The contractor also has built Polo Ralph Lauren stores at Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas and the Houston Galleria. Shawmut worked with Turk prior to her role at Ralph Lauren, building Lacoste stores in New York and Miami.
Shelly says Shawmut has seen significant growth in its hospitality sector—an increase from $139 million in 2011 to a projected $330 million for 2015—and attributes the growth in part to a population shift back to urban centers. "Large-scale urban residential developments in New York, Miami, L.A. and D.C. are spawning these high-end restaurants and retail. Our focus is really in the urban center; being where the growth is has benefitted us," Shelly says.
The builder launched an office in Los Angeles two years ago and just opened an office in Miami earlier this year to tap into opportunities in those burgeoning city centers. Shawmut completed a yearlong renovation of the 8,000-sq-ft Louis Vuitton flagship store on Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive in January and built new concession concepts for San Diego's Petco Park last year—including the Seaside Market, the first fully integrated market inside a baseball stadium; a rooftop bar; and a restaurant featuring an outdoor patio that can seat up to 500 people.
At this time last year, Shawmut was working in 28 different major league baseball stadiums, with a superintendent located at each project site simultaneously. "All of these luxury retail environments are difficult to work in. Sports venues never close. They're continually having concerts and events in the off-season," Shelly says. "We know how to work in this sector, where it's very important to not disrupt their business—this is the common thread."
"We consider ourselves a client-service firm; we just happen to do construction," Hiscoe says. "Everything revolves around this, including setting up regionally in an office to be right next to them to provide better service."
Shawmut's New England offices were created to focus on key academic clients, including five of the eight Ivy League schools. The offices earned $367 million in revenue last year and are projecting 25% growth year over year, says Ron Simoneau, Shawmut vice president.
"Massachusetts has had a robust building program for its schools," Simoneau says. "And on the private side, we're seeing a lot of donors stepping up to fund projects that have been in planning for many years and are now moving into construction. We're putting a lot of people back to work."
Shawmut's academic unit specializes only in academics. From its estimators to the project managers and down the line, these individuals specialize in space planning, climate control, furniture, technology and issues that give their educational clients access to a high degree of expertise.
Recent New England institutional projects include Boston College's St. Mary's Hall in Chestnut Hill, Mass.; the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Roxbury, Mass.; and Brown University's Applied Mathematics Building and RISD's Eliza G. Radeke Building, both in Providence.
New Technology, Systems
