Haskell's High-Profile Projects

Contractor's Local Top Projects Include Alltel Stadium and a New Hospital

By Bill Chastain

Construction is booming in Jacksonville, and it's no surprise to find The Haskell Co.'s name listed as the contractor of record for two of the area's highest-profile jobs.

Haskell completed a $59 million project for improvements to Alltel Stadium, which will host this season's Super Bowl on Feb. 6. In addition, the company is close to completing the $84.4 million Baptist Medical Center South.

Haskell touts itself as one of the America's leading design-build firms practicing in the general building and civil infrastructure markets. The company reported 2003 revenues of nearly $300 million in the four-state Southeast region, and overall revenues of roughly $616 million, according to McGraw-Hill Construction.

"There's a lot of work in [the Jacksonville market]," said Haskell's Richard McManus, who was associated with the hospital project. "The area's extremely tight with manpower. All the subs are really busy with all this Super Bowl preparation. It's been a good year for us."

Alltel Stadium

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The Alltel project, which began in July 2002, was built in three phases and completed in August.

The first two phases cost approximately $47 million.

Phase one saw the completion of the new structure at the south end of the stadium, which included the Terrace Suite, a private, 270-seat section complete with full-service dining and an outside landing featuring a panoramic view of the stadium. Also built was the Bud Zone, a sports bar on the main concourse level that is open to the public; all the surrounding infrastructure, escalators and elevators; and a new South End Zone patio on the upper level - also available to the public.

"The biggest complications we experienced came during the first phase," said Brian Tellier, director of construction for the Alltel project. "We couldn't interrupt their schedule. And logistically, the area where we were building was part of the fire lane.

"So anytime there was an event, we had to make arrangements so that the fire department could have access in a ring around the stadium if they needed to," Tellier continued. "Then, the new structure tied into the old structure. So we wound up building a large, plywood security fence."

Because of the unique, and often odd, timing of events, Haskell had to take advantage of downtime around the facility.

"Typically during a game week, we'd shut down for the weekend because for a Sunday game they would start game prep on Thursday," Tellier said. "Thursday afternoon we'd start buttoning up the jobsite. Friday we'd spend all day doing whatever security procedures we needed to do to make sure they were in compliance. Saturday and Sunday were lost.

"When the Jaguars were not in town, we'd work at least a six-day workweek, usually seven.

"We weren't just dealing with Jaguars games. We had monster truck shows, we had rodeos, a circus, high school graduations. [Alltel Stadium] is a pretty busy facility oddly enough. It was difficult on us and the superintendents."

Phase two saw the completion of the surrounding infrastructure in the parking area, new security fencing and the construction of the practice field facilities located outside the stadium on its northwest side. The practice facility included two natural fields and one artificial turf field.

Phase three saw the construction of the Pepsi Entertainment Zone, which was constructed where the old practice field had been located on the south side of the stadium.

Now that the project is complete, Tellier said he was pleased at having been a part of getting the city prepared to host its first Super Bowl.

"I was in Atlanta prior to and after the city hosted the Olympics [in 1996]," he added. "You can feel the same buzz of excitement around here like I could in Atlanta."

All-New Hospital

Hospital facilities are one of the top areas for the design-and-build industry and Haskell is heavily involved, building Baptist Medical Center South and also expanding Baptist's downtown medical center in Jacksonville.

Southern Baptist Hospital, which does business as Baptist Medical Center, bought the 32 acres for the new hospital for $9.5 million from Jacksonville-based Flagler Development Co. in March 2003.

The five-story hospital is located at Flagler's Southside commercial park and will have 92 beds and 300 employees with a capacity for 125 beds. This design-build project has been on the fast track since ground was broken in June 2003.

"It's probably a good 30-month job being done in 18 months," said McManus, who added that there were no penalty costs looming over the project that dictated the rapid pace, but there was a desire to please the customer.

"Baptist is just eager to start getting a return on their investment," he added.

Haskell's contract is valued at approximately $57 million, while the remaining costs involve equipment and furnishings. McManus estimated the total project cost at roughly $100 million.

The hospital is scheduled to open on schedule in February.

"We've done a lot of hospitals," McManus said. "But this is a state-of-the-art, paperless hospital. All billing is digital. There's not a bunch of paper flying around floors and compartments. Everything's computerized, all digital imagining. That means there's no X-ray film unless somebody brings their own. Send your X-ray up to the operating room with just the push of a button and it comes up on the big screen.

"It's better to [lay the necessary groundwork for a paperless hospital] while you're building [as opposed to renovating]. There's a whole lot more conduit and, of course, wiring involved."

Like a lot of contractors in the state of Florida, Haskell had to deal with its share of bad weather.

"The three hurricanes hurt us, productivity wise," McManus said. "The main thing with the hurricanes was the workforce. A lot of the guys working are from the middle of the state. But we're overcoming it with overtime - lots of overtime. It's been seven days a week since about summer."