Tom Jones Corporation: Fourth Generation Continues The Family Tradition
by Scott A. Sumner
www.thunderbaybusiness.ca
All of us in Thunder Bay know about the Tom Jones Corporation businesses. In fact when you take a drive around our city will see their work in many of our landmark facilities like the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, Lakehead University’s ATAC and new
Medical School building, the Ontario Government building on Water Street, Intercity Shopping Centre and many other retail and office buildings. The list is absolutely impressive! The company is as busy as ever today and has many projects just completed or undergoing.
Above: John Tom and Parker Jones of Tom Jones Corporation
“ It was 1967 when my brother and I got serious about this business. My father started the company in 1960, and my grandfather was a contractor in Ireland before that and he spent a short time in Port Arthur. My father was born in Belfast and we celebrated his 90th birthday there recently. He is still very astute,” said John Jones of Tom Jones Corporation. “ This is a fourth generation of our family in construction if you consider my grandfather. My son Parker is replacing me to be manager and is heading up a number of projects in the office.
He is constantly prequalifying for other work, finding work, tendering and in some cases carrying the project through to the end as project manager.”
The company has the construction side and development side. Tom Jones Jr, the son of Tom heads up the development side of the business which owns several high profile structures in Thunder Bay. (See www.tjsons.com) The company currently have 30 full time staff and year round close to 70 people including those in the field.“ We have kept our volume steady but locally are busier than in the past few years,” said Parker Jones who has an economics degree from University of Western, Ontario. “ Thunder Bay has been good to us and it is where we are from so we are going to keep looking for work around here and see what we can develop ourselves. There are opportunities here say in research or other hospital spin offs. We like Thunder Bay because it has so much to offer which you can’t duplicate.”
“ I enjoy working with Parker. It is kinda fun. I see Parker every day. My other two sons are working for the company in the field. One is an apprentice carpenter and the other a journeyman carpenter. They are both tall one 6ft 5in and the other 6ft 7in,” said John Jones. “
Working with Parker is prompting me to keep going, to keep up to him. It gives you a new drive. We would like to see the company going for a long time.”
When asked about the future of the Thunder Bay economy John Jones was unsure. “ It is a changing community. Pulp and paper has probably run its course. The new medical school and university make it more of an academic climate. We are also seeing a bit if boom in institutional work. The new court house will be positive in the South ward. I think it will be terrific for the area,” said John Jones. “ Abitibi Bowater has been an absolute pillar of the community. People may not realize how tough the market really is for them. It would be a sad day for
Thunder Bay if Abitibi Bowater is not operating here. At some point they have to survive. I really hope they make it. They have many multiple problems including electricity costs, the high cost of fiber, the weak market and labour costs. Those jobs built Thunder Bay. Every family has been positively affected by them.”
Over the next several issues Thunder Bay Business will be highliting several projects recently completed by the Tom Jones Corporation. This issue we will include: The Marostica Motors renovations, OPP Communication Centre and Dorian Fish Hatchery.
Marostica Motors
“ We did two projects for Ron Marostica. A renovation at the Hyundai dealership where Ron separated the Subaru and Suzuki lines from the Hyundai. The Subaru and Suzuki dealerships were relocated to the old Enterprise Rent A Car and Cottman Transmission location into a single car dealership,” said Parker Jones. “ We did an addition, gutted the building and put on a new facade. Ron has a lot of nice finishes on the building built to the manufacturers requirements. Mr. Habib did the design. We started in August of 2007 and completed January 2008 in some 6 months. It was a tight schedule. Ron Marostica was a good guy to work with.”
“ We took the two franchises of Subaru and Suzuki and renovated a building for them. We did what they call the image construction on the Hyundai building as Hyundai wanted an exclusive building,” said Ron Marostica , President of Marostica Motors. “ Tom Jones blended the images of Hyundai with the unique styling of our building on Alloy Drive. It was their expertise that made the whole project come together. They were able to convince people that they could put the elements in the building. Mr. Habib was the architect and is a talented man. We used a Lucabond on the exterior, a composite type of product which worked out well.”
“ We added on to the the new Suzuki and Subaru building on Central at Balmoral. They wanted their elements such as their towers and logo’s prominent. We invested a couple million in the project,” said Marostica. “ Thunder Bay will have a great economy. With mining, wind power, the college and university we will be good if we put our nose to the grindstone. “
OPP Communication Centre
Tom Jones Corporation was the general contractor on the new OPP Communications Centre on Algoma Street.
Dorian Fish Hatchery
“ The Dorian Fish Hatchery was almost two year project. We were the general contractor. It was a renovation and extensive addition, a rebuild of the fish hatchery. It is a very impressive structure just off Hatchery Road near Dorian,” said Parker Jones. “ It is the the first time we ever had a job dictated by fish. Our construction schedule was based on fish. The water is so pure and cold there. It is really conducive for the fish growth.”
