Florida Business Uses Quonset Hut For Food and Farming

Quonset Hut Supports Florida Business in Food and Farming Endeavors

When Congaree and Penn’s farmer and founder Scott Meyer needed a facility for his farm, he was looking for a multi-use structure with plenty of square footage for food processing and manufacturing.

“We looked at everything from some wooden structures, to other types of steel buildings more with steel posts like a steel pole barn,” Scott said. “We ended up moving forward into the deeper planning stage looking at the Quonset hut style design.”

Scott found SteelMaster through an online web search and saw photos of the projects designed by our building specialists and like the unique architectural aesthetic of Quonset huts.

“We started communicating with [Senior Design Specialist] William and everything seemed to run pretty smoothly throughout the process,” Scott said.

After he worked on the building’s design with William, Scott hired a local contractor to assemble his structure.

“Once [the contractor] followed the construction manual things came together pretty quick,” he said. “The easiest part of the construction process was getting the actual building put up.”

The building was initially used only for agricultural storage but was converted over the last six years to include a restaurant and dining area.

“We ended up adding on an extra 32 feet of arches, which is now used as a covered patio area for dining and events and things like that. Then we built an open-air patio off of the whole building as well.”

Because the farm is located in Jacksonville, Florida, Scott knew he needed a building that would withstand heavy wind loads brought on by hurricanes. A major advantage of owning a SteelMaster Quonset hut is its hurricane resistance. Our arch system is High-Velocity Hurricane Zone certified and can be designed to withstand winds over 200 miles per hour.

“We wanted to get something that would tolerate a lot of wind shear,” he said. “The first two years we had the building up, we saw pretty close to direct hit hurricanes and the buildings never had any issues with it holding up.”

Every SteelMaster structure comes with a set of State Stamped Engineered Blueprints that meet local loads requirements. All designs and calculations are stamped by a licensed, professional engineer.

“It was easy with the engineered drawings to go through the city down here and show it was up to snuff for going up,” he said.

Scott says his overall experience with SteelMaster was positive and the process went smoothly.

“From purchase to installation, everything was great. Service was good, things happened on schedule. SteelMaster was very organized and easy to work with.”

Not only is Scott happy with his SteelMaster building, but customers have also told him how much they like the structure.

“We always get lots of remarks from customers about the actual exterior façade of the building and people end up taking pictures outside of the building,” he said. “They say it’s cool, it’s unique. A lot of people have an interest in buying one of building one or needing one for their personal property. Most people are very impressed with the building.”