Urban League Project Turns into Mentoring Opportunity

SOURCE: Wisconsin State Journal

When the Urban League of Greater Madison moves into its new home on Park Street next week, the nonprofit's mission of community outreach and support will be echoed in the building's very walls, door frames and brick facings.

Those are the main portions of the total $2.8 million building project completed by Urban Construction, a small, minority-owned subcontractor based in south Madison and mentored by the project's general contractor, Tri-North Builders of Fitchburg.

During the eight-month construction project, Tri-North provided the smaller company with help in site management, accounting and streamlining of their business practices. Tri-North experts even taught Charles Harris, vice president of Urban Construction, a more sophisticated method of estimating costs for future jobs they might bid on together, and they helped Urban Construction lease or buy some of the tools it needed.

"They've been real helpful," said DeAngelo Jackson, president of Urban Construction, who graduated from Madison East High School in 1979 and UW-Madison in 1983. "They made sure we stayed on track and didn't lose money on the job."

To Urban League interim President Ed Lee, the unusual mentoring relationship was a great expression of the organization's signature programs for minority and low-income people, including offerings that focus on career training, college readiness and homeownership.

"We felt (it) was really consistent with our mission of giving opportunity to folks, and helping to nurture and grow some of our emerging businesses," Lee said, noting the construction project also more than met its goal of 22 percent participation by women- and minority-owned firms, at just over 30 percent. "We hope that it's a model that others can use going forward."

Tom Thayer, president of Tri-North Builders, said the decision to help the smaller company fine tune its accounting and productivity-measuring systems to handle a bigger job was an easy one.

"It was very clear that although (Urban Construction's people) are very dedicated to what they do and have great construction knowledge, it takes more than that to be successful in today's market," Thayer said. "We wanted to help them succeed and develop their business."

Tri-North Builders is a relative giant of construction, with some 300 employees, nearly $200 million in annual revenues and projects throughout the U.S. and Canada. Urban Construction was founded two years ago by Jackson and has about a dozen permanent employees, with previous jobs including work on Madison Fire Station No. 12 and one of the new Allied Drive apartment buildings.

Thayer, who helped start his company nearly 30 years ago, said he hasn't forgotten how tough starting out can be.

"A lot of people helped us get started," he said. "We had mentoring from subcontractors and from accountants and lawyers. It really helped us establish a base of knowledge, and I felt it was time to pass that on and help another generation."

"We want to see minority contractors succeed," added Thayer, who is white but grew up in a diverse neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. "It's something we've been committed to as a company for years, and we were just trying to take it a step further with this."

But the mentoring also was driven by necessity. In today's tight construction market and unforgiving economy, Thayer said, there was no room for mistakes or slowdowns on the Urban League building.

"We're dealing with a different market (now)," he said. "Two years ago, you had more leeway. With the economics now, you have to know where every dime is going and where every penny is going."

The Urban League project - a two-story, 36,000-square-foot building at 2222 S. Park St. in the redeveloping Villager Mall - also was unusually complicated, Thayer said. The building was designed to allow a third floor to be added later, and it had several funding sources and two additional tenants, with a new South Branch of the Madison Public Library and Planned Parenthood owning and leasing space in the building, respectively.

"It's unique," said Harris, who grew up on the South Side of Madison. "It's revitalizing the whole neighborhood."

Thayer said he spent about two years working out the pre-construction details, and once construction started at the end of March, it was imperative that none of the nearly 45 subcontractors fell behind. When Urban Construction ran into some cash-flow problems early on, Tri-North was quick to step in and help them correct practices.

The collaboration was successful enough that the two companies will work together again on another job - a 16,000-square-foot addition to the Veterans Hospital - starting in January or February.

By KAREN RIVEDAL | krivedal@madison.com | 608-252-6106 | Friday, November 13, 2009