Diversity Works

Historically Underutilized Firms Find Opportunity in Construction

By Debra Woods

Business continues to grow for women- and minority-owned firms in Texas.

In the field with Eve Fields, president of MEB Construction of Roanoke. (Photo © John W. Davis, ASMP; DVDesign Group Inc. of Dallas.)

“The opportunities are great in the construction business,” says Eve Fields, president of MEB Construction of Roanoke. “There is enough for everybody, as much or as little as you want.”

MEB is working on an expansion of The Warrior Group’s headquarters in DeSoto. The company just completed a remodel at the Texas Youth Commission Cottrell Halfway House in Dallas.

“The trends are getting better,” adds Barbara Taylor, comptroller at Barcom Commercial, a woman-owned firm in Corpus Christi. “There are more women in the trades but not as many as we would like.”

Kathy Sterling, president of the Houston chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction and owner of the Flooring Showroom, says being a woman can be advantageous because women tend to be more particular than men and good at customer service. “We are treated with more respect,” she adds.

Like Sterling, Lisa Charrin, president of Equipment Collaborative in Houston, has found a niche and people listen to her recommendations. Charrin works with architects and owners to spec and budget medical equipment purchases for new health-care facilities. She says there is no prejudice against women, and “we win work based on respect and experience, not on cost and not because we are a women-owned firm.”

Fields has a different take on it. “In some aspects there is still discrimination,” she says. “I don’t necessarily think it’s because of being a woman. They are taking women more seriously, but you have to work that much harder to prove yourself.”

Fields is careful about the jobs she accepts to ensure she has the time to devote to the project and the bonding capacity.

Minority leaders also are seeing more business head their way.

“There are business opportunities as barriers are brought down,” says Frank Fuentes, chairman of the United States Hispanic Contractors Association in Austin. But “we’re not where we need to be.”

Fuentes adds that as more Hispanics work in construction and become more skilled, some are making the transition to starting their own firms.

“What is keeping it from exploding, in terms of more businesses, is access to bonding and insurance,” Fuentes says. “It’s difficult to obtain when starting out.”

Related Links: Partnering for Progress

Darryl Samuels, president of the Houston chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors, also sees more minority firms coming to the table, often in partnerships.

“A lot of majority firms have criteria and pressure to increase minority spending,” says Samuels, project manager for Grijalva & Allen HUB Advisory Services in Houston. He adds that government packaging of jobs into larger projects has opened the door for mentor-protege relationships and joint venturing.

“It creates a win-win situation,” Samuels says. “The minority contractor is given the experience and resources, and the majority contractor is able to bid on the projects.”

Connecting with big firms Large, majority firms often partner with minority firms to obtain jobs that include minority and women business enterprise (MWBE) requirements. For the past three years, JE Dunn South Central of Austin has teamed up with firm 3i Construction of Dallas, owned by Mike Williams, on various projects, including some for the Dallas School District.

“We would not have been as successful in being part of those projects if we had not had him on our team,” says Peter Doyle, chairman of JE Dunn South Central. “He calls when he has projects or contacts [when] he feels we would be an appropriate partner.”

3i also partners with other large firms and is working with Manhattan Construction of Dallas on the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

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“We respect him and want him to grow,” Doyle says. JE Dunn also partners with CBIC Construction & Development of Houston in a formal protege-mentor relationship. CBIC owner Esther Francis led the day-to-day operations on an $80-million-plus program-management contract at Texas Southern University with support from JE Dunn. The team completed a radio station, a science complex and a school of public affairs.

“Our goal is to partner and mentor and have them participate in the process,” Doyle says. “They have to be an active team member.”

Some firms set internal diversity goals. Turner Construction Co. targets 20% MWBE participation for all jobs, says Corbett Nichter, business development manager for Turner in Dallas.

Nationally, in 2005 and 2006, Turner awarded more than $1 billion each year in contracts to minority and women-owned firms, Nichter says. He adds that 2007 would also come in at more than $1 billion.

“We try to give [women and minority firms] a right-sized package,” Nichter says. “We have to be responsible to everyone. If we give something out and they are not qualified, it hurts other subcontractors.”

Turner finds many of its minority subcontractors through the Turner School of Construction Management, launched in 1969. It completed its 10th program in Dallas last fall. Nationally, more than 15,000 minority and women business owners have graduated from the program after learning about business plans, safety, accounts, estimating, financing, bonding and other topics.

“They see how we run the business. We pull back the covers, and they learn from that environment,” Nichter says. “The school gives an opportunity for them to know us and for us to know them.”

Javier Huerta, president of Carrco Painting Contractors of Garland, completed the 10-week Turner School, and Turner now hires his company on jobs with or without MWBE quotas. For example Carrco painted the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, which did not have quotas.

Luis Spinola, president of Azteca Omega Group in Dallas, also graduated from the Turner School. His firm has since provided structural and ornamental steel on several Turner projects, including the interior build-out of the Comerica corporate office relocation in Dallas. Azteca Omega is pursuing with Turner a contract to build the Las Colinas Convention Center in Irving.

MEB’s Fields attended similar courses presented by Austin Commercial of Dallas as part of its mentor-protege program.

“That education they gave helps me keep my business going,” Fields says. “You don’t take it in hopes for a major contract.”

Things could be better Meanwhile, workforce issues are affecting minority firms as much as the rest of the industry. Ronald Feken, an owner’s representative with DuPont in Houston, says that crafts and trades are often not viewed as desirable careers.

Samuels of the National Association of Minority Contractors says there’s also a negative trend-more minority companies trying to become construction managers rather than specializing in a trade.

“The field is over-saturated,” Samuels adds. “It makes it difficult to place them into projects. Large projects already have project managers on board.”

Another issue raised by Samuels and JE Dunn’s Doyle is that some minority firms continue to lend their names to a deal when they are not staffed up to do the work. It may help get a job, especially if the minority contractor has political connections, but it fails to help those firms grow.