Filling in the McKissack & McKissack back story regarding Atlantic Yards

A 3/22/19 mini profile of Cheryl McKissack Daniel, President and CEO, McKissack & McKissack is included among the five 2019 Women of New York Real Estate, published by City & State. An excerpt:

Growing up in a family of architects and engineers, Cheryl McKissack Daniel studied to be an engineer, continuing a family tradition dating back to when her great-great-grandfather first learned the construction trade as a slave. Her grandfather, Moses McKissack III, began the firm she now heads in 1905, making it the oldest minority- and women-owned construction and design firm in the nation. McKissack Daniel is the third generation to lead the family business.
...After years in the industry, McKissack Daniel still looks for ways to expand the business, never afraid to dive headfirst into something new.
“I thought to myself, either we can say we’re not qualified and we can’t do it,” McKissack Daniel says, recalling how staggered she felt when she first received rail plans related to the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, a major contract for her firm. “Or I could go ahead and figure out how to get this done.”

The back story

OK, that's impressive, but let's consider the strategy behind that.

In 2005, as Atlantic Yards plans provoked scorn and support, Forest City Ratner announced it had chosen McKissack & McKissack, the country's oldest black-owned construction firm, to manage the $182 million railyard renovation. As the New York Times reported, "Supporters of the development said the selection of McKissack & McKissack was evidence that the developer was keeping its promise to hire contracting firms owned by minorities and women whenever possible."

At a press conference, Forest City executive Jim Stuckey was asked if McKissack had been chosen via competitive bidding. He claimed not to know.

But if the Community Benefits Agreement aimed to "encourage systemic changes in the traditional ways of doing business on large urban development projects," a sole-source contract to a well-established minority firm hardly signaled change.

But it was useful. Forest City's seventh Atlantic Yards promotional flyer, "Bringing It To Brooklyn," highlighted the CBA. Given the limited accomplishments, the text stressed the long-past hiring of McKissack & McKissack

Later, New York state's former Atlantic Yards overseer Arana Hankin (a black woman) pointed to to the need to ensure partnerships with less-established MWBE (minority- and women-owned business enterprises) contractors, not the “same handful of construction firms... used on every single project.”

As I wrote, McKissack served on the board of Bertha Lewis's organization, The Black Institute, and made campaign contributions, from both sides of the aisle, to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and even Brooklyn Republican state Senator Martin Golden, a champion of Atlantic Yards (who's finally been defeated).

The Greenland connection

As I wrote in February 2018, a Commercial Observer' interview contained a curious passage:

“They are being cautious because they are not from here and they are not used to our regulations,” [Cheryl] McKissack Daniel said. “They probably run their crews 24/7 [in China]. You can’t do that here. It’s an awakening, how we do business here. But we don’t have a problem with them.”

I wasn't sure how much she was speaking rhetorically. However, that line, "It’s an awakening, how we do business here," did echo that September 2016 quote from then-Forest City executive Susi Yu: "China definitely has a different way of working, so I think there’s definitely a little bit of an educational process in learning that in New York you can’t just do everything because you say so."