TRI-Construction, Inc.

10/28/2024

Northside Determination: Powering Black Businesses
Hear from thriving Black business owners Calvin Littlejohn, CEO, Tri-Construction and Nubiah Taylor, Founder & CEO Taylor'd Skin and learn our unique approach to support their growth.

On Zoom - Thursday, November 14th 3:30 pm - 4:15 pm or Wednesday, November 20th 8:30 am - 9:15 am.

SEE FLYER
FOR RSVP BY NOVEMBER 12, 2024
EMAIL [email protected]

10/11/2024

Meet the design and construction teams, learn about bidding processes, and discuss civil rights goals. Don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of something big!

01/26/2024

Minneapolis shines a light on partners creating new opportunities with City support
Jan. 24, 2024
Signs of recovery can be seen all around the City of Minneapolis. A new video series, Stories of Recovery, highlights some of the incredible rebuilding efforts happening in the city and the people behind the work. These profiles are a testament to the enduring commitment of community members creating a more equitable and inclusive Minneapolis.
In the wake of the significant challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic events following George Floyd’s murder, these narratives showcase a variety of developments that are fostering a more prosperous city for all Minneapolis residents, business owners, and stakeholders.
In north Minneapolis, watch how the City supported the dream of two men, Calvin Littlejohn and Lester Royal, in renovating a building that is creating more opportunity for community members in that area.

Lester Royal and Calvin Littlejohn, Tri-Construction, 927 West Broadway Ave. N.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCG_YD9zodE

08/14/2023

TRI-Construction, Inc. partnered with Mn Trades Academy at Central High School St. Paul.

Tri Representatives: Joe Madsen, Alba Perez, Jorge Cisneros, Nathan McAbee & Troy Sinykin

Tri-Construction brought materials for 24 High School students to build a metal stud wall and sheath it by following a printed blueprint.

Students in groups of 5 were successful in using battery operated hand tools to construct and stand their wall. All students participated in each phase of the process.

Lessons learned
• Plan reading
• Layout
• Metal stud assembly
• Sheathing application
• Disassembly
• Cleanup

All students were excited for the opportunity and proud of their completed walls!

07/07/2023

Black Business Week - July 24th - July 30th

Minneapolis Black Business Week 2023 will be focusing on building generational wealth. Explore resources for business owners and entrepreneurs. www.Minneapolismn.gov/blackbusiness

01/12/2023

V3 Sports is partnered with TRI-Construction, a Black owned and local construction company headquartered in North Minneapolis, to build the V3 Center.

V3 was honored to sit down with Calvin Littlejohn, CEO and Founder of TRI-Construction, to better understand his vision and heart for North Minneapolis and why this partnership to create the V3 Center means so much to him, and the importance of understanding the system to ensure Black companies and workers are in the field.

Calvin Littlejohn Interview

Crews recently broke ground on Phase One of the V3 Center; this is the beginning of something very big for TRI-Construction’s CEO and Founder Calvin Littlejohn. This project literally hits home for him and we’re proud to partner with Calvin and his team on a world class facility built for the community, and just as importantly, built by the community.

V3 Center is the project Calvin Littlejohn has been waiting for… for a long time.

Sure, Calvin Littlejohn is running a business. But he is unapologetic, as he should be, about employing, empowering and growing the number of BIPOC and women employees in the local construction trades. Littlejohn’s colleagues and contractors aren’t just building buildings; they’re building communities. And it’s not just happening brick by brick, it’s happening person by person.

“I think as a business owner in North Minneapolis, and as a resident in North Minneapolis, I want North Minneapolis to be a destination place, not a ‘drive through’ place. People are trying to go from one place to the other and just make it through North Minneapolis. No, I want to change that. We must change that! This is a wonderful community and I think the more opportunities, the more amenities, the more business we bring in, the more restaurants you will see… our community starts to change,” he explains.

Littlejohn is the CEO and one of the founders of TRI-Construction. For more than 20 years he has been strategic and intentional as he studies and analyzes his industry to open doors for people of all colors. His passion for his community landed him smack dab in the middle of the V3 Center project. Littlejohn will be the man coordinating the crews who will build this community centerpiece from the ground up.

“Who else is there over in North? For us, it was about how do we be there from the very beginning, understanding the project, helping price the project, making sure from a community standpoint we are getting diverse contractors involved. A lot of it is me picking up the phone and calling in and touching base and making sure that people have the information they need.”

If you think it sounds like a challenging, 24/7 type of job, you’re absolutely right. For one, finding the right Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) contractors, with diverse employee bases, isn’t as easy as picking up that phone and asking folks to come on over to Lyndale and Plymouth Avenues with hammers and tape measures. “Secondly, understanding the capacity of the minority subcontracting community (is key). This project is meant to be a wonderful opportunity for companies to grow and to expand their capacity.”

