November 7, 2002

Contractors lend a hand to women and minorities

Courtesy of HDC Walsh Construction seeks out women- and minority-owned businesses to work on its projects. Terry Semon, who is employed by Walsh, takes a break at a jobsite.

Several general contractors who belong to the nonprofit Housing Development Corsortium of Seattle-King County are working to open up the opportunities for women- and minority-owned firms.

According to Seattle’s Office of Housing, women and minority-owned firms participated in just over 16 percent of city-funded housing projects since 2000. Combined with the industry trend toward bundling construction jobs to reduce risk and control costs, this spells bad news for small subcontractors, which include many minority and women-owned businesses competing in an industry traditionally dominated by white males.

Learning to fish

Don Mar believes you can either give someone a fish or teach the person how to fish. Along with his brother Doug and Herman Setijono, Mar owns Marpac Construction, a minority-owned firm. About four years ago, Mar contacted the Small Business Administration about mentoring opportunities. They gave him the name of an African-American-owned construction firm, Straight Line Construction.

“I had real-life experience as a minority contractor,” said Mar. “As a mentor, I’m able to work one-on-one with someone who wants to successfully compete in the construction business. To be successful, building relationships with people who share similar values and who you’re comfortable with is as important as building housing and offices.”

“When I started with my dad’s company in 1981, we had a net worth of less than $100,000.” said Mar. “It’s hard to get into the business with that, especially when contractors must be fairly liquid. Building bonding capacity is tough when you’re struggling as a start-up.”

Doing it one step at a time is what Mar articulates to his student. Marpac started out doing public works projects, but felt concentrating on “lowest bid” work was not the best way to grow the firm. It now does private sector work and particularly likes working with nonprofit developers.

Mar also participates on the diversity committee of of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington. He has taught several classes that focus on getting a job and how to build financial capacity at its School of Construction Management, a 13-session course for minority and women business owners.

“We’ve found nonprofits and churches tend to want to help people who need help or are disadvantaged. That meshes with our way of thinking,” explained Mar.

Recently, Marpac was awarded the contract for Phase 2 of the International Village Square housing project in the International District being developed by Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority. On that project he plans to use as many qualified WMBE subcontractors as possible.

Bucking the trend

With the emergence of bundling work into as few contractors as possible, Walsh Construction Co. is bucking the trend by trying to provide opportunities for more and smaller firms, seeking out WMBE subcontractors on many of their projects.

“We’re deliberately breaking the work into smaller increments,” said Tom Mathews, Walsh Construction’s general manager. The tactic gives smaller companies more opportunities to work on a large project.

“Understanding and maintaining accurate records and a positive reporting status with state and federal governments with the obligations a company incurs places a big demand on a small company,” explained Mathews. Walsh Construction extends guidance on these to their WMBE subcontractors.

“We made the decision to hire minority-owned businesses that knew how to manage and that could consistently produce the work — working with them across the board, not just because we have to. It’s a balancing act, but we feel we need to make a strong, honest effort to do this,” said Mathews.

One of those efforts is their new community outreach program. Walsh Construction’s community outreach program connects with neighborhood groups and smaller firms, giving them the opportunity to get involved in larger projects.

The program works with the Small Business Administration, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, the Contracting Development and Competitiveness Center, the state Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises and the Northwest Minority Business Council.

“It was the natural next step to what we’ve been doing,” said Mathews. “We realized that to truly meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s initiative of hiring local people to work on federally funded projects and provide contracting opportunities to small businesses, we needed to substantially increase our outreach to minorities and women as part of our business plan.”

Walsh is a general contractor on the NewHolly project with the Seattle Housing Authority. Currently, 16 percent of Walsh’s contracts for NewHolly have been awarded to WMBE subcontractors.

Walsh also works with the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) and has hired 19 residents from Rainier Vista and NewHolly through SHA’s Jobs Plus and the NewHolly Career Development Center. Both of those provide pre-employment screening and job readiness training for SHA residents. Walsh Construction provides some on-the-job training.

Starting with apprentices

There are women in construction, but it’s still rare for a woman to manage a company. Pam Stewart is president of Synergy Construction.

“One of our earliest efforts towards encouraging minorities in construction was through a Central Area youth organization. They wanted to give youth who were part of their organization job skills,” said Stewart.

“We were working on a couple projects in the Rainier Valley with South East Effective Development, so we hired several teens to work alongside experienced construction workers and learn about the trade. We’ve also had employees make presentations about construction opportunities to high schools.”

As a strong supporter of affirmative action, Synergy has a large pool of quality WMBE subcontractors that regularly work on their projects. It participates in the Construction Industry Training Council (CITC), a craft-training and apprenticeship program focused on encouraging and attracting women and minorities to the building trade.

As a training agent for CITC, Synergy employs several carpenter apprentices from CITC’s state-approved carpenter training program. Apprentices work alongside experienced journey people to learn hands-on skills, while technical skills are gained through formal classroom training.

“Companies who participate in CITC are really investing in their employees,” said Halene Sigmund, CITC’s apprenticeship director. “The result is less turnover and a safer workplace.”

“It’s nice to be able to help make a difference,” said Stewart, whose company works with many nonprofit developers.

Synergy is currently working on the Greenbrier housing project in Woodinville. Stewart recalls the opening of Burke-Gilman Gardens. A little girl came up to her and said it was the nicest place she had ever lived.

That was when Stewart realized she wanted Synergy to be a company that helps people by creating homes, as well as job opportunities.

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