An Atlanta company billed as the nation’s fourth-largest minority-owned business is among a group awarded $7 million in contracts related to the 2011 Democratic National Convention.

Herman J. Russell

H.J. Russell and Company, which helped build the Georgia Dome, Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Stadium and the Harvey B. Gantt Center, will join two other builders as construction manager in the overhaul of Time Warner Cable Arena. The two others are Charlotte-based Rodgers Builders and Hunt Construction Group of Arizona.

The companies will oversee the temporary conversion of the arena into a convention hall. They'll have seven weeks to get the arena ready once construction starts July 14.

When it's over, they'll have three weeks to restore it to its current state.

Charlotte-based Neighboring Concepts is partnering with Populous, a global design firm, as the "event architect." They'll focus on mechanical and other modifications.

And McFarland Corbitt of Charlotte is partnering with Maryland-based Hargrove as the "exposition and event services provider."

Steve Kerrigan, CEO of the Democratic National Convention Committee, said the firms were chosen for the work “represent the best of the Carolinas and the diversity of America.”

H.J. Russell is said to be the nation’s largest minority-owned construction company.

The company was started more than 50 years ago by Herman Russell, who entered the construction business at age 16 when he bought a vacant lot in Atlanta and built his first property. Today Russell serves as chairman. On in 2004, Russell passed on leadership to his children. His son, Michael, serves as CEO.

Kerrigan said the bidders were chosen, in part, on the participation of minorities and women as well as union workers. However, he declined to give the expected percentage of work that will go to organized labor.

Mayor Anthony Foxx said the contacts will create "hundreds of paying jobs right here in Charlotte."

“We are another step closer to next September, when we will get to show the rest of the country, and the world, what Charlotte, our state and our larger region, can do,” he said in a statement. “Today, we see tangible evidence that our efforts to involve local businesses in the Convention are bearing fruit.”
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Editor's Note: The Charlotte Observer contributed to this report.

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