DooleyMack

By Debra Wood

DooleyMack Constructors of Sarasota, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, has expanded throughout the state and the region.

“We’ve grown up doing a lot of multifamily residential and condominium work and also a significant amount of health-care work,” says Bill Robey, president.

Health care, education, hospitality, multifamily and historical restoration are the company’s five core businesses, adds Bill Vicary, director of business development. DooleyMack operates offices in South Florida, Georgia and Texas and more recently added locations in Key West and Panama City, Fla.

“We see the Panhandle as a market that will continue to grow,” Robey says. “There is a lot of activity yet. In the last year, [condominium] activity has slowed down, but there is still a lot of product yet to hit the market. You chase those numbers and those rooftops, and there are other services that will continue to follow.”

DooleyMack recently completed the second phase of the $60 million, 270-unit Emerald Beach Resort and Spa in Panama City, and Robey says he expects Walton County Public Schools to award the company a contract to build a new high school.

The company’s Fort Lauderdale office also has several school projects under way, and it has continuing service contracts with community colleges in the area.

The Key West office stayed busy with Hurricane Wilma repairs and is building the Steam Plant condominiums and Railway Apartments, an adaptive reuse of a former city steam plant. The $30 million Steam Plant portion contains 19 high-end condominiums, and the $7 million Railway section offers 38 workforce affordable housing units. The project will wrap up in the fall.

“We had limited as-built drawings for the old facility,” Robey says. “Every place we tried to sink [the new foundation], we found a pre-existing mat foundation no one anticipated.”

Overall, Robey remains bullish about future opportunities.

“In Florida, we are fortunate to probably have in excess of 1,000 people per day net moving into the area,” Robey says. “It certainly puts a demand on our infrastructure, and school systems are trying to keep up. If you’re in those growth areas around the state, schools are a constant in our business, and it is a good backbone to our marketplace.”

DooleyMack maintains a diverse portfolio. Robey says about 75 percent of its business comes from repeat customers and 85 percent of the work is negotiated.

“One of the hotter areas of our core business is in the hospitality arena,” Robey says.
Here is a look at some of the company’s ongoing and recent projects.

advertisement

Sheraton Jacksonville

DooleyMack began construction in November on a $13 million, six-story, 159-room Sheraton in Jacksonville. The hotel, located in a corporate center in the southern part of downtown, will include 8,000 sq ft of meeting space and a Shula’s restaurant.

The precast plank and block Sheraton will have a spread-footing foundation and an EFIS system exterior with punch windows. It is being constructed on top of a former fill site that contained a considerable amount of buried stumps and trees but no hazardous waste.

“We were digging 12 ft down, and some pockets were 15 ft deep,” says Jim Orlando, president of DooleyMack’s South Florida division. He anticipates completion in March 2008.

Redfish Key Villas

DooleyMack broke ground in March 2006 on the $15 million, 35-unit Redfish Key Villas in Englewood, Fla. The project fills a small parcel overlooking Lemon Bay, just before the Tom Adams Bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway.

DooleyMack placed an aqua barrier in the bay and employed a tight erosion-control program on the upland side of the project, Robey says.

“The most important aspect is constant vigilance and monitoring that your measures are intact and performing,” he adds.

The project required extensive dewatering, says DooleyMack project superintendent Jerry Upshaw. During a six-week process, crews removed dirt and installed 211 well points on half the project, drove the piles, put in the pile caps and replaced the dirt. Crews then repeated the process on the second half of the jobsite.

“We had to do everything below sea level,” says Keith Coulter, executive vice president of DooleyMack.

In total, the company moved 1,000 cu yds of dirt and placed close to 3,000 cu yds of concrete in the pile caps. Each of the three condo floors sit above an underground parking garage and consumed more than 800 cu yds of concrete.

“We’re building a fortress out here because we have to meet the criteria for storms,” Upshaw says.

R.J. McCormack Architect Inc. in Fort Myers, Fla., designed Redfish Key, with units ranging from 1,503 to 3,006 sq ft. Amenities include a bayfront pool and a 34-slip marina. Glass and stucco clad the exterior. Upshaw expects to complete the project in April.

Useful Sources:

Redfish Key Villas
www.redfishkeyvillas.com

World War II Barracks Restoration

DooleyMack recently completed a $1 million renovation of Jupiter’s World War II Barracks Building. The Loxahtchee River Historical Society now uses it as a museum in conjunction with the Jupiter Lighthouse tours.

Completed in 1942, the wood-frame barracks building contains six two-bedroom apartments and housed military families stationed in Jupiter. The project modernized the plumbing, electrical and air-conditioning systems; weatherproofed the building; eliminated structural termite damage; refinished the hardwood floor and trim; and brought the structure up to modern codes, while preserving its historical attributes.

Orlando says the site contained historical artifacts, which prohibited crews from digging or driving equipment onto the property.

“We restored the barracks and saved the historical fabric,” Orlando says. “Everything had to be done as it was back then.”