AÂ Manhattan-based construction management and design company that has managed an estimated $50 billion worth of projects over the last decade has opened a branch office at 12 E. Third St. in Mount Vernon. McKissack & McKissack, which has more than 150 employees, is a New York state-certified Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) headed by Cheryl McKissack Daniel. She has more than 30 years of experience in all phases of the construction industry and has overseen more than 6,000 projects during her tenure as the company”™s president and CEO.
Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard indicated that the move to the city by McKissack represents a first step in creating consortiums that will develop new projects.
“We”™ve seen rendering after rendering after aspirational rendering but very rarely have we seen execution of those renderings,” Patterson-Howard said during a ceremony marking the opening of McKissack”™s new office. “It is now time for us to set a vision that includes not just a rendering of a building, of a hotel, but a rendering of a community that is being equitably developed; neighborhoods that connect and are not divided. It”™s time not to just do groundbreakings, but ribbon cuttings and so vision with equitable execution sets an even table for Mount Vernon to rise. We”™re bringing partners to help us do it.”
The history of the firm can be traced back to before it was formally organized in 1905 by McKissack Daniel”™s grandfather Moses McKissack III and his younger brother Calvin. They became the first African American architects to be licensed in the state of Tennessee. The first Moses McKissack had been brought to this country as a slave and made bricks for construction projects. McKissack Daniel purchased the firm as sole-owner in 2001.
The company eventually expanded into construction and construction management, over the years opening offices in New York and Pennsylvania including branch offices in Massachusetts and North Carolina. Among its noteworthy projects was construction of the $5.7 million Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama for the federal government in 1942.
More recent projects on which the company has worked include:
- The New Terminal One at JFK International Airport;
- LGA Central Terminal Building Redevelopment;
- Coney Island Hospital Campus Renovation;
- Harlem Hospital Center Modernization;
- NYC Economic Development Corporation Hunts Point Cooperative Market, Fulton Fish Market, and MART125 Cultural Center projects;
- Atlantic Yards (Pacific Park) LIRR Yard Relocation;
- Columbia University Manhattanville Expansion;
- Henry J. Carter Specialty Hospital & Skilled Nursing Facility and The Studio Museum in Harlem.Â
“They provide a wide range of services to a variety of government agencies, municipalities, private institutions and industries to include academic, aviation, commercial, diversity, health care, recovery and resilience, stadiums and parks, and transportation,” Kristyn Reed, chief of staff for Mayor Patterson-Howard, said of the company. “While I was reading up on the company for today”™s event one of the things that stuck out to me was their community employment.”
McKissack Daniel and Patterson-Howard both spoke during the Aug. 11 ribbon cutting to open the company”™s new regional office. Howard pointed out that the city is in the process of planning for its future, including updating the comprehensive plan, which dates from 1968.
“There”™s a big difference between revitalization and gentrification,” Patterson-Howard said. “Revitalization is reinvesting into neighborhoods where investment had gone lacking. It means providing equal opportunity but more so equitable opportunities for those who have stood through the hard times. We want to make sure that as we”™re revitalizing our city we are providing opportunities for those citizens who have been legacy residents of Mount Vernon and for those who are looking to become part of our revitalization and our ascension to the next level.”
Patterson-Howard pointed out that women and minorities deserve a bigger role in the construction industry.
“We see buildings and cranes going up in our communities everyday, but when we reach those construction sites rarely do we see anyone that looks like us or if we do they”™re in low-level positions like a flagger, and a flagger is great, but I want to see some project managers,” Patterson-Howard said. “We can invest billions and billions into this community but if that money is not recycled, if that money does not represent people being hired here in Mount Vernon, if it doesn”™t represent capacity-building for our small contractors and helping them go from being subcontractors to being prime contractors then we”™ve missed an opportunity. We cannot miss this moment. We have to upgrade our housing stock in Mount Vernon and we want to make sure that everyone has an equitable opportunity to be at the table.”
McKissack Daniel said that McKissack had been thinking about coming to Mount Vernon for a long time, especially since she lives in Westchester, but the timing never seemed to be quite right until she met with Patterson-Howard about a year ago and started the ball rolling.
McKissack Daniel said that a major activity at the Mount Vernon office will to build a construction workforce using local residents, although she did not specify any local construction projects on which the firm and the workforce might be working.
“We started in Harlem. The first day we opened our community workforce office in a matter of weeks we had 1,700 applications from people looking for work,” McKissack Daniel said. “We put in place a program in Harlem. The first time we opened our office in Queens, a thousand applicants came in one day looking for work. We tried to figure out how to get people of color and women to work and if we couldn”™t get them work on construction sites ”¦ we sent them everywhere. We did the same thing in Brooklyn and we”™re going to do the same thing here in Mount Vernon and I am ready to get started.”
