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CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: YOUR INSIGHT
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Brothers Chris and Michael McCreary are transitioning to take over Baymeadows Movers, started by their parents in 1996.
Baymeadows Movers expects a big increase in work in the summer, so instead of layoffs it is paying its employees to do volunteer work. BY SCOTT SAILER STAFF WRITER
Mike and Linda McCreary started Baymeadows Movers in 1996 with three men, one truck and a 10-by-20 self-storage unit. Within two years, they increased to 10 men and four trucks. In 2002, the McCrearys built their first officewarehouse at 6419 Philips Highway and added a second warehouse in 2006, comprising a total of 36,000 square feet of storage space. Then came the Great Recession of 2008.
Baymeadows Movers had grown to 50 employees before retreating to about 30 after the economic downturn. Now comes COVID-19, and the McCrearys’ sons Michael, 40, and Chris, 38, are setting the business path for the 30-employee company, Baymeadows Moving and Storage Inc. “Instead of laying off employees we are promoting them to do volunteer work and maintenance around the buildings, cleaning, painting, fixing things, anything we can to keep our guys’ hours,” said Michael McCreary. “Great employees don’t walk through that door every day so you don’t want them to seek other employment. Once the pandemic goes away and summer comes, we expect a big increase in work and we want to make sure that staff is in place,” said Chris McCreary.
KEEPING CLOSE – FROM A DISTANCE On May 4, the state began a phased reopening of some businesses shut down to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The Daily Record is reporting on small businesses as they confront the challenges of social distancing and financial hardships brought on by the pandemic and its aftermath.
KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
Developer wants to start Union Terminal work Columbia Ventures seeks selective demolition permit for historic warehouse it intends to convert into apartments. Atlanta-based Columbia Ventures LLC applied to the city for selective demolition within the Union Terminal Warehouse at 700 E. Union St. as it plans to convert the structure for mixed uses. WPC – Winter Park Construction – of Maitland is listed as the contractor for the $2.7 million demolition and concrete restoration of the four-story, 365,434-square-foot building. Columbia Ventures intends to convert the structure into apartments through adaptive reuse and a historic tax credit conversion. Plans indicate the demolition is for a project that involves the remodeling of the Union Terminal Warehouse built in 1913. “We have filed a partial interior repair and demolition permit simply to make initial repairs to the interior of the building in preparation for our planned adaptive reuse of the building,” said Columbia Ventures partner Jakob von Trapp in an email May 5. COVID-19 is a determining SEE MATHIS, PAGE 2
SEE MOVERS, PAGE 2
Bowling named UNF vice president of jobs The University of North Florida named Karen Bowling the institution’s first vice president of jobs. Bowling will provide leadership for the development of partnerships that align UNF’s instructional, research and creative initiatives with local and global needs and priorities, according to a news release. She will develop new initiatives and programs among the university’s colleges to ensure the career success of current and prospective students. Bowling has served since 2018 as the first director of UNF’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
VOLUME 107, NO. 124 • ONE SECTION