Page 28 - BusinessWest March 31, 2021

Firm Foundation
D.A. Sullivan & Sons Builds on a Long Heritage in Western Mass.
MBy Joseph Bednar
ark Sullivan wasn’t unlike countless other business owners, watching the COVID-19 story develop last February
and March and wondering how his construc- tion firm, D.A. Sullivan & Sons Inc., would fare.
While no one knew early on what the pan- demic’s impact would be, the general consensus was “this isn’t going to go well at all,” he said. But the company, like all others, managed to keep moving forward, with office staff working from home and Zoom meetings a new fact of life.
“Ultimately, we were able to keep people working in whatever format worked best for the individual, and we’re thankful we didn’t have any layoffs in the field,” he went on. “We were able to employ everyone through 2020.”
What makes that notable is that this fourth- generation family business, which opened its doors in Northampton in 1897 and has been headquartered in that city ever since, relies heav- ily on public work, including some of the high- est-profile municipal and collegiate projects in the region at any given time.
“We’ve always had a heavy mix of public work — probably half to 60% of what we do has been public work,” said Sullivan, who is the firm’s fifth president, while his brother, Dennis, is chief executive operator. “We certainly have private clients we do a lot of work for, and we look for
that private work, but public work over the years has been the most consistent.”
When Gov. Charlie Baker shut down large swaths of the economy just over a year ago, “we were certainly fortunate we were deemed critical, or essential, and
we were able to keep some projects going,” Sullivan recalled. “When COVID
hit, we did lose some work; some projects were paused and some outright canceled as people tried to figure out what the pandemic was and what it meant in the near- term future.”
Some of the projects
the firm completed in 2020
included a fitness center
transformation at Massa-
chusetts College of Liberal
Arts in North Adams, a new
administration building at Harriman & West Air- port in that city, a renovation of the Pioneer Val- ley Transit Authority para-transit maintenance and storage facilities in Springfield, and the reno-
Mark Sullivan says public work — his firm’s main niche — slowed down in 2020, but activity looks strong for the coming year.
vation of a mill building in Easthampton into apartments and office spaces.
“We rely on public work, and the state froze most public work after the first quarter. UMass
(413) 562-0601
1106 East Mountain Road, Westfield, MA 01085
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28 MARCH 31, 2021
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