by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
The average person driving past the property near Martin Luther King Parkway wouldn’t have given the sprawling, overgrown lot a second thought.
Nancy and Tom Fitzpatrick, though, saw sparkles among the weeds.
“When we looked at it, all we could see was a mess,” said Nancy Fitzpatrick. “But it was a diamond in the rough.”
Tom Fitzpatrick was comptroller and vice president of finance at Malnov Manufacturing. Nancy was data manager with Nemours Children’s Clinic, collecting research on childhood cancer.
“It was a great job, but a very hard job,” she said. “And I’m glad I’m not doing that job any more.”
The couple wanted to be in business for themselves and saw that Vulcan Steel on Philips Highway was for sale. They struck a deal with owner Ron Geiger, who was shutting it down before retiring.
The Fitzpatricks bought the assets and began leasing the property in August 1996.
“Because of Tom’s financial mind, we had a good financial strategy to begin with,” said Nancy. “Then we hired to fill weaknesses, filling the gaps with people from the industry. We hired [general manager] Danny Paladino, who has something like 27 years of steel industry expertise.
“The learning curve was steep, very steep. But I think having good people has been an incredible asset for us.”
Geiger wanted to keep the company name as he wound down several projects. “Fitz” means “son of,” and the Fitzpatricks named their new business FitzLord Inc. dba Vulcan Steel.
“We dedicated our business to the Lord,” said Nancy. “We have tried to make certain we handle everything we do with integrity. Combining good business sense with integrity is the way we would like people to do business with us.
“We do have a higher authority to answer to.”
The formula worked. The Fitzpatricks were soon thinking about expanding.
“There are different niches in the steel market,” said Nancy. “We realized, if we wanted to do bigger projects, we couldn’t do them there. We could keep our niche where it was or look for other possibilities.”
That’s when they discovered the former Key Houston steel business property near Martin Luther King Parkway.
“It was a mess, but it has a huge amount of space,” said Nancy. “Five acres of land. There’s almost 50,000 square feet in the shop area. Almost 5,000 square feet of office space, separate from the shop.
“We needed height to use the overhead cranes to our advantage, so the shop was mainly what we were looking at. It gave us an incredible opportunity.”
There also was a railroad connection inside the shop if the couple wanted to buy directly from steel mills.
Their enthusiasm was tempered by the reactions of several financial institutions Tom Fitzgerald talked to.
“Some were receptive, and some weren’t,” said Nancy. “I don’t know why. Maybe it was because they didn’t do this on a regular basis. Since they weren’t familiar with it, they weren’t comfortable with it.”
At the same time, the Fitzgeralds were pursuing a state bonding program “that gives you an incredible interest rate,” said Nancy. “But it took so long.”
The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission came to the rescue, helping the couple get a $250,000 renovation grant through the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Advisory Committee.
“There’s no way we would have had the cash flow for everything that needed to be done around here,” said Nancy. “There was a lot of renovation work. It’s still going on.”
JEDCO, the Jacksonville Economic Development Company, helped arrange a long-term, low-interest loan.
“CenterBank and JEDCO were the financial institutions we used to purchase the property,” said Nancy. “Because we’re in the Enterprise Zone, the City gave us incentives.
“There were some wonderful people who helped us. The people at JEDCO we worked with, the JEDC and Pat Lockett-Felder, who represents us on City Council. She was very supportive and took our cause to City Council.”
The business, with 17 employees, moved to the new site in March.
The Fitzpatricks now have plenty of room for even more expansion, a real possibility because they prefer to build long-term relationships rather than go for the low bid on every project.
Building those relationships can take time. The rewards come “when you treat your customers in a way they know they can depend on you, and they know your word is your word,” said Nancy. “I think we have gained a reputation as a company you can rely on. In a pinch, we’ll be there for you.”