For more than 30 years, Ajax Building Company has collaborated with the Florida Department of Management Services (DMS). They have worked together for many years and have witnessed everything, from little waterproofing fixes to extensive campus renovations.
DMS is basically the State of Florida’s business division, which includes overseeing the state’s real estate holdings. Under a continuing contract with the state, the Ajax team has overseen dozens of smaller projects, including elevator replacements and waterproofing initiatives, in addition to some of DMS’s largest projects in northern Florida, including the 260,000 square foot expansion at the Capital Circle Office Complex in Tallahassee and the ongoing Capitol Complex campus upgrade.
According to Ajax operations manager Allan Wooden, “the variety of initiatives that might arise from some of the larger ones is the most exciting component of the continuing contract.” “This contract enables us to proceed with those minor projects to keep the larger one moving forward since sometimes a major upgrade brings unexpected implications to adjacent facilities.”
DMS’s massive Capitol Complex remodeling project serves as just one illustration.
Wooden explains that “various systems were running inside the broader project and needed coordination to perform the job.”
DMS appointed Ajax to oversee the more extensive renovations.
To support work on the parking garage, the team modified the complex’s medium-voltage distribution system.
That process revealed several issues with the aging 40-year-old switchgear.
DMS also enabled Ajax to alter heating systems in nearby buildings.
This allowed them to operate independently of the central plant.
As the overall reconstruction progressed, Ajax continued managing those auxiliary tasks under the ongoing contract.
“We hired an electrical contractor because the majority of these jobs were electrical in nature,” Wooden adds. “But in order for us to move forward with the garage, the contract offered the framework to have those projects done swiftly.”
In a similar vein, the garage project brought Ajax on board for a $55 million redevelopment of the entire Capitol Complex site, one of the Capitol’s biggest undertakings. The project crew discovered some degradation and water damage while they were first renovating the garage. As the repair went on, the team found that the dense stand of trees above the garage, which had grown significantly larger than they had initially thought, was partially to blame for the degradation.
The state had also issued a legislative mandate to establish a “memorial park” on the Capitol grounds.
To expose the structures for repairs, the existing vegetation over the garage had to be removed.
DMS used this opportunity to revamp the campus into a bright, open, and inviting outdoor space.
It will serve the legislature and encourage staff and visitors to spend more time outside.
The new park includes major landscaping elements and space for future monuments and memorials.
Two main floors will feature a mix of precast pavers, granite-clad panels, slate panels, and precast copings.
There will also be linking staircases and ramps.
“What was a smaller effort morphed into this larger, more complex project that will dramatically change what the Capitol Complex has looked like for the last 40 years,” says Wooden. “It’s one of the jobs at the end of my career that I will look back on and say, ‘That one was special.’”
Ajax and Florida DMS Example Projects
- House Office Building parking garage fire sprinkler safety system replacement
- House and Senate Office Building colonnade finishes and waterproofing repairs
- Florida Department of Law Enforcement Regional Operations Center in Jacksonville
- Security upgrades to the Florida Supreme Court
- Various utility infrastructure upgrades
- Various warehouse renovations
- Crime lab renovation and reconstruction
- Underground parking repairs
