When Guillermo Garcia-Tuñón Sr. fled Cuba in 1960, he, his wife and nine children were forced to leave everything behind. That included a flourishing engineering and steel fabricating company he had spent a lifetime building.

The family moved to Spain and eight years later in 1968, they moved to the United States. Using the knowledge and experience he gained in Cuba and Spain, Guillermo Garcia-Tuñón Sr., a registered professional engineer, founded Lemartec Engineering and Construction Corporation in 1979, with his oldest son, Guillermo Garcia-Tuñón Jr., also a registered professional engineer.

The original purpose of the company was to market and promote a three-hinge-steel truss frame warehouse system developed by Guillermo Sr. The warehouses would have integral steel retaining walls used primarily for bulk storage of raw sugar. With standardized clear spans of 100' and 150' and roof slopes in excess of 9"in12", these warehouses were successfully built in Florida, California and the Dominican Republic as well.

Fueled by its background in steel construction, Lemartec developed into a design-build company that catered to the needs of the sugar mills in South Florida, as well as a supplier of steel members and components to South America and the Caribbean.

Pre-engineered steel buildings were a perfect fit for Lemartec. And when another son, José Garcia-Tuñón, joined the company with his construction management degree, Lemartec became a full service engineering and construction company.

Today, several family members, representing three generations of the García-Tuñón family make up the core of the operation. They participate in the daily operation of the firm, each fulfilling responsibilities in engineering, estimating, project management, sales and administration. The company's non-family employees joke that they are not actually employed, but adopted by the Lemartec family.