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MCM Corp (a/k/a Magnum Construction 6201 SW 70th Street, Second Floor Miami, FL 33143
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History & Operations The current incarnation of the company was founded in 1983, and is owned by the five Munilla brothers: Jorge, Juan, Fernando, Pedro and Raul. In recent years business publications have ranked the company the 63rd largest US Hispanic-owned company, and the 16th largest contractor in Florida. According to its website, the company currently has 220 employees, 50 corporate and 170 in the field. According to a court filing by MCM (see the MCM v. Walton case below), the company's 2009 audited financials showed a net worth of over $38 million, with $31 million in cash and cash equivalents. Also, as of May 2010, MCM had a bonding line with Zurich Financial in excess of $800 million, with a backlog of approximately $200 million. OSHA Record Litigation Due to the high volume of court cases involving MCM, we have obtained filings only for select recent cases. Filings from these cases will be updated periodically. See below for a full listing of MCM cases for the past 10 years. MCM v. Walton Construction
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Doors Acquisition v. Munilla Construction
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pita v. Munilla Construction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gerelco Traffic Controls v. Munilla Construction
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 777 International Mall v. Munilla Construction
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Arce v. Munilla Construction
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The chart below shows all MCM cases in Florida, from approximately 2000-2009. Case documents may be posted here in future updates.
The first three articles, from March – July 2007, detail a bid dispute that ended up in litigation. MCM was eventually awarded the project: Miami Herald, “Contract Appeal Rejected; Park Project Will Continue,” July 8, 2007 A $22 million improvement project at South Pointe Park cleared a legal hurdle Thursday, when a state appellate court denied an appeal challenging the contract. The decision came days before construction at the 19-acre bayfront park will begin. Except for the Smith & Wollensky restaurant, Miami Beach officials will close the site for the next 18 months. The improvements will bring sand dunes, an elevated serpentine walkway, a 7,000-square-foot pavilion, two children's playgrounds and several water features. Construction is scheduled to start Monday. After the City Commission rejected A2 (A-Squared) Group in March, the firm sued the city in April to prevent officials from awarding the work to Magnum Construction Management, whose bid was $800,000 cheaper. Since then, A2 Group lost two appeals to block the project, one at the Eleventh Circuit Court and the other at the Third District Court of Appeals. Miami Herald, “Company Sues City Over Lost Bid,” April 15, 2007 The contractor who lost out on a $22.3 million South Pointe Park deal when Miami Beach commissioners reversed a staff recommendation and awarded it to a rival firm is suing the city. A2 (A-Squared) Group accuses the city of changing the contract's qualifying rules after staff advised commissioners that their firm offered the best value for the job even though they were not the lowest bidder. Though $265,000 over the winning company, MCM – Magnum Construction Management Corp. -- A2 scored highest according to the "best value" bidding criteria, which considered factors such as experience and litigation history. Miami Herald, “Long Wait Over; Park Overhaul to go Ahead,” March 15, 2007 In an unusual move, the Miami Beach commission Wednesday overruled a staff recommendation and awarded a $22.3 million park-renovation contract to a firm that sued the city, jump-starting a project 12 years in the works. Construction on South Pointe Park by MCM Engineering & General Contractors will begin as soon as the contract is signed, said MCM vice president Pedro Munilla. MCM and A2 Group (pronounced a-squared) bid the job. The city manager and city attorney rejected both because neither met the bid criteria. City Attorney Jose Smith called those criteria "super strict to protect the city," so strict, in fact, that he said "nobody could meet them." MCM sued, seeking reimbursement of at least $40,000 in research costs among other things. The court turned down MCM's request to block re-bidding, whereupon the city issued another call for bids under what Smith called "relaxed criteria." This time, MCM came in about $800,000 lower than A2. Still, a technical review panel of city experts recommended A2, but neither City Manager Jorge Gonzalez nor A2 spokesmen could convince the commissioners. They voted 5-2 for MCM, with Mayor David Dermer and Commissioner Saul Gross opposed. Gross was concerned about MCM's litigation history -- 89 suits since 1979 -- and a negative performance evaluation from the U.S. Coast Guard on cost management that staff considered in its analysis. Munilla said he immediately