Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Repost: Ferdinand Building project falls short on hiring Boston residents, women

Boston.com recently published an update on one of PGTI's target projects, the Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square. The project has made great improvements in its hiring goals during the past year, exceeding the BRJP minority requirement, but still has not met the requirements for women and resident workers.
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The front façade of the Ferdinand Building, which is currently being redeveloped.(Patrick D. Rosso/Boston.com/2013)
By Patrick D. Rosso, Town Correspondent

The number of minorities hired for the redevelopment of the Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square is exceeding city goals, but the project is still falling short on hiring Boston residents and women.

The project, dubbed the Dudley Municipal Center, is a $119 million city development being led by Shawmut Construction. Eventually the structure, slated to be completed by December 2014, will house the headquarters of Boston Public Schools and ground-floor retail.

Of the 149,630 hours of work completed on the project 44.3 percent was by Boston residents, 57.6 percent was by minorities, and 7.2 percent was by women, according to figures provided by the city of Boston.

Hiring goals established by the city call on contractors to employ 50 percent Boston residents, 25 percent minorities, and 10 percent women.

Those numbers have stayed consistent over the past year, although the project did get off to a rocky start and was picketed in October 2012.

“We strive to exceed the goals with every contractor and sub-contractor we can,” said Patrick Brophy, assistant director of the city’s Capital Construction Division. “We’re happy with where the numbers are, but we’d still like to see improvements on the number of women and Boston residents.”

At the moment there are an estimated 162 workers on site, and city planners said they don’t expect the numbers to fluctuate much in the near future.

“We are on schedule and on budget and we expect to maintain that; we’re exactly where we want to be,” Brophy said.

For those that frequent the area they will begin to notice some changes at the job site. Crews will soon start removing the staging surrounding the building as they prepare to begin exterior work. The massive tower crane that has loomed over the neighborhood for the past year is also expected to come down by early-December.

To read more about the project and its “topping-off” ceremony held over the summer, click here.

Email Patrick D. Rosso, patrick.d.rosso@gmail.com. Follow him @PDRosso, or friend him on Facebook.

To read the original article, visit http://www.boston.com/.

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