Frank Narciso, President of Contractors Sheet Metal, was recently named President of the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors Association of New York City (NYC SMACNA). He takes the helm at a pivotal moment for union contractors, who are contending with rising costs and growing competition from non-union firms.
In this 5 Questions interview, Frank talks about what he hopes to accomplish at NYC SMACNA, what has kept Contractors Sheet Metal strong through decades of change in New York, and the project of which he is proudest. He also explains how Local Law 97 and electrification are reshaping his crews’ daily work; makes the case for Scaffold Law reform and regulatory credit for collective bargaining agreements; and shares his advice for members on bidding in a volatile tariff market.
BTEA: Congratulations on taking over as President of NYC SMACNA. The timing couldn’t be more consequential for union contractors. What made you want to take on this role, and what do you most want to get done in it?
Thank you. I’m truly honored to take on the presidency at such a critical juncture for our industry.
I wanted to step into this role because NYC sheet metal contractors represent the absolute gold standard in craftsmanship, safety, and technical capability. But in today’s evolving real estate and construction environment, superior skill alone isn’t enough. We need to demonstrate clear value, agility, and modern solutions to developers and general contractors from day one.
As President, my top priorities center on two main goals: making union contractors the obvious partner of choice for developers and growing our association’s reach.
First, we need to make union labor the smartest business decision for developers. With NYC’s rigorous energy and emissions standards—like Local Law 97—developers are under immense pressure to build high-efficiency systems. Our contractors possess the specialized expertise in indoor air quality, advanced ventilation, and complex HVAC system optimization needed to meet those requirements seamlessly.
We also need to reframe union labor not as a cost driver, but as a risk-mitigation strategy. The level of training, safety standards, and precision our trades bring to a job site means zero rework, strict adherence to schedules, and long-term operational efficiency. On-time delivery directly protects a developer’s financial bottom line.
Second, we need to strengthen our industry partnerships and grow the association. A primary goal is working closely alongside Local 28 leadership. Together, we can identify targeted sectors in the market where we need to be more competitive, creating smart, flexible frameworks that make union bids highly appealing while protecting the quality of our workforce.
In general, we want to show contractors across the region the immense value of joining SMACNA—providing them with top-tier labor relations guidance, peer support, regulatory advocacy, and resources that help them scale their businesses effectively.
Ultimately, taking on this role comes down to proving that choosing a NYC SMACNA contractor isn’t just about getting the highest quality work—it’s the best financial and operational decision for any project in the city.
BTEA: You’ve led Contractors Sheet Metal for decades, and the firm’s roots here run deeper still. What has kept the company strong through all the ups and downs of the New York market, and is there one project you’re proudest of?
What has kept Contractors Sheet Metal standing for decades comes down to two simple constants: an ability to constantly adapt, and an uncompromising commitment to problem-solving in the field.
New York City’s built environment is constantly shifting. Over the years, we’ve navigated economic cycles, changing codes, and shifting real estate demands. The secret to longevity isn’t staying comfortable; it’s recognizing where the market is going and pivoting before everyone else does.
One of our particular areas of expertise that has benefited our business is the renovation and retrofitting market. Ground-up construction is straightforward compared to working inside active, legacy New York structures. Renovation work requires surgical precision—navigating tight ceiling plenums, historical architectural constraints, phased occupations, and working around existing MEP infrastructure. That’s where our experience shines. We know how to get in, execute complex duct installations, and get out without disrupting the rest of the facility.
Survival in New York construction requires creative engineering and creative execution. We don’t just look at a set of plans and say, “this is how we’ve always done it.” We look for innovative ways to solve spatial, logistical, and structural challenges that traditional approaches can’t touch.
Historically, sheet metal contractors stayed strictly in their designated lanes. But to thrive today, we’ve made a conscious effort to think outside the box and step into markets and specialty scopes we didn’t traditionally serve. Whether that’s expanding deeper into specialized institutional retrofits, complex ventilation upgrades for adaptive reuse projects, or taking on non-standard architectural and specialty metal scopes within renovations, we’ve broadened our horizons.
At the end of the day, developers and general contractors bring us in on renovation work because they know we don’t back down from a puzzle. By stepping outside our traditional boundaries and bringing a problem-solving mindset to every job, we turn complex retrofit challenges into successful project completions.
My proudest project was CIBC after 9/11. We worked 24/7 to help get them back online after the World Trade Center attacks. We were recognized by the company’s executives with a dinner and a plaque that I keep in my office today.
BTEA: Sheet metal and HVAC sit right at the center of how this city is trying to decarbonize and make its buildings safer. Between Local Law 97, electrification, and the retrofit work, what are the changes your crews have experienced in their day-to-day work, and where do you see the trade in five to ten years?
What’s changing on the ground is that our work has evolved from purely mechanical installation into high-precision, integrated system engineering. Local Law 97 and building electrification aren’t abstract policy concepts to our crews—they dictate the physical realities of every job site we step onto today.
Precision and air tightness are everything now. In an electrified building running on high-efficiency heat pumps, energy loss is financial loss for the owner. Duct leakage that might have been tolerated decades ago is unacceptable now. Our crews are executing duct sealing,
advanced insulation, and precision balancing at higher standards than ever before because system efficiency depends entirely on maintaining thermal and static pressure integrity.
We are retrofitting active, occupied facilities—replacing heavy fossil-fuel-fired plant equipment with centralized heat pump networks, dedicated outdoor air systems (DOAS), and heat-recovery ventilation. Our day-to-day coordination revolves around shoehorning modern, high-volume air-handling infrastructure into legacy building envelopes without interrupting ongoing operations.
