Every year, APG attends the Florida Healthcare Engineering Association’s (FHEA) Annual Meeting and Trade Show. The FHEA holds their trade show in conjunction with the annual seminar put on by the Office of Plans and Construction in the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). These two events combined draw thousands of professionals in the healthcare facilities industry from all over the state, and this year was no exception!
 
The conference took place at the Orlando World Center Marriott on October 7th and 8th, showcasing the theme: “Expanding the Horizons of Healthcare.” APG was well represented by employees from all over the company. Our booth at the trade show was a major hit and hundreds of visitors stopped by to discuss trends in construction, upcoming projects, and where the industry is headed. A television screen scrolled through pictures of our many completed and ongoing healthcare projects and team photos of the groups behind them. We are incredibly proud of the work of our field technicians and this booth gave us a chance to show everyone why.
 
While our estimators, project managers, and business developers visited with general contractors, product vendors, and healthcare facilities professionals at the trade show, our engineers attended seminars which prepared them to expand their horizons as to what healthcare environments will become in the future and how to bring to life the ideas and designs that clients will be looking for. Various break-away sessions gave them an opportunity to network with other designers from all over Florida and to explain why the APG engineering model is proving so successful. When one company is able to provide full MEPT engineering services and then actually install the electrical and low voltage systems themselves, the owner wins.
 
The FHEA and AHCA trade show gives us a fantastic opportunity to sharpen our skills, make new contacts, and even catch up with old friends from jobs we’ve completed over the years. We are already looking forward to next year’s event. Who knows what we’ll have accomplished by then!

We are proud to announce that we have once again won an IEC Excellence in Construction award! This award recognizes our outstanding work at the City of St. Petersburg Police Headquarters Facility/EOC. Congratulations to each and every person whose expertise and dedication made this project a success.
 
These prestigious Awards of Excellence are only presented to a handful of companies at the annual IEC National Convention and Expo. This year, Tim White attended the Awards Gala in St. Louis, Missouri to accept the award on our behalf. To be considered for this recognition, APG submitted an entry package that included photos, letters of recommendation, and narratives describing the projects and their unique challenges. We were happy to do this on behalf of the hardworking technicians who brought this very important project to life. We are especially proud of the skill our Technology Group brought to this project each and every day. Keep up the award-winning work!

After several years of hard work, APG was very excited to see the St. Joseph’s Hospital North campus open in 2010. We were chosen by BayCare’s construction manager to provide electrical, fire alarm, nurse call, and security services for the brand-new facility. This project remains one of the largest in our company’s history, and a picture of the finished hospital is proudly displayed in the lobby of our Clearwater headquarters.
 
Since then, the Lutz area has grown at a phenomenal rate. To meet the needs of its current and future patients, BayCare decided to add two more floors on top of the existing hospital, doubling the inpatient bed capacity from 108 to 216. The expansion also adds to the intensive care unit, the progressive care units, physical and respiratory therapy, and a dedicated hemodialysis unit. Once complete, an additional 200 people will be needed to staff the 128,000 square foot space. Adding new floors to an existing and operational hospital is an incredibly challenging task. Rooftop equipment has to be demolished and relocated, all while maintaining service to the floors below.
 
APG was awarded the engineering contract to provide mechanical, electrical, plumbing, medical gas, fire protection, and technology engineering design services. Part of this scope included determining how to construct the new floors in a way that minimally impacted BayCare’s signature patient experience. This began with a comprehensive study and analysis of the existing facility’s infrastructure. Eventually, a carefully coordinated phasing plan was generated and provided to bidders for competitive pricing. Our engineering team’s professional skill shined throughout the design process, and their success on such a complicated project has led to additional engineering contracts on other BayCare facilities.
 
Then in April of last year, as the design progressed and we competitively bid the project, APG was selected by Barton Malow to provide electrical, fire alarm, and voice/data for this expansion. We’re extremely honored to be worthy of BayCare and Barton Malow’s continued trust in our work.
 
Although this project won’t be completed until the spring of next year, we couldn’t wait to feature it because of the tremendous effort our team has put forth so far. Special thanks to Senior Estimator Jonathan Henley, Senior Project Manager Ron Mueller, and Project Superintendent Eric Beal. We are particularly proud of Eric. He came to APG right out of high school just ten years ago, with no electrical experience. We’ve watched him grow from a green helper to an apprentice to a journeyman electrician and a project superintendent. He’s an amazing example of what you can achieve with hard work, and we’re very happy that he chose to become part of the APG family. We can’t wait to see what more he’ll accomplish in the future!
 
It takes dozens of people who are part of a dedicated team to succeed on a project this challenging, and we’d like to thank each and every person who is contributing to its success. Keep up the great work! Stay tuned for an upcoming article that will feature a major expansion at St. Joseph’s Hospital South.

APG has reached another milestone—we closed on the purchase of our Clearwater headquarters July 26th! After 25 years, we are proud to own our building and are grateful for the tireless efforts of those who made it possible. 
 
Before moving to our current location, APG leased space in the Live Oaks Center in Largo on Ulmerton Road. The location was easy to find, but the traffic was a major downside. Because it was situated on a heavily congested, main thoroughfare, entering and exiting the parking lot sometimes felt like gambling with your life. Having already remodeled and grown in that space, we realized that we needed more opportunity for expansion. So began our search for a building that would better suit our needs. 
 
