Gaetano keeps building in Mohawk Valley

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Dec 07, 2001 by Fitting, Beth

UTICA - In the midst of a national, and local, slowdown in so many business sectors, construction companies in the Mohawk Valley are enjoying healthy profits. And none more so than the Charles A. Gaetano Construction Co. William C. Gaetano, son of the founder, Charles A., and the current president, says that none of his private-sector contracts have canceled. "Banks are giving money away today. Uncle Sam and Uncle George [Pataki] may cut back, but in the private sector, there's no reason not to expand," he says.

From a small masonry contractor, Charles A. Gaetano Construction has grown to a full-service general contractor that William Gaetano says "will have a construction volume of $45 million to $50 million this year."

William C. Gaetano is one of three brothers. He runs his father's original company, which began in the mid-'50s, his brother, Charles N., owns the Lakewood Construction Company, which is working with local real-estate developer Joseph Carucci. Charles Gaetano and Carucci purchased and renovated the historic Hotel Utica. William says, "Unfortunately, we're competitors." The third brother, Brian, manages property, including 258 Genesee St., home of The Mohawk Valley Business Journal.

Gaetano Construction recently won a "Build New York" award from the General Builders and Contractors of New York State for the third- and fourth-floor additions and renovations to St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Utica, phase one of a two-phase, three-year project. The company won in the "large new construction" category (more than $10 million). The project, priced at $14 million, included a 52,000-square-foot expansion of the hospital, as well as a penthouse housing mechanical equipment and a new parking garage.

Gaetano says his company is "big on health care." Another Gaetano project is a $5million, 22,000-square-foot lobby addition and renovation at Faxton-St. Luke's in Utica.

A project that is particularly gratifying to Gaetano is the new stadium and locker room at Utica College. The college, he says, is "starting a new sports program, with field hockey, lacrosse, ice hockey." His father, Charles A., donated the land to the college, and the stadium will be named the Charles A. Gaetano Stadium.

Gaetano Construction is building the Joan Weill Adirondack Library, a $10million, 45,000-square-foot construction on the campus of Paul Smith's College on Saranac Lake. The building will house the Adirondack Information Resources Center as well as the college's library.

In 1982, Gaetano acquired the Butler pre-engineered steel buildings franchise for Oneida, Madison, and Herkimer counties and in 1999 became a Butler roof dealer. The company has completed more than 1.5-million square feet of design-build projects using Butler components. Two recent Butler projects of which Gaetano is especially proud are the $1.4-million new facility for Fiber Instrument Sales and the $2-million new showroom and warehouse for Meyda Tiffany. Both, says Gaetano, are "gratifying, because they are repeat customers."

And Gaetano says that the company has just been awarded a New York State Office of General Services contract to build a cook/chill plant at the Mohawk Prison in Rome. That project is estimated at $12 million. Gaetano explains that the Mohawk Prison facility provides meals for all New York State prisons outside the metropolitan New York City area, as well as county jails throughout the state. "Imagine eight-foot cook pots," he says, to indicate the size of the facility.

All this building has made it necessary for Gaetano to expand its staff. Gaetano says the company has "more than 100 permanent employees, 20 in the office. We hired three new office employees this year."

And that is one problem that Gaetano, as well as others, is facing today - finding skilled tradespeople. Gaetano says, "The guidance counselors don't help. BOCES should be more active in pushing the skilled trades. College is not for everyone. We need to attract high-school graduates."

Gaetano, a graduate of SUNY Delhi's construction-technology program, actively supports that program. But he complains, "We can't get kids to go there." Young people today, says Gaetano, are computer literate, but they think construction is not high-tech. "We have computers in every comer here, including our field offices." Among the areas at Gaetano Construction in which computers are used are accounting, cost estimating, scheduling, designing, drafting, and project management.

But, beyond the construction and computer skills, he adds, "It takes good people."