Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of Community Conversations. I’m Troy Parkinson with Sage Presence. Today’s episode is a little different. Instead of our usual one-on-one format, I had the opportunity to sit down with not only one but three AEC leaders from the New England market. Together, we explored their unique perspectives on the built environment and the evolving challenges and opportunities in the region. This conversation took place during a recent visit to Providence, Rhode Island while I was in Boston for AIA25. It was a rich and insightful discussion and I’m excited to share it with you now. Also, a quick shout out to Chris Jazinski of HGA for helping arrange this and making it all possible. Let’s dive in.
Uh Derek, why don’t we start with you? Uh share a little bit about yourself, uh name, title, and uh your your connection to the industry. Yeah. So, Derek Chinilleski with Deio uh construction company. I’m director of business business development. Uh been in the industry now for a little over 13 years. Um first got into the industry after spending my first few years of my career with ESPN. Um really was always interested in the built environment and urban development. Um I’ve now kind of completed the AEC trifecta, I guess you would say. I’ve, you know, spent some time on the architecture side, um, engineering, and now in the construction side. Um, yeah, it’s it’s, uh, don’t know what else really to say other than, you know, it’s been a fun ride so far. You know, enjoying enjoying working in this industry and and all that it has to offer. All right. Uh, Spencer Alexander. Um, I’ve been in this industry about a little over 10 years. I used to work in New York City and uh we moved up to Rhode Island during the pandemic and I’ve been growing the business up here for the past five or six years now. Um what got me into this, I’m not sure. I’m not sure how I ended up here. Uh but it’s uh you know, it’s been interesting. Uh it’s great having your own firm and being your own boss. And tell us about your role now with AIA Rhode Island. Uh yeah, so uh currently a Rhode Island president um trying to rebuild the organization to kind of help it grow and and be a staple for architects in Rhode Island. I think we’re looking to do more educational program and a little bit more outreach towards events that are focused on architecture um and hopefully be a resource for architects in the state. And last but not least, hi everyone. Chris Spiegel with Lefield Project Management. I’m currently a project executive uh here in our Rhode Island office. Uh Leftfield’s doing a lot of work down here right now. We currently have about 1.2 billion uh worth of school projects under construction. Some of them here uh with Derek from DEIO. In fact, we’ll be groundbreaking on a couple schools on Monday and Tuesday of next week with Demio. We’re really looking forward to those kicking off. Um, I came into this industry by accident or I guess maybe not by accident but as a as a resort. Um, I graduated in college in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis and I took the first job that was available to me which was as an office engineer um for a engineering firm. So, processing invoices, that sort of thing. And I’ve just worked my way up over the last uh 15 years uh to be the PX uh and with Left Field today. Excellent. Well, with all of your expertise coming to the table, the first question I want to ask is what are you seeing in New England as we move into the rest of 2025 and as we look into 2026 and beyond? What are some of the trends that we’re seeing? What are some of the drivers that are are pushing business in this region? you know, specifically for Rhode Island, we continue to see a strong public sector market, at least for the next two or three years. Um, there’s a lot of investment going on with help from the state of Rhode Island and the school building authority to make large generational transformational capital investments in public schools here. And I think you’re already starting to see the results of that. If you look at a community like East Providence, they built a new high school where one of the genesis projects for the school building authority and they’ve already increased their enrollment. They’ve decreased their pup per pupil spending. So when you have something a project that’s making an impact like that, you immediately see a return on investment. And I think you start to see these communities say, “We want that for ourselves.” One of the things about Rhode Island that really is driving a lot of this school building is that we have a school choice system here, which allows students to actually go to school in other districts that aren’t their own um for minimal sort of reasons. You know, oftentimes it’s it’s it’s camouflaged as CTE or something like that, but in reality it’s it’s for better facilities. Um, so when you’ve got a district like South Kingtown or Pucket that’s spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money sending their students out to other school districts, you want to get that money back in your budget and um because the more students you have, the more money stays in house and more than that, the more reimbursement you get from the state of Rhode Island. So there’s a longer return on investment