Shawmut is pleased to announce the expansion of its offerings and portfolio in the West region with the key executive hire of Daniel Dumke and marquee projects in new strategic market sectors.
Dumke joins Shawmut as senior director in the West region, positioning the firm to aggressively expand market share in Los Angeles and Orange County. Dumke brings 40 years of industry experience to his role and will leverage his extensive portfolio of major, complex projects throughout California to drive the firm’s market share of increasingly larger projects across sectors. With previous roles as vice president, general manager, and California district lead at other major construction firms, he is fluent in preconstruction, design-build, and ground-up construction operations, bringing experienced best practices to the role. Dumke is an active member of the Associated General Contractors of California, having served on the Orange County and Los Angeles Board of Directors, and is currently a member of the State Construction Education Foundation Board.
“As we grow our average project size and break into new sectors, we need a very specific skillset including executional excellence, strong leadership, and business acumen,” said Greg Skalaski, executive vice president of Shawmut’s West region. “Dan’s portfolio of major projects for the top higher education institutions and advanced technology facilities, coupled with his experience leading divisions and operations, made him a natural fit for this role.”
Dumke’s appointment comes on the heels of continued market expansion across diverse sectors for Shawmut in Los Angeles and beyond, focused particularly on growing its education, ground-up commercial, and life sciences sectors. From 2021 to 2022, Shawmut’s West region revenue is slated to grow 104% for education, 94% for commercial, and 46% for life sciences.
Rooted in education work, Shawmut is ranked a top 10 national builder for universities, with experience in public-private partnership projects. Leveraging this expertise, including the insights of executive vice president of education Ron Simoneau, the West region has broken into the Southern California market and is underway on its first academic project. At UCLA, the team is renovating the historic Crest Theatre into The Nimoy, restoring the iconic theater to its original role as a live performance and cinematic arts venue. The project will convert the 440-seat movie house into a 299-seat live production theater, including an expanded lobby, new seating and theatrical production systems, and backstage green room.
As it expands its ground-up commercial project portfolio, one of the West region’s key projects is 843 N Spring Street—what will be one of the largest cross-laminated timber (CLT) office buildings in Los Angeles. The 75-foot tall hybrid timber structure will add new creative office space and retail opportunities, featuring a tiered vertical garden courtyard.
With a laser focus on the booming life sciences sector, Shawmut is underway on its first project in the West—repurposing a warehouse and office building to create 50,000 square feet of lab space. Ranked a top 20 laboratory facility contractor nationwide with extensive work in the U.S.’ life science hub of Boston, the West region has nation-leading resources that set teams up for success.
Dumke’s hire is the latest in Shawmut’s focus to build out its deep bench of talent in the West. His addition supports the strategic emphasis on preconstruction services, joining chief estimator Michelle Rabinovich, who brings 17 years of industry experience with specific expertise in ground-up commercial preconstruction. Shawmut’s ramp up of experts is especially crucial as supply chain issues and escalation continue to be a challenge. The upfront collaboration of preconstruction, coupled with the firm’s construction management best practices, allow Shawmut to mitigate these issues as much as possible and deliver for clients.