As 2022 comes to a close, what better time to celebrate what we’ve accomplished and consider what we will build in 2023?

In 2022, with your engagement, mentorship, and allyship, we wrapped our third season of programming, kicked off our fourth season, we mentored and #brokethebias with AIANY WIA, we taught, we started business ventures, and we changed career paths.

Here is a snapshot of what the MWA community has been up to this year.

Looking forward to what we will do together in 2023.

We are thrilled to share the news of an exciting project underway, co-lead by MWA Founder Nancy Kleppel! For nearly 5 years Nancy has been working on her first real estate development project as a co-founder of the ownership group, Live|Give|Play. The project, a 70-unit mass timber, Passive House rental apartment building in Northampton, MA, is through design development and entering the construction documents phase, planning for a spring 2023 groundbreaking.

Live|Give|Play was founded to transform how older Americans live with new buildings in walkable connected communities.

The challenge:

·      40 million baby boomers will turn 65 between now and 2030

·      30 million of them cannot afford to age in place due to insufficient post-retirement financial resources

The L|G|P solution:

·   Apartments in walkable neighborhoods of small cities

 ·  More vibrant lifestyles, lower costs, and greater sense of purpose than car-centric suburbs

The Live|Give|Play mission as carried out in the Northampton, MA development project concept has been lauded as a sustainable solution to a housing crisis for baby boomers by a number of publications, including Treehugger in this recent article, titled This Mass Timber Passivhaus Rental Building Is Perfect for Active Adults.

BKSK

With her strong professional background as a trained architect, with deep experience in business development, marketing and operations consulting, Nancy serves as serves as LGP’s architectural and design interface. In this role she recommended the architect for the project, BKSK Architects*, and has advised on team members and project participants throughout. As a project owner and sponsor Nancy participates in all design meetings and provides diverse advisory, moving the project forward on all fronts alongside partners David Fox and Patrick McDarrah.

At present L|G|P is pursuing equity investors and construction funding, learning about the twists and turns of the global economy along the way.

As Nancy says, “A career can take you to unexpected places where the thread connecting everywhere you’ve been to where you are currently going becomes apparent. Along the way you tie up all loose ends, bringing the pieces together, culminating in your life’s work. The feeling of pride and accomplishment and deep respect for all the people who played roles along the way is satisfying, humbling and awesome!”

*BKSK Partner, Julie Nelson will lead an MWA seminar alongside Nina Kinoti-Metz in January.

Think Construction is a mid-size residential contractor specializing in high-end apartment and townhouse renovations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The firm partners pride themselves on giving their customers individualized attention and support and have spent years fine-tuning their team of project managers, site supervisors, and field workers. They take a very proactive approach to the construction process and make a special effort to help architects, interior designers, and clients achieve the design goals of their projects.

The Think Construction vision is to grow into a highly efficient, profitable, and charitable organization engaging employees and clients in a collaborative process producing results we can be proud of. Think Construction strives to maintain low turnover with committed and talented employees.

Job Summary

The Project Manager (PM) is a key part of the leadership team. Working with the principals, field staff and accounting department, the PM is responsible for the successful management of each project from start to finish. The PM is the client's primary contact and is responsible for maintaining the balance between design goals, project schedules, project finances, and client satisfaction.

• Manage and lead construction projects: coordinate construction efforts while ensuring the ongoing satisfaction of architects, owners, and other clients.

• Generate and maintain the project’s schedule, budget, and supporting documents (RFIs, Submittals, etc.). Monitor the progress of these to ensure successful delivery of all projects on schedule and on budget.

• Monitor project financial performance and take appropriate steps to maintain satisfactory performance of the project.

• Prepare and negotiate all project agreements (based on existing company standard documents); make certain all parties understand the contents and limitations of agreement, subsequent Change Orders, etc.

• Negotiate project schedule/deadlines with client and take primary responsibility within Think Construction for meeting agreed schedules.

• Manage site teams (with the site supervisor) and take a lead role in scheduling and allocating resources for the project. Anticipate and be proactive about the needs of each site.

• Maintain continuous dialogue between principals, site supers and clients, including scheduling and leading team meetings and maintaining project minutes, records and files.

• Coordinate any outside Project Consultants (engineering, lighting, A/V, etc.).

• Determine that applicable code issues have been properly reviewed and addressed.

• Determine that project invoices have been properly vetted, prepared and sent to Bookkeeper. Help prepare Payment Requests.

• Assist in preparing fee and agreement proposals; participate in other business development efforts as appropriate.

• Supervise and mentor Assistant Project Managers in all aspects of the job.

Qualifications:

• Minimum 7+yrs Project Management experience in high end residential construction in NYC.

• Thorough understanding of project management fundamentals, including project budgeting and scheduling, financial performance indicators, etc.

• Deadline-driven critical thinking and ability to identify and articulate critical path issues.

• Team-oriented and collaborative, articulate, personable, professional, highly productive, and able to deal successfully with clients.

• Strong sense of self-motivation and follow-through in a complex business environment; mature approach to managing priorities.

Compensation:

Salary range for this position is between $120k-$160K, depending on experience. 

Benefits:

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401k Plan

Paid time off

Paid sick leave