in the southern and western US, the company specializes in post-tensioning, which reinforces concrete or other materials with high-strength steel bars. Established in 1983, Suncoast uses the post-tension technique on commercial, industrial, and residential projects, including parking structures, factory floors, and high-rise buildings. Projects include Reliant Stadium in Houston; Frost Bank Tower in Austin, Texas; Foxwood Casino in Connecticut; and Isle of Capri Casino in Mississippi. Suncoast is a subsidiary of Keller Group plc and often partners with sister company Hayward Baker, which prepares soil foundations.

Founded in 1914, the fourth-generation family-owned company manufactures wall-mounted climate-control products and sells them through a global network of distributors. Its products include air conditioners, heat pumps, oil furnaces and electric heaters, and control and ventilation systems, including thermostats, energy monitors, and dehumidifiers. Bard's products are used in residential homes, mobile homes, offices, schools, and telecommunications facilities. With headquarters in Ohio, the company has manufacturing and production plants in Georgia and Mexico. All the world's a stage for Bard Manufacturing -- if that world revolved around heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.

Georgia-Pacific (GP) is the world's largest tissue products producer and the force behind such household items as Brawny paper towels and Quilted Northern bath tissues. Not one to be pigeonholed, the company makes a wide variety of other products including cardboard packaging, plywood and lumber, related chemicals, fertilizers, recycled paper fibers, Dixie-brand paper cups, touchless towel dispensers, and office paper. GP is the second-largest US forest products manufacturer (behind International Paper). A subsidiary of diversified group Koch Industries, GP has more than 300 manufacturing facilities in the Americas and Europe.

United Subcontractors, Inc. (USI) insulates its customers from the harsh conditions of the great outdoors. The company, which was founded in 1998, installs residential and commercial insulation systems in more than 150,000 homes and buildings annually. In addition to new residential projects, the company provides services for commercial construction. It also offers building products including shelving, fireproofing, garage doors, flooring, windows, glass, and paneling. USI has some 35 US locations. A downturn in the construction and new home building market forced USI to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009. It emerged from bankruptcy later that year.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.