Steven S. Lakin was named executive managing director of the
General Building Contractors Association in August 2012 and recently received
the title of president. A native of Philadelphia, Lakin spent 30 years in the
Washington D.C. area serving in a variety of capacities. He did a stint in the
Reagan administration and was later involved in government and public affairs
including lobbying and fundraising for clients including the Associated
Building Contractors. He joined GBCA after working as executive vice president
for the Mechanical Contractors Association of Maryland. An abbreviated version
appears in today's print edition.
You commissioned a study on the regional construction
industry. What were some of the findings?
I had a sense of how it was going to turn out but I think it
would be eye opening for a lot of people. The commercial building construction
industry is one of the major economic drivers in the region. It’s almost at the
top of the heap in every category. I don’t think people realize the importance
of the commercial construction industry is to the vitality of the local and
regional economies.
What were some of the figures that came out of the study?
From 2008 through the first quarter of this year, there was
33.32 million square feet of non-residential space constructed totaling $6.2
billion in the city of Philadelphia. In the five-county area during that same
time period, there were 77 million square feet and $13 billion in new
construction and renovations.
From 2003 through 2013, construction represented $12 billion
in direct expenditures, 65,000 jobs and had an estimated direct economic impact
of $18 billion within city of Philadelphia. During that same timeframe,
construction represented $27 billion in direct expenditures, 405,000 jobs and
an estimated direct economic impact of $57 billion in the five-county region.
That gives you a glimpse of how powerful the industry is.
What are some of your goals for GBCA?
We want to make sure people know the importance and value of
the commercial construction industry. We want to see a lot of cranes in the sky
and we want to do a lot of things that support the industry and economic
development in Philadelphia and the region. We want to establish our
organization as the thought leaders for the commercial construction industry.
Our industry as a whole has a lot to say where the city is headed in terms of
economic development.
We started a branding campaign to get that message out and
want to create brand awareness. We’re branding ourselves as the best trained
and highest-skilled contractors in the region. When someone is looking to hire
a contractor, we want them to pick a GBCA member company.
How many members do you have and what’s the area the
organization covers?
We have 300 member companies. It’s a who’s who of the
construction industry. We are regional association covering Philadelphia, the
five surrounding countries, South Jersey north to Princeton, all of Delaware,
northern Maryland and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We even go west to
Harrisburg.
GBCA’s members are union-only companies. Would it ever take
in merit-based companies as members?
The marketplace changes and we have to be cognizant of that.
When and if things should change and the marketplace warrants evaluating who
our members are we will. We have not had any discussions about that. We have 85
percent of the market in the city of Philadelphia, which is far and away the largest.
Philadelphia is one of the last bastions of union strength in the United States
in the construction trades.
The one thing people need to understand when it comes to
GBCA is we represent management. We don’t represent unions and while we’re
supportive of the unions, our interest and theirs are not 100 percent aligned
all of the time. We have to do what is in the best interest of our contractor
companies. We’re very much partners with unions in this equation but there are
occasions we’re not going to always agree.
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
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