April 30, 2004
Cincinnati Business Courier

Leading by example

With bids broken into packages, Freedom Center creates work for many

Dan Monk
Courier Senior Staff Reporter

Chris Phillips won a contract in the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center project because a job he could afford to bid on was made available to him.

"They had a package broken into three pieces," said Phillips, a painting contractor who bid on two of the jobs, winning one. His company, G.C. Pace Construction Inc., painted the building's east-wing interior. "My kids got a real big kick out of it," said Phillips, who credits a Freedom Center contracting initiative with giving him a chance to compete for the job. When bidding out the roughly $42 million in trade contracts for the museum's three pavillions, organizers split the work into 66 packages, ranging in size from $5.6 million down to $46,700. The idea was to encourage participation by small contractors, many of whom happen to be minority-owned companies. As a result, the Freedom Center will have no trouble claiming the mantle as the city's most inclusive development project ever.

With the project nearing completion, construction manager Megen Construction Co. said blacks have represented 29 percent of the work hours it took to build the center. That's more than double the city of Cincinnati's 11.8 percent goal for construction projects. It's also three times the level of black participation (9.4 percent) in the region's overall work force, according to the University of Cincinnati's Economics Center for Education and Research. The Freedom Center's inclusion figures are more impressive when you look at its total spending on construction, exhibits, operating and other capital expenditures. According to a January report by the UC Economics Center, blacks represent nearly 40 percent of the total employment produced by the Freedom Center and 36.5 percent of the total pay.

The study, released April 18, concluded the Freedom Center's development will have a one-time economic impact of $306 million, plus an additional $39.5 million a year impact from the visitors it draws. #"When all employment and earnings are taken into consideration, the African-American workers' share of the Freedom Center's impact is 802 jobs, with earnings totaling $17.4 million," said the report.

Freedom Center spokesman Ernest Britton said the museum wants to showcase its success on minority hiring. "Our hope is to write this up at the end of the project and share this as a model that what people said couldn't be done can be done," said Britton. One key element in that story, said Evans Nwankwo, Megen's founder and CEO, "is having the client that makes the decision and empowers you to do it." Nwankwo said many of the initiatives he employed on the Freedom Center can be duplicated, but some can't. Its multi-city outreach program, for example, took more time than most projects would allow. Freedom Center CFO Gary Bockelman said managing 44 prime contractors was a strain on his staff. But he doesn't think it added cost to the project. "I didnt get paid any more because I was managing (44 contractors). I just did more work," he said.

© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc.