New construction CEOs tackle workforce shortages with progressive strategies and strong teams

Photo / Tim Greenway Dave Thomas, regional director, Maine, for Consigli Construction, Co., Inc., on site at the firm’s build out of the Crewe Center for Performing Arts on the campus of the University of Southern Maine.

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By Tina Fischer

Several Maine construction firms have made changes in their head offices over the past year as owners and longtime company presidents have either retired or stepped aside from day-to-day management.

Mainebiz checked in with a few of the new leaders to learn how they’re structuring their expanded roles while meeting the challenges and opportunities they’re seeing in the industry today.

Dave Thomas, regional director for Consigli Construction Co. Inc.'s Portland office, last year succeeded longtime leader Matt Tonello, who will continue to focus on key client relationships and lead the firm’s mass timber construction expertise on projects in Maine and companywide.

“I’m lucky to have such a collaborative partner and Matt has been truly instrumental in growing our business,” Thomas says. “I’ve been his sidekick for more than 20 years, helping him out with operational planning behind the scenes and managing high-profile projects, so it was a pretty seamless transition for not just us, but for our teams and employees. Being more in the spotlight now is the biggest change for me,” Thomas says.

Consigli, which is based in Milford, Mass., is a 120-year-old firm with 15 offices along the East Coast, from Portland to Raleigh-Durham, N.C and the Caribbean. The team in Maine has built and expanded numerous office and medical buildings, most notably for both Bigelow and Jackson Labs, Immucell, and Maine Health and Northern Light Health hospitals. They’ve done large builds at the University of Maine, for Colby and Bowdoin colleges and for the University of Southern Maine in Portland where they’re currently completing the Crewe Center for the Performing Arts, which features the use of mass timber. Consigli is managing construction of the future Portland campus of the Roux Institute of Northeastern University.

The biggest challenge for Thomas and for the industry as a whole, is managing workforce shortages.

“We have more people retiring than coming into construction, and the impact is felt pretty significantly here in Maine,” Thomas says. “We have a good stable of people and talent throughout the state, but we aren’t unaffected in feeling the workforce crunch.”

The firm has 140 employees and is actively hiring for several positions including superintendents, carpenters and laborers.

“It’s hard to find labor to support the region’s projects, which is why Consigli takes such a proactive approach to helping get more young people interested in the trades and in the industry generally,” Thomas says.

The firm “works closely with a lot of workforce development organizations that help connect students and young people with employers in the industry so that they can get hands-on experience with what a future in construction can look like. We also partner with schools to bring students onto the jobsite through tours or internships to get a first-hand look at the work we do,” he continues.

“All our people are really involved in advocating for the industry workforce, and helping build up a strong pipeline of talent.”

He cited the work of Consigli general superintendent Stacey Harris, who was recently appointed to the Maine Community College System’s board to help drive the state’s efforts to get more people into the trades.

“We’ve had a lot of positive momentum, and we want to keep at it,” Thomas says. “I’m really committed as a leader and a teammate to building up the next generation and giving them the tools they need to succeed.”

In leading Maine’s Consigli office, Thomas draws on his Downeast roots.

“I’m a Maine native, born and raised in Ellsworth, and a lifelong resident,” Thomas says. “My roots in Maine have made me passionate about creating more opportunities for job creation, and workforce and economic development here, across all kinds of market sectors.”

Photo / Tim Greenway

Tyler Ferguson, CEO of PM Construction Co., at the future site of Adams Point, an apartment building in Biddeford.

PM Construction CEO tackles labor shortages

For PM Construction Co. CEO Tyler Ferguson, hiring has been a huge part of his job since he took over from founder Bill Nason last year at the 30-year-old Saco-based firm.

He too grapples with a shortage of young talent coming into the industry, especially motivated individuals who he can train. But PM Construction has added a number of staffers recently, bringing the total employee numbers close to 35.

“We’ve hired a new person to support estimating, a new project manager, two new superintendents, all in the last six months, and a new executive director. We’ve almost doubled the office in a very short period of time,” he says.

Ferguson’s been with the company for 14 years, starting as a laborer. He later moved into sales and then took on the role of vice president at PM’s sister company, National Fire Stopping Solutions. He now leads both companies while relying for much of the day-to-day management on COO George LaPlume at PM and Wes Pooler, a vice president at NFSS. Ferguson has upped support staffing at the sister company too, adding 12 new office positions in the past six months.

Ferguson says he is still involved in “high-level sales” at both PM Construction and National Fire Stopping Solutions.

“I do sit in on the majority of the estimations” at PM, he says.

He’s also focused on winning more projects. Stepping into leadership at PM, Ferguson felt that the company had “gotten a bit stagnant. So I said, ‘Lets go out and hire some more project managers and win some more projects,’ which we’ve done but we’ve also stayed in our lane.

“For instance, we do a lot of renovations and we’ve always had a very strong relationship with Hannaford. Probably 50% of our business is with supermarkets, and most of those projects are in the $2 million to $8 million range.

“But PM is really diverse. We’re building affordable housing in Biddeford right now at Adams Point, which is a $12 million to $13 million job. And then we’re doing work on a fire station in Portland, which is about a half a million project.”

To avoid stretching his construction team too thin with work around the state — as well as in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and New York — Ferguson’s strategy has been to “rent to own” labor, and he’s been surprised to find a ready pool of experienced construction talent for contract work.

“You hear, ‘There’s no good people out there,’ but it’s not true. I had 20 to 30 applications within an hour’s radius of Rumford, for example, when we needed to hire there. Bill and I knew that if we were going to expand, we needed to bring in more talent, and this has been working really well.”

Ferguson added that Nason still comes into the office twice a week, but to workout — not “work” — in the company gym.

‘Seamless’ transition at Freeport-based home builder

Lee Proscia became president of Houses & Barns by John Libby last September, taking over the reins from the founder, who retired after 53 years in the business.

John Libby continues to serve on the firm’s board of directors.

Proscia came on board with the Freeport-based company in 2017 after working for Portland-based Wright-Ryan Construction, where he managed pre-construction for the homes division and led the millwork shop.

Proscia says the transition into leadership has been “seamless. Most of our team, including myself, have been contributing to the success of the company for many years. It all starts with a great group of people that enjoy the process of designing and building timber frame barns and homes for our discerning clients.”

The company has 11 full-time employees.

Proscia says he is keeping the team’s collective eye on the future.

“Our primary focus is on doing it better,” he says. “There are many moving parts in the design and construction of our projects. We are uniquely positioned as a leading design-build company with the integration of leading technologies in design and project management, while continuing to put our hearts and souls into the shop and field with exceptional craftmanship.”

Proscia emphasized that the company will continue to build more than barns.

“We are known for our beautiful timber frame barns, but our firm has been quietly designing and constructing some of the finest homes in Maine under the design leadership of our architect Peter Anderson, in partnership with our talented project and field teams,” he says.

Though the firm’s size and customer base is very different from that of commercial builders, it has not been immune to hiring challenges.

“The climate for building is always challenging,” Proscia says. “The rising cost factors and lack of labor sources will continue to be the biggest stumbling blocks moving forward.”

Despite the challenges, Proscia says there’s room to grow.

“Maine is a desirable place to call home,” he says. “We see plenty of market opportunities for geographic expansion and the potential for diversifying our business.”