News
Wink Expands to New Orleans' North Shore
Wink Companies, LLC has announced plans to open a new office in St. Tammany Parish. The engineering and surveying office (approximately 25,000sf) will be the anchor tenant in a 60,000 square foot Class “A” office building developed by Wink Bruno, LLC (a joint venture between Wink and Bruno Brothers Management and Development Company). The new building will be located on a 6.58 acre site in Tammany Middle Business Park, at the intersection of Interstate 12 and LA Highway 190 in Covington. The property has been owned for more than 6 years by the Bruno family, who has developed utilities, drainage, access roadways, and other infrastructure for the site.
“We are very grateful to Robert Bruno and his family for their extraordinary vision of six years ago, and for their commitment in preparing this site for future development. It is the ideal location for the next expansion of Wink Companies,” said Larry Wink, President/CEO of Wink Companies, LLC. The Bruno family’s vision of a high-quality, mixed-use professional development dovetailed perfectly with Wink Companies’ need for additional office space. “With offices in Baton Rouge, Covington, and New Orleans, we will be strategically located to serve our southeastern U. S. customers, and also positioned to attract the high-quality professional staff needed to meet our growing business needs.”
Gulf States Real Estate Services Company is the manager and planner of the Tammany Middle commercial subdivision. “Gulf States will provide project management, property leasing and management services for the building, which will include limited ground-floor retail space,” said Gulf States President Mike Saucier. According to Saucier, the Bruno/Wink deal is worth more than $12 Million. The project, along with a number of other Bruno developments, will be financed through the Gulf Opportunities Zone (GOZone) program. “With 60,000 square feet of Class ‘A’ space and ample parking, this will be the only building of its type in all of west St. Tammany,” said co-developer/owner Robert Bruno.
Wink Companies has more than 600 employees and is the largest privately-owned professional engineering/architecture/surveying company in Louisiana. Because of Hurricane Katrina, the company was unable to reoccupy its headquarters building on Bullard Avenue in New Orleans East which housed 200+ personnel. Approximately 30 of those personnel (executive, accounting, human resources, and a number of engineering personnel) were relocated to Baton Rouge, along with the corporate headquarters. By January 2006, the balance of approximately 170 staff had returned to Greater New Orleans. Downtown New Orleans is now the home of Wink’s Architecture and Commercial (Mechanical & Electrical) Engineering Department. More than 150 of the former Bullard Avenue employees moved to James Business Park, in St. Charles Parish near Louis Armstrong International Airport. They joined 100 fellow Wink employees in the St. Charles office, which the company opened in 2001.
“A Wink office on the North Shore is the logical next move in our company’s strategic regional expansion,” said Michael Wink, Chief Operating Officer of Wink Companies. The North Shore office, targeted for completion in December 2007, will house a mix of current and to-be-hired Wink personnel totaling approximately 120. The staff is expected to grow to more than 200 within the next 2 to 3 years.
Wink stressed that the company will continue its dominant presence in New Orleans. “We are actively recruiting for at least 40 to 50 engineering and survey professionals, as well as architects, designers and drafters, to support our growing workload.” While the new location is definitely seen as a recruiting tool for North Shore residents, “our projections are for growth and expansion in all of our offices.” In addition to its headquarters office in Baton Rouge, operations in St. Charles Parish and downtown New Orleans, Wink currently has offices in Lafayette; Biloxi, MS; Houston, TX; and Algeria, in Northern Africa.
St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis welcomed the location of a new professional office to Covington. “I am pleased that Wink Companies has chosen to construct its new office building in St. Tammany Parish. Wink will bring new, good-paying jobs to St. Tammany and will make a valuable contribution to the economic growth of our community.”