for these types of projects above and beyond just the savings you’re getting from not deferred maintenance and these other sort of things that come with operating an existing building. So, I think the trend is to sort of either be in this halves category. Do we have a new facility? Are we keeping our our students in district or are we in the have nots? Are we now sending more and more students outside of districts? And it racks up in the millions of dollars. It’s not small money. I think for some of the communities I work in, we’re talking 4 million. Another community I worked in was $8 million of taxpayer money they were sending out of district every year. Yeah. And I I tend to agree with Chris on the on the public spending, especially on the K12 market here in Rhode Island. We’re also seeing that across New England and Connecticut and Massachusetts as well. Um, I’d say beyond the education market in the K12 sector is is also in the higher education uh market. I know in Rhode Island, we passed a couple bonds for University of Rhode Island and and Rhode Island College. Um, so you’re going to see some more projects in in in that uh realm as well. You see Brown uh University building down here in in downtown Providence. Um, the healthcare market sector. I know Brown uh Brown University Health uh formerly Lifespan is is planning to spend quite a bit of money on their health system and some much needed capital repairs, but a lot of this is going to be um you know precipitated by what happens with federal spending uh as well as the state budget here in Rhode Island and and how that uh affects their their operating budgets going forward. I know up into Massachusetts that we’re seeing a lot of money spent in uh public housing and and in residential developments that we’re involved with. So that’s been a real positive for us and I know that that’s the housing crisis that we hear about is is certainly impacting all three states across uh southern New England. So um you know investments into residential uh mixeduse development redevelopment uh continues to be um quite quite uh large as well. So yeah uh education spending, healthcare spending uh you know uh residential development corporate I would say is more in the consolidation mode. I think a lot of companies are still in that return to work phase, but it’s it’s return to work in a smaller footprint. Um, so we’re seeing that kind of lag behind a little bit, but you know, obviously return to work is is still a hot button and and people are still doing that. So we’ll see that continue to percolate a little bit. Spencer, for you from an architectural standpoint, what are what are you seeing in terms of new opportunities, new builds, new projects? We do a lot of high-end residential and then mixeduse developments. Uh we do a lot of work up and down the east coast. So we have work not just in Rhode Island, but New York, Florida, Jersey, uh Vermont really, and Massachusetts. So we’re pretty spread out, but I think in Rhode Island, we’ve had quite a few like luxury homes going up. Um and as well, we have some new projects on the horizon to kind of create a much larger um affordable housing and mixeduse developments and some workforce housing. I think those are some exciting there’ll be a massive project if it comes together. I think that would be a great it’s coming together because of tax credits and everything else. So, if it does come together, I think it’s a will be a nice big project in Rhode Island. To to follow on to to what he was saying, you know, there has been a recent passage in the legislature of a bill that’s designed to help not force I think force is maybe too strong a word, but to maybe um influence communities to to actually get these affordable housing projects under their belt. it it does provide some latitude to actually allow projects to to bypass certain municipal zoning uh requirements which can be very very restrictive especially in some of our more affluent communities in Rhode Island. So we I did meet with some developers last week. Um they did feel that this was going to um was going to help kickstart a little bit more affordable housing just like the rest of New England. We are in affordable housing crunch. I think the average rent in in Providence is close to $2,000. So, it’s it is is certainly an area that we we need more of these events. And I’m seeing it anecdotally, in fact, um I just got a letter from my zoning department in the town that I live, which says my neighbor is is turning their garage into a a two-story um two-bedroom house. And, you know, it’s I think if we can start getting these things moving on, we maybe start to tackle some of this affordability um issue. So, I’m I’m a supporter of that. It’s it’s you know it’s easier to say in in spirit than when one someone’s building right next to you. But let’s put our money where our mouth is and allow these projects to to move forward. You spoke about the legislature and the dynamics of politics in the game. Not to get into politics but for for governments to work for municipalities to work requires collaboration on a legislative level on a local level. collectively, what are you all seeing on the progress that’s being made in your communities because people can come together and move in initiatives forward? I’ll kick it off. I actually