Growing up, Fahteema Parrish watched her parents run an HVAC company and tagged along behind her brother with a mower and gas can, in a sometimes successful effort to cut neighbors’ grass.
“There was a lady who was like, ‘I’ll pay you $10, but you let the boys do it,” said Parrish, now president and founder of Parrish & Sons Construction Co. The 100% minority- and woman-owned business was named as a 2021 Top 10 Small Business by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
Coming from more than 20 years in information technology management, Parrish’s path into excavation contracting was far from intuitive.
She outlined a number of learning curves, including compiling bid packages and preconstruction checklists, and outright hardships, such as getting overcharged on bond premiums and facing higher insurance costs.
“You’re getting higher premiums because you’re new or they just consider you at risk for whatever the reason: You’re a woman; you’re a minority; you just have less than this many years of experience,” she said.
Getting certified as a minority business enterprise (MBE) in 2017 also was a long, drawn-out process, but Parrish mused, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
She started out small, with neighborhood driveway replacements and an extension of the Santa Fe Trail — her first public project for Kansas City’s Parks & Recreation Department.
Parrish’s company now is among more than 120 minority and women business enterprises (WBEs) working on Kansas City International Airport’s $1.5 billion new terminal. Parrish & Sons Construction won a bid to demolish 778,195 square feet of asphalt and concrete — along KCI's International and Bonn circle roads, and in police parking and taxiway lots — after Parrish and her husband, Clark, attended classes of the KC Strategic Partnership Program.
The terminal’s Clark | Weitz | Clarkson construction joint venture team to date has graduated four classes of minority, women’s and disadvantaged business enterprises through the program, helping 102 participants learn about everything from financial statements to estimating.
Twenty-one of those firms have gone on to win terminal project work, with a total value topping $80 million, said Dan Moylan, a senior development manager with terminal developer Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate LLC.
“We were very fortunate to have the level of participation on this project by the small companies that I believe has a significant impact on the reason we are still on budget and on schedule,” said Moylan, adding that Edgemoor is recruiting for a fifth class to start in the spring.
The Minority Contractors Association of Greater Kansas City counts many of its members among the new terminal’s workforce, Executive Director Joe Mabin said.
The Minority Contractors Association aims to maximize public-sector contracting opportunities for MBEs and WBEs so they can more easily penetrate the larger private construction market. The group circulates invitations to bid among more than 300 members and refers them to other area groups that offer business development training.
Mabin said he thinks Kansas City has one of the nation’s stronger inclusion programs for MBEs and WBEs. In recent years, he has observed an uptick in college-educated entrepreneurs picking up experience at big construction firms before leaving to build their own.
“That’s a lot different from years ago, when plumbers and electricians ... would start their own company from working in the field,” Mabin said.
But Mabin said Kansas City’s efforts can improve.
“I think it’s time now to take a look at the things we can do ... that really make it easier for minority and woman contractors to get certified and grow,” he said.
Parrish underscored the importance of genuine relationships among MBEs, WBEs and other industry players.
“When you’re dealing with the larger general contractors, you appreciate the relationships (with) individuals that don’t think that they’re creating their competition — you’re creating a partner,” she said. “The pie is big enough for everyone to have a piece.”
