Two Cincinnati minority-owned businesses awarded $45 million federal contract bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2021/05/10/two-minority-owned-businesses-awarded-45-million.html
By Bill Cieslewicz – Managing editor, Cincinnati Business Courier Two Cincinnati minority-owned businesses are the recipients of a $45 million federal contract. The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Minority Business Accelerator announced Friday two of its portfolio firms, Vazquez Commercial Contracting LLC and Elevar Design Group, were awarded a five-year contract with the U.S. Army of Corp of Engineers (USACE). The $45 million contract will be used to provide construction services for operations and maintenance for Civil and Military Projects within the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division Mission Boundaries. The area has a number of Department of Defense-funded activities in seven USACE districts in the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes Division, including Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., Pittsburgh, Louisville, Nashville and Huntington, W.Va. The award is expected to create at least a dozen jobs in the Cincinnati office and Southwest Ohio region. Because it is an Indefinite Quality Indefinite Delivery contract, the split can vary based on the individual task order. “Bringing new federal spending and jobs to the region is the number one priority at Vazquez and we’ve proven that both are achievable since opening the new division office here in 2020,” Joe Vazquez, president of Vazquez Commercial Contracting, said in a release. The MBA's portfolio program was launched in 2003. A portfolio firm represents an African American- or Hispanic-owned firm with at least $1 million in annual revenue and a B2B model that has agreed to work with the Minority Business Accelerator to help the business reach its next level of growth. There are more than 40 participating portfolio firms, and a total of 67 to date. VCC, based in Kansas City, Mo., expanded to Cincinnati in 2020 due to the accelerator’s focus on attracting complementary high-growth minority firms to Greater Cincinnati. It has 135 employees. Elevar Design Group, the region's largest minority-owned design firm with 81 employees, is headquartered in Queensgate with satellite offices in Dayton, Ohio, Cleveland and Lexington, Ky.
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“This collaboration represents a significant strategic step forward for both organizations and the region as a whole as we work to grow minority business spending across a broad array of industries,” Darrin Redus, senior vice president of the Cincinnati Chamber and executive director of the Minority Business Accelerator. The Minority Business Accelerator is the Chamber's flagship minority business and economic inclusion initiative. For information, click here.
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