by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
It starts slow. The City, wanting minority-owned businesses to land public contracts, sets broad goals. Then, contractors who want to curry favor with the City, start mentoring programs to help minority-owned businesses handle large subcontracts. And if all goes well, those businesses start doing good work and begin establishing themselves on their own.
While optimistic, that seems to be what’s happening in Jacksonville, where the Better Jacksonville Plan and skyrocketing growth are ushering in a new wave of successful minority companies anxious to benefit from the building boom. Lately, these companies are winning both public and private business contracts and are challenging the old systems that prevented them from securing bonds and tackling large projects.
According to Fred Heyne, a project manager at Centex Rooney, the construction management firm handling the expansion at the Jacksonville International Airport, minority-owned subcontractors are consistently exceeding expectations for the quality and expediency of their work. In many instances, he said, they no longer need a helping hand from the big firms.
“What happened with H. Trent,” said Heyne, referring to H. Trent Elson, a minority-owned landscaping and irrigation company that does work at the airport, “is that we initially thought they would serve as a second-tier subcontractor, handling some sprinkler work. But very quickly they emerged as our prime landscaping contractor.”
The initial $367,000 subcontract that H. Trent had with Centex Rooney grew to a $1.4 million relationship, where H. Trent is now handling the new pedestrian circulation improvement project and the Stage 1 landscaping expansion.
“H. Trent has been a real success story,” said Ivy Johnson, who as manager of the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program at Jacksonville International Airport, works to create opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses. “What we are finding is that these companies, once they get their foot in the door, are really doing a great job with some pretty complex projects.”
One of the major obstacles that many minority-owned businesses had to overcome at first was securing payment and performance bonds, something that is difficult for many small businesses with little cash flow.
“What we did in the situation with H. Trent is call up the people who we know in the bond business and say, ‘These guys are good for it,’ ” said Heyne, who stopped just short of saying that Centex actually underwrites the bonds. “But what we can guarantee is that we will be working with them, that they are a quality firm and that they will pay.”
“I really can’t say enough positive things about Centex and how they’ve helped me build my company,” said Hazell Trent, the president of the company that bears his name. “They have worked with us every step of the way.”
Trent initially heard about the airport bid from Johnson, who contacted him with the appropriate times for the early interviews. Once he met the managers at Centex, a relationship formed that has transcended beyond just the JIA expansion.
“They would help me out with filling out forms and securing bonds,” said Trent. “It really became a comprehensive working relationship.”
H. Trent has grown from four employees to 14 and is also working with Centex on a School Board project on Dunn Avenue. And the company, which now operates 10 trucks, has landed accounts from Publix, Vistakon and Baptist-St. Vincent Health Systems in the last two years.
In conjunction with the City and the African American Chamber of Commerce, Centex and other local contractors also hold workshops and training sessions to discuss projects and opportunities throughout the year.
“We have our representatives there talking about estimating, bonding and insurance, safety and scheduling,” said Heyne.
According to Jacquie Gibbs, the chief of procurement and supply for the City, out of the total dollars being spent for Better Jacksonville Plan projects, 25.8 percent are going to minority and women-owned businesses. “Which is really good,” said Gibbs. “We are very proud of that.”
For City projects overall, the numbers are not as good — 11 percent.
“But that’s up from five percent a couple years ago,” said Gibbs.
Gibbs, who works closely with Centex, other contractors and groups such as the First Coast Business Alliance, a resource for early-stage companies, said that her office circulates newsletters, brings subcontractors and contractors together for networking events and disseminates information about upcoming projects.
“Things have been moving along really well,” said Gibbs. “All our hard work over the years is really starting to pay off.”
Gibbs said the only times she runs into problems is when the lead time is so short that smaller, minority-owned businesses just don’t have the resources to get the job done. “When we’ve got the time, we can usually work the system to get these companies involved in some way,” said Gibbs, adding she has never run into a contractor who is opposed to working with minority-owned businesses.
And all this is a boon for the major contractors who take the time to cultivate the relationships with minority-owned businesses. In addition to the $90 million JIA expansion, Centex, who keeps a consultant on retainer to advise on such matters, is bidding for the $211 million contract to manage the construction of the new Duval County Courthouse. For that bid, they are engaged in a joint venture with minority-owned Rattler Construction.