Irish American Building Society to locate HQ Downtown

Real Estate Weekly, July 16, 2003

In an ironic twist, the Irish American Building Society (IABS)--a professional organization serving the real estate and construction industries--has spent the first eight years of its existence without a home to call its own. But now, after bolstering the Irish and Irish American building industry communities in New York through its ongoing support of educational causes, career opportunities and charitable organizations, the JABS has finally turned its attention to its own needs, and is kicking off a series of fundraising events this summer to help finance a new headquarters in downtown Manhattan.

"We want to be part of making the downtown area thrive again," president Gerard McCabe explains. "Our membership is expanding, we are creating more and more business opportunities for our members, and we simply need to find a location to build or buy from which to continue this important mission."

Indeed, since its creation in 1995 as a not-for-profit, non-denominational Association, IABS has grown into one of the most proactive organizations of its kind in the city. Though the chief objective of the group is to foster business and personal networking opportunities among its membership, the 500-member strong IABS has continually developed its role in the greater community through a variety of events and philanthropic initiatives.

And, as attendance at its May gala dinner dance showed, the IABS has made political and social inroads in the national and international political scene that any Association would envy. More than 800 of New York's corporate and civic leaders, including Senator Hillary Clinton, turned out to support the IABS's mission, and to pay tribute to the night's honorees: Senator George Mitchell, Edward M. Fallon, RPA (director of New York Properties, Brookfield Financial Properties), James McKenna (senior vice president and general manager, NY Business Unit, Turner Construction Co., Inc.), and the Town of Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland.

Events such as its dinner dance not only display the IABS's ongoing dedication to the communities in which its members both live and conduct business, but also serve as strong revenue producers, enabling the group to continue its important endeavors. One recent event was a Career Fair in the Bronx hosted by Congressman Joe Crowley and co-sponsored by the IABS and the Consortium for Worker Education. Spearheaded by IABS Employment Exchange chairman Martin Cottingham, the May 3 fair educated more than 300 attendees about career options in fields such as real estate and construction, among others. With the economy on a slippery slope, and many industry workers concerned about their economic future, the fair offered a ray of hope in otherwise uncertain times.

"I have rarely had such a humbling experience. Some of the attendees had been out of work since 9/11--some for even longer--and the fair gave them some good leads and options, in addition to a much-needed dose of optimism," Cottingham remarked. "It was such a success, that we're already planning the next one, which hopefully will be able to reach out to the hardest hit areas in the Bronx, and really affect positive change."

Another of the Association's programs--and perhaps the one that most strikingly highlights the group's resourcefulness and commitment to furthering the industry--is its yearly scholarship grants. Awarding high school seniors of Celtic extraction and demonstrable need $5,000 per year to pursue studies in the real estate or construction fields at a New York-area institution, these substantial endowments provide the money to pursue an education that might otherwise have been abandoned.

"All of the kids we've helped have been kind, bright, hardworking and determined to make a success out of themselves in the industry," McCabe says. "The only thing they lack? Money. So it makes each and every one of our members just delighted to give it to them--after all, they earned it."

Since the program's inception in 1999, 25 students have benefited not only from the financial assistance offered, but from the ongoing moral support and companionship of the members who, true to form, take a vested interest in each of the scholarship winners and their scholastic and professional development. To date, IABS has granted more than $143,000 to scholarship winners.

But even though its committees are as busy as they've ever been, the IABS is still finding time and resources to dedicate to its quest for a new headquarters. "Along with our expanding membership is our expanding ability to give back to the city and its people," McCabe elaborates. "But we need a centralized location from which to operate, and we need it soon."

Preliminary plans for the new home call for a corporate library, function rooms and a museum tracking Irish and Irish American history as it pertains to the building industry in New York. "It would be a way to bring collections of materials together for archival purposes, as well as provide meeting areas where our members can more easily network and share ideas," McCabe says.