diff --git a/sysutils/gearmand/Portfile b/sysutils/gearmand/Portfile
index 11e5a930a36..bf0db9b3a00 100644
--- a/sysutils/gearmand/Portfile
+++ b/sysutils/gearmand/Portfile
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ checksums           rmd160  f2276d881fa2a8ffd5181a30dcf9afb8df680487 \
                     size    1103071
 
 depends_build-append \
-                    port:pkgconfig
+                    path:bin/pkg-config:pkgconfig
 
 depends_lib-append  port:curl \
                     port:libevent
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ configure.args-append \
                     --with-boost=[boost::install_area]
 
 compiler.cxx_standard 2011
+compiler.thread_local_storage yes
 
 # gearmand handles parallel building using the --enable-jobserver arg above.
 use_parallel_build  no