just said this uh earlier today in an email. The only way projects of this magnitude come together, whether we’re talking about $10 million on the private side or some of my projects which are $350 million is if everybody is rowing in the same direction. um you need support at the state level, at the local level, at the regulatory level such as the school building authority or um you need everybody moving in the same direction. That means putting aside often sometimes um some specific issues in order to see the greater good and move these projects forward, especially in a state where Rhode Island where everybody seems to know each other. Um everybody seems to um to um have their own agenda politically. It’s important that you see the the finish line and and work together to move these projects forward because they’re they’re not going to succeed unless everybody is moving in the same direction. I I would just I would the only thing I would add is that, you know, having having served in public office in in a previous life, um I think most people tend to agree on what our issues are overall. you know, the things that are plaguing our communities, the things that we need, you know, between uh good health care and and solid school systems and and uh you know, affordable housing, whether that’s, you know, luxury housing, if that’s what’s affordable to you or affordable as as entry- level housing, whatever whatever that means to you. I would say that we all kind of agree that we want the same things from our towns and the same services and the same uh the same expectations. We I think we all kind of share those. it’s just a means to get to that end is is where people kind of differ in their opinions and and their approaches. So the first thing to to get to is you know to agree on what the issues are and then the second thing is then to kind of figure out a road map of how to get there. So I think overall um many of our municipalities are are kind of in the same boat with they’re on the same page with where we need to go um and and the the policy kind of follows. So I I think we’re again to Chris’s point you know starting to row in the same direction and getting to that point. Um, it’s just a matter of, you know, getting there in the end, crossing that finish line and and getting that funding if that’s the problem or getting the policy in place to to kind of bridge those those challenges. Spencer, as as president of AIA, what are you seeing in terms of how you’re advocating for for architects in your region for for the built environment? Architects are are helpful in many stages of different projects. It really depends on the size of the project and how much role we have. I think architect architects as a profession has shifted and in how we’re seen. Um so I think when you’re doing a large scale development project, we have quite a few like um projects over nine stories, it it’s controlled by funding. Um so there’s a there’s an approach to the design and then there’s an approach to getting the project built. And I think you have to find the middle ground between them. And then with the smaller projects, you’re looking it all depends on the client and the client relationship with the architect. Um, and how that works. I think every project is a function of how that relationship is brought together. If it’s not great, you you get you see that in the project. If it’s great, you get an amazing project that’s really fun to be a part of. So, we’ve talked about Rhode Island. What are you seeing uh as a region as a whole throughout New England? Where are other big projects happening? What sort of initiatives are? Yeah. So, um, Lefield has offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and, um, we’re seeing huge investments still on the on the on the public capital side, um, in those states. Um, Lefield, uh, currently working on an $800 million high school in Brockton, Massachusetts. That’s been in in the news recently. Um, one thing that I I would like before we get off Rhode Island completely, one thing I I do want to say is something that’s admirable about the Rhode Island process and which I think could have an effect on downstream projects here in Rhode Island is that for public school construction projects in Massachusetts, it’s partially funded by their school building authority, which is funded by a percentage of the sales tax in Massachusetts. that program is is self- sustaining which means that every year they can take on a certain amount of projects and fund them and finance them. Um in addition each townies need to get municipal bondings. They are not 100% reimbursed but because of that there’s always a pipeline for more money coming into the project. Rhode Island currently doesn’t have anything like that in place. It’s dependent upon largecale bonds that are taken out by the state. Um, I would love to see Rhode Island take a look at that approach and see if there’s some way that we can’t invent a self- sustaining program because what I am worried about is, as I spoke to earlier, I am worried that we’re going to be a situation about three or four years where there are going to be halves, these districts that did move forward with these projects and there are going to be haveotss that for whatever reason municipal support um could not get a project moving