Black-owned construction company alleges racial bias in lawsuit over modernization of BHA apartments in Roxbury

The John B. Cruz Construction Co. yesterday sued Beacon Communities over the way it charges Beacon pushed it out of a project to rebuild the Boston Housing Authority's 357-unit Lenox/Camden complex in Roxbury.

In its lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Cruz says Beacon initially hired it in 2018 as the general contractor on the roughly $150-million modernization project, starting with the smaller 72-unit Camden part of the complex - but only reluctantly:

As a result of Boston's history of not including minority-owned businesses in such projects, the BHA and the City of Boston communicated to Beacon the importance of including a minority-owned business as a significant member of the project team. Notwithstanding this fact, from the outset of Cruz's participation, Beacon treated Cruz differently from the way Beacon treated the white-owned members of the Project Team and otherwise made it clear that Beacon resented Cruz's involvement and was unhappy at having been - from Beacon's perspective - pressured to include a minority-owned business as a member of the Project Team. Among other things, Beacon claimed to have "communication" issues with Cruz and required Cruz to engage a white consultant, which Cruz did, to improve "communication" between Cruz and Beacon. On information and belief, Beacon never claimed to have "communication" issues with the white-owned members of the Project Team and never required any of them to engage a consultant to improve "communication" with Beacon.

The lawsuit continues:

Goodman blamed Cruz for delays on the Camden phase that were Beacon's responsibilities. As another example, Beacon's Director of Capital and Special Projects stated that Cruz was "fucking up," referred to a Cruz representative as "a fucking wormy bastard," and falsely accused a Cruz staff person of being a thief. Cruz is informed and believes that no one at Beacon made such comments or accusations against the white-owned members of the Project Team.

Then, on Sept. 18, 2019, Beacon President Pamela Goodman "summoned Cruz's President, John B. Cruz, III, to her office at 2 Center Plaza, Boston," to essentially fire Cruz from the larger Lenox phase of the project - and to tell him his company would even be barred from bidding on any part of the work - the lawsuit charges.

Beacon, Cruz avers, hired D.F. Pray, a white-owned firm from Toronto, to replace it as general contractor.

Despite this, Cruz continues, three months later, Beacon submitted formal plans to the BPDA for the Lenox phase that "falsely identified 'Cruz Construction' as the 'Construction Management' member of the Lenox phase 'Project Team'" (Beacon Project Notification Form submitted to the BPDA).

Cruz is seeking unspecified damages to be determined at trial, for a series of alleged violations of its contract rights and its federal right to equal protection:

In removing Cruz as the general contractor member of the Lenox Project Team and denying Cruz the opportunity to bid, negotiate or otherwise compete for the Lenox general contractor work, Beacon treated Cruz differently from the way Beacon treated D.F. Pray, a white-owned entity, and did so because of Cruz's status as a 100% black-owned entity.

The court docket does not yet state a date by which Beacon has to answer the complaint.

Renovations of the Lenox Street apartments finished this past spring.