Spotlight On: Jake Nellis, Senior Vice President and Office Leader, Tampa, JE Dunn Construction

Key points:

• • JE Dunn is integrating AI to improve efficiency while maintaining human judgment on complex construction projects.
• • Healthcare, education, renovations, and mission-critical facilities are driving growth as multifamily and office slow.
• • Early collaboration, workforce development, and proactive procurement are key to delivering projects in a tight labor and supply environment.

March 2026 — Invest: sat down with Jake Nellis, senior vice president and office leader of JE Dunn Construction’s Tampa office, to discuss how shifting demand, workforce pressures, and new technology are reshaping construction in Tampa Bay. “We always want to be an extension of our clients’ business,” Nellis said.

Join us at caa’s upcoming leadership summits! These premier events bring together hundreds of public and private sector leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities for businesses and investors. Find the next summit in a city near you!

What changes, whether internally or in the market, have had the greatest impact on JE Dunn’s Tampa operations over the past year?

AI is the conversation everywhere, and construction is an industry that tends to adopt change slowly. For us, the biggest impact has been practical: figuring out where AI can make teams more efficient without losing the human judgment our work requires.

We are exploring uses like supporting contract review, helping flag issues in submittals, and improving consistency in day-to-day workflows. We also see potential in early-stage analysis that helps teams ask better questions sooner, which can reduce rework later. The goal is continuous improvement, and we are focused on using tools to strengthen performance, not to replace people.

We also think it is important to be clear about what AI cannot do. You still cannot automate a lot of trade work, and job site execution depends on experienced professionals who know how to solve problems in real time. For us, technology is most valuable when it helps teams make decisions faster and communicate them more clearly.

In your previous interview, you highlighted diversification and renovation work as key differentiators. How has that strategy evolved, and where are you seeing the strongest momentum today?

Multifamily construction has slowed down, largely because the cost of debt has made projects harder to pencil. Additionally, construction costs have risen, and rents have softened a bit, so that segment has cooled.

We have always been diverse in the work we pursue, and we have continued to invest in sectors with steady demand. We have leaned further into healthcare and education, both K-12 and higher education, and those remain strong drivers. We also continue to see opportunity in renovation and repurposing work, especially as owners look for ways to extend the life of existing assets and manage costs.

We also created a group called AFG, the Advanced Facilities Group, tied to mission-critical facilities supporting AI and data infrastructure. That work is influencing how we think about capabilities, supply chains, and how quickly certain types of projects are moving.

Which sectors do you expect to drive the most growth for you?

Healthcare should continue to drive a lot of our growth. Florida is still seeing population growth, and that requires more capacity across the board, from hospital expansions to outpatient and specialized facilities.

Education is similar. Net migration means more schools, and given the finite supply of land, there is also an increased focus on renovations and adaptive reuse, rather than only new construction. We see that trend in both K-12 and higher education, and provides an added challenge of ensuring campuses remain operational while work is underway.

The slower areas of growth remain commercial development, like office construction. Multifamily is also moving at a slower pace than it has in recent years. This is where diversification comes into play. It allows us to stay active in markets that continue to invest.

In a competitive labor market like Tampa Bay, how are you approaching talent attraction, development, and retention as projects become more complex?

We invest early so people understand the opportunities in construction. One example is the ACE Mentor Program, which helps introduce high school students to career paths across architecture, contracting, and engineering. Efforts like that matter because they make the industry visible before students make long-term decisions about what they want to study.

As students move into college, we recruit heavily at universities like the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. I have four new hires starting this summer from the University of Florida. There is also a shift happening: when I was going  to college, many students wanted to leave Florida, and now more of them want to stay. That is an advantage for the region and for employers here.

From the trade side, the challenge is that more people are exiting the trades than entering. That means we have to keep improving training and career paths, while also finding smarter ways to deliver work with fewer hands on site when labor is tight. We see that as both a workforce issue and an innovation issue, because it pushes the industry to rethink how work is planned, sequenced, and executed.

What construction or development trends are most influencing how projects are planned in Tampa Bay right now?

Long lead times still shape project planning. Even as the most acute COVID-era disruptions have eased, owners still want aggressive schedules, and key equipment can dictate timelines.

Items like switchgear, generators, and HVAC equipment need to be ordered early. We get involved with clients earlier in the process so we can help shorten schedules and reduce the risk of delays. Everybody wants their job done tomorrow, so we need to start yesterday.

We are also seeing demand in other parts of the country for mission-critical facilities that can affect availability of certain components and materials. One example is structural steel elements like bar joists, where broader demand can ripple into more traditional projects. The practical takeaway is that procurement strategy is not a back-end task anymore. It is something that needs to be integrated into early planning so expectations are realistic.

Among cost, schedule, and supply chain challenges, where are you still finding opportunity?

The opportunity is early engagement. If we are connected with clients early, we can help influence design decisions, align the project with the budget, and avoid the situation where a team designs in a silo and later discovers it is too expensive.

Early collaboration also improves schedule performance because it lets us identify long-lead risks sooner and plan procurement around real constraints. In many cases, that early alignment is what keeps a project moving when conditions shift.

How does community engagement factor into your strategy in Tampa Bay, particularly as the region continues to grow?

We invest in the cities where we live, work, and play, and I am a believer in servant leadership. I sit on boards locally, including Academy Prep Center of Tampa.

As a company, we also support those efforts financially. For example, we provided Academy Prep Center of Tampa a $150,000 Cornerstone grant. Across the country, each of our offices backed a cause they are already involved in, and in total, we gave back more than a million dollars last year. We are going to do it again this year. That support is part of how we operate, and it is reinforced from the top of the organization.

Looking ahead three to four years, what are your top priorities for JE Dunn in Tampa Bay?

We want to grow alongside our clients, including healthcare systems and education partners that continue to expand. For us, success means showing up as a reliable partner wherever we can help, whether that is budgeting, planning, renovation strategy, or building or renovating the facilities.

We always want to be an extension of our clients’ business, so whatever that means for them. Construction is exciting on our side, but for the end user it is a means to an end. They want the building, so our job is to simplify the process, deliver the product, and support them in the space.

What will success look like for the region’s built environment as Tampa Bay pursues resilient growth?

Transportation has to keep up with growth. Tampa has a lot of momentum, and major development plans will bring even more people and activity. If the region can improve mobility and infrastructure in step with that growth, it will be better positioned to sustain it.

Is there anything you would like to add?

One additional reality is that Florida does not compete as much for certain AI-related facilities because power costs are higher and the region is hurricane-prone. As a result, we are doing more of that work in places like the Midwest, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Atlanta, where the economics can be different.

Want more? Read the Invest: Tampa Bay report.