After graduating from Auburn College with a level in development administration, Jacksonville native Coleman Lay anticipated to go to work for a big builder.
As a substitute, at age 24 he discovered himself working his personal small firm.
The flip of destiny occurred three years after Lay’s commencement when the proprietor of Duckworth Development, for whom Lay had interned and served as a mission supervisor, determined to promote the corporate.
Hank Duckworth talked to Lay’s father, Rodney, a fishing buddy, and the 2 approached Lay about taking up the corporate.
“He had run a profitable enterprise right here in Jacksonville for 30 years, and he was searching for an exit technique,” Lay mentioned of Duckworth.
“He and my dad spun the thought to me, and I assumed they have been all loopy.”
However the extra Lay thought-about the chance, the higher it sounded.
He’d grown up watching his dad, a naval architect whose designs included on line casino riverboats and the ship that recovered booster rockets from the house shuttle, run his personal enterprise close to the Intracoastal Waterway alongside Atlantic Boulevard.
Inspired by Rodney Lay, he took an early curiosity in working open air on the household’s 15-acre property to repair fences, restore the dock, construct a treehouse and make different enhancements.
After initially pursuing an structure diploma at Auburn, the Bolles Faculty grad switched halfway to development administration.
“The development administration faculty and the structure faculty have been proper subsequent to one another,” he mentioned. “The lights within the structure faculty by no means turned off, and all the development administration guys gave the impression to be those who’re all the time having enjoyable – fishing, searching. And so I type of gravitated towards that.”
Requested whether or not he struggled over whether or not to amass the corporate, Lay, now 30, mentioned he got here to the conclusion that “possibly this was the one determination.”
“I knew it was going to be a whole lot of work and a whole lot of duty – and possibly I didn’t know the way a lot – however it simply appeared like the fitting factor to do. I’ve an enormous attachment to Jacksonville, and I wished to play part of what’s happening right here,” he mentioned, including that his spouse’s household is also rooted in the neighborhood.
LAY Development makes a speciality of Class A workplace build-outs, industrial initiatives and adaptive reuse. Its workplaces are at 13891 Atlantic Blvd, in Jacksonville.
Lay, who financed the acquisition with funding from his dad and mom and a few different sources, mentioned he eased the corporate into the transition after taking up in January 2019.
He maintained core expertise among the many workers and initially operated the agency as Lay/Duckworth Development to permit clients time to adapt to the change in possession.
“I didn’t are available in flipping over any tables,” he mentioned.
Just a little greater than a 12 months after Lay grew to become the proprietor, he and his workers confronted a possible disaster from the coronavirus pandemic.
He mentioned the corporate got here by way of unscathed, adopting jobsite-distancing protocols that allowed the workers to keep up regular work.
“In the end, I’d say it by no means actually affected our enterprise,” he mentioned.
In 5 years underneath Lay’s management, the corporate has doubled its income to $15 million-plus and elevated its workers.
LAY Development makes a speciality of Class A workplace build-outs, industrial initiatives and adaptive reuse, together with constructing its headquarters within the former workplaces of Rodney Lay’s naval structure agency.
Lay mentioned his focus all through has been on sustaining sustainable development by offering dependable, high-quality work throughout all initiatives.
“You hear a whole lot of horror tales of corporations rising too quick,” he mentioned. “And it actually solely takes one unhealthy mission to achieve a not-so-good repute.”
Requested what recommendation he would give to a startup entrepreneur or somebody contemplating beginning a enterprise, he smiled and mentioned that whereas “it’s onerous to present recommendation at 30 years outdated,” he would encourage them to focus on constructing a great crew.
“To have the ability to encompass your self with reliable, hardworking of us is actually invaluable,” he mentioned. “And I feel that’s the place we’ve been ready to achieve success is due to our individuals right here.”
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