With just a few months remaining until the Buffalo Bills open their new stadium, officials are announcing a new milestone for project participation.
Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs) have accounted for $490 million of the work completed at Highmark Stadium, surpassing the state’s goal of having 30% of project contracts with MWBEs. This sets a benchmark for collaboration with businesses, Empire State Development CEO Hope Knight said.
“To have awarded and paid out almost half a billion dollars in contract payments to MWBEs, that's really a high watermark for a public-private partnership like this," she said. "There are many projects happening around the state where these companies and businesses can be able to participate in those projects as well.”
Being involved in the process makes her more comfortable pursuing other large-scale commercial projects in the future, Hamburg Overhead Door President Jennifer Kuhn said.
“I wouldn't be able to live [with] myself if I drove by this project every day and didn't at least put my hat in the ring to have an opportunity to bid on it," she said. "It was a very tough bidding process, and I'm so proud to say that, three years later, I learned so much about how the bidding process works for a project of this size.”
Her company installed a variety of doors for different purposes at the stadium, including those for locker rooms, loading bays, and concession booths.
Of the more than 300 contracts with minority- and women-owned businesses, 60% are companies from Western New York.
The next step is looking at other projects around Western New York — and the entire state — to leverage the resource that is access to MWBEs, Knight said.
“This is a huge project happening in this community," she said. "Being able to provide training and mentoring and all sorts of support to create the road map and the pipeline for working on this project; that's part of the secret success.”
