A 100 percent minority-owned and women-owned general contracting team will break ground on the BJC HealthCare’s new 12-story building in the Central West End, beginning late October.
The $101.5 million project will be the first joint venture for black-owned Interface Construction Corp. and women-owned Tarlton. But Sam Hutchinson, Interface founder and owner, said, “It feels very natural to be in joint venture with a firm that operates similarly to us.”
In September, the companies started demolition of the existing Ettrick building at 4901-05 Forest Park Ave. and a building at 3-17 S. Euclid. Currently, the team is disconnecting old utility systems from the site and preparing to connect the new sewage and utility lines.
The 300,000 square-feet building will house Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s new resident clinics, the BJC office headquarters and a retail shop or pharmacy store on the first level. The building is slated for a fall 2011 completion.
Interface is the oldest black-owned general contracting firm in the area, which started as a small-scale operation performing cement flatwork for highway contractors. The company now has a strong working relationship with the Washington University School of Medicine – completing 1,250 projects for them in five years – and specializes in research labs and medical facilities.
Tarlton provides preconstruction and construction services. Hutchinson said Interface expects to learn from Tarlton’s process of working with large-scale projects from the ground up.
This year, Interface celebrated its 31st year of business.
“Sam always tells us that truth is our protection,” said Becky Spurgeon, chief financial officer and vice president of Interface. “Treat our clients with respect and own up to our mistakes. He is a man of high integrity, and he really lives by what he says.”
Hutchinson said that 10 years ago, he marketed to the School of Medicine at a time when the school was trying to increase diversity in its work force.
“We bid on a small project – Becker Library – and we’ve never left in 10 years,” he said. “It’s not about one job, it’s about relationships, and our repeat client base is a testament to that.”
When Steve Cockerham accepted his position as vice president of planning, design and construction for BJC HealthCare three years ago, he recognized the importance of increasing minority inclusion in the system’s multiple building projects.
At that time, BJC had in place self-imposed goals of 10 percent inclusion of Minority Business Enterprises (MBE) and 5 percent inclusion of Women Business Enterprises (WBE). “Which we had not hit since … ever,” Cockerham told The American this spring.
BJC is one of the largest nonprofit health-care organizations in the United States and the largest employer in the St. Louis region.
Now, he said, the combined percentage for MBE/WBE inclusion at BJC is 26 percent.
Hutchinson said that Cockerham “hit one out the park” when he paired Tarlton and Interface.
Initially, BJC was looking for a joint venture that would include 50 percent MBE/WBE inclusion. However, when Tarlton and Interface representatives gave their presentation to BJC, Cockerham said, “Their bid, in a competitive market, had the best presentation. They look like they had some time together; it wasn’t a marriage made quickly.”
Interface has 85 employees – down from 120 to 130 in past years. With the economy, “we’ve had challenges keeping employees; we’re like anyone else,” Hutchinson said.
Cockerham said a small company like Interface could not typically land a project like this one, and so a joint venture of a larger and women-owned business was more than ideal.
Through joint venture initiatives, larger companies can teach the small contractors. “The way to get stronger companies in the region is through joint venture,” he said.
Cockerham said that BJC wants to be a good corporate citizen, and supporting the MBE/WBE market is “the right thing to do.”
