May, 2012 to June, 2012
Approach: The AATA was interested in developing a DBE initiative for their upcoming Blake Transit Center construction project. This $7.8 million project was located in the heart of the city of Ann Arbor, a liberal minded diverse community. The administration of the AATA wanted to institute an aggressive DBE initiative that would seek to provide a diverse workforce to construct the Blake. Metro Strategies was called because of their history of creating cutting edge programs that were inclusive and served to level the playing field for minority contractors. Metro Strategies developed a Reverse Trade Fair to ensure that DBE had a fair shot at competing on this project. The Reverse Trade Fair is unique in that the DBE’s manned the tables at the fair and those who were interested in bidding as a prime contractor on the project had to visit each DBE-manned table as part of their good faith efforts approach to the bid process.
Outcome: The AATA enjoyed the largest turnout of DBE’s interested in bidding on any AATA-sponsored project in their history. Additionally, one DBE contractor received a contract award to prime one aspect of the entire project.