Back in May of 2013, a new development in Bridgeport was announced along with its first project. The development, The Market Place at Bridgeport, was moving earth and making plans for its first building.

 

The building in question was a 20,000 square foot, three-story office building just off of State Route 279 or Jerry Dove Drive. It’s the building situated just to the left of the main entrance of White Oaks and across the road from United Hospital Center.

 

For most of the time since the building was constructed, it remained empty. In the summer of 2017, United Hospital announce a project to assume business on the third floor of the building. Since then, however, nothing has happened and the first two floors have remained vacant.

 

Not any longer.

 

Bridgeport Community Development Director Andrea Kerr confirmed that building permits were filed for the second and first floors of the building, with the most recent permit issued Feb. 25 under Applied Construction Solutions.

 

The buildout is not cheap. Kerr said the cost is for $400,000 and the contractor is the applicant – Applied Construction Solutions.

 

The company is one of several owned and operated by Bridgeport’s David Alvarez. This particular company, according to its Web site, offers “quality construction services to all sectors of the oil, gas, utility, midstream and energy industries. With decades of experience, our team offers unmatched services for gas plant construction, industrial plant services, pipeline services, and millwright services.”

 

The building, however, won’t just be housing employees for Applied Construction Solutions. It will serve as a combined corporate headquarters for Applied and the family of companies associated with it and under Alvarez’s guidance.

 

“We’re consolidating offices and operations to have better communications between our companies,” said Alvarez.

 

The move is not something that just happened. Andria Alvarez-Wymer, the director of strategic initiatives for Applied, said this has been in the works.

 

“We’ve been looking at the space for some time,” said Alvarez. “This is mostly back office staff.”

 

The total is not insignificant. Alvarez-Wymer estimated the first floor will house 40 staff members.

 

“We would like to be moved in by mid-April with a later summer to early fall arrival on the second floor,” she said.

 

Alvarez-Wymer said by moving staff to the new building it does more than just consolidate the under the same business umbrella into one location to enhance communication. She said training and safety will receive a boost.

 

“We’re going to have a large training area on our first floor. Training and safety is paramount due to the nature of the work we do at Applied and other companies … We do training now, but this will be more organized and on a larger scale,” said Alvarez-Wymer. “Regular training will become an easier process and allow us to keep up to date on requirements by OSHA and others that are put out that need to be followed.”