Halle Jones Capers, President of Halle’s Engineering & Design, LLC, established the first minority woman-owned civil engineering firm in the City of Akron in November 2020.  She is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer in the State of Ohio, a proud participant of the Minority Contractor Capital Access Program’s (MCCAP) 2nd Cohort, and recently started a new project assignment with the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.  

The Port Authority administers PACE Program grant funding (Property Assessed Clean Energy) for “Residences at the Greens” in Canton, Ohio.  They were looking for local “boots on the ground” to verify the project progress and approve the contractor’s monthly pay applications.   That’s when Craig Teamer, Manager, Finance and Special Projects at the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, reached out to Kyle Julien, Community Development Program Officer of the Development Fund of the Western Reserve, to see if there was anyone he could recommend for the job.  Having worked with Halle through the MCCAP Program, Kyle confidently referred Craig to Halle’s Engineering & Design, LLC.

“Residences at the Greens” is located on 20 acres at Belden Greens NW in Canton, OH (specifically Jackson Township) and encompasses over 197,000 square feet. The developer, ABC Gardens LLC, is developing 124 architecturally independent living garden homes (over 20 buildings).  The general contractor is Fiorilli Construction Co., Inc.  The total project budget is approximately $30M.  In early July 2021, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority issued bonds to finance eligible energy improvements for this new construction project.  Net of bond expenses, ABC Gardens is using $4.5M to finance a portion of the budgeted $5.4MM in eligible energy improvements.

Halle’s scope of work for the project includes reviewing the monthly pay application, vising the site to meet with the Site Superintendent to discuss the project progress, visually reviewing the construction progress, documenting that progress with photos and a report to verify the progress reported in the pay application.  The project opportunity is $500 per site visit and is scheduled to run through Spring 2022.

To find out more about Halle visit her website.