Gershon Group luxury interior design in Aventura aims to reflect customers’ tastes

Gershon Group luxury interior design aims to reflect customers’ tastes

Company: The Gershon Group

Headquarters: 2780 NE 183rd St., Suite 1206, Aventura.

Also has location in: 7301 SW 57th Ct., South Miami. A Fort Lauderdale location is coming soon.

What it is: A design firm comprised of a family of luxury interior designers. It has specialized in commercial and residential design.

Approach to design: Each design reflects the customer’s own tastes. “Each custom. Unique. Nothing in common,” is how Scott Gershon describes the firm’s designs.

How it began: Ted and Bernice Gershon opened the firm’s first office in 1956 in New York City, where some of their commercial and residential projects received acclaim. It was in New York that the Gershons developed a philosophy that still guides them — what Ted Gershon, in a press release, called the “4 E’s”: honesty, loyalty, creativity and delivery. “Not an ‘E’ in there,” he said in the release, “but those four qualities of character and service … well, they’re our mission statement.” Ted and Bernice relocated to South Florida in 1972. Their children, Scott and Rory, grew up in the firm, became designers and now manage the day-to-day operations. The two often work with real estate developer Andi Greenwald to renovate historical properties and build homes, as well as to design them.

Management team: CEO: Ted Gershon; COO: Bernice Gershon; lead designers: Scott Gershon, Rory Gershon.

Revenues:

2013: $2.5 million

(estimated)

2014: $3.4 million

(estimated)

2015: $5 million

(estimated)

2016: Projected: more than $5 million. The firm is working with the Greenwald Group on 14 single-family contemporary homes in South Florida

Number of employees: Seven

Website: www.thegershongroupinc.com

Products and services: The firm offers high-end residential and commercial interior design for individual clients’ custom homes and villas, as well as model merchandising for home builders and developers.

How products, services are sold: The firm creates designs “depending on the clients’ preferences, or dreams … to create their sacred space,” said Ted Gershon in an email. “Some homes you walk into and you know who the designer is. With the Gershon Group, you immediately know whose home you are in, as the homeowner’s taste is reflected back through the Gershon Group’s interpretation of the client. That is the sign of a great design firm. … With our clients’ tastes in mind, we continue to transcend the boundaries of design to create a sanctuary of originality for each of them.”

The firm has also adapted modern design ideals. Scott Gershon’s “Spiritual Designing” approach, for instance, incorporates astrology and other alternative disciplines: “It has been proven for many years that in feng shui, location of furnishings has powerful effects on people living or working in their space. I went deeper into Kabbalah and practiced/passed tests to gain this knowledge,” he wrote in an email, adding that “numerology and horoscopes combined with blended energy knowledge creates a strong base for a design project.”

Among the company’s clients: Gershon first established its South Florida reputation for its work in residential customer projects such as Ocean One in Sunny Isles Beach. Corporate clients have included the Cricket Club, Emerald Hills Country Club, Fisher Island, Portofino Tower, Eden Roc Hotel, Lexi Development, Essex House in New York and The Dunes Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, to name a few.

Milestones:

▪ January 2015: “The firm was hired by the developer of Conrad Fort Lauderdale to solve a significant design issue within 72 hours,” Ted Gershon said. “We received a standing ovation from Cervera Real Estate including Alicia Cervera Sr. and team at their successful presentation of our design work.”

▪ Six decades ago this year, The Gershon Group opened its first office in New York City.

Major key to success: “Every project and client are passion projects,” Ted Gershon said. “Our attention to detail is far beyond industry norms as evidenced by world-class finishes carrying out cutting-edge design to completion no matter the client’s budget.”

Next steps: The firm will continue the strategies that have defined it for the last 60 years, Ted Gershon said. ‘The Beat Goes On,’ ” he said.

Rory Clarke

If you have a candidate for Small Business Spotlight, please email rclarke@miamiherald.com. Companies must be willing to disclose revenues and have recently accomplished a significant milestone in their development.