forward. And then you’re going to start to see communities separate between communities that are for families and geared toward families and communities that potentially aren’t. So that is one thing I think that keeps Massachusetts building um so heavily. Another market that we’re pretty active in is life sciences. Um we have seen life sciences sector take a significant dip o over the last two years especially since uh the COVID pandemic. We’re finding that areas such as Cambridge are overbuilt uh with rents dropping up there. So, we have seen a pullback on new construction in the life sciences sector. We are starting to see a lot more renovation projects creep up on the developer side and in the life sciences sector um in Massachusetts, but certainly not where it was uh two years ago. Yeah, I would echo those same points. The the Massachusetts market is uh particularly for us very hot in the residential market currently. Um that’s where we’re seeing a lot of a lot of activity. life sciences has largely been uh somewhat stalled. But that said, uh some of the say more of the end users, less of the speculative development market tends to uh have some signs of life, which is encouraging. Um Connecticut, um the investments still being made there into education. Uh I’d say this last bonding cycle was slightly less than typical in the K12 market, but there’s a lot that’s in the pipeline. Um so the expectation is that in the next couple years that that market tend you know expects to to pick back up. Um healthcare there still is a lot of investment in Connecticut in in the healthcare market sector. Um and then in the university side there’s a lot of investment happening right now in the university side in in the state of Connecticut. So that continues. I know Yukon’s had a a large fundraising um cycle this these last few years. So they’re looking to to uh create a lot of academic space and some athletic space. So, a lot of encouraging signs there as well. I I’d like to touch on something that straddles sort of the border is what I’d like to see and I’m I’m pretty bullish on personally is transit oriented development. Um, we’ve got some new train lines coming on board to New Bedford. The Pucket uh Rhode Island um train station has recently been completed and I think we’re starting to see developments around these. Massachusetts for the longest time now, as long as I’ve lived in in New England, has been pricing people further and further and further away. And I think these new train developments, especially down to to New Bedford, Fall River, are going to increase the ability um for people to to work in Boston, but still live in a relatively affordable place. Um we’re starting to see some new school investments too that help attract families to these other parts of Massachusetts. But something that I’m really excited on, and I I am going to be a bit of a fan here for a second, is the new soccer team that has been brought down to um Pucket, Rhode Island, Rhode Island football club that was built by Derek’s team over at Dimeo. did a fantastic job. It exceeds every expectation. But I think having these types of places, it’s so close to the Pucket train station. They’ve got a master plan for a much larger development. If we can bring these these workforces in, find them affordable places to to live with brand new schools. There’s going to be a brand new high school in Pucket. We’re going to start to play a bigger role in these Boston market jobs and hopefully translate some of those jobs further down here into Rhode Island. I remember years ago when I was actually working in Pucket, um I saw the business plan uh for Rhode Island FC and I was just I was blown away by how detailed and and thorough they were, how they had really looked at the market, uh looked at tan uh television analytics, looked at our demographics and I’ll tell you what, the feeling, the excitement you get going into that stadium and seeing everybody root for a Rhode Island team, not for a New England team, it’s specifically a Rhode Island team, um has just been has been amazing. I haven’t missed a game yet. I’m going on Saturday and it’s really revitalized. But the one thing you don’t have is when you leave the stadium, where do you go? Right. There’s there it’s small unit residential right around there. You’ve got a large thoroughfare that doesn’t even have a gas station on it for division street. I think that’s that’s a prime example of where we need to develop. Give these people somewhere to go. Give these people somewhere to live that’s close by. It’s exciting. They do have a great master plan which calls for for mixeduse residential. some other things like that. But I think being so close only five blocks away from the train station as well, I I think it’s a great thing uh for this part of this part of New England. And I think if you if you talk to anybody out there that’s been to a game, they’ll tell you this exact same thing. I think to build on that, I think the one thing Rhode Island really is missing is museums and cultural institutions. I think the more museums and cultural institutions we have, you’ll get better housing, you’ll get better quality workforce. I think it that’s an investment that I wish was happening here. I think what Rhode Island has a beautiful waterfront, but you know, when you