The day-to-day trade isn’t just about hanging metal; it’s about integrating mechanical systems with smart building management systems (BMS). We are installing automated dampers, variable air volume (VAV) systems, and real-time indoor air quality sensors so buildings can dynamically scale ventilation based on occupancy and real-time efficiency needs.
Looking ahead, the sheet metal trade is going to be one of the single most tech-driven, indispensable trades in urban construction. As buildings eliminate fossil-fuel combustion, ventilation and indoor air quality will become the primary benchmark for commercial building performance and tenant satisfaction. Sheet metal contractors won’t just be viewed as air-distribution installers; we will be viewed as indoor environmental specialists.
Five to ten years out, every duct system we install will be an intelligent network. Retrofits will increasingly incorporate continuous monitoring and AI-driven predictive airflow balancing to optimize energy consumption down to the square foot, helping owners avoid LL97 penalties in real time.
As system integration becomes more complex, the gap between basic duct hanging and master-level sheet metal execution will widen. The specialized training, safety standards, and technical expertise that union sheet metal workers bring will be the fundamental baseline required to execute complex urban decarbonization retrofits successfully.
Ultimately, the transition to a carbon-neutral New York isn’t happening on paper—it’s happening in the mechanical rooms, ceiling plenums, and risers of this city. Our trade sits right at the heart of that transition, and the next decade will prove just how vital union sheet metal contractors are to the city’s future.
BTEA: Union contractors are facing real headwinds right now—rising costs, insurance, and non-union competition that keeps getting more aggressive. Leading both a firm and an association, what do you think would make the biggest difference to keeping and growing union market share, and where would you like to see the BTEA and NYC SMACNA push hardest together?
The headwinds facing our industry are very real, but they aren’t insurmountable if we attack the root causes together. When you look at what drives up cost structures for union contractors in New York, it comes down to two major leverage points: fixing a broken insurance environment and modernizing regulatory oversight.
This is precisely where NYC SMACNA and the Building Trades Employers’ Association (BTEA) need to align and push with maximum unified pressure.
If you want to address the single biggest cost driver threatening union contractors today, you have to talk about insurance—and New York’s Scaffold Law is the absolute core of that problem.
New York remains the only state in the country that maintains an absolute liability standard for elevation-related injuries. Because fault is completely removed from the equation, property
owners and general contractors are exposed to massive financial risk. That legal environment has driven construction liability insurance premiums to astronomical levels in the city—often costing four to five times what contractors pay just across the river in New Jersey or Connecticut.
Those crippling insurance costs are ultimately passed straight down to contractors and developers, pricing union bids out of projects and severely squeezing margins. The BTEA and NYC SMACNA must lead a joint legislative push in Albany to transition New York from strict absolute liability to a comparative negligence standard—aligning us with the other 49 states. Reforming Labor Law 240 would immediately stabilize the insurance market, reduce astronomical carrier premiums, and restore cost fairness to our bids without sacrificing worker safety.
The second area where we must push together is streamlining regulatory burdens. Too often, city and state agencies roll out blanket mandates, compliance requirements, and administrative layers designed to enforce baseline safety or workforce standards on non-union operators—and then apply those same redundant layers to union contractors.
We need regulatory frameworks that explicitly recognize and grant reciprocity for Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs). Our signatory contractors and Local 28 union workforce already operate under strict, self-imposed standard operating procedures: multi-year, rigorous apprenticeship programs that far exceed municipal safety baselines; comprehensive site safety protocols, structured health and welfare funds, and constant trade updates managed directly through labor-management trusts; and disciplinary structures and oversight built into collective agreements to handle performance and compliance on the spot.
Imposing overlapping city and state administrative mandates on contractors who already enforce higher standards through a CBA doesn’t make job sites safer—it just inflates overhead, delays approvals, and adds unnecessary legal costs. BTEA and NYC SMACNA should advocate for “carve-outs” or regulatory credits that deem union contractors in full compliance by virtue of their CBAs, allowing us to spend less time managing red tape and more time delivering projects.
When SMACNA and the BTEA pool our resources and industry voice, we represent the economic engines of New York construction. By fighting to reform the Scaffold Law to bring insurance rates down and pushing regulators to give full credit to our collective bargaining agreements, we can strip away artificial cost penalties. That is how we make union labor vastly more competitive against non-union open-shop operations while protecting the gold standard of work we deliver.
BTEA: Steel and aluminum prices have been a moving target with tariffs. What advice would you give members on how to bid in this environment?
My core advice to our members is simple: never absorb commodity policy risk on a fixed-price bid. With tariff-driven price swings hitting double digits, relying on traditional blanket markups is a fast path to margin erosion.
To bid safely today, contractors should use contract escalation clauses tied to industry cost indices. Set a shared risk threshold—for instance, absorbing the first 3% to 5% increase, but requiring a change order for anything beyond that.
Cap quote validity at 14 to 30 days maximum. In a volatile market, holding a bid for 60 or 90 days without a re-quote is an unnecessary gamble.
Unbundle raw sheet metal from your fabrication and labor lines. Transparency makes price adjustments far easier to justify to developers when steel prices jump. And secure supplier pricing and lock in material allocations the moment a contract is signed.
Bidding in a volatile tariff environment isn’t about guessing where steel prices will land—it’s about writing contracts that protect your bottom line.