Business View Caribbean | July 2019

47 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN JULY 2019 That was our business until about 2009, when the market crashed.” When sales in the housing market died off in the islands, JPK diversified from building on spec to building luxury homes for private owners on request. From there, they branched out into commercial work; the big introduction coming as a major addition at Montessori School. The project involved construction of a large gymnasium, 6,000 square feet of classrooms, and a library. The JPK focus from 2009 to 2012 was primarily commercial. Another significant build was a large, high-end office building for ICMC. Designed to house all the office employees, the space featured very nice finishes, while being utilitarian, as well – in direct contrast to the company’s other building that was historic and limited to the spaces it could provide for workers. “We did a large job at the Westin hotel in St. John, prior to the Sept. 2017 hurricane,” Knoepfel reports. “There were two phases; first to repair and restore their six beachside villas and the pool area. We did a lot of roofing for them, and the following year, they turned four large hotel room buildings into time-shares. Eventually, all the rooms were converted to time-share units. We spent two- plus years working at the Westin under a major stateside contractor called DCK. For that project, we had about 75 employees, the most workers we’ve ever had.” Employee numbers shift based on the size of the project. After Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc in USVI, work was plentiful with severely damaged homes and resorts desperately needing repairs. The JPK team went to work immediately, cleaning up debris and trying to fix people’s homes as quickly as possible. They did about 150 estimates for insurance quotes for home repairs; those estimates turned into the repair of between 50 and 70 homes. JPK was not spared from the destruction. “Our office was wiped out during the hurricane,” Knoepfel declares. “Everything was ruined. We got a few things out before the storm and, afterwards, we moved to a construction site we were building as a company project to rent or sell. The location has worked well as a lay-down yard for all our JPK DEVELOPMENT