JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Permitting may not be the most glamorous part of construction, but delays can freeze projects and drive up costs across Northeast Florida, Jacksonville contractor Fabian Videla says.
“You will sign a contract and then nothing will happen for months at a time,” Videla told Kent Justice on the “This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition” podcast. He said the slowdown hits commercial property owners especially hard because “every day means money,” whether it’s rent that starts running or an opening date that keeps slipping.
Videla, who has spent more than two decades as a general contractor, said the process can bog down at almost every step ... from figuring out which forms apply in a specific jurisdiction to waiting on plan review and inspections.
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“Duval has some forms, Clay County has different forms, St. John’s has different forms,” he said, adding that even neighboring beach cities can require separate paperwork. Contractors may spend hours gathering information, chasing signatures and notarizations, then waiting four to six weeks for plan review before work can proceed, he said.
Those delays can show up in the broader economy, Videla said, including contractors trimming staffing to manage overhead and business owners paying interest on loans while they wait to open. “Every day that delays the opening is money,” he said.
Videla’s company, Permit Rockstar, says it is building a Florida-focused platform designed to simplify permitting from start to finish. The company uses AI to pull property and product information from public sources and place it into the correct forms in the right order, reducing errors and rework, Videla said. The platform also coordinates remote online notarization - a step Videla said is often handled incorrectly when a notary does not witness signatures.
Permit Rockstar also relies on private providers to review plans for building code compliance before they go to the city, and it offers same-day virtual inspections so crews don’t lose time waiting on an inspector, Videla said.
Looking ahead, Videla said Florida has already taken a key step by allowing private providers to expedite parts of the process. He said a major next improvement would be a uniform permit application statewide. “If they could implement that across the state, it will simplify life for contractors incredibly,” he said.