Page 23 - BusinessWest April 15, 2024

good people who have experience in our field.”
John recognizes the challenges across the industry as retirees are out- pacing new blood, but as someone who grew up around the family business, he said construction is a stable and satisfy- ing career — for those willing to put in the work.
“You can’t be scared to get your hands dirty at first. The problem is, everyone wants to start at the top. But you have to work in the field and get your hands dirty. You have to learn. That’s what our parents made us do,” he explained. “That knowledge from being in the field is crucial, and that’s the hardest thing we’ve got to teach people. We have a project manager and bidder who started as a laborer, then became an operator, then a fore- man, and now he’s a project manager. And his experience has been crucial for us.”
“These are jobs funded through federal money and have been trickling into our local economy, which is helping us out and giving work for our employees.”
Challenges aside, “we’re very busy, and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down, even with the private-sector work,” John continued, noting that about 75% of Raymaakers jobs are public, and 25% private.”
A great deal of the public work
is being driven by a recognition that much infrastructure in Massachu- setts is in need of repair, and federal money has been flowing in to help address those needs.
“Those are good opportunities,” he told BusinessWest. “These are jobs funded through federal money and have been trickling into our local economy, which is helping us out and giving work for our employees.”
Jodice said PDS doesn’t do as much public bidding as it does pri- vate, bidding maybe six public-sector jobs a year. “We try to stay busy in the private market. Public, you’re bidding against 10 to 15 GCs, and private, it’s maybe five, so there’s a better chance you get the project. And if it’s private, you can land a job more by building on a relationship with the owner and having them select you rather than the low number getting the bid.”
PDS got started six decades ago erecting pre-engineered steel build- ings, and still does that work today, along with a much wider variety of projects ranging from commercial and industrial buildings to small fit- outs and large college projects — typi- cally about $60 million worth of work
BusinessWest
each year across Connecticut, Western Mass., and Rhode Island. It also touts its expertise in the design-build realm.
“The convenient thing is we do our own design in-house; we can design and build rather than have the client go to an architect and have several dif- ferent parties involved. The process is quicker because we’re doing everything here.”
From the Ground Up
Several years ago, J.L. Raymaakers
Outlook
Continued on page 25
One current job at City Enterprise is rebuilding a security entryway for the Air National Guard in Westfield.
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