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Riveree......although i want to get out of the Apartment Industry and back into Commercial Appliance Repair when i move back to Jax have they built more Apartment Complexes in Jacksonville over the 5 or 10 years as everyone of them is a potential job site.
6/3
That's true, that might work in your favor. At the beginning of the RE boom, apartments were being converted into condos at a fast clip. Then at the end of the boom, construction that was slated for condos ended up being turned into apartments !
That's true, that might work in your favor. At the beginning of the RE boom, apartments were being converted into condos at a fast clip. Then at the end of the boom, construction that was slated for condos ended up being turned into apartments !
You're in luck, you found a niche !
That all sounds great!
I used Google Street View and checked 9A south from J T Butler to I-95 South (Again) and i can tell that area will boom in the future with that new freeway in there. I could see alot of nice new buildings at 9A and Baymeadows.
I forgot how green Jax was living out in the desert.
My husband and I are planning on relocating to the east coast. We are planning to buy a business. We are very interested the Jacksonville area. We vacation in Daytona and have spent a little bit of time in Jacksonville and St. Agustine and have enjoyed these areas in the past
How is the economy doing in the Jacksonville area? I know various areas have been impacted differently by the downturn in the economy. How is Jacksonville fairing.
Love anyone's insight.
Thanks in advance.
As far as the housing/construction industry in Jacksonville, it is suffering. It seems as if every week I hear about another builder or subcontractor going out of business, filing bankruptcy, being taken over, etc.
One key problem that occurred is this; Back around 2002, the housing market here was in a steep increase, and there were fewer builders than there are now. At the time, there was a serious labor shortage, so the subs who paid the best for their employees had the employees to do the work, and therefore got hired. In this process, they also charged higher and higher prices, which in turn led the builders to charge more and more for the houses. It was a simple supply and demand issue.
Now there is one key mistake that many subcontractors made, which is the root of many of them shutting the doors as we speak. Between 2002 and 2006, you could be overwhelmed with work by even just having 1 key account. Let's take DR Horton for example, who built over 1200 units back around 04' or 05'. If you got in good with them, and had just half of that work, you were busy as all get out, and didn't really have a need to expand your client base. Now if you had a good reputation, word got around and other builders would seek you out, and you'd do the obvious and give them an even higher price, with the thinking that if they give you the work, the extra profit would make it worth it. I can remember many instances where I would literally try to price a job extra high because I didn't have the manpower to get it done, and no sooner than I would fax the price over they would be calling us to put it on the schedule for our first available, which was sometimes as far out as 2 weeks.
Now the problems began to occur when so many guys started going out on their own around '03 - '05, knowing the work was out there. What many of them failed to realize is just how risky having a limited client base was, or even having one builder being 100% of your revenue. I can remember a time when we were so busy we'd hire the first 20 people who walked in and could fill out an application that was legible. But, I also remember a time when I was looking at the quarterly report for my company, and became somewhat panicked that Pulte was around 25% of my total revenue. That, in my mind, was risky and way too high. If something happened to Pulte, there's 25% off the top. So after I saw that, I made an extremely concerted effort to expand my client base and reduce my revenue dependence on any one builder by such a high percentage.
Fortunately for me, the strategy worked well, and saw my client base swell to almost 80 builders. When the market started bottoming out, if you were relying on just one or even a few builders, you were now in a world of hurt, and trying to go out and get new business in this market is virtually impossible. Relationships had already been solidified, subs have already worked with their builders to cut prices as much as possible, and there just isn't enough work to go around now. Plus, the builders are extremely leery right now of taking on new subs who may not be financially sound, and risking having them go under in the middle of a project.
Had I not expanded my client base the way I did, I would more than likely already be shutting the doors, or at least in the process of it now. I can tell you unequivocally, that the worst is not over, and there are several more businesses on the brink right now that will not be around next year at this time. That goes for subcontractors as well as builders, and material suppliers as well. In 2005 all the national builders started jumping into Jacksonville and now there is just not enough market to sustain them all. Hence you have people like Centex (pulled out of Jax), Levitt & Sons (bankruptcy), Transeastern Homes (bankruptcy), all very big in this market just 2 short years ago. This is why you should be very cautious which builder you choose should you decide to build a new home in Jax.
Rumors abound about who the next to go is, and I won't speculate on that, because nobody picked Centex to leave.
I talk with my customers regularly, and I can tell you numbers for the rest of the year as far as new home sales go look pretty bleak. I think we are hitting bottom here, but I predict the construction market in Jax to be in complete and utter ruin by year's end. More builders and subs will have gone under or gone away, and sometime next year I think we'll stabilize and things will start to return slowly to normal. Only the strong will survive in this market. I know this all sounds like a gloomy outlook, but I am looking farther ahead at the big picture, and when the market does return, I have already taken advantage of this downturn by expanding the services I offer, which should lead to a very strong business 5 years down the road. Once the building & construction starts to upswing again, the overall Jacksonville economy should see a big improvement as well.
