b'TERMINALSSPECIAL REPORT MCI 41daylight throughout the terminal. In most holdrooms, the lightsThe Kansas City Strategic Partnership Program is a six-can be turned off during the day, which saves energy and createsmonth MBA-style course that taught a variety of business a pleasant atmosphere for occupants.and project management skills to owners and key-leadership Were really proud of achieving LEED Gold, Lefkovits says.personnel of local small businesses. Of the 95 firms that Its something thats not achieved singularly. Its through agraduated from the program, 22 successfully competed process of collaboration. Hats off to the city. They had thefor and were awarded work on the project, with combined aspiration to make this a sustainable building. From the outset,contract values exceeding $80 million.they were thinking about their future, and the impact of thisThe Workforce Training Program is a structured three-week building on the environment.soft skills training program developed in partnership with trade union representatives. This course is designed to Construction with a Purpose provide access to careers in construction to Kansas City-area The project broke ground in 2019 and was completed on time andresidents with little to no previous construction experience. on budget in early 2023. The progressive nature of the design- The program successfully graduated 200 individuals who build approach allowed us to go faster than a lot of other projects,earned more than $6 million in wages and benefits while because we were demolishing Terminal A, doing enabling work,working on the project. putting foundations in and erecting structure while we were stillThey needed a job and an opportunity, and we needed to finishing the design, Goodwin explains.increase our workforce because this was a $1.5 billion project, In total, the airport project provided work for more than 6,500Goodwin explains. We knew that labor was going to be a peoplea diverse group that was intentionally recruited to meetchallenge so we established and invested a lot of time and aggressive goals for involvement by minority- and women-ownedeffort into the success of this program. Moreover, about 70% businesses and the local workforce. of the program graduates have maintained employment in the construction industry after the MCI project, thus helping the Early in the project, it became clear that the community wantedproject team deliver on its goal of building ongoing capacity for the new terminal to be built by Kansas City. Local stakeholdersthe Kansas City construction market.wanted to make sure there was involvement by local companies, big and small. For professional services and construction services, Clark | Weitz | Clarkson and Edgemoor set participation goals of 20% minority-owned businesses and 15% women-owned businesses We wanted this to be a transformational project for Kansas City, so we set our goals higher than the requirements, says Moylan. As of late February when the terminal opened, the project team had crushed its targets. Fully 25.4% of all construction contractors were minority-owned businesses, and 18.7% were owned by women. For professional services, 20.5% of the companies were minority-owned and 16.4% women-owned. The project also outpaced expectations in terms of workforce participation, exceeding the 20% minority participation goal by 4%, and nearly tripling the 2.75% goal for female construction workers with 7.7%.Goodwin credits those results to a very intentional and committed approach throughout the procurement phase that prioritized hiring minority- and women-owned businesses. During the construction phase, the team focused on partnering with local unions to get minority and female workers on the project. On that front, he highlights two successful programs:AirportImprovement.comMay | June 2023'