Founded in 1968, Liberty Mechanical says it is known as a leading mechanical contractor in the New York metro area.

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Bronx, N.Y.-based Liberty Mechanical Contractors has come a long way since it was founded in 1968. Succeeding in one of the most competitive markets in the country, Liberty is now one of the “stellar” mechanical contractors in the New York Metro area, the company says.  Its ability to deliver quality projects on time and on budget has enabled it to outperform the competition.

Liberty Mechanical was created by lifelong friends Michael Contillo and Joseph Deglomini. From its early days as a renovator of Section 8 housing, the company has flourished under their leadership. The Section 8 program was a federally funded program aimed at the rehabilitation of inner-city housing.

Popular in the early ’80s, the gutting and refurbishing of severely deteriorated buildings came with its own set of problems, and many contractors were not interested in pursuing this area of work.

Undertaking major renovation projects such as transitional housing and Harlem Renovation, the company played a major role in the revitalization of the South Bronx and the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This was Liberty’s first opportunity to grow.

These projects were followed by the development of Roosevelt Island. Situated in the middle of the East River, Roosevelt Island – once an undeveloped island minutes by tram from the heart of Manhattan – is now a thriving home to tens of thousands.

From very humble beginnings, the company now employs close to 400 people, many with 20 or more years of service.

Another key to its success is that it has surrounded itself with high-level, quality personnel, which affords the company the luxury of not having to micromanage projects.

Each department head or project foreman has complete autonomy and authority in the managing of his or her aspect of the operation or project.

A Family Unit
Family is word heard throughout Liberty. Even as the company continues to grow, the feeling among employees is one of family, Liberty Mechanical says.

Employees know that their views and opinions matter. This is reinforced by the owners’ weekly visits to each job site. Employees know that if they have a problem, the management is there for them.

The company provides its in-house employees with quality medical coverage at no cost to the employee or their family. Flex-time and emergency medical leave were common practices at Liberty long before they were in vogue, and every effort is made to work with the employee through their crisis.

From the top down, the emphasis at Liberty is to provide its work force in the field with the support needed to perform with minimal interruption.

“Streamlining each administrative task is the key to our success,” says Michael Contillo, managing member of Liberty.  

Uninterrupted Workflow
At the core of Liberty’s organization is its drafting and engineering department. Its ability to evaluate architectural plans, and identify potential problems and possible improvements provide Liberty with a clear competitive advantage.

Led by Chief Engineer Werner Debis, who has more than 40 years of experience, the Liberty team is able to work with the owner and engineers to resolve problems long before they impact the project.

Liberty’s unique ability enables it to provide design/build solutions to developers. Many times due to time constraints, owner/developers need to fast-track a project.

This leaves little or no time to develop engineered design documents.

Liberty has taken rough architectural design documents and, without engineer’s involvement, developed a complete working set of installation blueprints, combining both design and coordination in the same time frame.

These finalized documents are then turned over to the engineer of record for review and for filing with the building department.

The company’s ability to spearhead the coordination process allows for uninterrupted workflow. The company’s knowledge of all facets of mechanical contracting enables it to review the project plans and specifications and offer the owner alternative design options.

In addition to ensuring the timely completion of the project, Liberty’s proactive approach significantly reduces the number of change orders on a project, which saves the owners both time and money.

Over time, Liberty has learned to anticipate job flow. This allows the company to receive the direct delivery of materials to the project as soon as a hoist is available. By having materials reach upper floors early on, it allows the company’s work force to have an uninterrupted workflow while reducing the cost of material handling.

Communication Matters
Communication is a key to saving money, according to Liberty. A problem identified at one site is immediately conveyed to all sites. This has two immediate benefits. It provides a pool of skilled individuals to resolve the issue, and, it alerts Liberty’s foremen to potential problems.

In a recent situation, it was discovered that pumps specified for a project were not in compliance with city code. By notifying other project sites of the problem, it was discovered that a project just commencing also called for the use of the same equipment. This finding provided the design team ample time to respond without impacting the project.

In addition, the back office staff at Liberty takes pride in efficiency and its overall contribution to the corporate objective.

Consisting of only four employees, they work as a team to ensure that management reports are timely, vendors are paid promptly and that internal paperwork doesn't negatively impact the work in the field, Liberty says. 

While not a traditional profit center, the team takes pleasure in keeping overhead to a minimum. Their ability to manage cash flows allows for the taking of steep cash discounts. By monitoring insurance claims and the company’s self fund of nominal worker compensation claims, it is able to obtain significant rate reductions and performance discounts.  

Human resources – while handling payroll, union reports, minority utilization reports and worker’s compensation claims – is also very attuned to the needs of Liberty’s employees.

The goal of the firm is to make sure every employee’s concern is addressed in a timely manner.

If any employee feels that concerns are not being handled, it can negatively impact an entire project.

Full Support System
Working with the major supply houses in the city is an important role of Liberty’s back office. Vendors know that when they are in a bind they can count on the company. In turn, having a strong working relationship with its suppliers guarantees that should a problem arise in the field, it will be attended to immediately.

Good vendor relations also result in timely and complete deliveries to the job site. This translates into lower material handling cost and an improved workflow. It also ensures that Liberty is able to achieve meaningful discounts on material purchases.

Technology is another reason for Liberty’s success. Whether it’s drafting, estimating, purchasing or accounting, the company is always looking to automation to improve productivity while increasing the quality of the information provided.

While many of its competitors are just starting to draft electronically, Liberty is aggressively moving to 3-D drawing.

While paper and document storage and retrieval can overwhelm a back office, the company is moving toward a paperless workplace.  

