3CDC Partnering with African American Chamber on Kickoff Event for Convention Center Renovation

Networking Opportunity Encourages Minority- and Women-Owned Business Participation

CINCINNATI (September 25, 2023) – As Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) works to finalize details of the upcoming renovation of the Duke Energy Convention Center and Convention Headquarters Hotel, diversity and inclusion remain a key focus of the project. After several months of planning between 3CDC & the African American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) they are partnering to host a networking event for Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) subcontractors later this week. The AACC is serving as the inclusion consultant on the project.

The kickoff event, which will take place at the Duke Energy Convention Center Wednesday, Sept. 27 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM, will give interested MBE and WBE subcontractors a chance to connect and collaborate. The event will include an overview of the project and construction timeline.

3CDC and other project stakeholders have selected a partnership of Messer Construction, TriVersity Construction, and Jostin Construction to serve as the Construction Manager for the DECC redevelopment project. Both TriVersity and Jostin are MBEs and will account for 40% of the project. All three organizations will have representatives at the kickoff event to meet with as many interested subcontractors as possible. To further encourage MBE participation in the project, bid packages can be split to give a higher number of minority- and women-owned businesses the opportunity to take part.

Working in collaboration with the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 3CDC has established an aggressive goal of up to 40% participation by MBE/WBEs in the total development cost of the redevelopment of the convention center:

• Goal of 20% MBE participation plus an additional 5% reach goal
• Goal of 10% WBE participation plus an additional 5% reach goal

“3CDC has a strong track record of working with MBEs at both the general contractor and subcontractor level, and we plan to leverage that experience to ensure our inclusion targets are met on this project,” Adam Gelter, Executive Vice President of Real Estate for 3CDC, said. “We’re excited to host this kickoff event in partnership with the African American Chamber of Commerce, Messer, TriVersity and Jostin, and look forward to the relationships will be able to form with minority-owned subtractors that can partner with us on this generational project.”

3CDC has selected MBEs to be the lead contractor on 16 prior projects, representing hard costs exceeding $84 million. 3CDC also has strong relationships with several minority-owned subcontractors, who it directly invites to bid on its projects. As a result of these efforts, 3CDC has worked with over 50 minority-owned businesses in the past several years.

Subcontractors who would like to attend the Cincinnati Convention Center Renovation Project Kickoff can register at https://bit.ly/3OYUFIU. Food and drinks will be provided.

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