say you’re going to a museum, you go to Boston or you go to New York. And we have some incredible schools and some incredible art schools. And it’d be nice to see it here. We do have some incredible schools here. And I think part of the life sciences push, Derek, I I know you probably can speak to this a little better than me because you’ve been in this a while, but we have seen this this new life sciences push down here in Rhode Island. And part of that is um uh trying to reduce uh the brain drain, for lack of a better word, from amazing academic institutions uh going to places like like New York and Boston for for their careers. If we can grow these businesses here, um I think you’ll start to see more people settle here, grow families here, and demand those sorts of cultural institutions uh that he’s talking about. Yeah, absolutely. And I know, you know, you mentioned the the uh Centerville Bank Stadium and I know with the uh with the World Cup coming uh to the United States in a in a couple years with that being over at uh at Gillette at at at Boxboro um and with Rhode Island conceivably going to have a lot of uh tourism because of that in close proximity. I know that’s a big focal point for them. um you know being able to to take bus or train or other transportation to get over to to Gillette for that for the uh for the matches but also possibly having some training and and possibly having uh the stadium serve as as part you know a training home or or you know a facility to be utilized during that. There’s the possibility that Providence can can have a lot of uh and Pucket can have a lot of good publicity during that event. We already saw how the the NCAA tournament came through Providence this past year on in the first uh the first round and to the success that um that that had. So there’s a lot of positive momentum, but to to your point, you know, obviously having having more arts and culture is is would be fantastic. Capitalizing on water, fire, and everything else that we can do in in downtown. I think that, you know, even the building that we’re in, I think speaks to a little bit of this resurgence of of where we are here in Providence and the waterfront, right? We’re currently in a in a great new building that’s been run by the 195 Commission. Um 195 Commission is a quasi public/private um development agency that um essentially is taking these plots of land that are left over from when the highway shifted and turning them into spaces. Um it’s right on the waterfront, which is great. You’re seeing a food hall go up uh just a block away on the waterfront. And I think if we can continue to make these sort of cool investments that you’re you’re going to get people that want to stay here. We already have amazing food. Everybody knows Providence is a fantastic culture um or area for for for great food. I think if we have something to do after you eat, to walk around, it’ll it’ll get people to stay a lot longer. The three of you have come into this conversation and it’s clear that there’s some connections and some intersections in your collaboration. I would love to hear the community as a whole within Rhode Island, within within New England. It seems and I see this across the country in every state that I travel and and and when I talk to firms, but it’s a small world and collaboration is key. What can you speak about in the collaboration between yourselves collectively as well as the community as a whole? I think there there’s there’s some great um people to work with in Rhode Island and the there’s a lot of talent here and I think the collaboration, you know, you you find a team that really works and you find some incredible people um and and when you have the right team, you make great projects. It’s a small industry and it and it’s only getting smaller. I feel like everyone knows everyone. We’ve all worked together at some point in time and um but that’s kind of the beauty of it. We’re all always looking to help each other out and and find the next big thing to work together on. So, um, yeah, to your point, it’s it’s a it’s a small community, the AEC industry, and, um, organizations like ACE that that, uh, are so fundamental in helping people advance their careers and network and be able to help each other out on are the key, I think, in in helping folks be able to launch that and and build that sense of community uh, amongst each other. Yeah, it’s it’s absolutely a small world in the AC industry. It’s even a smaller world here in in Rhode Island where everybody knows everybody. And I think to a large extent, you know, you you trade here on your talent, but you also trade here on your reputation. And um those individuals that have um a reputation for being stubborn, not listening to other people, um you know, going their own way as opposed to collaborating as part of a group are are not going to get the work that that they want to get. I think that especially as an owner’s project manager, which is which is what I do in my day job, there’s often thought of the OPM as an us versus them mentality, right? We’re we’re supposed to catch every single mistake and bring and prove our value by bringing those mistakes to the owner so they can say, “Aren’t you so glad you’ve got left field managing this project. I was able to see what what Spencer’s team did and