Market voices: Growth factors

We’ve been working quite a bit with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) on specific segments of the Tampa Bay NEXT program. Also, we are doing work with both the FDOT and the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority (TBARTA) for the regional BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) service on the I-275 corridor. We are also doing quite a bit of work with transit agencies and local governments. Bob Clifford Vice President & North & Central Florida Area Manager WSP

The key to sustained growth is focusing on the culture that a company has created and on delivering the best work to the core of their business. The delivery of professional services in this marketplace has always been very people dependent; people do business with people they view as professional and proficient. Providing professional services at the highest level means trying to teach and train a company’s culture to ultimately ensure that they continue to deliver a product that has intrinsic value. Patrick Gassaway President Heidt Design

Mark Hardy Vice President Universal Engineering Sciences

We have a lot of projects on the books that haven’t started yet but are on the horizon for the new year. This includes a new performing arts center and new contracts with Pasco County Schools, Hillsborough County Public Schools and Hillsborough County for infrastructure improvements. This year, we surpassed 100 employees at this o©ce and we will look to build o™ that momentum. The remainder of 2019 and 2020 are shaping up to be really great years for the company.

It is really diŸcult to deal with the process of acquiring permits in the current regulatory environment. Government’s typically have a bureaucracy, but this should not delay the process of acquiring permits. This process should take a couple of months, not a year, which has been the case as of late. The submittals to all the counties in this region take an exorbitant amount of time to get approval, and we in the industry would like to see this process more streamlined, which would benefit the local economy as a whole. James Lockhart Managing Director Lockhart Management Group, Inc