McCarthy joint venture wins $712M NGA West contract

100% union-built project to create hundreds of union jobs

By SHERI GASSAWAY
Correspondent

Great news for the St. Louis Labor Movement: the new western headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) will be built 100-percent union, creating hundreds of union jobs.

The Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced last week that Rock Hill-based McCarthy Building Companies and HITT Contracting have been awarded the $711.7 contract to build the new NGA West headquarter, just north of downtown. HITT is located in West Falls Church, Va.

“McCarthy is a 100-percent union contractor and HITT is as well,” said John Stiffler, executive secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building & Construction Trades Council. “This project will be built 100-percent union under the National Construction Agreement, creating hundreds and hundreds of local jobs, and we’re super happy about that.”

Stiffler said the North American Building Trades Unions’ agreement is in essence in a Project Labor Agreement, ensuring that work on the federal project is all union.

LARGEST FEDERAL INVESTMENT IN ST. LOUIS HISTORY
The NGA project, which will be built at a 97-acre site in the St. Louis Place neighborhood at the intersection of Jefferson and Cass avenues., is the largest federal investment in St. Louis history.

The project, jointly managed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Air Force, includes a 712,000-square-foot office building, parking garages, visitor center, remote inspection facility and access control points.

A spokeswoman with the Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said she expects ground to be broken and work to begin later this year. It is estimated to be completed by April 2023.

The NGA handles computer mapping support for defense agencies. The agency needs a new facility to replace its current location in south St. Louis, where it employs about 3,100 well-paid workers.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the McCarthy-HITT team won the bid against two other finalists:

• Clark Construction Group, based in the Washington area, and JE Dunn Construction, based in Kansas City;
• Overland-based Alberici Constructors and Minneapolis-based Mortenson.