TRI-Construction, and other BIPOC-owned business, often work to secure contracts on projects where hiring workers of color is a priority. But sometimes reaching those initial goals turns into an impossibility. Smaller contractors have struggled trying to compete with the prices that larger contractors offer. The big fish get the supplies at cheaper rates, allowing them to offer the necessary services cheaper. It’s not an easy business cycle for BIPOC-owned contractors to break.

“Now, if I take a step back and I look at the African American experience, our businesses are very small, right? So, what we’re proposing is your community is only as strong as its business sector. In order to get more Blacks or minorities into the construction trade, we’ve got to bolster businesses. And if we can raise up our Black businesses from a construction lens, you will see a direct hire, direct correlation, a direct relationship, because Black businesses know the Black people that we will hire. They’re individuals from our community, so we will see those numbers rise.”

A September, 2020 Star Tribune article titled “Minority-owned firms seek leading role in reconstruction of Twin Cities”, which featured Calvin and his company prominently, noted a study finding “that just 2.8% of state procurement dollars in the construction field went to minority-owned businesses – and just .02% to Black-owned firms – a far lower rate than the study’s projection based on availability.”

Calvin Littlejohn, alongside V3, will offer a groundbreaking opportunity for hundreds of skilled tradesmen and women of color who will build a beacon of hope and opportunity for the entire northside.

“I think ownership in one’s community is the fundamental foundation of pride, right? When you own part of it, have stake in it, it’s yours. You care about it, you’re vested, you’re protected and you’ll be proud of it. That’s what’s been missing. We’ve had broken promises. People come and talk about developments that don’t happen. They either aren’t built, or they’re built by others. I think that’s what’s so wonderful about V3 is the intent. In North Minneapolis there is a direct, unapologetic conversation about how do we hire more black businesses, how do we make sure there are more African American (men and women) working on this project? I love that direct call to action,” Littlejohn said.

It is almost impossible to put into words the passion that TRI-Construction’s owner has for his community, and for those who struggle to find their niche in an industry that has, for so many years and so many reasons, made it difficult for people of color to breakthrough. But because of people like Calvin Littlejohn, progress is being made. And because of projects like the V3 Center, communities are being built brick by brick AND person by person.

For Calvin Littlejohn, building two world class pools so V3 can offer lifesaving swimming lessons in the heart of North Minneapolis is a personal journey.

“It’s a shame for me to say that I’m a black man who doesn’t know how to swim. This (V3 Center) is needed. Because I didn’t grow up learning how to swim, or knowing how to swim, we’re making sure our kids don’t repeat that. How much are we in the African-American community and minority communities missing out on? So, when this place is open, I can get in and enjoy it! But more importantly, I can start having fun with my family. When people start enjoying water activities, I won’t be the one standing on the sideline anymore,” he concluded.

Check out the video below for the full interview with Calvin Littlejohn.

09/29/2022

Historic Building nears Opening in North Minneapolis

03/09/2022

Construction Project Management student and TRI-Construction colleague making headlines. Our very own Alba!

"You don't know how far you can get until you try it – the sky is the limit," Alba Perez, Construction Project Management student and Women in Technical Careers scholarship recipient said. "I came to Dunwoody after not being in school for over 24 years, from being a medical Interpreter for 15 years, looking for a new career that I have learned to love. It has been a challenge, but I am glad I made the choice and Dunwoody has been a great school."

Most jobs requiring a technical degree have traditionally not been held by women. Dunwoody aims to change that. Our mission is to empower women and to eliminate the barriers to successful careers in the tech industry.

The WITC scholarship program, which offers scholarship dollars of up to $10,000/year for two years, a childcare stipend of $1,500/year as well as mentorship and one-on-one advising is currently accepting applications for the fall semester. For more information: https://dunwoody.edu/admission-aid/scholarships/women-in-technical-careers-witc

03/08/2022

Civil engineer Zae Sellers pivots from point guard to project manager

Zae Sellers is a civil engineer with Mortenson Construction. Photo by David Pierini

By David Pierini, Editor
Point guard is the most difficult position to play in basketball, but Hazae’lee Sellers dribbled with aplomb, called all the plays and popped crisp passes throughout a distinguished high school and college career.

The lifelong Northsider no longer drives the lanes, but does run the point on West Broadway Avenue as a civil engineer and project manager helping to oversee the rebuild of businesses damaged during the civil unrest that followed the police murder of George Floyd.

Sellers, who goes by Zae, is 23 and works for one of the nation’s largest construction and engineering companies, Mortenson Construction.

Sellers said she grew up around construction sites, doing clean-up for her father and uncle who were in the business. Yet construction or engineering was not an obvious choice for her, she said.

“I was a laborer and I was cleaning up jobs as my relatives did stuff, but I wouldn’t say construction was the thing,” Sellers said. “When I went to college, my goal was to get a degree in psychology and be a therapist and that just changed.”

