Suffolk Celebrates Opening of New Mesquite Government Center, Honoring Community Support and Recognizing Small and Diverse Business Participation

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 19, 2024--

Suffolk, one of the largest and most innovative real estate and construction enterprises in the country, recently joined government leaders and members of the community to celebrate the grand opening of the Dallas County Mesquite Government Center. The Center provides a space to house key resources that align with the County's strategic priorities, including meeting local business needs, fostering job creation, planning for diverse housing opportunities, and prioritizing workforce development. The Mesquite Government Center exemplifies Suffolk's commitment to leveraging a diverse workforce and underscores Suffolk's dedication to promoting local economic growth and fostering community ties.

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“Dallas County is excited to open the doors of the new Mesquite Government Center, a space that reflects our commitment to building a vibrant and strong future,” said Jonathon Bazan, Assistant County Administrator. “This facility will provide essential services and support our local residents and businesses. We’re proud to have partnered with Suffolk, a leader in innovative and impactful construction practices, to make this vision a reality for our community.”

The Mesquite Government Center was designed to serve the community with greater efficiency and accessibility, symbolizing the region’s commitment to innovation and future progress. Construction of the state-of-the-art 56,325 square-foot facility designed to serve the community's needs and enhance civic engagement was managed by Suffolk, an award-winning builder recognized for its innovative approach to construction management through the use of AI, data and technology to manage schedule and budget, maintain safety onsite, and provide transparency for key stakeholders.

"Suffolk is honored to have been chosen to manage construction of the Dallas County Mesquite Government Center, a critical hub of infrastructure necessary to position Dallas County for the future," said Brad Brown, President of Suffolk’s Texas Region. "Suffolk values inviting businesses in the community to participate, and we are thrilled to report an impressive 42 percent participation from small and minority-owned business enterprises who played a significant role in the on-time and on-budget delivery of this project.”

In addition to working with the Regional Hispanic Contractors Association and the Regional Black Contractors Association, successful delivery of the project was also made possible through Suffolk’s collaboration with design-build partner Moody Nolan, the largest African American owned design firm in the country.

“Moody Nolan is truly honored to have partnered with Suffolk to plan, design and bring this incredible project to life for Dallas County and its community,” said Wardell Ross, Jr., Associate Principal and Director of Moody Nolan's Texas Operations. “We recognize the significance of the Mesquite Government Center, and remain dedicated to improving lives through responsive, thoughtful design that balances the needs of the client, the community, and the environment. Together, we’ve created a space that will enrich and serve the community for years to come.”

The building incorporates multiple sustainable components and proudly achieved LEED Silver certification.

Suffolk has amassed an impressive portfolio across sectors in the Dallas region, including The Terminal at Katy Trail, a luxurious mixed-use development alongside the renowned Katy Trail and three projects at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, including the Electric Utility Plant (eCUP), which will transition to zero-emission electricity for heating to become the first carbon neutral central plant in aviation in the Americas. Suffolk’s Dallas office was recently named by the Dallas Business Journa l as one of its Best Places to Work in North Texas for the second year in a row.

About Suffolk
Suffolk is a national enterprise that builds, innovates and invests. Suffolk is an end-to-end business that provides value throughout the entire project lifecycle by leveraging its core construction management services with vertical service lines that include real estate capital investment, design, self-perform construction services, technology start-up investment (Suffolk Technologies) and innovation research/development.

Suffolk – America’s Contractor – is a national company with more than $6.0 billion in annual revenue, 2,800 employees, and offices in Boston, Massachusetts (headquarters); New York City, New York; Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa and Estero in Florida; Dallas, Texas; Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego in California; Portland, Maine; and Herndon, Virginia. Suffolk manages some of the most complex, sophisticated projects in the country, serving clients in every major industry sector, including healthcare, life sciences, education, gaming, transportation/aviation, federal government and public work, mission critical, advanced technology and commercial. Suffolk is privately held and is led by founder, chairman and CEO John Fish. Suffolk is ranked #8 on ENR’s list of “Largest Domestic Builders” and #8 on its list of “Top CM-at-Risk Contractors.” For more information, visitwww.suffolk.comand follow Suffolk onFacebook,Twitter,LinkedIn,YouTubeandInstagram.

