The Northeast Florida Builders Association will build a new headquarters office building in Southpoint and wants to complete it by August 2017.
Executive Officer Corey Deal said the association expects to break ground this fall on the $1.5 million to $1.6 million project.
“We think it will be good for the association,” he said. “We hope to be there the next 25 to 30 years.”
The association bought the vacant 3.9-acre parcel north along Southpoint Parkway in April for $440,000. The site is about a quarter-mile east of Salisbury Road.
Deal said the group is working with Kasper Architecture and Development on the building design.
He said the building will comprise offices for the NEFBA programs and staff; its Builders Care charitable arm; and the apprenticeship program. It also will contain conference rooms and a multi-use auditorium for meetings and events.
The single-floor, 10,480-square-foot building will include a patio and outdoor meeting space, which will help with events like the October “Beast Feast” political gathering.
Currently, NEFBA, Builders Care and the Apprenticeship Program lease about 12,000 square feet in different spaces at 103 Century 21 Drive, where the association has operated for 23 years.
Deal said about 1,250 companies are members of the trade organization, which was the fastest-growing association in the country in 2014-15 with a 17 percent increase in membership.
NEFBA 2009 President Glenn Layton, of Glenn Layton Homes, chaired a building committee of 11 members appointed in February 2014 to handle the project, including the construction plans.
Because membership covers eight counties, with a concentration in Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns, the location needed to be more central than the current site.
Layton’s committee and the seven-member NEFBA executive committee will choose a general contractor.
NEFBA board member Leed Silverfield headed up the land purchase and NEFBA President Chet Skinner led the land-development portion, Deal said.
Girvin Road widening project to start
Site clearing should start this month for the $17.9 million Girvin Road widening that will add lanes to the East Arlington roadway from Atlantic Boulevard to McCormick Road.
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority said the design is almost complete and construction will start in the next month or two toward completion in spring or early summer 2018.
Girvin Road will be widened to five lanes between Atlantic and Ashley Melisse boulevards and then to three lanes to McCormick Road.
The project will include curb and gutter work, center turn lanes, storm water ponds, sidewalks and bike lanes.
R.B. Baker Construction is the contractor.
Construction will require lane closures at times but full detours are not anticipated.
Site plans show the length of the improvements is 2.86 miles.
The authority said the design-build contract value includes JTA and JEA utility costs. It is the third project and first major roadway construction under the JTA Mobility Works program.
That program is designed to complete projects funded by the extension of the Local Option Gas Tax. JTA said by leveraging that future funding, it has issued bonds to cover the cost of the projects.
JTA said with the $100 million generated through the bond issue, it will complete 13 roadway projects along with projects in 13 mobility corridors in all areas of Jacksonville over the next five years.
The project list was generated by City Council and will not be altered without council approval, according to JTA.
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