Jennifer Harkleroad has been a project engineer with Greenhorne & O’Mara in Midtown Center on Beach Boulevard for a year and a half. Prior to that, she was with King Engineering for two years.
WHAT DOES SHE DO?
“I do anything from due diligence, permitting, design and construction services for land development projects such as residential single family, multifamily and commercial.”
WHAT DOES HER COMPANY DO?
Greenhorne & O’Mara is a full-service engineering consulting firm including civil engineering services, federal services, security and hazard mitigation services and water and environmental services.
WHO NEEDS YOUR COMPANy’s SERVICES?
Harkleroad said primarily residential and commercial developers need their services and some brokers if they have a client who needs an engineering firm to do due diligence on a site.
CLIENTS?
Her big clients are Montgomery Land Company and Ambach Communities.
COLLEGE?
She just recently got her professional engineer license and she has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from University of Maryland.
HOW DID SHE GET STARTED IN ENGINEERING?
Harkleroad said she has always been more math inclined than English inclined and was trying to zero in on a college major when she went to a “father/daughter” workday where she spent some time speaking with her father’s boss, an electrical engineer. “I decided I wanted to do environmental engineering and the main two ways were civil engineering with a concentration on either environmental or chemical environmental engineering.” She had no interest in chemical engineering so she went the environmental route. “So, that’s how I got into engineering and I like it a lot.”
Did You Know?
• More than three quarters of homes sold were detached single-family homes, a share that last year has varied between 74 percent and 86 percent in recent years. Nine percent of seller households sold a townhouse or row house. Eight percent of homes sold were either apartment/condos in a multi-family structure (five or more units) or a duplex/apartment or condo in a two- to four-unit building. Fifty-three percent of the homes sold were in a suburb. (2006 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers)
WHAT DOES SHE LIKE ABOUT IT?
“I work on the private side, so I like the demand for engineering services. Jacksonville is not a slow place right now, so I’m busy a lot and I like to be busy. I also enjoy client interaction and designing plans.”
HOW HAS THE MARKET AFFECTED YOUR JOB?
“It really hasn’t affected us too much. Some construction schedules have slowed down but as far as the amount of work we do, we are still busy. I still think developers are moving forward with some of their projects. Some of the builders are feeling the bigger effects right now. Their lots have already been designed and permitted, so they are still moving forward with some of the communities, but actual home sales are down, so the lots aren’t selling.”
FUTURE OF DEVELOPMENT IN JACKSONVILLE?
“My honest opinion is that in mid-year 2007 things will start to pick up. That opinion is based on talk in the real estate community from brokers and Realtors and what they are foreseeing.”
PET PEEVES?
“Non-team players.”
LESSONS LEARNED?
Harkleroad said he has learned the importance of quality control.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS?
Commercial Real Estate Women of Jacksonville and Florida Water Environment Association.
INVOLVEMENT WITH CREW?
She is the director of programs for CREW. “I like the job. You get to meet a lot of new people. It is demanding, but we want more people to come to the meetings and it brands CREW as a reputable real estate organization. If you are going to go to a luncheon, you want to get benefit out of it.”
— by Michele Newbern Gillis