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Margaret Garner, president of Broadway Consolidated Cos. Inc., a general contracting firm based in Chicago, holds a portfolio worth bragging about—nearly $10 million annually—thanks to her partnership with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. When the retail giant entered Chicago’s 37th ward around 2004 to construct its first store in an urban location, it sought assistance from local minority and women-owned businesses. Garner, whose firm is 8(a) certified, was selected to manage the project, becoming the first African American woman to construct a Walmart store.

It wasn’t an easy undertaking, but when challenges with the project arose, Garner was able to solicit help. “I had direct access to all the levels of decision makers within the construction division so I had immediate conflict resolution,” she says. Wal-Mart’s mentoring enabled Garner to successfully complete the 150,000-square-foot, two-story retail store in September 2005. Since then, she has constructed another Wal-Mart property, Sam’s Club, which she completed in October 2008.



UBR Morning Post: Biz Advice From Margaret Garner

Bonus content on the entrepreneurs and strategies featured on The Urban Business Roundtable

Broadway Consolidated Companies Inc. President Margaret Garner (Photo by Lonnie C. Major)

This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Producer Angelique Westerfield speaks with Margaret Garner, President of Broadway Consolidated Companies Inc., the first black female-owned construction firm to build a Walmart Store. Garner translates her entrepreneurial success into employment opportunities and positive economic impact in the communities where her construction projects are built. Garner was also a speaker at 2020 Vision: The Black Enterprise Economic Forum, where she shared her views on what the Obama Administration needed to do to help advance the growth and profitability of black-owned small businesses. Check the following links to get more of Garner’s insights and to learn more about her path to success.

VIDEO: Garner on What The Obama Administration Can Do For Black-Owned Small Businesses

VIDEO: Garner’s Advice for Entrepreneurs Who Want To Do Business with Walmart

Click here to learn more about how Broadway Consolidated Companies became the first African-American woman-owned construction company to build a WalMart Store.



REPRINT BY KAREEMA ALI OF MARGARET GARNER

Hermene Hartman

President, Hartman Publishing Group, Inc.; President, N'DIGO Foundation

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The business of Margaret Garner, the first Black woman contractor to ever build a Wal-Mart store was recently "revealed" in detail by Crain's Chicago Business.

The story was an attack rather than an investigation. This is often the case as Crain's discusses the business of Black business. The most damaging statement is that they suggest Garner was a front. Garner was the toast of the town as she was showcased by Wal-Mart in 2005 in national print ads and on the banquet circuit and while speaking to the general public about the good corporate citizenship and responsibility of Wal-Mart, as they ventured into urban America for new growth.

They made their case very well, stating there were food deserts and no retail outlets concentrated in African-American communities.

Unions, local politicians, other retailers and even some clergy resisted them. Mayor Richard Daley saw the economic reason for Wal-Mart. He played hardball. He rallied the African-American community for support and pointed to double business/wage standards in the city on the south side versus the suburbs. I admired his courage because he took a political chance with the unions. He made sense and I jumped on board with all fours.

I think bringing Wal-Mart to Chicago was one of the best moves Daley ever made. Wal-Mart came with their problems, but most of all, they came with solutions.

The entry of Wal-Mart represents the first massive rebuild in some of these selected communities since the riots after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death where land has been left vacant, dormant and simply idle with no business activity whatsoever for the past 40 years.

Wal-Mart created a perfect storm.

Margaret Garner brought business people together. She introduced me to the Wal-Mart representatives and I was early on convinced that Wal-Mart made sense for Chicago, particularly the African American community. Wal-Mart advertised in Black newspapers including N'DIGO. They have been supporters of community events, including ones I have produced. I became an advocate for Wal-Mart.

Their slogan, "Save Money. Live Better" could have had one more line: "Bring Jobs."

They brought jobs. They brought stores. They brought contracts. They brought economics and all of what that represents. Wal-Mart is a magnet. I engaged in a public rally for Wal-Mart with high-level meetings to local community citizens. They made sense, and most of all I saw Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, being held to a higher standard than other retailers. The hourly wage was contested. Margaret Garner was under a microscope and she knew it.

She was truly a role model by which the standard would be set. She was establishing the model for urban America and minority businesses. She was a Wal-Mart spokesperson and did an excellent job in hiring local unemployed neighborhood people. She even hired ex-offenders to work as laborers on the building of the West Side Store, in Austin, America's first urban Wal-Mart. The Community Male Empowerment Project Black laborers did 95 percent of the landscaping.

The Black business community watched closely. Many minority business people received Wal-Mart contracts from ad agencies, technology, vendors, professional services, financial services and others.

A Wal-Mart contract is significant. It went beyond Black history month. It went beyond a 15 percent or 20 percent share. Contracts were based on pure performance. I thought Wal-Mart would be a model company for the America of inclusion. A new Chicago was being crafted, and I was excited.

Most of the minority businesses that did business with Wal-Mart lost their contracts after the urban store was built and after the hype, people from Bentonville didn't necessarily get the good old Chicago way. Wal-Mart came and they faded away. They didn't always listen to those on the ground. Six years after the store was up and running successfully, Garner filed bankruptcy. The overruns and the urban environment didn't match the Wal-Mart magic formula.

Did Wal-Mart speak with forked tongue?

Did they not live up to the promise? The Crain's story suggests that the project was too big for Garner's firm.

The Wal-Mart Chicago initiative represents 36 stores with a focus on the south side of Chicago in the communities of Pullman, West Chatham, West Loop, Auburn/Gresham and West Englewood over the next five years.These are African American communities. Is Wal-Mart re-engineering the urban landscape? It means 10,000 jobs and 2,000 unionized construction jobs and will generate more than $500 million in sales and property taxes.

The Garner story is much bigger than her construction contract. She was the envy of many. The Black male contractors tried to figure how she was awarded the contract. The White contractors see the gold and will surely try to buy the black contractors and pose them as fronts. There is a lot of building in 36 stores.

The larger question is, how will Wal-Mart really do business in Chicago? Will Garner build other stores? What is the Wal-Mart business model for urban America? Will it represent advertising, professional services, technology, merchandising, and the like?

The Margaret Garner story is not the end. It really is the beginning.

How will Wal-Mart measure?

Margaret D. Garner

Owner of Broadway Consolidated Companies Inc. (BCCI), Garner pledges not just to build buildings, but to build a better quality of life for the people affected by her work. Garner began her career in Pittsburgh, working for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

She was recruited by the assistant secretary of HUD for an internship in Washington, D.C., and joined the HUD team with the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). Founded in 1999, BCCI has grossed nearly $50 million. Garner contracted with the University of Chicago to build Corner Children’s Hospital and partnered with that university and the community to provide jobs for local residents. In 2004, Garner became the president of the Federation of Women Contractors.

In February 2005, BCCI was the first woman-owned general contracting company awarded a construction contract for the first Wal-Mart store in a major urban city. Garner’s honors include appointment to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and the Black Contractors United Mentor/Protégé 2002 Award for outstanding achievements in developing sustained support systems for African American contractors. In 2003, Garner received the Minority Small Business Person of the Year Award in recognition of outstanding business and community leadership.

Garner earned a bachelor’s degree in business and economics at Pitt.