It was difficult to find anything at first, but the pieces all fell into place when we found our current building on 140th Avenue North in Clearwater. Completion of the Bayside Bridge made it a central location, easily accessible from anywhere in Tampa Bay. We started out with approximately 12,000 square feet of office area spread over common areas and 12 offices, with about 7,000 square feet for the warehouse.  
 
That was only the beginning. Almost before we moved in, we needed more space. Our commitment to quality meant that we continued to expand the services we offered, rather than subcontracting, to ensure that our customers received only the best. Providing fire alarm, technology, security, and engineering in-house meant that we were in control and could deliver on our promises. It also meant that we had to enlarge our headquarters to provide enough room for each new group.  
 
Over the years, multiple buildouts have been necessary. We currently occupy approximately 49,000 square feet of office space with 120 individual offices and 10,000 square feet of warehouse space, including our automotive center. Until we grow into the entire building, we will be leasing out suites A and B. Please contact Chris Johnson in the Clearwater office if you are interested. 
 
In the same forward-thinking spirit, we are proud to announce the opening of our new Sarasota office. This branch focuses on Engineering, and the location will allow us to better support our clients farther south. Our Engineering Group’s phenomenal growth means that our Clearwater space has become too small. Adam Lester, Bruce Loeppke, Dave Ozimek, Don Netinho, Jonathan Ware, Marija Gumienny, Mike Skene, Sawyer Dobbs, Todd Potter, Tracy Panzarino, and Wesley Campbell will be in Sarasota full-time, with the flexibility of working from Clearwater as needed. Mike Dobbs will oversee both locations. Now we will have a team in each location, ensuring increased market presence, reduced commute times for our employees, and greater productivity. Truly a win-win for everyone!  
 
No matter how many changes APG has undergone, our commitment to quality remains the same. Our growth allows us to better serve our customers, partners, employees, and community. We look forward to continued expansion, going above and beyond in all we do. 

If you’ve passed one of our vehicles recently or visited our website, you might have noticed the minor change to our company logo. If so, you might be wondering why? In response to market changes and to better serve the needs of our customers, our Automation Group has become our Security Group. This reflects our continuing focus on providing security solutions for our customers in today’s challenging world.
 
Security and Fire Alarm now fall under the Life Safety umbrella, with each focusing on their respective aspects of providing a safer building environment. Our Security Group offers access control, video surveillance, intercom, and intrusion detection. Countering physical threats through electronic security is an important consideration for any business, whether it be a hospital, office building, school, or public attraction. We customize access control systems with technology that ensures superior security using card, combination PIN, or biometric readers. Door intercom systems allow for the option of remote unlocking of entry points with voice and video verification. End user software provides for the capability of onsite administration of authorized users and custom report generation. We also provide video surveillance technology that is at the forefront of the industry, allowing our customers to benefit from greater storage capacity, enhanced searching, and the ability to quickly sift through data, all in a cost-effective manner.

We held our 16th Annual Family Fishing Tournament on Saturday, April 27th at the Belleair Boat Ramp. We had a great turnout of 130 anglers, including 32 kids who were twelve years of age or under. This year’s tournament was modified due to the effect of red tide on the Tampa Bay coast last year. Grouper, snook, redfish, and trout were changed to catch and release so that the ecosystem would not be negatively impacted. We added a new Eco category to encourage participants to clean up the water and shoreline. Any angler who brought trash they had collected during the tournament to the weigh-in was entered in a special raffle.
 
The tournament shirt was another winning design by Alan Woodford of Big Lagoon Designs, which got rave reviews from our participants. The fish looked great on the shirt and even better on the hooks! Everyone enjoyed the food, drinks, and raffle prizes, and many of the adults were excited to walk away with a cash prize for their catch. Our fishing tournament has been growing since its inception and continues to be an event that employees and their families look forward to every year. All of us at APG would like to thank the following individuals for organizing this stellar event—John Kavula, Jerry Lightner, Steve Tallyn, Bruce Lyle, Mickey Mitchell, Karri Edwards, Tim White, George Balcombe, and Rachel Kotsch. We hope to see everyone again next year!

 In January of 2018, APG was awarded the over $3.5 million Village on the Isle Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) project by Willis Smith Construction. This facility in Venice is a brand-new, 67,000 square foot health center featuring 64 private suites offering licensed skilled nursing care. It will include a wellness and rehabilitation gym, 4 living rooms and dining rooms, 2 personal laundry areas, 2 activities/library rooms, and a state-of-the-art media/multipurpose room. This new building is part of a larger retirement community campus, which consists of apartment-style independent living as well as memory care and assisted living buildings. Village on the Isle was founded in 1979 as a not-for-profit, faith-based, continuing care retirement community. The new skilled nursing facility will focus on keeping patients active and socially involved through physical and mental activities and the services of occupational, physical, and speech therapists, while the private rooms will allow them to recuperate peacefully.

​The Village on the Isle Skilled Nursing Facility is expected to be substantially completed in September. All of us at APG were happy to earn this contract and we greatly appreciate having been selected by Willis Smith Construction as their electrical contractor of choice. We are proud of the hard work of Project Manager Tommy Poore, Project Superintendent John Lenges, and the entire team on site. Keep up the great work!