Jason Hulsey was just taking over as Senior Project Manager on the Baptist Medical Center project in Jacksonville, Florida, and he was eager to meet his new project superintendent. When he walked into the job trailer for the first time, he learned that he had been paired with an old friend, Pablo Villagra, with whom he had worked at another employer.
“It was like a homecoming,” Hulsey said. “We work really well together. Pablo and I see eye-to-eye about the well-being of the entire team. He takes the overall mental and physical well-being of our entire team very seriously. That includes the subs and people who are sweeping and mopping. He’s very attuned to everyone’s needs and really wants to provide dignity for them.”
Growing up in Argentina, Villagra thought he wanted to be an accountant. He didn’t. His career path meandered. He worked in his family’s restaurant for a while. He tried his hand as a computer tech and in Miami as an entrepreneur. But that didn’t work out.
After his first marriage ended, Villagra reasoned that he needed to make better money to support two households. He decided to try construction.
He had no real experience in construction, but he’d had exposure to it. In Buenos Aires, he had worked as a bookkeeper for his aunt’s construction company. He didn’t like working in the office and took every opportunity to get out in the field, buying and delivering supplies. He also hung out with three cousins, all of whom were studying architecture.
“I didn’t have any experience, but I understood the process,” Villagra said.
He began working part-time in construction in Miami in 2001 and went full-time the following year. He began traveling in pursuit of better-paying jobs, which took him to about half the states and Canada. He settled in Jacksonville and developed a passion for infection control construction working under Leland Singleton, who was a construction manager at Haskell.
“He was my mentor. I was really blessed to have learned from Leland. He taught me a lot,” Villagra said. “You have to be a little crazy to do this work. There’s a lot of pressure and deadlines. With infection control, you have to do it right. You’re working around patients. We have to create containment areas to keep dust, dirt and germs out of their spaces. You have to like doing it, and I like doing it.”
Villagra is currently project superintendent on a new Labor and Delivery Recovery unit for Baptist Medical Center’s Southbank campus in Jacksonville. The expansion of the Chartrand Frisch Family Birth & Newborn Center will enhance its ability to better serve high-risk labor and deliveries. The $21.6 million project includes 16 new labor and delivery rooms, three C-section rooms and eight triage/recovery rooms.
Villagra said Phase 2 is complete, and Phase 3 should be complete in about a year.
Hulsey describes Villagra as a master of phased construction.
“Some superintendents can’t get their heads around seven- or eight-phase projects,” Hulsey said. “Pablo blows through it. It’s one of his strongest attributes, understanding the execution of phased construction.”
For two decades, Villagra has been married to Rossana. They have a daughter, Silvia, and a son, Joshua. He enjoys glamping with his family and Tango, his Great Dane, and throwing a steak on the grill. Occasionally, he grills for the workers on a job site.
Villagra said one of the best things about working for Haskell is that “you have room to grow, and people who will help you to grow. If you’ve got a question or need help, there’s somebody who will bring their knowledge or a little wisdom.”
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