Newly elected Niagara Construction Association president Arie Schipper, chief estimator at Merit Contractors Niagara, originally had his sights set on becoming an architect.
Newly elected Niagara Construction Association (NCA) president Arie Schipper, chief estimator at Merit Contractors Niagara, originally had his sights set on becoming an architect.
“My plan was to go to Niagara College for a couple of years and then apply to Ryerson University,” he recalled. ‘But when I got to college, my eyes were opened up to the numerous career opportunities available in the construction industry.”
While at Niagara College, Schipper spent summers working for a local general contracting firm. He was hired full-time after graduating in 1982 from the college’s construction engineering technology program.
A decade later, Schipper landed a position at the St. Catharines firm of Merit Contractors Niagara, initially as an estimator. He has been there ever since.
“Their success rate in winning bids was quite high,” Schipper said of his decision to join the firm. “They were getting some pretty high-profile projects. It was a company that you could see was up and coming.”
In 2000, he became a junior partner in the firm.
As chief estimator, he oversees the department, which has a staff of three full-time estimators as well as an assistant. The company bids an average of 90 to 120 projects a year in the commercial, industrial and institutional sectors.
In addition to undertaking projects on a lump-sum basis, Merit Contractors also provides project and construction management services. The firm works as far afield as Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph and Waterloo.
Locally, Merit Contractors has been active at the Brock University campus. It also has constructed a number of wineries in the Niagara Peninsula.
Schipper said the firm potentially is interested in bidding the recently announced $94 million performing arts complex in St. Catharines “depending on how the project is broken down.”
Merit Contractors has worked previously with the project architects Diamond + Schmitt.
A native of the Niagara Peninsula, Schipper joined the construction association board in 2006. He has chaired both the education and program committees of the association, which represents about 300 firms.
The association hosts a number of courses and seminars annually, dealing with a variety of topics. Some are Gold Seal-certified.
“We’re now starting to get involved in some LEED courses as well,” Schipper said.
Schipper, who succeeds fellow Niagara College alumnus Tara Christensen as NCA president, said one of his goals for his two-year term of office is to grow the association’s membership.
“Now that we are coming out of the recession and things are moving forward, I think we need to get out there and try to drive up membership again.
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