Permit issued for $11 million W.W. Gay headquarters | Jax Daily Record – Jacksonville Daily Record

The city issued a permit Sept. 21 for Auld & White Constructors to build the Florida Mechanical Systems Inc. administration building for W.W. Gay Mechanical Contractor Inc. at 524 Stockton St. at a construction cost of $11 million.  

The city approved a permit Aug. 26 for site work on 3.74 acres at a job cost of $500,000.

The two-story 49,665-square-foot office building will be next to existing buildings.

Auld & White is based in Jacksonville.

Kasper Architects + Associates Inc. of Jacksonville is the architect. WGI Inc. of Fleming Island is the civil engineer.

Plans show the developer is Ronald W. Fussell Inc. of Jacksonville.

City Council approved $1.2 million in public incentives for Florida Mechanical Systems to help finance a new headquarters for W.W. Gay, an affiliated company, at its current site in Northwest Jacksonville. 

Council voted April 26 to approve a $500,000 grant and a property tax refund capped at $700,000 for what the company said will be a $15.31 million, 49,200-square-foot office and administrative building at 524 Stockton St.

W.W. Gay will lease the structure that will replace its corporate headquarters damaged by fire in August 2020. 

Resolution 2022-0277 authorizes the city’s Office of Economic Development to enter into a redevelopment agreement with Florida Mechanical for the cash grant from the Large Scale Economic Development Fund. 

The bill also approved the Recapture Enhanced Value Grant property tax break at 50% over 10 years. 

A city project summary says W.W. Gay would be the primary tenant in the office building. 

W.W. Gay President and CEO Paul Jones also is president of Florida Mechanical Systems, described as a privately held property and rental management, crane and mechanical equipment rental and fleet management business established in 1968.  

It owns the property where W.W. Gay is located.

The Stockton Street property is in a city-designated Level 2 Economically Distressed Area in the Rail Yard District, and the summary says the incentives would keep W.W. Gay based in Jacksonville.

The summary said W.W. Gay wants to remain a tenant within the Florida Mechanical Systems 20-acre campus.

A breakdown says it will cost $10.46 million to build the two-story headquarters, $1.44 million for renovations to existing site infrastructure, and $622,700 to develop the site. 

W.W. Gay will invest about $2.37 million in furniture and fixtures. The summary shows $420,836 in the development budget as a contingency.

The contractor told the city it will create 60 jobs with an $83,700 average wage plus benefits by Dec. 31, 2028, in exchange for the incentives, adding $5 million to the company’s payroll per year.

The commercial, industrial and engineering contractor was founded in 1962 and has more than 600 employees in Jacksonville. 

W.W. Gay said in March 2021 that it has 1,200 full-time employees companywide and had gross revenue in 2020 of $243 million.