Beaches. Warm weather. Low taxes. There are a lot of reasons Florida is the fastest-growing state in the US. As more people move in, companies across the state are competing for this influx of talent, from relocating to more trendy locations to upgrading to modern, amenity-heavy workplaces.
THE PLACE TO BE
Take tax consultant firm RSM, for instance. The firm recently moved to a brand-new office building in the Water Street Tampa community. As North America’s first WELL Certified community, Water Street Tampa has become a hot spot for residents, tourists, and employers alike.
“There is a lot of new building going on in that area,” says Ray Neary, Ajax operations manager. “It’s right on the water, very trendy, and offers really nice, high-end workspaces. It’s the place to be.” More growth, however, means more construction which did pose some project challenges, according to Neary.
“The Water Street building was brand new, so a lot of contractors were working on fit-outs in the building at the same time,” he says. “But the building owner laid out ground rules for things like sharing dumpsters and freight elevators, and we all worked within those parameters.”
In Jacksonville, Ajax faced a similar challenge for space, but this time with existing building tenants. While renovating space for TD Bank’s new Jacksonville Contact Center, the team not only had to orchestrate several utility shutdowns and switchovers around the building’s occupants, but also had to manage a number of infrastructure and site upgrades. The team removed walls and sections of the exterior to install generators, for example, and reworked some of the site to run new electrical equipment. Ajax’s expertise in large-scale ground-up projects became even more crucial.
“We could really tap into our experts for the heavy engineering elements of this project,” says Neary. “Our deep relationships with local subcontractors was also key. It’s hard to find available skilled labor right now, and we were thankful those relationships paid off here.”
EXPERIENCE AT WORK
While the office sector has certainly been challenged since COVID, it appears to be alive and well in Florida. And as the Ajax team has led more of these projects, they’ve found their ground-up construction experience is helping them approach fit-out projects—in some money-saving ways.
For TD Bank, for instance, Ajax was able to find alternate equipment suppliers to help expedite equipment delays and avoid some scheduled shut-downs, shaving time and money from the project plan.
“We managed these projects well, and our clients were thrilled with these beautiful new spaces,” says Neary. “The fact that we were able to give a little time or money back to them too was icing on the cake.”
