Gilbane to Direct New England Region Operations from Boston

BOSTON, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Gilbane Building Co., one of the nation's largest privately held construction companies, announced today that it will direct its growing business in the New England region from Boston, Mass. The New England region, with district offices in Providence, RI, Glastonbury, CT, and Bedford, NH, will be overseen by Ryan E. Hutchins.

Hutchins is being named senior vice president and regional manager for Gilbane's New England region.

The shift of operations to Gilbane's offices at 155 Federal St. in downtown Boston reflects a significant increase in business in Massachusetts. In the last four years, Gilbane has doubled the number of construction projects it oversees and increased the number of employees in Massachusetts from 80 to 160. Four senior-level positions were added in Massachusetts in the last two months.

"There is tremendous history and tradition in our company, and I've watched it grow and develop very strong market positions around the country," said William Gilbane, Jr., president and chief operating officer of Gilbane, and a fourth-generation member of the company's founding family. "To see Boston -- the center of New England -- now become the center of the region is really a huge milestone for the company."

Gilbane's Massachusetts operations have grown dramatically, even during a time of historic levels of economic difficulty. The company had eight employees in its Needham headquarters and 80 in Massachusetts in December 2005, when it moved the office to Boston; today Gilbane employs 39 people in its Boston office and 160 statewide.

Mr. Hutchins, who was vice president and Massachusetts district manager, is being elevated to regional manager because under his leadership the Massachusetts office has achieved substantial growth in spite of difficult economic times, according to Daniel P. McConaghy, executive vice president of Gilbane Building Co.

Mr. Hutchins joined Gilbane in 1998 after earning a Bachelor's Degree from Wentworth Institute of Technology. Mr. Hutchins received his M.B.A. from Babson College in 2007.

Mr. Hutchins has helped increase Gilbane's presence in Massachusetts with improvement projects for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park; constructing complex facilities for companies like Genzyme; building new urban communities in neighborhoods like Channel Center in South Boston; working with educational institutions like Harvard University, Tufts University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute; and building schools in communities including Salem, Woburn, Worcester, Malden, Longmeadow, and Quincy.

The company's health care work has grown to include clients such as South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., Southcoast Hospitals Group in New Bedford, Mass., and Lowell General Hospital.

"Over the past five years, we have seen a great growth in our business in the Commonwealth and done so with an incredible core group of employees along with some great talent acquisitions," said Mr. Hutchins.

Founded in 1873 by William Gilbane and his brother Thomas as a carpentry and contracting firm in Providence, Gilbane remains a strong family-run company. Gilbane has 29 offices nationally and has annual revenues of more than $4.4 billion.

Gilbane is well known for landmark projects, including the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Vietnam War Memorial, and National World War II Memorial, and the company constructed the Winter Olympics facilities in Lake Placid, N.Y.

The company is listed by Forbes magazine as the 141st largest private company in the country and was named for the last two years by Fortune magazine as one of the best 100 companies to work for. The Boston Business Journal listed Gilbane as the fourth largest general contractor in Massachusetts for 2009.

Gilbane also was the fifth largest construction management firm nationwide for guaranteed-price projects, according to Engineering News-Record magazine.

For more about Gilbane, go to www.gilbaneco.com

SOURCE Gilbane