Today we’d like to introduce you to Brendan McCluskey.
Hi Brendan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started the company in April 2015. My former employer, based in Northern Virginia, had informed me of their desire to withdraw from the Baltimore market to focus more on DC, and that the expectation was for me to relocate down there. My growing family was getting settled in Anne Arundel and I had grown very fond of my adopted hometown of Baltimore. Rather than accepting a daily commute to Georgetown, I decided it was time to pursue my own entrepreneurial aspirations and go out on my own.
My company was met with a lot of challenges in the early years. Most of the work we had planned on capturing when we launched disappeared in the aftermath of the Freddie Grey protests. We also struggled to figure out where we belonged in the market in comparison to our competitors. I then got a note from a major real estate developer encouraging me to apply to the Goldman Sachs 10k Small Businesses program. This changed everything, as it allowed me to figure out where we needed to focus our business on and how to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. It also changed how we perceived the importance of cross-collaboration, especially when trying to address some of our City’s most pressing challenges.
Our company has done a lot of award winning work and projects of distinction that we’re proud of, but we’re equally proud of what we’re endeavoring to do. For the last few years we’ve been coordinating with a team at Hopkins to figure out how to scale a real estate developer’s cooperative to bring a better scalable solution to the vacants issue. We’re about to start a series of projects that will transform this aspiration into reality.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road in the least bit. We had been tracking several million dollars of potential work we felt reasonably confident in capturing when we launched, but not of it came to fruition. Instead we started taking on any work we could get, and the company morphed into an organization with overhead costs inconsistent with what we had planned on doing and were particularly strong at, and that’s delivering technically challenging projects.
Like all small businesses, we’ve dealt with all sorts of challenges, from insolvent clients not paying their bills, to problem employees, to making some bad decisions based on imperfect information, and even a degree of bad luck. Just a few years in and we were having deep regrets in having launched the company.
Things really sort of changed however with two main events, as mentioned the Goldman Sachs 10ksb program, and then delivering on a mission centric project for a community center. That project reinvigorated a sense of purpose, a degree of renewed confidence, and a greater appreciation for the amount of people around this city that were working tirelessly to improve the situation, and why we needed to support them in the ways we best can.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
TRIDENT BUILDERS, LLC is a commercial construction management and general contracting firm based in Maryland. We specialize in commercial office interior build out, restaurant, retail, and luxury multi-family residential. Trident has considerable experience delivering renewable energy and sustainability technology and required infrastructure. Trident’s key personnel have an aggregate of 100+ years of construction experience. We understand that our Owners and our subcontractors are our partners throughout the project.
Founded in early 2015 by Brendan McCluskey, Trident started making its mark in the local Baltimore market performing interior fit out with Clients such as The Ritz Carlton and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. However, our team has its roots in heavy out-of-the-ground construction as well as multi-family development. This expertise in delivering heavy base building, technology, and high-end finishes was fostered when Trident’s leadership worked for some of the best builders and developers in the country, including The Related Companies, The Bozzuto Group, and HITT Contracting. During this tenure, Brendan McCluskey worked delivering over 1,000 apartments and condos, a skyscraper, a half dozen garages, several luxury hotel branded properties, improvements at public and private schools, new construction and repairs at both Ivy League and public universities, museums, high end restaurants, and energy generation infrastructure projects.
Brendan McCluskey is a graduate of Eckerd College (B.A. – Management), and of The University of Massachusetts Amherst (MBA). He has also completed master’s level study in Real Estate Development at Georgetown University. He is a L.E.E.D. Accredited Professional (LEED AP), a Project Management Professional (PMP), and a PHIUS Certified Builder (CPHB).
Trident earned a Certificate of Entrepreneurship from Goldman Sachs 10kSB Program, a selective and intensive program focused on potential high growth companies that is administered by Babson University and was conducted at The Johns Hopkins University.
Trident is the ABC Baltimore 2023 Winner of the “Excellence in Construction Award” for its Ammoora Restaurant project. The Trident team led this project through design concept, to permitting and construction on behalf of its Client. This project was recently selected as the “Most Beautiful Restaurant” in Maryland by PEOPLE Magazine.
Trident also awarded the ABC Baltimore 2019 Winner of the “Excellence in Construction Award” for its Tobacco Leaf project. This Trident team led that project through design concept, to construction.
We’ve been working closely with faculty at the Carey School of Business to launch a new business model to address the vacants. We have experience delivering hyper-energy efficient housing and believe this is the large scale solution that Baltimore needs. We also have engineered the approach to be collaborative in nature with all of the great organizations working to solve various challenges, such as entrenched poverty and workforce development. We are starting a series of projects that will pilot this effort into reality.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
There is so much I love about Baltimore. First, there is a deep authenticity that this City possesses unlike any other. I find people here to be friendlier and even kinder than other places I’ve lived and worked. But it’s a type of kindness that shouldn’t be mistaken for weakness, and Baltimore possesses a bit of a cultural tough determination and confidence within itself.
I’m also extremely bullish on Baltimore’s potential and have been for years despite some of the self-inflicted setbacks we’ve experienced, predominantly economic and political in nature. Our world class institutions, our great port, our history of industrial capacity, all lend themselves to a stronger Baltimore tomorrow than we see today, but there are so many great people working to achieve that tomorrow. Other City’s have done a rebound, whereas Baltimore hasn’t seemed to have turned the corner yet. However those other cities often brought gentrification with them. I think we have a real opportunity here to shape our renewal effort in a way that is considerably better than places like New York, Boston, or DC… that we can restore our many great neighborhoods in a way that also lifts up our neighbors that have long been struggling.
I also like Baltimore as ‘Smaltimore’, in that people are rarely more than 1 to 2 degrees of separation from each other. In the business world this is important, because both good actors and bad actors can get identified pretty quickly here. In larger markets like DC or New York, I believe the bad actors can fly under the radar longer.
I share the same frustration that most others do with some of the inefficiencies around the government, but I’m quite hopeful that it about to get much better. The current leadership both here and in Annapolis seemed determined to address everything from the vacants to socio-economic opportunities for our neighbors. There is also great outside expert help being supported by groups like Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Lastly, while some of Baltimore’s outside reputation may be deserved, it seems stubbornly entrenched and it’s hard to project a different more positive narrative about Baltimore to outsiders. I think it’s important to highlight the strides our City is making and hope to help be a part of the rebuilding story.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tridentbuilds.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendan-mccluskey-9a855419/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tridentbuilders/videos