instructed his attorney to withdraw the company's lawsuit, part of which had remained active. A series of articles from 2003-2007 in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Miami Herald focused on bidding controversies and school construction problems involving MCM and other contractors: South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “Delayed Middle School to Be Broward’s Most Expensive,” November 11, 2006 Some 1,700 students could make a mid-year jump in the spring from temporary quarters in Pembroke Pines to the most expensive middle school ever built in Broward County. Glades Middle School, in west Miramar, is scheduled to be finished in March, following an 18-month delay. Rising construction costs have made it the county's most costly middle school to date, said Mike Garretson, the deputy superintendent in charge of construction. But Garretson said that distinction would last only until the district builds another new middle school. The school was delayed a year and a half because a rival contractor protested the School Board's original bid award and the builder-selection process had to be repeated. After the setback, the Glades budget ballooned to $48 million from an initial estimate of $30 million. School district officials say Glades, adjacent to Everglades High, is on track to be finished by March, according to the builder's projected schedule. The School Board first awarded the contract for Glades Middle to builder James Pirtle Construction in 2004. But another firm, Magnum Construction Management, challenged the award in court because it had offered to build the school for less money. A state administrative law judge ruled that the district botched the selection process and ruled that it should start over. In the second bidding process last year, the School Board again chose Pirtle. Miami Herald, “Get Smart – The School’s Roof Shouldn’t Leak (Editorial by Carl Hiaasen),” June 29, 2003 The latest chapter of the school-construction scandal in Miami-Dade centers on the shockingly shabby condition of the newer buildings. Of 78 schools and additions completed in recent years, all but one of them have leaky roofs, among other defects. So far, the school district has spent $40 million trying to patch up 36 problem schools that opened since 1995 - an appalling testament to both the incompetence of the contractors and the flawed process by which they were selected. Is it that difficult to build a school that doesn't drip all over the students and teachers? Yet in recent months, bidding rights for up to $300 million in new work were opened to four firms that have built some of the county's most trouble-plagued schools: Beauchamp Construction, F.& L. Construction, Magnum Construction Management (MCM), and Soares Da Costa Contractor, managing partner of a joint venture called SBR. Those companies constructed 27 of the 77 new schools and additions that have been damaged by persistent water leaks. All of the companies previously have forfeited payments on projects for mistakes, delays or quitting before the job was finished. The Prequalification Committee initially banned two of the firms - Beauchamp and SBR - based on past construction problems. The companies appealed, and the committee reversed itself. One can only imagine how monumentally inept a firm must be to make the district's blacklist, given the track record of some of the companies that have won approval. Miami Herald, “Builders of Shoddy Schools Still OK’d For Bids,” June 22, 2003 Despite repeated promises to ban poor-performing builders from new construction jobs, top Miami-Dade Public Schools officials in recent months granted liberal bidding rights to four companies that have built some of the most troubled schools in the district. Combined, the companies built 27 of the 77 new schools and additions damaged by water leaks. All have forfeited payments on projects because of errors, delays or leaving before the job was done. The district's own maintenance crews have spent millions fixing defective or incomplete work at schools the companies built, mostly since 1995. And school construction supervisors have cited all four on formal evaluations for shoddy work or problems during construction projects. Yet those four companies - already paid almost $300 million - are eligible to compete for about $300 million in new jobs. MCM built four of the leaking schools, including Jos de Diego Middle in Miami, where the walls are cracked and the roof leaks. ``If there is any leak or any deficiency on any product that we have performed, we will proudly and quickly deal with it,'' said the company's president, Jorge Munilla. The prequalification committee moved to ban MCM from seeking new jobs at its evaluation last year. MCM appealed, and the company was once again granted bidding rights. Miami Herald, “School Lacks Air Conditioner – Honey, It’s Past Hot In Here,” June 23, 2003 The air conditioner is broken again in the west wing of Miami's Jos de Diego Middle School. Straughter has opened the windows, but its 88 degrees outside. She spots the school's fix-it man, Harry Whitmore, coming from the mechanical room. He has