Two Milwaukee firms to help Bucks meet workforce, small business benchmarks

The Milwaukee Bucks have hired two local consulting firms to help ensure that disadvantaged businesses and workers are employed in the construction of the team’s new arena and related developments.

The team announced Tuesday that it had enlisted the services of Prism Technical Management and Marketing Services LLC and Cross Management Services Inc. The companies’ main responsibility will be to help ensure that a certain percentage of the arena work goes to businesses and residents who have been deemed disadvantaged.

Lafayette Crump, chief operating officer with Prism Technical, praised the Bucks organization and the owners’ commitment to bringing local residents onto the project “from the start.”

In a news release, the Bucks organization said Prism Technical and Cross Management Services will work together on public relations and on reaching out to the local workforce. The companies will also report regularly on their progress toward meeting the hiring goals that have been established by the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.

“Prism Technical and Cross Management will both be instrumental in helping us develop a strong workforce that has a lasting impact in the community,” said Peter Feigin, president of the Bucks, in the team’s new release. “Our ambitious goal for this development is not just to build a world-class arena, but to help transform downtown Milwaukee and drive growth throughout the region. These two industry leaders are uniquely qualified to help lead that charge and make sure the job growth this project generates benefits the communities that need it most.”

The Bucks arena is only the most recent large construction project in Milwaukee to come with hiring requirements.

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., for instance, is in the midst of building a $450 million, 32-story Tower and Commons project in the city’s downtown. That project by itself has greatly increased demands on the local labor market.

In late December, the company told Milwaukee officials that nearly 30 percent of the project’s contracts had gone to small businesses, and more than 46 percent of the project’s work hours had gone to Milwaukee residents who qualified to take part in the city’s Residents Preference Program. The program is meant to direct work toward Milwaukee residents who are either unemployed or underemployed.

Crump said he is aware that having so many large projects going on at once will only make hiring goals harder to meet.

“I’d say it’s on our radar screen, and all the parties involved would not be doing their duty if they didn’t think about that,” he said.

Still, he said he his not particularly worried, citing his company’s previous successes.

Prism Technical, for instance, helped Northwestern meet the hiring goals attached to its downtown project.

Other notable projects the companies have worked on include Lambeau Field, Miller Park and the North End — the last being a 650-unit, mixed-use neighborhood development on Milwaukee’s near north side.

Labor shortages in the construction industry are anything but new. Industry officials in Milwaukee, while acknowledging that there is a lack of qualified help, also said there is reason for hope.

“The good news is we have mechanisms in place with developing the workforce,” Mike Fabishak, chief executive of the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee, said in January.

Among those mechanisms are groups such as WRTP/Big Step and Employ Milwaukee, which was formerly known as the Milwaukee Workforce Investment Board Inc.

Crump acknowledged that he and his colleagues have no way of knowing how many workers will be needed to meet hiring requirements on future projects. Still, they can do everything in their power to make sure the pool of qualified workers is as large as possible.

The arena itself carries an estimated price tag of $500 million, half of which is to be paid for with public dollars. The city, for its part, is contributing $47 million.

Of the developments to be put up alongside the arena, a practice building is to be one of the first. A site has been marked out for that project just north of where the new arena is to stand.

The land set aside for the practice building is part of what is known as the Park East Corridor, a site where a highway spur had once run. Because of a development agreement that has been attached to those parcels, any project that takes place on that land must also include criteria for the hiring of disadvantaged businesses and workers.

J.P. Cullen & Sons, of Janesville, has secured the contract for the practice building.

Editor’s Note: This story was corrected on Feb. 17, 2016, to reflect that Prism Technical is the sole firm charged with diversity and inclusion services on the Northwestern Mutual project.