Suffolk Project Manager and Mesquite native Raegan Lucio celebrates the grand opening of the Mesquite Government Center, a building he was proud to build in his hometown. (Photo: Business Wire)

Suffolk Texas Region President Brad Brown congratulates District 3 Commissioner John Wiley Price on the grand opening of the Mesquite Government Center, a preeminent Suffolk project in Dallas County. (Photo: Business Wire)

NEW YORK (AP) — Walk into any supermarket and you can generally buy a banana for less than $1. But a banana duct-taped to a wall? That might sell for more than $1 million at an upcoming auction at Sotheby’s in New York.

The yellow banana fixed to the white wall with silver duct tape is a work entitled “Comedian,” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. It first debuted in 2019 as an edition of three fruits at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair, where it became a much-discussed sensation.

Was it a prank? A commentary on the state of the art world? Another artist took the banana off the wall and ate it. A backup banana was brought in. Selfie-seeking crowds became so thick, “Comedian” was withdrawn from view, but three editions of it sold for between $120,000 and $150,000, according to Perrotin gallery.

Now, the conceptual artwork has an estimated value of between $1 million and $1.5 million at Sotheby's auction on Nov. 20. Sotheby's head of contemporary art, David Galperin, calls it profound and provocative.

“What Cattelan is really doing is turning a mirror to the contemporary art world and asking questions, provoking thought about how we ascribe value to artworks, what we define as an artwork," Galperin said.

Bidders won't be buying the same fruit that was on display in Miami. Those bananas are long gone. Sotheby’s says the fruit always was meant to be replaced regularly, along with the tape.

“What you buy when you buy Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’ is not the banana itself, but a certificate of authenticity that grants the owner the permission and authority to reproduce this banana and duct tape on their wall as an original artwork by Maurizio Cattelan,” Galperin said.

The very title of the piece suggests Cattelan himself likely didn't intend for it to be taken seriously. But Chloé Cooper Jones, an associate professor at the Columbia University School of the Arts, said it is worth thinking about the context.

Cattelan premiered the work at an art fair, visited by well-off art collectors, where “Comedian” was sure to get a lot of attention on social media. That might mean the art constituted a dare, of sorts, to the collectors to invest in something absurd, she said.

If “Comedian” is just a tool for understanding the insular, capitalist, art-collecting world, Cooper Jones said, “it’s not that interesting of an idea.”

But she thinks it might go beyond poking fun at rich people.

Cattelan is often thought of as a “trickster artist,” she said. “But his work is often at the intersection of the sort of humor and the deeply macabre. He’s quite often looking at ways of provoking us, not just for the sake of provocation, but to ask us to look into some of the sort of darkest parts of history and of ourselves.”

And there is a dark side to the banana, a fruit with a history entangled with imperialism, labor exploitation and corporate power.

“It would be hard to come up with a better, simple symbol of global trade and all of its exploitations than the banana,” Cooper Jones said. If “Comedian” is about making people think about their moral complicity in the production of objects they take for granted, then it's “at least a more useful tool or it’s at least an additional sort of place to go in terms of the questions that this work could be asking,” she said.

“Comedian” hits the block around the same time that Sotheby's is also auctioning one of the famed paintings in the “Water Lilies” series by the French impressionist Claude Monet, with an expected value of around $60 million.

When asked to compare Cattelan's banana to a classic like Monet's “Nymphéas," Galperin says impressionism was not considered art when the movement began.

“No important, profound, meaningful artwork of the past 100 years or 200 years, or our history for that matter, did not provoke some kind of discomfort when it was first unveiled,” Galperin said.

Follow Julie Walker on X @jwalkreporter.

A man looks at "Nympheas," left, by artist Claude Monet, in photo on right, during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

A woman walks near "Contranuities," by Stuart Davis, during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

People walk near The Danner Memorial Window, by Tiffany Studios during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

A Sotheby's staff carries "Buste De Femme" by Pablo Picasso, during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

A man takes a look at "La Statuaire," by Pablo Picasso, during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, Nov, 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

FILE - A man looks at "Nympheas," by Claude Monet, during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

FILE - People react to the artist Maurizio Cattelan's piece of art "Comedian" during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

FILE - Artist Maurizio Cattelan's piece of art "Comedian" hangs on display during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

File - A woman looks at artist Maurizio Cattelan's piece of art "Comedian" during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)