|
|
  |
 |
|
|
|
||
|
PSA Constructors, Inc. is a 100% African-American
owned Program/Project and Construction Management firm with offices
in Texas (Dallas), Florida (Orlando, West Palm Beach, Miami),
Louisiana (New Orleans), and Arizona (Phoenix). PSA began with one staff member and has become a trendsetter whose growth as a minority firm is unmatched in the construction industry. PSA’s staff includes graduate architects, engineers, construction managers, OSHA certified inspectors, planners, I.T. managers, quality control inspectors, schedulers, estimators, contract managers, value engineering specialists, superintendents, and administrative support personnel combining over 300 years of professional experience. Patrick Aliu has quietly built an international network from his third floor office on Hillcrest Street. "I started out wearing two hats," Aliu says, laughing. "I would go to the job site in blue jeans in the morning, then go home at 1 o'clock, take a shower and put on a suit -- and market the company." His earnestness paid off.
As president of PSA Constructors Inc., is a licensed general contractor who also is certified in construction management from Harvard's Graduate School of Design -- and the owner of one of the most respected minority businesses in Central Florida. "They respect me, and I respect them," Aliu says of his clients, who have included 3D/I, URS, HKS Inc. and Kellogg, Brown and Root. His company has been involved in such projects as the Orlando International Airport renovation, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport renovation, construction of several of Orlando Utilities Commission's water treatment plants, the Orange County Convention Center expansion project and construction of the Orange County Regional History Center. In addition to its Orlando headquarters, PSA has offices in Jacksonville; Riviera Beach; Atlanta; Dallas; Las Vegas; Lagos, Nigeria; and Newark, N.J. The company just opened offices in Tampa and Houston as well. "We like to have a local office wherever we have a project," Aliu says. An African-American who was born in Nigeria, Aliu earned his bachelor's degree in architecture at the University of Oklahoma and a master's in business administration from Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale. He worked for a Texas firm, then a Memphis firm, before deciding to make Florida his home in 1991 after a friend persuaded him to interview for a position in Jacksonville. "They were looking for an architect with hospital background," he says. He took the job, working on both Jacksonville Memorial Hospital and St. Vincent Hospital. He eventually ended up in Miami, working for a minority-owned firm that, in 1993, asked him to set up and head an office in Orlando. "Within six months, I landed a $6 million job for that firm," he says. Although he loved what he was doing, a falling-out with the firm's owner led Aliu to resign his position -- not sure what he was going to do next. But with his credentials, good credit and the hard-won trust and encouragement of his supporters, he launched PSA Constructors on April 18, 1994 -- starting out "in one little bitty room" on North Highland Avenue. "Our first big job was with Walbridge, working on the (OUC) Southwest Water Treatment plant," Aliu says. "We had no money, and the advisory board of OUC called Walbridge and said, `Can you help this business out?' And Walbridge gave us a check for $10,000." These days, nobody has to help PSA out. That's because the company holds a half-million-dollar credit line with SunTrust Bank and is able to bond $10 million on projects. "We have always tried to solidify the comfort zone for the bank," Aliu says, "We use a system of checks-and-balances -- and the result is that the banks tell us that even big companies do no more efficient, clean work than PSA. "Jim Flynn, senior vice president of 3D/I who has worked with PSA since the early days, says the firm is an excellent partner to work with. "We started out working together on Orange County public schools," Flynn says, "then Palm Beach schools, then Newark schools in Essex County, N.J. We got to know them really well, and (Patrick) has been a very good associate, a very good partner -- and now he's my boss on a program management project." What sets PSA apart, he says, is the firm's focus on a job well done -- not the money it will make on a project. "They share our philosophy," Flynn says, "and not all small subcontracting firms do. They believe that profit is the result of good work, so they go into projects to do good work, not simply to make money. And it's the quality of their work rather than a desire to make money that makes them such a good partner." Source Orlando Business Journal. Copyrights ©2002, all rights reserved. |
|||
| SITEMAP | |||||||||||
| HOME | ABOUT PSA | PROJECTS | SERVICES | STAFF | CONTACT | ||||||
| Careers | History | Education | Construction Management | Patrick Aliu | Offices | ||||||
| References | PSA Scholarship | Infrastructure | Program Management | Chris Hassall | |||||||
| MBE Certifications | Scholarship | Special Projects | Other Services | Guy Meyers | |||||||
| Florida Department of Transportation | California Department of Transportation | Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority | Louis Amstrong New Orleans International Airport | |||||||||||
| ©2009 PSA Constructors, Inc.. All Rights Reserved | Terms of use | Privacy Policy | |||||||||||
