Interview: James Fox,President

James Fox

President Maddox Group

What is your take on the future of office space in terms of layout and design?

In my world, we rely on brokers, so we have a lot of commercial brokers that we use as resources and we speak to all of them often. These are big companies, the CBREs, the Cushman & Wakefields and the JLLs of the world. They have their research teams doing their due diligence because this is their life. What we are hearing is that the percentage of people who want to work from home after this pandemic is behind us is not as high as people may think. Most people want their teams back in the office. They want that team camaraderie back. As a business owner myself, we went through that in the office portion of things. We had 20 people in the office, and we were rotating. Every third or fourth week there would be a team in there, then they would work from home for a few weeks. Since then, we have all been back in the office. Home office works better for the employee, obviously, but as an owner, I want my team there. I like to see the teams bonding and I like the team synergy.

On the flip side, there will certainly be some downsizing of space because maybe not everybody needs to be in an office. It all depends on the nature of each business. However, I am sure we will see some tenants giving space back to the buildings in 2021.

What are the main priorities for Maddox Group in the near term?

From a company standpoint, we always want to accomplish more than we did the year before. All things considered; we had a good year in 2020. The largescale picture is to build off that. Opportunity is afoot if you have been standing strong throughout, just as we are.

Equally as important is to continue operating with the highest of construction safety standards and following protocols under the CDC guidelines during these unprecedented times. Maddox Group will adapt accordingly to the changing times, taking care of all staff and clients present and future.

One study showed that 71% of contractors had experienced at least one material shortage

There is enough supply in the United States on the construction products front. Most of our materials suffered no delays. We had a few things, such as electrical switchgear coming in from Mexico, that got delayed. The same with elevator parts. We needed to ensure we were tracking them early enough to make sure they got here. We had to do a good job of calling our vendors, making sure they were on top of the delivery time frames to avoid any delays. Opportunities to prove ourselves and get things done also presented themselves amid these supply chain pressures,” he told Invest:.

One more related issue that resulted from the pandemic was a decline in skilled labor in the industry. Already there was a dearth of capable workers in the construction sector nationwide. This was not helped by COVID and, in some cases, closed borders. What developers are now facing is a reluctance to get back to work after spending the year at home, living off money from PPP loans. There is concern that, if unemployment benefits in the state remain as high as they are, people will continue to be unwilling to show up at the job.

Another challenge faced by the construction sector in Tampa is the availability of land. Certain government actions are seeking to address this issue. One is creating a more streamlined system for issuing permits that allow development on Florida’s wetlands, much to the anger of local environmental groups. There has also been a backlash by developers against the board of county commissioners for their implementation of new growth restrictions and high impact fees.

Still, despite all these obstacles, the industry is positioning itself to take advantage of what is widely expected to be a post-pandemic boom. There is a widely held belief that mixed-use developments are going to be more in demand from buyers. The Rome Yard site ( )