Beverley Johnson
Title: President and Chairwoman, Massachusetts Minority Contractors Assoc.
Age: 51
Experience: 27 years
Revitalizing urban neighborhoods is Beverley Johnson’s lifelong passion. In January, the Massachusetts Minority Contractors Assoc. (MMCA) named Johnson, a former Department of Housing and Urban Development planner and Boston Redevelopment Authority official, as its first female president. MMCA was founded in 2007 to improve opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses in the region’s construction market, particularly in the Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan neighborhoods of Boston. The group recently occupied new office space in Fields Corner.
Q: What would you list as some of MMCA’s major accomplishments?
A: Over the last two to three years, the organization has made a lot of progress with regard to neighborhood projects. One of the biggest initiatives is the Boston Pilot Project, a partnership with the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corp.’s. Six of their member CDC’s agreed to develop a pipeline of projects that would maximize opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses located in the neighborhoods where the projects are being built. The goal is 35 percent participation. There are 11 projects currently in the pipeline and I want to say that five of those projects have actually gone into the construction phase. The others are lining up as the financing is in place.
Q: What’s the typical profile of an MMCA member?
A: A small firm with fewer than 25 employees. We have the range of trades – electricians, plumbers, carpenters, you name it – most of our members are non-union.
Q: Does that make it harder to compete for projects?
A: Historically it’s been complicated, especially with neighborhood projects when you look at the level of union activity that occurs in the city. But MMCA has been able to sit down and have conversations with some of the developers and union reps to talk about what kind of options might be available for the future. That’s an issue that we’re still working on.
Q: What is your own company BevCo’s specialty?
A: I do urban planning and my specialties are project management, community engagement and what I call general land conveyance issues. For example, I’ve been the development consultant at the former Boston State Hospital site for the last 16 years. In that capacity I worked with the citizens’ advisory committee to work with the state in the redevelopment of the site. It’s a 175-acre site. When we issued the first (request for proposals) in 1995 we weren’t sure what we were going to get. The site has evolved to the point where we have four developers and we’ve conveyed all but 14 acres of the site. We have University of Massachusetts Medical School, which developed two research facilities, and New Boston Ventures developing a mixed-use project. In that capacity I’ve done Article 80 reviews based upon my BRA experience, the zoning analysis and helped negotiate the land disposition agreements with each site developer and monitored their performance on behalf of the community and the state Division of Capital Management.
Q: What’s the MMCA’s top legislative priority?
A: On Jan. 15 we filed legislation co-sponsored by Reps. Byron Rushing and Russell Holmes. This would enable DCAM to establish goals for minority and women business participation on their projects. That’s what the legislation would provide. The attorney general recently issued a ruling that in accordance with state law they could no longer do that. This legislation seeks to provide them the option to do that.
