About Arace
Edward L. Arace, managing partner, and Lewis Eisenberg, managing director, are Arace’s partners and only staff members. Arace’s headquarters is located at 26 Village Cove, Warwick, NY 10990; the winter office is located at 356 Golfview Road #704, North Palm Beach, FL 33408.
All tasks for PFS/PLA project work is undertaken jointly by the two principals in a highly collaborative and efficient manner. Unlike most other PFS/PLA consultants, AC is not an engineering or construction company. Conducting PFS/PLA projects is our only business and we are totally focused on it. This means that clients always get our A Team, not associates or interns, and our full attention, 365/24/7. Because we operate with minimal overhead, we can often deliver PFS/PLA projects, and associated analyses and reports, more quickly and at lower cost than other firms. No subcontractors have ever been hired for Arace’s PFS/PLA projects.
The Arace team has made presentations on the benefits and drawbacks of PLAs to public entities such as Dutchess County, NY legislature, Burlington, VT Town Counsel and Connecticut Department of Transportation. Private entity presentations have been made to United Water's Executive Board and others.
Resume of Edward L. Arace
Ed Arace is Managing Partner of Arace & Company Consultants, LLC. He founded the firm in 2003 with PLAs as part of an economic development portfolio. In 2010, Project Labor Agreement Consulting Services became, and remains today, the firm’s sole business.
Ed’s current PFS portfolio includes: reviewing prior area PLAs for concessions and trends; assessing commonalities and differences in the primes’ CBAs; determining areas of potential savings and calculating dollar values; identifying potential problems with upcoming CBA negotiations; producing charts for prevailing wage and holidays; and generating an economic summary report. Ed’s PLA portfolio includes: liaison with union leaders, CM’s, Owner’s reps, contractors, attorneys and government officials; facilitating pre-negotiation strategy and goal setting meetings with client’s team; establishing a pre-negotiation working relationship with the local building and construction trades council; negotiating PLA agreements; managing the delivery of a final executed PLA.
Prior to founding Arace Consulting, Ed had a 22 year career in New York State government. From 1995-2002 he was Director, then Vice President, New York State Department of Economic Development for the Mid-Hudson Region, a seven county area the size of the State of Connecticut. He was responsible for all New York State economic development activities in the region including; business attraction and retention, marketing, planning and development and project management. During his tenure, Ed had the opportunity to take the lead on many high profile projects, including corporate headquarters for Fuji Film, IBM and Heineken; distribution centers for Pep Boys, Staples and Home Depot; and manufacturing facilities for IBM and Amscan.
Prior to his economic development work, Mr. Arace was employed by the New York State Senate from 1981-95. He served as Director of Legislative Programs for the Senate Vice President; Director of Senate Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions Committee; and Assistant Director of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. Mr. Arace was the Senate’s representative on Hudson River Greenway; Catskill Interpretive Center; Rockefeller Institute 25th Anniversary Study of DEC; and Governor's Task Force on Underground Mining, among others. His portfolio included responsibility for Senate bills dealing with Business Corporation Law and Not-For Profit Law, and appointments to commissions and authorities.
Resume of Lewis Eisenberg
Lewis Eisenberg is Managing Director of Arace & Company Consultants, LLC. He is a specialist with two decades of experience in strategic analysis and project management. Lew has been AC’s point man for PLA Feasibility Studies and PLA negotiations since 2006.
His PFS portfolio includes: establishing a good working relationship with the client and key players; conducting research and interviews to define and articulate: scope of project and its labor requirements; history of local/regional labor unrest; compliance with M/WBE and SDVOB performance goals; a compelling case for urgent completion. Lew also produces all project-related internal and external communications including reports, letters, meeting summaries, process updates and opinions as well as the draft and final Studies.
His PLA portfolio includes: liaison with union leaders, CM’s, Owner’s reps, contractors, attorneys and government officials; teeing up and facilitating pre-negotiation strategy and goal setting meetings with client’s team; establishing a pre-negotiation working relationship with the local building and construction trades council and/or their attorney; managing the PLA negotiating process in a timely manner; scheduling face-to-face or zoom meetings between the parties as needed; cultivating a win-win attitude between the parties; facilitating positive communication throughout the process; delivering a final executed PLA.
Prior to joining Arace, Lew’s work experience included five years as the executive director of the Men of Reform Judaism, a non-profit organization with 20,000 members organized into 300 chapters across the U.S. and Canada. He also served as executive director of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the environmental group founded by Pete Seeger. His portfolio includes leadership for strategic visioning/planning processes, building institutional relationships, increasing public awareness and generating new funding.
Lew began his career as a journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area with the Oakland Tribune and KPFA radio. He ultimately transitioned into writing for advertising and marketing. Notable projects included heading a team market-testing a new channel for HBO and the re-branding of SES AMERICOM, operators of the world’s largest satellite communications network. He has written speeches and presentations for James Earl Jones, Larry Tisch and Raoul Julia and written and directed documentaries on interfaith relations.
Lew has run writing classes at the VA Hospital and local prisons and mentored ESL students. He is the immediate past chair of Open Space Planning for the Town of Gardiner, NY and former chair of that town’s Environmental Conservation Commission. He was a member of the steering committee of Ulster Tomorrow (UT), the county’s economic development planning committee, and chair of UT’s Creative Economy sector.