Leroy and Janice Cumberbatch are no strangers to hard work.  The husband and wife team own and operate International Construction and Development (ICD), a local MBE general contracting firm hired to work on the interior construction of Madison Park Village III.

Leroy Cumberbatch began working in carpentry as a  high school student in his native country of Barbados.  After moving to the United States in 1988 and becoming an electrical tradesman, he launched ICD as a general contractor in 1994.  Janice manages the bookkeeping and cashflow for ICD, and as Leroy proudly boasts, "Janice helps out a lot, and often is even willing to strap a toolbelt on and work alongside me to get the job done."

The interior construction of Madison Park Village III is ICD's largest project to date, and one that Leroy is hopeful will lead to more substantial opportunities for his minority-owned business.  MPDC has also hired ICD on past jobs, including Dudley Greenville apartments, and plans to work with the firm again on future projects.

Keeping the business in the family is important to Leroy and Janice who are optimistic that their daughter will assume more responsiblity at ICD once she completes her degree in computer engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology.

It has been a pleasure working with ICD, and we wish them an abundance of success in the future.

Click here to learn more about our commitment to hiring minority-owned and women-owned businesses.

Photo by Madison Park Development Corporation

Scheduling 32 candidates to show up in Roxbury is no small feat!  Kudos to the Roxvote Coalition and our Community Action team for organizing a successful Cookout with Candidates event last month.

More than 400 attended the event.  Candidates contending for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, sherrif, state senate, and state representative all came out to meet and greet the residents of Roxbury and make pitches to gain their votes.

The Baystate Banner covered the event.  Click here to read more.

"What a wonderful day...bringing families together," Genesa Patten-Mendes, Winn Residential's Senior Property Manager, exclaimed as she greeted families who toured the Dudley Greenville property earlier this month.  
 
MPDC employees and Landmark Construction representatives escorted 12 families on a "first look hard hat" tour of their new units at Dudley Greenville, our newest 43-unit development in Dudley Square.  With assistance from the Boston Housing Authority, staff at Winn Residential processed over 940 applications.  The first group of residents were selected through a lottery process and have committed to occupying the units upon completion.
 
"One tenant was so excited that she started jumping for joy," one onlooker observed as the families toured each unit that would soon be their own new home.  Russell Tanner, MPDC's Director of Real Estate, was on-hand to answer questions ranging from the date of occupany to interior paint colors.  
 
The apartments will be mixed income with nine units available for rent to tenants at or below 30% of the average median income; and 35 units available for rent between 50-60% of the average median income.
 
Dudley Greenville is slated to open in late Spring 2014.

A special thanks to Katrina Conrad-Gwyn for help in planning and implementing this event.