Duke Vice President for Facilities Tom Morrison chats with leaders of local construction firms at the recent Open Doors Forum. Photo by Travis Stanley.
Part of the effort includes increasing capital project spending with local construction-related companies by cumulative $120 million.
Phil Mitchell knows the value of these opportunities firsthand. As president of O.C. Mitchell Jr. Inc. General Contractors, a Durham-based firm founded 80 years ago by his grandfather, he has spent decades building a relationship with Duke.
For the past 35 years, Mitchell said that Duke has been a valued partner with his 63-employee company, which has contributed to numerous renovation projects on Duke’s campus.
“It’s great to keep the money here,” Mitchell said about Duke’s support of local partners. “With us, it stays here. We put it back into our business so we can keep growing and employ more people. It all comes around in a full circle way.”
At the event, which organizers plan to hold twice a year, Morrison outlined Duke projects still in the planning phases, including renovations and utility enhancements for older science buildings on West Campus.
He also answered questions from attendees about the how companies are selected for the work.
“It is easier for us to work with local businesses,” Morrison said told attendees. “In the world of construction, as you know, things get complicated and problems come up. And it is a whole lot easier, when problems come up, to call somebody and say, ‘Meet me at the site.’”
Evingerlean D. Blakney, President and CEO of Blakney Global Solutions, a Research Triangle Park-based specialty contract and supply enterprise, attended the forum to strengthen her company’s growing relationship with Duke.
Blakney, who launched the business roughly three years ago, said the event gave her a chance to meet with industry peers and better understand how to expand that partnership.
While Blakney Global Solutions has handled projects for clients across the country, among its most meaningful jobs so far has been supplying the interior and exterior signage for Duke’s Reuben-Cooke Building renewal project.
“When they named me on the Duke project, I felt seen, I felt like I am supposed to be here and that the work that I’ve been doing is valuable,” Blakney said. “Now I’m able to go to other people and say, ‘Here is what I’m doing and here’s who I’m doing it for.’”
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