I was able to see what Demio’s team did.” That’s the absolute wrong way of going about a project in my opinion. It’s it’s you work with your team to solve problems so that they don’t become owner issues. It’s to figure things out collaboratively as a group. My perspective on an issue is going to be much different than your perspective on an issue or your perspective on an issue. So again, it’s it’s collaboration based as as we talked about earlier, but it’s generally it boils down to being a good person. It it really does. And and if you have a reputation for being difficult, if you have a reputation for putting your own companies or your own value above the project’s value, you’re not going to work on the types of projects you want to work on. Talk a little bit about the upcoming talent challenge. Uh you know, you’re all involved in some way, shape, or form with ACE. You’re helping bring this next generation of of team members through and and potential talent. What are you seeing about the talent drain or increase in this region? Yeah, there’s there’s definitely a need for more uh young talent entering the industry at all levels, whether it’s architecture, engineering, or construction. Um, we’ve been fortunate over at Dimeo where we have an in uh both an internship program but an apprenticeship pro program for those who want to enter the industry in in the field of project management in construction in construction management who maybe aren’t planning to go to college, you know, who who are going to high school, maybe not even a technical high school, but have an interest in getting involved in the industry. And it’s it’s an intensive program. It’s it takes many years to go through that program, but we’ve had our first graduate of that program um which is a which is an accredited program to go through and to have that path uh that career path to going into the construction industry. So um you know the the investment into the trade schools to get more kids interested in in careers in uh in construction in particular is is imperative I think at this point in it goes beyond just construction. It goes into manufacturing. It goes into the folks that are going to be out there. um you know, producing the materials that go into construction. It’s it’s this complete supply chain that we need to really make sure that folks know that there’s a lot of really good paying highquality jobs that are out there that don’t require necessarily a college degree or if you do choose to go down the college path that there’s there’s great jobs in engineering and in architecture and in project management and in a in a whole host of careers that are very much essential in the future for this industry to survive. So that recruitment doesn’t shouldn’t be starting in just in in high school or in college. that’s got to start in middle school and even possibly be, you know, before that to get kids interested in this. Um because I know that there that has to happen in order for this industry to survive. Um that has started already for us. I know that we’re we’re already involved in those types of things. I know that um Left Field I know is is I know Chris particularly is very involved in in making sure that the kids who are uh you know students at the schools where left field is involved in uh have have an active participation in the projects that are going on in those on those projects. So, we like to to do the same on our projects. Um, but yeah, it’s it’s getting more people involved in those projects early on and getting excited about a career in the profession and uh in recruiting. He’s absolutely right. So, you know, I am one of those those those kids that was told go to college, get a degree, that’s what’s what’s going to set you up. And while yes, it it has set me up, I don’t want people to think that that’s the only pathway forward. Um, you know, one of the things about left field is we actually have two educators that we assign to to every project. Um, one of them is the former superintendent of Bristol County Aggie, which of course is a career tech school in Massachusetts. The other is um a professor at Mass Maritime. And we assign um both of them two projects to make sure that we’re interacting and engaging with students at all levels on an authentic level. This isn’t just us coming in and telling you about careers. It’s about us adapting to educational programming to to get kids excited. You know, it’s it’s kind of a trope, but it it is true. You know, people are aging out, especially in the trades. They’re aging out of this industry. The average age of a carpenter, of a plumber, it’s over 40 years old. We need to get people involved in these jobs. We need to get people excited about them because, as Dererick said, it it’s it’s a great career. It’s got great money involved with it. Um it’s something that you don’t necessarily have to go into to debt to to become a part of. But more importantly, AI is not taking away a carpenter’s job, right? And so much of our business, especially when you get to Derek Spent’s level, is soft skills, right? It’s being able to to interact with teams, collaborate, figure out how to move projects forward in the face of stubborn resistance. AI is not taking that away either. So, I think we need to to realize that this is still a career sector that’s got