Courtesy of MLB Construction Services
By Rod Bacon
A 76-year-old construction firm who’s principals fully intend that it continue well beyond the 100-year mark is experiencing a very busy summer building season.
Malta-based MLB Construction Services has 10 large projects underway in the region.
According to company President Jim Dawsey, the largest is an $80 million renovation and expansion of the Albany International Airport, which is scheduled for completion in September 2025. The company is doing the demolition, micropiles, concrete, the new bridge between the parking garage and the terminal, and raising the third floor on part of the terminal next to the TSA area. In addition they are installing new finishes on the inside of the terminal, new glass, and a new front on the existing terminal.
Project managers on this job are Jeff Lino and Craig Dittl.
The company is also finishing a job that has to be completed by September 2024 at the Olana Historic Site in Hudson. Olana was the 19th century home, studio and designed landscape of Hudson River School artist Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), his wife Isabel and their four children.
The $14 million project for the New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation System involves a new visitors’ center at the park entrance. It will house a cafe, ticket sales to the mansion, a rest room, lobby area, and a new plaza in front of the building.
“The plaza will give people a feel for what they’re going to be seeing at the mansion,” said Dawsey.
Project manager for this job is Ronnie-Lynn Schermerhorn. The superintendent is Deanna Hancock.
In August MLB will start an affordable housing project on Summit Avenue in Schenectady, The company will be building 37 new houses on lots that the City of Schenectady owns. They’re targeting first-time homeowners.
“That project is about a $12 million job,” Dawsey said. “We’re working with the AHOP (Affordable Housing Opportunity Program) of New York state.”
“We’re pretty excited about that because my father actually grew up on Summit Avenue with his seven brothers and sisters, and it’s kind of nice going back to that area where my father and I grew up and help to renovate that section of Schenectady,” Dawsey said.
The project manager for this job will be Damien Pinto-Martin.
MLB is finishing work on the Center For Integrated Sciences at Skidmore College, which is a $100 million project. They are also doing work on the covered canopies between the buildings.
MLB has 110 employees who do demolition, concrete work, drywall and finish carpentry work. Subcontractors are used for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, painting, and structural steel.
Dawsey noted that the structural steel subcontractor on the Albany Airport job is Saratoga County-based Stonebridge Iron and Steel, which has about a $10 million contract.
“We try to use as many local subcontractors as we can,” said Dawsey.
Dawsey has been with MLB for 44 years, serving as president since 2009, and will soon be stepping down from his leadership position. He and Executive Vice President Scott Shepherd were part of the second leadership transition, which took about seven years. They are now in the midst of a third change in leadership, which is slated to take five years. When the two of them leave, the top jobs will be turned over to Chief Financial Officer Aleisha Campbell, Vice President Brian Douglas and Vice President Jeff Lino.
“What prompted me to choose those three, I was looking for people that had basically the same values that I inherited from McManus, Longe and Brockwehl, the three guys that started the business in 1947, and the three people that we’re running with to do the transition kind of epitomized all the same values that we’ve held very dear to us over the last 77 years,” said Dawsey.