repaired a fuse and belt, and the air is working again. ``God bless America,'' Straughter says. ``Honey, it's past hot in here.'' Jos de Diego Middle opened four years ago in a three-story building at 3100 NW Fifth Ave. in Miami that cost the School Board $16.8 million. But the campus quickly broke down. The sprinklers failed. The walls cracked. The roof leaked. Doors have to be jimmied open because the hinges are broken. A malfunctioning air-conditioning system has burned out 20 motors. ``It's a joke in the maintenance department now. We say, `New school, new problem,' '' said Whitmore, a veteran general tradesman assigned to two schools. Magnum Construction Management, also known as MCM, was paid more than $11 million to build Jos de Diego. The Jos de Diego Middle School opened four years ago, and the campus is already broken down. T company is one of four still approved to do school construction work despite a history of problem projects. The company's president, Jorge Munilla, said his 20-year-old company has worked for the school board for years and has maintained a strong relationship. He said he was unaware of the defects. ``That school looks pretty good when I drive by on I-95,'' he said. ``But if there are problems, I tell you confidently I'm prepared to go back and remedy them.'' But some principals, maintenance workers and community leaders say the school system should have held builders more accountable for their work. Before the campus was 2 years old, maintenance pumped $355,000 into the school. Whitmore's office is overrun with rust remover, adhesives, door locks and rebuilt motors. He dashes across campus with fuse holders in his pockets and hand tools stuffed in a shoulder pouch. He walks so much, he's put holes in his steel-toed shoes. He walks down a hallway where light fixtures have shorted because of water leaks. He walks past a water fountain that fell off a wall too weak to hold it. He keeps a stack of repair requests from other schools stashed in the trunk of his Toyota. ``Leaking urgent!!!'' wrote one teacher from Eneida Massas Hartner Elementary, a 6-year-old school nearby. ``I never get caught up,'' Whitmore says, heading back to the mechanical room. ``Never.'' Miami Herald, “New Schools Eat Up Funds for Repairs,” June 22, 2003 ``If it wasn't for maintenance, I don't know how our school would have functioned that first year,'' said Orlando Gonzalez, who as principal in 1999 opened Jose de Diego Middle School, where leaks destroyed light fixtures and corroded walls. Magnum Construction Management Corp. was paid $12 million to build Jose de Diego, and is still allowed to bid on School Board work. The company's president, Jorge Munilla, said he had not known about the school's problems. He said the company would investigate and make repairs if necessary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, two articles from the Broward Daily Business Review cover another bid controversy involving MCM: Broward Daily Business Review, “Builder Fails to Prove County Conflict,” August 31, 2000 A construction company that didn't get a Miami-Dade County selection committee's nod to build the planned $30 million Water and Sewer Department headquarters has failed to prove that its loss came because of a conflict of interest on the part of the committee's support staff. MCM Corp., a South Miami builder that the committee ranked second of two bidders, alleged in a bid protest that the ranking was skewed because of business relationships between the top-ranked team and Raul Masvidal, a politically connected businessman who did reference checks for the committee. But hearing officer Jose A. Villalobos concluded that MCM presented no substantial, competent evidence showing that any of these relationships' rose to the level of a conflict, or that the impartiality of the committee was compromised in any way. Broward Daily Business Review, “Is Bid Protest Sour Grapes or Legitimate Beef?,” The losing bidder for a $30 million county office construction project has filed a formal protest, alleging that selection committee staff members have business ties to the winning bidder. MCM Corp.'s $26.8 million bid to build the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department headquarters in Coral Gables came in $4.4 million lower than the $31.2 million bid by the team of Odebrecht/Delant. But the county's outside selection committee recommended against MCM, based largely on a handful of unfavorable references, including notice that another county department wants MCM barred from future work because of a dispute over its performance on a project four years ago. MCM filed a bid protest, saying that it had never been told of the effort to bar it, and that it has won a series of court judgments against the county in that ongoing dispute. Several of the other reference reports paint an unrealistically negative image of the firm, the filing argues. The protest is scheduled to be heard by an examiner Tuesday. The County Commission is expected to consider the office contract in September, after the bid protest would be resolved.
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