tremendous growth and that is necessary for people to join it at all stages, right? architecture, engineering, construction, construction management, project management. It’s tough to find talent. I know I’m competing with with other firms. I’m probably even competing with Derek and Spencer for for talent to get good people into this industry. So, if you’re a young kid, if you’re interested, or if you have a a child that’s in high school and wants to get involved, wants to test the waters, we really would encourage you to look up your local ACE uh mentorship branch either in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, wherever you might be. There’s a ton of great resources that are available to to any students that are that are interested. We’d love to have you. You talked about soft skills and the importance of of the being human side of it, the the importance of relationships, of communication, of uh engaging and building authentic connections. What do you find for your teams when they’re either interviewing for projects to a selection committee or if you’re in a situation where you’re seeing teams interview with you if you’re if you’re the ones leading the interviews? What are some advice? What are some recommendations you give to people that are interviewing for work and how are their soft skills these days? Well, I think uh for my office, I think I’m different than than you guys. You guys have much more people on the ground. I love the remote side of things. I think uh it opens up the talent pool to a lot more people. Um and it allows you to kind of get work the workers that are skill sets that you’re really looking for with a much larger um group to look at, which is really wonderful. Um, and architecture is collaborative. So, I think you you spend all day behind a computer anyway, so you might as well spend all day behind a computer talking to somebody on Zoom and or on a computer. I think there’s a lot of ways to collaborate now and the world is changing and you don’t need to always be sitting at the same desk to to collaborate. So, I think when we’re interviewing for work, since we do work all over the place, it sometimes there’s a Zoom interview and sometimes there’s a in-person interview. I think the inerson interviews always go a little better because you can shake your hands, you can smile, you get the inflections and everything. Uh, but you know, I think there’s a world shifting where things are more and more technology based and those interviews are different and you got to kind of work those out. So, I’m I’m interviews. I do. I’m one of those people that absolutely loves going after work. I’m super competitive. Um, it’s something that I always look forward to the planning of of the interviews and and things like that. So, I’m excited. I’ve got an interview actually um next week I’m supporting one of our Massachusetts uh teams on a job out there. But I’m going to tell you a little bit of a little secret here is that left field’s a great OPM. There are other great OPMs that can do the technical work on your projects. When you’re talking about a five or sixyear project, what I feel like a lot of these interview boards are looking for is they’re looking to see, is this someone that I want to work with for the next five or six years? because I I often tell kids at ACE when when when I’m when I’m going to schools uh West Warwick High School and talking to students is I can teach anybody how to process an invoice. I I can teach anybody to to look at a technical drawing and make sure what’s being built is the same as that technical drawing. I can’t teach people how to be good people, right? That is something that you get as part of your identity. It’s something that your parents and your teachers and your mentors at ACE will instill in you. Um, so for me personally, that’s what I try to focus on on in interviews is showing my my my human side, letting people know that I’m a parent. I’m I’m a mentor. I’m a board member. Um, I’m an active member of my community. I care about the same things that you care about as a member of of your board. And I found a lot of success with that. I think that will ring hollow though if you’re not genuine and authentic with that. If people will be able to tell if you are paying lip service to things that they care about. So, I I would caution those that that think that it’s an easy thing to do and just to throw out, you know, that your concerns are my concerns because unless you’re genuine in that, people will see right through that. And I think that’s why I’ve had a lot of success is uh I was raised to be a good person. I genuinely care about a lot of the work that’s going on here, especially with public schools. I have two two my two children are in the public schools here in Rhode Island. And I think that that really goes a long way and people will people will be able to see that. I’d say, you know, Chris hits the nail on the head. It’s it’s really just be authentic and um you know, be be forthcoming with the information that you’re that you’re delivering. Be honest and uh like I said, just just be authentic and be your your personable self. I think most people are pretty comfortable being personable and being themselves. And if that comes across as authentic, then I think you you have a good chance of winning. The