Major Jacksonville maritime player jumping into government contracting

One of Jacksonville’s maritime powerhouses, Crowley Maritime Corp., is stepping up its government contracting game.

The company is inking a deal with the Marine Prepositioning Force to provide full crew and full technical management for the force’s ships.

“It’s exactly what we’ve been working for, for our government-side ship management,” said Mike Golonka, vice president of Crowley Technical Management Services.

Under the contract — which could reach a full value of $231 million if all the options are exercised — the company will crew, stock, maintain and operate six of the Marine Prepositioning Force ships. These ships are ready to be deployed with Marine Corps equipment at a moment’s notice. The contract is through Military Sealift Command, which oversees the Navy’s replenishment and transportation ships.

The deal is what Golonka hopes will be the start of something big.

“This is only the starting point,” he said. “It’s going to grow. Crowley has decided to be at the very forefront of government contracting organizations.”

Private companies crewing and maintaining Department of Defense ships is certainly nothing new.

But with one of Jacksonville’s biggest private companies so robustly entering that market, Golonka said he expects there to be big benefits for the First Coast.

“You can see that Tom [Crowley, CEO] decided we’re going to be a major player on the government side,” he said. “We’ve formed Crowley Government Services with plans to expand on that. Jacksonville is perfect, with our military people there’s a great nucleus of employees with good maritime background we can draw from. I can’t think of many cities where you can do that.”

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