Contractor J.B. Coxwell has been running J.B. Coxwell Contracting, Inc. for 25 years, but has been in the road building and infrastructure business for nearly half a century. In addition to playing a major role in virtually every major construction and road project in Jacksonville the past two decades, Coxwell also has a disaster clean up and recovery business that operates all over the state and in the other Gulf states.
Beyond the physical work, Coxwell was also a member of one of Mayor John Peyton’s Jacksonville Journey subcommittees. Politically, it’s no secret Coxwell has backed many former and current elected officials and his influence is quietly felt across all levels of government. Thursday, Coxwell sat down with the Daily Record’s Mike Sharkey to talk about business and life in general. Of course there was plenty of politics and talk about the proposed County Courthouse, but the cap — by agreement — was on the pen.
Given the current economy, how is business?
It’s certainly down and I don’t see it coming back for some time. I think there will be a long drought in the business world. Nothing has shown me this will be over any time soon. We are all watching what we can do and trim where we can. I compare this to the 1970s in every capacity.
Weren’t the budgets for a lot of your major road projects approved a long time ago?
Yes, but we are about to run out of that. There was a good backlog, but I saw this coming and the work has lasted beyond the backlog. When you turn out the amount of work we do, it’s a year or a year-and-a-half before it’s gone. It will last at least until the end of next year before it picks up. If I got a big job today, it would be 60-120 days before I could even start the job.
Have you had to let some people go?
We had to trim down some. We had a little over 500 working, now we have a little under 500. There are always a few not up to par when you have that many. We did not necessarily trim from the bottom up. We tried to keep it balanced.
Where does most of your work come from these days?
The City (of Jacksonville) is probably our biggest client. The DOT (Department of Transportation) is a huge client. Today, we are only working in Florida and Alabama, but we are licensed in all the states in the Southeast United States, up the East Coast to Virginia and west to Texas. It’s all slow right now. The Gulf Coast is still rebuilding after the storms, so our office in Pensacola is picking up.
How is the disaster recovery division doing?
We’ve been doing it for four years and we’re doing real good. Four years ago, it was a tremendous business to be in. Two years ago, there were no storms. We have a lot of equipment with not a lot to do. We are primarily storm and disaster recovery, so it sits in the yard. We are different in that we own the equipment, most others are owned by brokers.
One of my hobbies is watching the Weather Channel. I don’t want us to get hit, but if we do get hit, I want to be the one who cleans up. We do some ice storm work in the winter. They are kind of the same things — limbs are on the ground. We don’t just clean up, we do also do a lot on infrastructure work. We do a lot of infrastructure work for FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers. In 2004, we built 18 trailer parks. You have 30 days from the time you push the first tree to move in. You have to put a lot of people on it. It’s like an ant bed. You work around the clock.
Did you enjoy your work on the Jacksonville Journey?
I did enjoy it. I went to every meeting. I didn’t skip a meeting. Peyton is trying his best to put our stuff in.
Would you do it again?
I’ll do anything to help this city as long as it’s not just to make somebody feel good. I don’t have time for that.
How are you doing personally?
I’m doing good. I’m going to die on the job. I tried to retire, but that didn’t work.
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