By Karen Brune Mathis, [email protected]
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 25-30 years.”
NEFBA 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 & Development on the building design.
He said the building will comprise offices for NEFBA programs and staff; its Builders Care charitable arm; and the apprenticeship program.
It also will contain conference rooms and a multi-use auditorium to accommodate meetings and events.
The 10,480-square-foot single-floor building will include a patio and outdoor meeting space, which will help with events like the October “Beast Feast” political gathering.
NEFBA, Builders Care and the Apprenticeship Program currently 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 rise 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 group 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.