As new federal courthouse goes up, Harrisburg-based firms struggle to get a share of the work – PennLive

The steel skeleton of the new federal courthouse in Harrisburg is going up, up and up this fall, taking the fortunes of several dozen construction contractors with it.

But when it comes to city-based, minority-owned businesses, nobodys been able to get inside the projects fenceline to date.

Not one, said the Rev. Franklin Allen, president of the Greater Harrisburg Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Not one.

Its exactly the result regional civil rights leaders warned about starting last winter, as construction contracts were starting to be let on what will become a $150 million public building on the corner of Sixth and Reily streets in Harrisburgs Midtown District.

But Allen and others are still battling, and still hopeful, that as more of those Tier One sub-contractors arrive on site next year and start hiring those who will actually do the work and receive the paychecks for it, the storyline will start to change in favor of city businesses and residents.

We are endeavoring to schedule a meeting with contractors that have yet to perform (work at the site), Allen said this week. "There has been a little movement. However.... we will need a real breakthrough to avoid a protest during the ribbon cutting. I expect God will deliver one.

On one level, Pittsburgh-based construction manager Mascaro Construction Co. contends construction firms in South Central Pennsylvania have been well served by the courthouse project. Work on project kicked off in late 2018 and the building is scheduled for opening by early 2022.

Mascaro has said about 67 percent of the dollar value of the contracts let to date have been signed with 23 firms in Dauphin, Lancaster and York counties. That number ticks just a little bit higher if you count single firms in both Cumberland and Perry counties that also made the list.

The value of individual contracts was not shared with The Patriot-News / PennLive, for proprietary reasons.

That equates to a cool $80 million-plus that is staying with regional employers like Kinsey Manufacturing of York; the Smucker Company in Smokestown, Lancaster County; or Hershocks, Inc. and Novingers Inc., both of Harrisburg.

Thats a much higher degree of local hiring... than we would typically expect on a project outside of a large construction market, said Will Powell, spokesman for the federal General Services Administration.

What can also work to the regional workforces advantage is that theres not always a straight line between what contractor has received a job and who is going to staff it.

For example, the main plumbing contract for the courthouse has been awarded to W.G. Tomko, a contracting firm based in Finleyville, Pa., in Washington County. But when Tomko fills out its workforce for the Harrisburg project, it will turn to Local 520 of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, which represents workers through south and north-central Pennsylvania.

Tomko spokesman Justin Hensberger said those workers might live in Harrisburg or an hour-and-a-half away; in the construction world both would be considered local, because theyre driving to and from the job site every day, as opposed to staying in hotels.

But theres local, as the construction industry defines it: Are the workers able to drive home at the end of their shift? And then theres local as community leaders see it: Is anybody who lives in the city where this building is rising - where nearly one in three residents live in poverty - seeing a paycheck from its construction?

Its the view through the second of those filters that still has the African-American leaders who last winter launched weekly protests at the courthouse - Jericho Marches, as they have come to be known - on the march.

To some degree, the tension is the inevitable result of a minority-owned contractor community in Harrisburg that is largely made up of smaller businesses who dont have the capital or resources to compete for major public works contracts.

Mascaro, whose representatives referred most questions for this story to the GSA but did supply information to PennLive on its business outreach efforts, had three major meet-and-greets to which scores of suppliers and contractors were invited in 2017 and 2018.

Invitations to bid, in addition to traditional trade publications, were distributed to 11 business and trade organizations, including the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Diversity Coalition.

In addition, Mascaro participated in a city government-sponsored event for minority and women-owned businesses in June 2018.

But in the end, only one minority-owned business has landed a contract thus far: Trihanson Development of Carlisle.

Trihansons owner, Carlisle resident Jameson Christopher, told PennLive hed been watching the courthouse project from Day One as a potential source of business, and hes worked over the last two years to build a relationship with Mascaro representatives.

In the end, Christopher, who is African-American, said his efforts paid off.

He didnt get the main painting contract for the building.

