Boston construction firm Suffolk expands to Portland

A Boston-based construction firm with a national footprint and over $5 billion in annual revenue has opened its first office in Maine.

Suffolk, a privately held company founded in 1982, is one of the largest contractors in New England, according to a news release. With 2,600 employees, the company has headquarters in Boston and other offices in New York, Florida, Texas and California.

In addition to construction management services, Suffolk offers real estate capital investment, design, self-perform construction services, technology startup investment and innovation research and development. Clients include companies in health care, life sciences, education, gaming, transportation/aviation, the commercial sector and government. 

The Portland office will serve health care and higher education clients in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, according to the release.

The expansion signals the company’s “confidence in the strength of the Northern New England market,” said John Fish, Suffolk’s founder, chairman and CEO. 

The Portland office, at 100 Commercial St. in the Old Port neighborhood, opened Jan. 15. It’s led by Sean Edwards, Suffolk’s executive vice president and division manager.

“Suffolk has hired a leadership team responsible for identifying project opportunities, building relationships with clients and partners, and hiring the very best talent in the region to manage our projects,” Edwards told Mainebiz.

Among the company’s high-profile projects are the 36-floor, 638-room, guitar-shaped Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.; Northeastern University’s 230,000-square-foot Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex; the fossil-fuel-free Boston University Center for Computing & Data Sciences; and the 565,000-square-foot Boston Children’s Hospital Hale Family Clinical Building.

Suffolk’s experience in health care and higher education, said Edwards, position the company for projects in northern New England “where there is an increasing demand for more modernized medical and academic facilities.”