Minority Business Accelerator2.5+ client lands multiple contracts with University Hospitals

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Cleveland, Ohio—John W. Todd and Associates (JWT&A), a Minority Business Accelerator 2.5+ portfolio company, has landed three contracts with University Hospitals. The construction management, general and carpentry contracting business will work as a subcontractor to Ozanne Construction Company on the new Quentin and Elisabeth Alexander Neonatal Intensive Care Unit project at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital; a deal as a carpentry contractor (performing metal studs, acoustical ceiling and drywall) for the new Ajuha Medical Center at Chagrin Highlands; and as a subcontractor with Acme Arsena on the new cancer hospital to be located at UH Case Medical Center.

JWT&A has its roots in family tradition. John Todd, Sr., a master plasterer with Plasterers Union Local 80, passed his knowledge and skills to his son, John W. Todd, Jr., who founded the company in 2005 and is now working with the MBAccelerator 2.5+, an initiative of the Commission on Economic Inclusion, to grow the business. The MBAccelerator 2.5+ provided financial backing that helped Todd secure a line of credit with ShoreBank. “The door is opening for minority companies to get contracts,” says Todd, “but we need operating capital to get projects up and running.”

“The Minority Business Accelerator 2.5+ helps ensure that our portfolio companies have the capability and capacity to successfully bid on complete their contracts.,” said Andrew Jackson, senior vice president of the Greater Cleveland Partnership and executive director of the Commission on Economic Inclusion. “This creates a ‘win-win’ situation for both the majority and minority business.”

In addition, Todd has matured as a business owner through a mentoring relationship with Dominic Ozanne, president and CEO of Ozanne Construction. “Dom has been very helpful,” says Todd. “You need to have a person of that level around you. Through conversations and working with him, I was able to understand mainstream policies, so when it was time to play, I had been practicing. He threw me a pass, and I scored.”

Todd, a graduate of the Emerging Entrepreneurs Program, a business development initiative managed by The Presidents' Council Foundation and Baldwin-Wallace College, also has been working to develop relationships with project owners. “This is important, so that they know you,” he says. “You need consistent work to help you grow.” Past and current projects include the Cleveland Museum of Art renovation, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s Hannah Gibbons K-8 school and John Hay High School, Cuyahoga County Juvenile Justice Center, Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority Riverside Park Estates, and KeyBank branches in Strongsville and Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood.

Todd has plans to expand his business into the Washington, D.C. area, where he opened an office about nine months ago. He estimates that contracts in Greater Cleveland can lead to annual revenues of about $10 million a year but successfully pursuing government projects could result in yearly revenues as high as $30 million.

The company, which has seven full-time administrative positions and a construction staff that ranges from five to seven carpenters, operates on four core fundamentals: integrity, unity, knowledge and focus. “You want people to look at you as more than just a minority company,” says Todd. “You want to be known as a company that does good work.”

The Minority Business Accelerator2.5+ is an initiative of the Commission on Economic Inclusion , a program of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. Funded by the Fund for Our Economic Future, the MBAccelerator2.5+ focuses on growing the size, scale and infrastructure of African American and Hispanic MBEs with annual revenues of at least $2.5 million in a 16-county area of Northeast Ohio. www.mbaccelerator2-5.com

The Commission on Economic Inclusion, a program of the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP), works to significantly improve the meaningful involvement of minority businesses and individuals in the economic engines that drive Northeast Ohio. The GCP mobilizes private-sector leadership, expertise and resources to create jobs and wealth and improve the economic vitality of the region.
www.commission-inclusion.com
www.gcpartnership.com

 

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