Dive Brief:
- The new Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, has surpassed its minority- and women-owned business enterprises goal for construction contracts, according to a Tuesday announcement from Gov. Kathy Hochul.
- The project team paid over $490 million to MWBE contractors, per the release. That meant the project surpassed the 30% target at the end of April — 15% participation each from minority- and women-owned businesses.
- The future home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, constructed by a Gilbane-Turner joint venture, is 96% complete, according to the release. The project previously was under fire for failing to hit initial MWBE hiring goals.
Dive Insight:
The hiring goals tied to the project’s Community Benefits Agreement use $1.5 billion as the stadium’s cost, since that was the estimated price at the time of the agreement in 2023, Buffalo News reported.
The cost of the project has since risen to about $2.1 billion, with cost overruns paid by the Bills. The team received $850 million in funds from the state and Erie County, per Buffalo News.
In the summer of 2023, Erie County, New York, Legislature Chairperson April Baskin called out the JV after the state’s economic development arm found that the contractors hadn’t met minority business hiring goals.
Subsequently, representatives from New York City based Turner Construction and Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co. met with Baskin, now a state senator, who at the time said she was encouraged by the response.
In October 2023, the JV announced it had awarded 55 subcontracts worth $163 million to minority-, women- or service-disabled veteran-owned companies, constituting 39.9% of the $408 million spent to that point.
“It wasn’t a sprint, it was a marathon,” Chris McFadden, Turner spokesperson, told Construction Dive of the effort to meet the goal. McFadden described the previous reports as a “snapshot,” at the project’s previous stages, and emphasized the JV kept prioritizing the MWBE participation goal throughout construction.
With the project nearly done, the JV has awarded 140 separate MWBE firms 304 contracts for the stadium’s development. Eighty-three of those businesses are based in the Western New York region and they received 216 contracts.
The 60,000-seat stadium, designed by Kansas City, Missouri-based Populous, broke ground in the summer of 2023 and topped out in April 2025. It will host its first regular season NFL game on Sept. 17, 2026 on Thursday Night Football.
