The Great Recession is going smoothly at Suffolk Construction Co., the dominant general building contractor in Boston. Yes, backlog is down. Sure, employees have been let go or reassigned. Most building contractors have done the same. But on a recent May morning at Suffolk’s headquarters in a converted industrial building in the tough Roxbury neighborhood, the company’s sole owner and chief executive is so pumped with optimism you would hardly guess the building-construction sector is in the middle of a historic slump.
Upon meeting John F. Fish at the headquarters, he doesn’t immediately show off Suffolk’s portfolio of multi- million-dollar hotel and hospital renovations or display his company’s training curriculum; rather, he introduces a professorial gentleman with a caramel voice and perfect diction, standing in the doorway of a conference room.