“I never thought I would be doing this full-time. It has just been a blessing. I’ve been letting God guide me through it all.”

Sellers played basketball at DeLaSalle High School and was a sophomore when her team won a state title. She earned a scholarship to play basketball at North Dakota State College of Science. After earning an associates degree, she made a brief stop at Ohio Valley University before landing at George Brown College in Toronto, Ontario.

At Ohio Valley, she began to think about engineering after she met a water resource engineer. This got her interested in how to ensure communities have access to clean water. She transferred to George Brown and discovered the school did not have a psychology degree program. It did however offer civil engineering, which she pursued at the encouragement of her family.

Sellers was an intern at TRI-Construction in North Minneapolis at the time of George Floyd’s murder and became part of a team that is now called Twin Cities Rebuild Communities (TCRC), a coalition of groups helping small businesses on West Broadway Avenue, Lake Street and Midway in St. Paul that were damaged in the unrest that followed.

Mortenson Construction, familiar with her work on the Twin Cities Rebuild team hired her in November to be a project manager for TCRC. She is a project manager for rebuilds on both West Broadway Avenue and Lake Street.

“Though young in the industry in terms of experience, Zae has shown that she is a leader,” her supervisor, Matthew Helleen, said. “Zae’s input has been consistently sought out by project leaders on all types of issues, small and large.”

Sellers sings in the youth choir Known and remains close to the court as the junior varsity basketball coach at Edison High School.

Her journey to a career in engineering and how her first job allows her to participate in a historic rebuild made for interesting conversation. The story in her own words follows and is lightly edited for brevity.

How the skills of a point guard translate to project manager: Oh my goodness, teamwork and being vocal, being able to vocalize instruction. I even like scheduling because of how collaborative it is. It’s just like a basketball team, everybody has their roles, their strengths and weaknesses.

I enjoy helping people maximize their strengths. You have to have patience with people. On a basketball team, not everyone likes to be spoken to the same way. Some react well to the yelling because they like that fire and others just shut down. From that you learn how to speak to people and how to resolve issues in a calm and cool way.

The pivot from psychology to engineering:

I finished my associates degree in three semesters in North Dakota and so I was thinking about what should I do. So I’m like, ‘OK, I’m gonna keep on with psychology, I’m going to get my PhD and be a psychiatrist.’

But I didn’t want to go to medical school and I started to think about what my family does. They were always talking about construction. I didn’t necessarily want to do that, but I could do other things. My god mom was talking to me about STEM and how those careers are financially stable. OK, some type of engineering. I know women in engineering, especially minority women in engineering, are rare. I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll try some type of engineer.” Chemical wasn’t my thing and I didn’t think I’d like mechanical.

In Canada, I had a coach, he was the bomb and he said Brown (College) had civil engineering. I said, ‘Well, God got me this far,’ and that’s how I got into civil.

Civil engineering is the design of bridges, tunnels, roads and even waterways. I originally went into engineering to become a water resource engineer. So that's the path, it’s just going to come later down the line. Water is something everybody needs. We all need clean water and the quality of the water we put in our bodies impacts our mental health and overall health.

“Though young in the industry in terms of experience, Zae has shown that she is a leader. Zae’s input has been consistently sought out by project leaders on all types of issues, small and large.”
— MATTHEW HELLEEN, MORTENSON CONSTRUCTION

Being a woman in a male-dominated field:

You have to be confident and ask questions. Men have as many questions as I do. A lot of times, though, we do know the answer but a lack of confidence is what holds us back. Be courageous and be able to break the barriers for the person coming after you.

The confidence comes from... It comes from sports, it comes from family and it comes from God. This journey has been a blessed journey and it wouldn’t have happened without God. There are people that grab a hold of you and bring you onboard like Cavonte Johnson (a community construction manager at Mortensen who recruited her). God put him in my life for a reason. (TRI-Construction founders) Calvin (Littlejohn) and Lester (Royal) and even the

guys at Mortensen. God put them in my life for a reason. The confidence came just from life.

But yeah, I was a point guard and I knew how to lead a little. Playing point guard is definitely project management.”

Helping rebuild the place she calls home:

I feel like an active participant and it’s just so awesome. I live here, I live near these buildings and so it feels really nice to help make change. So it’s been a true blessing for sure. This is not just construction. This is a team truly rebuilding a community.

Something her mother told her:

Pray and do things right. I remember this very distinctly. I was younger and I rushed through some homework to play outside. The handwriting was sloppy and so my mommy erased the whole thing and said, ‘Do it right or don’t do it at all!’ So that’s something I’ve been trying to walk, to do things correctly. She didn’t want me to just slide. Don’t do something just to move on, do things with quality, do it the right way.

March 3, 2022
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