one thing I did want to circle back on is that we we we had spoken earlier about um you know how uh legislation can kind of come together to help address issues and at times and and one thing that I did want to commend in Connecticut for instance is uh some bipartisan legislation that has recently come together about apprenticeship in Connecticut and uh reducing the ratio of employees necessary in order to meet those apprenticeship goals. So I believe the old uh ratio was a 3:1 ratio where you had to have three employees for every one apprentice. Uh and that they’re looking to reduce that down to a 1:1 ratio which depending on you can feel any way about that. But what that will do ultimately is allow for a lot more apprentice uh positions to be created uh which hopefully will end up in in more uh not only more apprentices but more people becoming uh certified uh electricians and plumbers and whatnot in the state. So, um, that’s just a kind of an easy one that’s out there. So, kudos to them for for doing that. Well, as we get to the the the wrap here soon, uh, of our conversation, I wanted to ask one last question, and that is for each of you, what excites you about the future of this industry or or your role in it? Uh, what do you see the next 6 months to a year bringing uh, in terms of uh, what’s exciting you? Well, I’m kicking construction. I’m kicking into construction on a lot of projects. So, in the in the next six months, we’ll um we’ll be breaking ground on um close to $800 million in new projects. That’s a a lot of people that are going to be employed here in Rhode Island working on on local projects. Uh we’re incredibly excited uh to get those. But I think my job then begins again, right, in about in about a year once these projects are are all under construction. And it’s how do I work with local developers, local school districts, municipalities to to understand what their what their real needs are in terms of growth and uh figure out what sorts of projects we can identify and how we can fund them to to bring them forward. I think that’s going to be a significant shift in what I’ve been doing for the last year and a half. And it’s something new for me, but I’m I’m I’m really excited about it. My role is in in business development and marketing. So my role is always future looking, which is always exciting because you’re always trying to figure out what’s happening next and where the future’s going and and and where you need to be. So, uh, you know, skating to the puck or skating to where the puck’s going. So, um, you know, the future is always exciting and and trying to figure out what’s going to happen next and where you need to be. So, uh, in our instance, it’s it’s, you know, trying to map that out and and position ourselves best to to accommodate what the future holds. Um, you know, like Chris said, he, you know, that left field’s got a number of projects we’re involved with with some of those with them. Um, so excited for some construction kickoffs to begin, some uh really exciting projects that we have on the books right now, but also uh some of the pursuits that we have that are coming down the pike. So that’s uh that’s always exciting for me. I think uh in the next six months or year, I think the who really I don’t we don’t really know what’s going to happen with the the future yet, right? So we um we’re very diversified in our work. We have retail work, we have multif family work, residential work, um hospitality and so the hope is if something goes sideways, some of the other parts of the business are still functioning. Um so but you know I think you never know and especially in this climate things change every 5 seconds. So you kind of got to be ready for each each side of it and see how it affects the business or if it doesn’t affect the business. I think um you know you get different tariffs and things that could affect construction but maybe it doesn’t affect architecture in the beginning or some projects slow and other ones pick up. So I think there’s there’s all different types of projects out there and you just have to find the ones that meet what you can do in in whatever’s next and I think we are starting to see more of a push into this design build especially down down here in Rhode Island. But, you know, we need to make sure that in those cases that the architect still has a is a very clear and present role separate from from the builder because um we need to be able to ensure that the architect’s vision and the educational programming or the programming in general that went into that vision is still being adhered to even at the at the choice of being having to be nimble in the in these product selections. Well, it’s clear that this conversation could continue on. Um, I so appreciate Derek Spencer and Chris, your time, your enthusiasm, and your energy. The thing I’m left with in this conversation is your passion for your communities and your desire to make the whole New England area a better place to live for for the long haul. And the passion shows. So, thank you for your time today. It’s been very insightful. We look forward to uh sharing with this the with the community. Uh, and we wish you great success in the summer months. Time. Build, build, build. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
No Comments yet!