Building around America's pastime

Creating strong, long-term relationships with its subcontractors has paid off in an interesting way for Ed Taylor Construction.

Deep in the bowels of Tropicana Field, the Tampa construction firm is building a 75-foot-by-25-foot enclosure. It is no ordinary interior building. It is specially designed and wired for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and others to install telecommunications that will boost signal and strength of cell devices during the kick-off party of the Republican National Convention.

It's a complicated project squished into a tight timeframe, requiring working individually with all of the carriers along with Tampa Bay Rays officials, says Mark Weaver, vice president of Ed Taylor Construction.

Weaver is at the Trop most days overseeing construction and working around another major issue: the Rays. Major League Baseball rules require all construction to be stopped and non-employees out of the stadiums three hours before a game starts. So for Rays' night games starting at 7 p.m., Weaver will get his crew out by 4 p.m., then return often at 11 p.m. to get back to work.

Despite all the headaches, Weaver is thrilled with the job.

“It's been a blast,” he says. And it will remain a permanent, albeit somewhat hidden, part of the Trop.