JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Jaguars are moving forward with downtown development outside of EverBank Stadium.
Members of the Jacksonville Small and Emerging Businesses (JSEB) and construction contractors got to learn more Thursday about opportunities to take part in the Jacksonville Shipyards marina support building and improvement projects for the Jacksonville Jaguars office and fitness areas.
Lori Windisch, Director of Construction for the Jaguars, said including small businesses in the process is a core value of Jaguars owner Shad Khan.
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“Shad wants us to include everybody in the city on all of our projects,” Windisch said. “We’re going to build all of our projects with contractors that live and work here. So we try to do that on every project. We want everybody to participate as we change downtown.”
Auld & White is the construction manager for several of the Shipyards site projects. Buck Smoak, director of business development with Auld & White, has a long family history in Jacksonville and is honored to be a part of developing downtown.
“It means so much to this community. It means a lot to Auld & White as a company founded in Jacksonville and has focused its efforts in Northeast Florida for 37 years,” Smoak said. “It’s like an epitome of who we are and what we’re going to do, and we’ll be around to enjoy it, and our families will be around to enjoy it.”
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Many business owners are hoping to be a part of the Shipyards project with the hopes of being considered for the Stadium of the Future when those contracts open up. Telissa Robinson is the CEO of East Coast Striping and Painting.
“I’m just waiting on actually everything to really pull along through and come through so that we can get to thrive,” Robinson said. “And East Coast Striping and Painting can get some work from the city of Jacksonville, and we could, you know, bridge that gap that we’ve been missing.”
While the focus of Thursday’s event was on the Shipyards projects, Windisch said they plan to have similar events for the Stadium of the Future.
“We haven’t set that timeline, but we will absolutely have several if not major events to reach out about the stadium. That timeline will be a lot longer than this project,” Windisch explained.
Smoak said anyone who’s interested in being a part of the Shipyards projects that couldn’t be at Thursday’s meeting can reach out to Auld & White’s estimating department.