Edward Broderick, Adam R. Jelen and James Patchett

In August 2025, Boise-based manufacturing giant Micron awarded the preconstruction contract for the first phase of the largest semiconductor facility in U.S. history to Gilbane Inc. The project in the Syracuse area will unfold over 680 acres.

A few months later and a short drive away, Gilbane topped out construction on the Albany NanoTech Complex. The 50,000-square-foot, four-story space is part of New York state’s efforts to become a hub for computer chip manufacturing.

These are the sort of grand and intricate projects that the privately held Gilbane has become known for either constructing or developing, or both, over its 156 years. The Providence-headquartered company as of late April had $11.8 billion in projects underway touching just about every commercial real estate asset class.

It’s long been able to do so via an integrated setup that clients can lean on from soup to nuts, according to Edward Broderick, Gilbane Inc.’s CEO since June 2024. Broderick previously helmed Gilbane’s development arm, which James Patchett now leads. Adam R. Jelen leads its building division.

“We put together last year a full strategy across the entire Gilbane spectrum, starting with our clients, looking at how we could provide end-to-end solutions in very specific markets,” Broderick said. “So we picked where we could go and where we could go very deep.”

That can mean the advanced manufacturing exemplified by the upstate New York projects. It can also mean a much bigger asset class such as health care — the company is leading the planning, design and construction on a new $300 million medical school for the University of South Carolina — or affordable housing. Gilbane as of late April was developing, building or rehabilitating over 12,000 affordable and mixed-income housing units nationwide.

“Afforable housing being such an important need of the country, we go deep and provide services across the whole spectrum — from acquiring the land to long-term operations and maintenance,” Broderick said.

Gilbane’s chops should position it well for weathering the construction industry’s challenges. Take advanced manufacturing and data centers out of the mix, and the overall construction industry is flat to declining, Broderick noted. It pays, then, to be in a position to move fast and comprehensively when a client is ready.

“That plays to our history, that plays to the size of our organization,” Broderick said.