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Stein & Co. and AT&T next month will announce plans for a comprehensive minority contracting and affirmative action package for construction of the $575-million AT&T Corporate Center.
The company is modeling its hiring program after the city's 2-year-old 30% rule -- a requirement that public-sector projects set aside 30% of the work for minority and women-owned businesses.
But in this case, the quota will be self-imposed.
Stein & Co.'s move is the latest sign that mandatory minority hiring for public-sector projects is spilling over into private development.
Beyond giving minority firms more public-sector work, Mayor Harold Washington's edict is helping to fuse new partnerships between majority-and minority-owned real estate firms.
After two years riding the wave of Mayor Washington's minority quota system, minority companies in the design, engineering, architectural and construction fields are making significant inroads into the city's more traditional real estate community.
"We have not been sitting in the club rooms and board rooms and so have not had the hands reach out to us in the past to work on many private-sector projects," explained Vernon Williams, president of Amistad Group Inc., a minority-owned architectural firm. "Mayor Washington provided an institutional hand."
Executives at some of the largest real estate development and architectural firms say their firms now regularly work with minority companies. And many of those firms are starting to commit to actual quotas on large private jobs.
* Equitable Real Estate Investment Management Inc. and Chicago Dock & Canal Trust, the developers of Cityfront Center, last month announced details of a comprehensive affirmative action plan, including purchasing and contracting opportunities...