At the crossroads of the office is its in-house counsel, Dorothy Pfau. Having been with the company since its early days, she has her are on all aspects of the company. In an organization whose primary focus is to streamline operations and support the field staff, she makes sure that all parts of the operation work together. She ensures that all information is disseminated timely and accurately.

Working with Clients
Liberty is very selective in the projects it accepts, limiting its work to the five boroughs of New York City. Undertaking seven to nine projects a year, the company is able to work with the premier owners and general contractors in New York City.

These include the Brodsky Organization, Glenwood Realty, Silverstein Properties, Gotham Construction, The Related Cos., Turner Construction, Bovis Lend Lease, Plaza Construction and Milstein Properties.

The scope of Liberty’s work includes high-rise apartments, hotels, sewage treatment plants and hospitals.

Liberty has also established itself as the leading mechanical contractor in the city in the design and installation of green buildings.

Recently, the company completed a major project for Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital, which is considered one of the finest cancer research centers in the world.

Liberty also played a major role in the installation and design of the plumbing work at Montefiore Children’s Hospital, a state-of-the-art facility located in the Bronx.

Working together with The Albanese Organization, Liberty Mechanical completed three environmentally friendly apartment complexes in the Battery Park section of Manhattan. These projects, which exceeded $30 million of plumbing work, are part of the revitalization of the World Trade Center area.

The Solaire was the first residential tower to receive LEED status in the country.

The Verdesian at Site 18B received Platinum status. The Visionaire was also certified as a Platinum building.

According to Estella Lara, Liberty’s chief estimator, “These projects were all unique and it gave the company a sense of pride to be involved in making the city a healthier place to live while reducing energy costs.”

Keeping an Open Mind
Liberty welcomes a challenge, it says. Each environmentally friendly building comes with its own special issues. For example, a building seeking a Platinum certification has its own internal sewage treatment plant. This requires the installation of unique pumps, tanks and associated equipment that are often unfamiliar to a traditional plumbing contractor.

To ensure these installations proceed smoothly, Liberty makes sure that all key field personnel are trained in the installation and use of the specialty equipment.

“It’s a little bit more intricate and complicated than our other projects,” Lara explains.  “But we love it because it is unique. We have excellent field people who can handle this challenging installation.”

She adds that the company works closely with Applied Water Management Group, one of only two companies that manufacture green equipment.

“They specialize in green systems and we work closely with them during installation,” she says.

Liberty’s design ability does not end at the drafting room. The seasoned field personnel also contribute to the design effort. The company’s foremen are well-versed in the engineering of their projects.

When major changes occur – and this happens more and more frequently in the ever-changing market place – the company’s foremen are often able to find solutions to very complicated problems on their own.

From reconfiguring a pipe distribution system to eliminating or adding entire apartments without interruption of the project, Liberty is able to offer this specialized service to its clients.

Meeting Project Schedules
With a track record of success that spans 40 years, Liberty has established a reputation for delivering a superior product on time and within budget.

As a result, Liberty always has a substantial amount of work on hand, whether in good or bad economic times.

This constant demand for services has provided the company with the opportunity to develop one of the best work forces in the industry.

As Richard Radliff, the company’s project executive exclaims, “Our workforce is second to none. Each foreman has over 20 years of experience and is capable of handing a project of any scope or size.”

Challenges and construction go hand- in-hand. It is Liberty’s ability to respond quickly that enables the company to succeed where other companies stumble.

The skill of Liberty’s engineering department to deliver drawings to the field on a daily basis ensures that its layout is in place before concrete is poured. Its purchasing department is noted for identifying equipment specified for a project that fails to meet New York City code. “By identifying these problems at the start of the project, we are able to offer an alternative that can be delivered to the project without impacting the production schedule,” the company says. Liberty’s purchasing department also provides another valuable service to owners and contractors.

Rather than automatically accepting the equipment specified for a project, the company looks to find alternative products that may be better than the original, yet less expansive to install and maintain.

Safety First
Safety on the job site is a major concern of Liberty. Each project has its own safety monitor. From day one and throughout the term of a project, safety meetings are held at weekly intervals at the job site. On many of its projects, the company actively participates in the OSHA Partnering Program. While this may add some additional cost to a project, Liberty says it is well worth it.

Having had very few work-related injuries in 40 years, the company has one of the best safety records in the metropolitan area.

Fixing the Bronx
The Bronx is not just Liberty Mechanical’s headquarters – it is the company’s home. For the past 30 years, the company has acquired properties and helped revitalize the Bronx.

Acting as real estate developers, Liberty was one of the first entrepreneurs to build a modern high-rise office building in the borough.

Since that first project, the company has added hundreds of thousands of square feet of distinctive office, medical and retail space to the Bronx. In the process, it has changed the borough’s skyline and improved the quality of life for those who live and work there. As Joseph Deglomini, the other partner of Liberty and the head of real estate development, stated, “Our goal is to restore the glory of the Bronx by giving those [who] live and work here something to be proud of.”

Community service and support of local organizations is all part of the company’s effort to work for the improvement of the borough. The principals strongly encourage employees to be active in neighborhood organizations.  

In addition, the company generously supports local hospitals, neighbor initiatives and religious organizations.

Currently, it is involved in a joint venture creating the first Class-A office park in the borough. The first phase of the Hutchinson Metro Center, a 460,000-square-foot building, was completed three years ago and was fully rented upon opening.

Phase Two, which consists of two 280,000-square-foot office towers, is under construction with Tower One nearing completion.

As the company looks to future, it is keenly aware of its roots. Its reputation of integrity and reliability took years to establish. Liberty Mechanical will continue to provide quality design and installation services in a world of rapid technological change.

As New York City continues to rebuild, Liberty is poised to bring its experience and expertise into play to help accomplish this goal.