As far as the housing/construction industry in Jacksonville, it is suffering. It seems as if every week I hear about another builder or subcontractor going out of business, filing bankruptcy, being taken over, etc.
One key problem that occurred is this; Back around 2002, the housing market here was in a steep increase, and there were fewer builders than there are now. At the time, there was a serious labor shortage, so the subs who paid the best for their employees had the employees to do the work, and therefore got hired. In this process, they also charged higher and higher prices, which in turn led the builders to charge more and more for the houses. It was a simple supply and demand issue.
Now there is one key mistake that many subcontractors made, which is the root of many of them shutting the doors as we speak. Between 2002 and 2006, you could be overwhelmed with work by even just having 1 key account. Let's take DR Horton for example, who built over 1200 units back around 04' or 05'. If you got in good with them, and had just half of that work, you were busy as all get out, and didn't really have a need to expand your client base. Now if you had a good reputation, word got around and other builders would seek you out, and you'd do the obvious and give them an even higher price, with the thinking that if they give you the work, the extra profit would make it worth it. I can remember many instances where I would literally try to price a job extra high because I didn't have the manpower to get it done, and no sooner than I would fax the price over they would be calling us to put it on the schedule for our first available, which was sometimes as far out as 2 weeks.
Now the problems began to occur when so many guys started going out on their own around '03 - '05, knowing the work was out there. What many of them failed to realize is just how risky having a limited client base was, or even having one builder being 100% of your revenue. I can remember a time when we were so busy we'd hire the first 20 people who walked in and could fill out an application that was legible. But, I also remember a time when I was looking at the quarterly report for my company, and became somewhat panicked that Pulte was around 25% of my total revenue. That, in my mind, was risky and way too high. If something happened to Pulte, there's 25% off the top. So after I saw that, I made an extremely concerted effort to expand my client base and reduce my revenue dependence on any one builder by such a high percentage.
Fortunately for me, the strategy worked well, and saw my client base swell to almost 80 builders. When the market started bottoming out, if you were relying on just one or even a few builders, you were now in a world of hurt, and trying to go out and get new business in this market is virtually impossible. Relationships had already been solidified, subs have already worked with their builders to cut prices as much as possible, and there just isn't enough work to go around now. Plus, the builders are extremely leery right now of taking on new subs who may not be financially sound, and risking having them go under in the middle of a project.
Had I not expanded my client base the way I did, I would more than likely already be shutting the doors, or at least in the process of it now. I can tell you unequivocally, that the worst is not over, and there are several more businesses on the brink right now that will not be around next year at this time. That goes for subcontractors as well as builders, and material suppliers as well. In 2005 all the national builders started jumping into Jacksonville and now there is just not enough market to sustain them all. Hence you have people like Centex (pulled out of Jax), Levitt & Sons (bankruptcy), Transeastern Homes (bankruptcy), all very big in this market just 2 short years ago. This is why you should be very cautious which builder you choose should you decide to build a new home in Jax.
Rumors abound about who the next to go is, and I won't speculate on that, because nobody picked Centex to leave.
I talk with my customers regularly, and I can tell you numbers for the rest of the year as far as new home sales go look pretty bleak. I think we are hitting bottom here, but I predict the construction market in Jax to be in complete and utter ruin by year's end. More builders and subs will have gone under or gone away, and sometime next year I think we'll stabilize and things will start to return slowly to normal. Only the strong will survive in this market. I know this all sounds like a gloomy outlook, but I am looking farther ahead at the big picture, and when the market does return, I have already taken advantage of this downturn by expanding the services I offer, which should lead to a very strong business 5 years down the road. Once the building & construction starts to upswing again, the overall Jacksonville economy should see a big improvement as well.
Very well put, and lots of insight....
Do you have any opinions/reviews/thoughts regarding SEDA Construction???
IT market is pretty good but there is a freeze in hiring till the end of 2008 at least on some companies that I know of . Please not convenience store - I assume that it will have beers not sure here - IMHO it's not safe enough.
There are plenty office spaces available on Beach BLVD that are brand new and quite nice. Good luck!
well all i have to say is i worked in jville for over 26 years as a sub and i had to move because of no work and i disagree with an upswing in new work anytime soon. when the sub work ended i went to the local union and had work for about 11 months and guess what the union ran out of work for me and guys that have been members for 30 years. the construction buis is dead in jville and it aint coming back no time soon!
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, ha ha 
