East of Collins Expediting  ·  October 2026

17 Years of South Florida Permitting  ·  Construction Permitting  ·  Business Licensing  ·  Special Event Permitting

17 Years. Thousands of Projects. One Standard.

What started with one building permit in 2009 became seventeen years of construction permitting, business licensing, special event approvals, complex municipal coordination and thousands of projects across South Florida.

It started with one phone call.

In 2009, South Florida looked very different.

The recession had brought much of the construction industry to a standstill. Projects were stopping. Companies were downsizing. Experienced professionals throughout the industry were trying to determine what came next.

Carmin Tillit was among them.

Then a subcontractor who knew her experience called with a simple question:

Could she help with a building permit?

She knew the process. More importantly, she recognized the need.

That one request became a yes.

Later that evening, Carmin and her son, Jeevan Tillit, sat down together and began working through the incorporation paperwork for what would become East of Collins Expediting.

There was no large permitting team.

No portfolio spanning construction, development, licensing and special events.

No thousands of completed projects behind the name.

There was experience, one opportunity, and a belief that navigating permitting could be done with greater care and accountability.

On October 1, 2026, East of Collins turned 17. Almost everything around the company has changed since that first permit. One principle has not: the permit is never the entire project.

From One Permit to an Entire Permitting Workstream

The term permit expediter can make the work sound deceptively simple.

Submit the application. Check the status. Pick up the permit.

After seventeen years navigating South Florida permitting, we know that the real work rarely looks like that.

A sophisticated project may involve multiple departments, disciplines, agencies, contractors, inspection sequences and operational approvals. The permit is one part of a larger critical path.

That is why our question is rarely just:

“Has the permit been submitted?”

The more useful question is:

Is the entire approval path being managed?

Construction Permitting in Miami, Miami Beach & South Florida

Construction permitting remains at the center of East of Collins.

Over seventeen years, we have worked alongside general contractors, developers, architects, owner’s representatives, condominium associations, property owners and design professionals on projects ranging from individual renovations to major development and multi-phase construction.

New Construction & Development

On sophisticated developments, permitting strategy should begin before construction pressure reaches the field.

Which approvals can move in parallel? Which permit controls the next milestone? Which outside agency has jurisdiction? Which discipline needs information from another before it can clear?

Those are pre-construction questions with construction consequences.

Renovations & Existing Buildings

Existing buildings introduce another layer of risk because a new project inherits the property’s history.

Open permits. Expired permits. Previous alterations. Violations. Field conditions that do not perfectly match the record. Changes in contractor. Changes in code.

A renovation permit can quickly become an investigation into everything that came before it.

Trade Permits, Revisions & Inspections

A master permit does not eliminate the need to coordinate the electrical, mechanical, plumbing, structural and other approvals operating beneath it.

Projects also evolve. A field condition changes. Equipment changes. Design changes. A revision that looked secondary can become the permit controlling the next inspection.

TCO, CO & Permit Closeout

A building can look finished while the permitting work is not. Temporary Certificates of Occupancy, Certificates of Occupancy, final inspections and unresolved permits can determine whether a completed space can actually be occupied, opened or fully turned over.

Construction complete and project complete are not always the same thing.

Business Licensing in South Florida: A Permit Lets You Build. A License Lets You Open.

For restaurants, retailers, offices, hospitality concepts and other commercial businesses, construction completion is only one finish line.

Before the doors can legally open, another approval stack may need to be completed.

The important distinction is between construction readiness and operational readiness.

A space can be beautifully finished and still not be legally ready to serve its first customer.

That is why EOC’s licensing work is often planned alongside construction instead of waiting until construction is finished.

A Recent Miami Beach Example: MYKA

For MYKA in Miami Beach, the project involved a Change of Use, build-out and operational licensing tied to a deadline-critical Art Week opening.

The project moved from permit application to permit issuance in 12 business days. Once the TCO was obtained, licensing was finalized within the compressed opening schedule.

The lesson was not that every permit can or should move on that timeline. Every project and jurisdiction is different. The lesson was that permitting and licensing were managed against the same business objective: opening.

Special Event Permitting in Miami, Miami Beach & South Florida

Construction timelines can sometimes shift.

Event dates usually cannot.

The venue is booked. Sponsors are committed. Vendors are contracted. Talent is confirmed. Invitations have been sent.

That makes special event permitting a different kind of risk-management exercise.

Each of those approvals can operate on a different timeline.

That is why special event permitting is not simply an application problem. It is a sequencing and coordination problem.

