Beezley Management LLC, a Calabasas firm that offers project management and construction consulting services, is developing a $40 million justice and detention center for the Oglala Sioux tribe in South Dakota. This is the first major construction project approved by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in nearly a decade — and one that Jonathan Levy, principal of Beezley Management, hopes will open more doors for the firm in this sector. “We want to hit a home run and be able to showcase our confidence in this project,” Levy said. Beezley has partnered up with architectural and planning firm Gruen Associates of West Los Angeles to oversee construction of the project, located on the tribe’s Pine Ridge Reservation. The new 93,000-square-foot complex will consist of tribal courts, an attorney general’s office, public defender’s office, public safety offices, corrections facility, department of public safety administration offices and housing for tribal police officers. Construction is expected to begin in the fall and to be completed by Dec. 31, 2012, Levy said. The demonstration project is being watched by many, said Larry Schlossberg, partner at Gruen Associates. “If this project can be executed successfully, then a lot of note will be taken of it,” he said. Both companies have developed similar projects. Beezley played a role in developing a project at the Southwest Museum of American Indians and an Indian tribe’s justice center in Washington. Gruen Associates developed an administration center for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians near Palm Springs. Working on an out-of-state project can pose some logistical challenges, Levy said. When project construction begins in the fall, people will be living near the project. But until then, some technology tools are being used to bridge the geographical gap, he said. For example, the companies are using videoconferencing software to communicate about the construction process and software with iPad and iPhone applications to document the project. “It allows us not just to talk about things but to manage the process to get all contractors in place,” Levy said. Having these tools available make the process much easier, added Schlossberg. Traveling may be a bit difficult, but scheduling meetings months in advance helps to keep the project running smoothly, he said. “With these communication tools we have now, it’s no different than if we were all around the block from each other,” he said. Another challenging aspect of the tribal project: dealing with cultural issues. There is less government involved in the building process, but there are still some hurdles to overcome, Schlossberg said. “You do need to learn to navigate around unique politics of each tribe,” he said. Venture Architects, a Wisconsin-based designing firm involved in the project, has a cultural consultant on their team to help with any custom issues, Levy said. “That allows them to have a good understanding of some of the tribal customs and culture and how to integrate that into the designs,” he said.
