PBN FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES 2020 $75M AND ABOVE
1. Shawmut Design and Construction
CEO (or equivalent): Les Hiscoe
2019 Revenue: $149 million
2017 Revenue: $99.3 million
Revenue growth: 50.1%
WHILE SHAWMUT DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION has several offices throughout the country, its Rhode Island operation alone is a major player, reporting more than $100 million in revenue annually.
“The Providence office has achieved exponential physical and financial growth,” said Kevin Sullivan, executive vice president of Shawmut Design and Construction’s New England operations.
The construction firm has played a large role in transforming Providence through the Interstate 195 redevelopment project. It recently completed the Point225 building, formerly known as the Wexford Innovation Center, and River House apartments. The company is also currently finishing work on the new Aloft Hotel in the area now referred to as the Innovation & Design District.
Shawmut has also been tasked to construct buildings for some of Rhode Island’s largest institutions, including Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University and Roger Williams University. Those projects also include unique innovations and state-of-the-art technology.
Recently finished projects include a 27,000-square-foot state-of-the-art laboratory building for the School of Engineering, Computing and Construction Management at RWU. The three-story, $13.8 million building, which opened in January, consolidated labs that were previously located in downtown Bristol in the town’s warehouse district, allowing students to remain on campus to perform their respective lab work. The building also includes a two-story traveling crane to allow students to perform steel erection work and gain experience in construction rigging.
Meanwhile, at Brown, Shawmut is currently at work on several projects. Among them are a new 94,000-square-foot performance hall that can transform into various stage and audience configurations.
“[The configurations] range from a 625-seat symphony orchestra hall to a 250-seat proscenium theater to an immersive surround-sound cube for experimental media performance,” Sullivan said.
Being built on the former site of the university’s Sharpe House, Brown’s performing arts center – expected to be completed by 2022 – will also have an aluminum rain screen that is shrink-wrapped with a three-sided glass “clearstory.” The element projects outward past the building’s vertical perimeter, and also shows the interior of the performance hall.
The company is also working on the university’s new wellness center and residence hall, which will be able to house 162 students.
At RISD, Shawmut also led a project to construct the school’s North Hall, the first cross-laminated timber steel hybrid residence hall in New England.
All of this construction would not be possible, of course, without a strong team. Employing 100 people, Shawmut’s Providence operation, opened in 1999, is currently one of 10 company offices throughout the country.
One way the company has retained talent is by offering a generous benefits package available to those working in all roles, in corporate offices as well as on job sites. Employees can reap the benefits of Shawmut’s growth and success directly by becoming part owners through an employee stock ownership plan.
Another perk: Shawmut’s family leave benefit, available since 2016, provides up to one month of paid leave to all employees following a birth, adoption or foster care placement, or to care for a family member who has a serious health condition.
“[The benefit] allows us to provide industry-leading client service by making sure our employees feel their best when at work,” Sullivan said.
Employees can also take advantage of a progressive flex-time policy. The program allows for setting schedules outside of the traditional 9-to-5, condensing the work week and telecommuting.
“The flexible work arrangement will look differently for employees based on their roles and schedules, but all aim to enhance empowerment, engagement and employee retention,” Sullivan said.
Having a flex-time policy already in place was one of many elements that has helped the company remain productive and strong during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, to enhance safety, the company quickly developed an innovative platform, Shawmut Vitals, that checks for COVID-19 symptoms and manages contact tracing. Employees on a job site can easily access a project-specific survey by scanning a quick-response code on a smartphone.
“The pandemic has required us to ‘find a better way,’ one of Shawmut’s core values, when it comes to the safety of our people and efficiency on our sites,” Sullivan said. n