But Mascaro officials reached out to him directly and offered to split off painting of the courthouses interior stairwells to Christophers firm. I just thought it would be best to get something rather than nothing, and then start working with the company, he said in an interview.

Its called building a relationship, Christopher said. "Thats just something thats done in every aspect of our world."

Many other minority contractors especially those who told PennLive they didnt have the size or financial resources to bid on the tier one subcontracts are still hopeful about landing jobs as subs to the subs as the building takes shape.

One of those hoping to get the courthouse on his work calendar is Dwight Henry, owner of Goal Line Construction in Harrisburg.

Henry has been in contact with Smucker, the Lancaster County drywall contractor, about getting his crew hired on once the work moves to the interior of the rising building. Theres been open interest in having some kind of sit down, without any guarantees, Henry said. I guess thats hope.

Smucker officials did not return messages left for this story.

Same deal for Shariah Brown, owner of Personal Touch Cleaning Services, who hopes to get involved in final clean-up after construction, but before the building is turned over to the government.

Its in your hometown, and its a nice project, and of course, its federally-funded, Brown said, noting shes been told the package for the kind of finishing services her crews provide wont be awarded until 2021, and that she is on the list. So whatever they send us, we plan to bid on it.

Landing such work is not only important for the bottom line now, Henry noted, but also in helping businesses like his build their capabilities so more can compete directly for future contracts, and help more families share in the cycle of investment that follows.

The answers for these and other contractors is is still perhaps a year away.

According to the GSAs Powell, the courthouse project is about 25 percent complete now, with most of the work centering around the erection of its steel frame.

Construction activity should hit its peak next summer, when Powell expects daily average employment at the site to hit about 150 workers.

Allen and other African-American leaders say that is the immediate focus of the Jericho Marchers. If you have to be a sub (contractor) of a sub of a sub, Allen said, thats OK as long as youre getting in the door.

Mascaros proposed project cost, as schemed out in 2017 bid documents, is $158.4 million.

The aggregate value of all sub-contracts awarded through September is $124.9 million. GSA would not release the individual value of each sub-contract, which it holds as proprietary information. So its impossible to know the dollar value of the contracts with these firms.

But in its bid package PennLive obtained redacted copies of the package hrough a Freedom of Information Act request to GSA Mascaro had established a goal of awarding $35.7 million in contracts to all small business categories, including:

Of the 65 total sub-contract packages awarded to date, 21 have gone to 15 firms that are in categories that the federal government has classified as small or disadvantaged. By classification, they are:

Small Business Enterprises: E&E Contracting, McConnellsburg; Macri Concrete, Harrisburg; Tyndal Flag Service, Harrisburg; Goodwin, New Castle, Del.; Bailey Landscaping, Harrisburg; Port Elevator, Williamsport; Miller Church Interiors, New Holland; Gibble Construction, Elizabethtown; and TuboTek, Shermans Dale.

Women Business Enterprises: E&E Contracting, McConnellsburg; Fisco Flooring, Dauphin; Franco Associates, Pittsburgh; Reed Building Systems, Hummelstown; VO George, Pittsburgh.

Minority Business Enterprise: Trihanson Painting, Carlisle.

Service-disabled veteran-owned Small Business: Harnden Group, of Harrisburg.

Mascaro noted that its large business sub-contractors and suppliers are also encouraged to use additional small and disadvantaged enterprises where possible and applicable to the scope of work they were providing.

Allen said even as his Jericho Marchers fight for more Harrisburg resident and African-American employment at the courthouse, he hopes their work will have an impact far beyond this project.

His long-term goal is to put the concerns of city residents front-and-center to the developers of Harrisburgs next set of office towers: a new academic / lab building for Harrisburg University; a replacement for the current state Archives, and a new state office building.

Were not getting our due share, the NAACP president said. But our protests are not over. They will continue until the blue ribbon is cut for this building, and the next building, and the next building.

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As new federal courthouse goes up, Harrisburg-based firms struggle to get a share of the work - PennLive