When Standard Permit Expediting Is Not Enough

Some projects do not come to East of Collins at the beginning.

They arrive when the original path has stopped working.

A permit expired.

A contractor changed.

An old violation surfaced.

A TCO lapsed.

The completed construction no longer perfectly matches the approved permit record.

At that point, permit expediting becomes project recovery.

Stalled-Project Recovery

At Turnberry Ocean Colony, East of Collins stepped into a long-running, multi-phase project with contractor changes, scattered permits, an expired TCO and closed amenities.

The answer was not one dramatic fix.

It was a structured recovery: organize the permit history, identify dependencies, coordinate revisions, restore the TCO path, reopen critical amenities, move finals forward and establish a clear path toward final Certificates of Occupancy.

Right-of-Way & Major Construction Operations

At Bentley Residences in Sunny Isles Beach, EOC supported right-of-way permitting and city coordination around a major 36-hour foundation pour.

The permitting workstream had to account for roadway impacts, pedestrian routing, traffic mitigation, safety requirements and the operating environment surrounding an unusually consequential construction operation.

Strategic Advocacy & Unusual Approval Paths

Other files require research, code interpretation, variance requests, formal appeals, reviewer meetings or a different lawful approval pathway because the conventional route does not fit the project.

That work is not about bypassing municipal requirements.

It is about understanding the process deeply enough to know what legitimate options remain when the obvious path no longer works.

17 Years Navigating South Florida Jurisdictions

A Miami Beach permit is not a City of Miami permit.

A Hialeah renovation does not move exactly like a Sunny Isles Beach development.

A Broward County approval path will not necessarily mirror Miami-Dade.

Even neighboring municipalities may use different portals, sequencing, terminology, reviewers and submission requirements.

Over seventeen years, East of Collins has developed experience across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, including projects in markets such as Miami Beach, the City of Miami, Sunny Isles Beach, Aventura, Bal Harbour, Surfside, Hialeah, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.

That municipal fluency does not create shortcuts.

It creates pattern recognition.

Seventeen Years Means the Project Types Keep Changing

The range of projects tells part of the story.

Different industries.

Different jurisdictions.

Different permit structures.

The underlying responsibility is the same: understand the project, understand the approval path, keep the next action visible and stay engaged through the work we were hired to manage.

What 17 Years of Permit Expediting Experience Actually Means

Longevity by itself is not the value.

The Projects Changed. The Standard Did Not.

In seventeen years, East of Collins has worked across construction, development, hospitality, restaurants, retail, luxury residential, condominium properties, sports and recreation, cultural institutions, special events, fashion activations and public-space projects.

The buildings changed.

The codes changed.

The municipal portals changed.

The projects got bigger.

The stakes often got higher.

The Real 17-Year Story Is the Relationships

Seventeen years is a company milestone.

But East of Collins was not built by anniversaries.

It was built relationship by relationship.

The contractor who called with one permit and returned with the next project.

The developer who brought us into another building.

The architect who put our name in front of a client because the timeline mattered.

The restaurant owner whose first opening became another location.

The event producer who trusted us again the following year.

The consultants, contractors and professional partners who became part of the team.

And the clients who allowed East of Collins to grow alongside their own businesses and projects.

There is no 17-year story without you in it.

Frequently Asked Questions About South Florida Permit Expediting

Looking for additional permitting answers? Visit the East of Collins Permit Expediting & Licensing FAQ.

17 Years Later, the Work Is Still Personal

East of Collins is larger today.

The permit portfolios are larger.

The projects are more complicated.

The stakes are often higher.

But growth should never make service feel less personal.

A sophisticated project still comes down to people.

Someone is carrying the budget.

Someone is responsible for the construction schedule.

Someone promised an opening date.

Someone needs to know why the permit has not moved.

And someone needs to own what happens next.

That responsibility is what East of Collins accepted with the first permit in 2009. It is still the responsibility we accept today.

What Comes Next

Seventeen years ago, one permit opened a door for East of Collins.

Thousands of projects later, we are still walking through new ones.

New developments. New businesses. New events. New regulations. New technologies. New challenges that do not yet have an obvious path.

That is what keeps the work moving forward.

To every client, contractor, developer, architect, business owner, event producer, consultant and partner who has trusted East of Collins since 2009:

Thank you for the calls. The introductions. The difficult projects. The repeat projects. The deadlines. The problems that made us think harder. And, above all, the trust.

17 years down. We are still building what comes next.