Kris Amplo (left) on site at 441 9th Ave. with J.C. Steel’s VP of Sales Mark Brundage.
Kris Amplo is the President of J.C. Steel Erectors, a very accomplished steel erector in the New York metropolitan area. Projects that J.C. Steel has helped build in recent years include UBS Arena, TSX Broadway, and JFK Airport’s Logistics Center. They are currently involved in JFK’s Terminal One renovation, and soon they will begin New York City’s first soccer stadium next to CitiField in Queens. BTEA President Elizabeth Crowley spoke with Kris about the challenges of navigating New York’s construction market as a union contractor and his role with the Allied Building Metal Industries trade association.
BTEA: Tell us about J.C. Steel Erectors, the history of the firm and your role in the company.
J.C. Steel Erectors was started in 2017. It is the successor to J.C. Steel Corp, which was started back in 1977. The “J” and the “C” in the company name came from the former shareholders who named the company after their two children. Through the ’80s they just did small projects, then in the ’90s they hooked up with some folks over at Home Depot’s building group, and they erected around 45 Home Depots on Long Island. Then that group went over to Stop and Shop, and they started building Stop and Shops.
When I joined the company in 2005 we were about a seven to 10 million dollar company annually and had about 35 employees, but Long Island was drying up in terms of union work, and we are a proud union company. Around 2011, we were not in great financial straits. Throughout the financial crisis, our number one goal was to keep men working, and so we took some jobs we probably shouldn’t have during those years, and we lost quite a bit of money. In order to survive, we had to grow the business, and fortunately we were able to do so by really building our presence in the New York City market. By 2015, we went from being maybe an afterthought to many contractors, to one of the primary companies that they would speak to. Today, we employ, on average, about 175 men. We have a trademarked company slogan—NY Doesn’t Build Itself—and this is evidenced by our work which can be seen through NYC and Long Island. Our annual sales for the past five years have skyrocketed. We have an executive team, a team of project managers, an operations manager, a vice president of sales, five people in the estimating department, and countless superintendents and foremen. My phone doesn’t ring the way it used to anymore, when I would get calls about where the truck should go, what bolt should go in what hole. I get calls like, “We have this project that we’re thinking about in three years. Can you come help us design it and plan logistics?” The nature of how we do business has changed drastically because of the terrific people we are able to employ. I can’t say enough about my team and the people we have here, running the business with me.
BTEA: It sounds like you really love what you do.
I often pinch myself. I was a high school teacher when I graduated college, and I had my own little construction company, which I sold in 2005. The day I got tenure as a school teacher I literally walked in and resigned because I knew that there was something more out there for me. I had the opportunity to join this business, and I’ve loved it from my very first day on the job. I spent five years in the field, learning, listening, understanding what the men do, how they do it, why they do it, gaining their respect. And, quite honestly, I believe if you ask anyone who has worked with us, they’d say it’s probably the best place they’ve ever worked because we treat them like family. We have a winning culture that is second to none. Every single person who works for us is part of my family.
BTEA: For your Hudson Commons/441 Ninth Avenue project, you built a 17-story addition to an existing 8-story commercial building completed in 2020. This seems like it must have been a uniquely challenging project. Can you explain how you pulled it off successfully?
That project was our first venture into the tower crane market. Our company was averse to getting involved with tower cranes for many years, but I felt that in order to continue to grow our business it was a risk we had to take. So, we took a flier on what was a very challenging project for many reasons. For one, the setup of the tower crane was unique; it was on top of the existing building. Also, the logistics of working in that area were tricky, being right by Madison Square Garden, Penn Station, and Hudson Yards, which was being constructed at the same time, basically across the street. That made setting up cranes, bringing steel, material, and equipment into the job site all very difficult. Plus, because it was our first tower crane project, we were learning as we went along. Another big challenge was that we were the only union trade on the job. The concrete core was erected and installed by a non-union concrete company, and the first day that we put our tower crane up we were notified there was a picket line by Local 14 that they put up around the entire building, and our tower crane operators would not go to work. So, we had to deal with not only all the logistical challenges, but also the ever-challenging world of navigating the union against non-union forces. Fortunately, we were able to do that by working out arrangements with Local 14, where we had to employ additional men to cover non-union employees’ equipment. So, it was a difficult, but rewarding project at the same time.
BTEA: You are president of the Allied Building Metal Industries trade association. Why is being a part of this organization important to you and what are its principal aims?
I’ve been the association’s President since earlier this year. I climbed the ladder in recent years, going from Secretary to Treasurer to Vice President and now President. I’m involved in this organization because the survival of union construction in New York is extremely important to me, and it’s extremely important to the success of our industry. The relationships and opportunities that I’m afforded because of my involvement with the Allied allow me to try and navigate positive outcomes for other union contractors. I believe in healthy competition. I have very, very good friends who are my biggest competitors, and we constantly collaborate on how we can better the industry, and the main way that I feel we can do that is to keep people on a level playing field. We all employ the same workers, right? We’re all paying the same rates. My playbook is wide open. My competitors know what we do and how we do it. We just try and do it a little bit better than they can. However, when we bring in the non-union world, we lose that opportunity to compete on a level playing field, because developers are shopping on price. So, we have to show them why it’s better to work with union contractors, and the Allied allows us to do that.
BTEA: Giving back is clearly of great significance to you. Can you talk about the philanthropic work that you’ve done through your family foundation and what its mission is?
From the day that I made my first dollar, I’ve always thought about how I can give back. I’ve been fortunate enough to be a board member of an organization founded by the famous hockey player Clark Gillies, who recently passed away. He was one of my closest friends, and he created a great foundation. We raised about six and a half million dollars for Huntington Hospital. Clark really taught me how to be charitable and a meaningful member of my community, and I’ve sought to pass on those lessons to my daughters. That’s why we started the Amplo Family Foundation. Our mission initially was to help cancer patients, but it’s developed into more than that. If anyone comes to me that needs help, I will try to find a way to help them, and that’s something I’ll never stop doing. It’s literally the number one thing I wouldn’t give up. I would give up my business before I gave up my charitable work.