Labour Impact Report 2024
Land acknowledgement
Fengate acknowledges that we live and work on the land of traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples from across Turtle Island, which is also known as North America, and is home to many diverse peoples, cultures, languages and territories including First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. Fengate acknowledges and pays respect to Indigenous Peoples who have been stewards of the land for generations and hold unique perspectives, knowledge and rights to ecosystem conservation and climate change. Fengate strives to find opportunities to partner with, consult, and promote Indigenous People in our business and our investments. We also commit to continuously educate our employees on Indigenous history, culture, rights and the ongoing process of reconciliation.
Introduction
We are proud to release the inaugural Fengate Asset Management (‘Fengate’ or ‘the firm’) Labour Impact Report (‘the report’). This report details the impact of Fengate’s investments on the generation of Responsible Contractor construction jobs in Canada and the United States (‘U.S.’). The report also quantifies the economic, fiscal, and socio-economic value created by some of our investments through specific project highlights, in partnership with Pinnacle Economics using the IMPLAN Model.
This report demonstrates that in addition to generating strong risk-adjusted returns for our investors, Fengate’s investments in real assets across North America also produce strong direct and indirect economic value through a “multiplier effect” across local, regional, and national economies.
Fengate’s Responsible Labour Program is part of Fengate’s Responsible Investment Program which promotes the integration of responsible investment principles into each step of the investment process. Fengate acknowledges that acting responsibly on behalf of our stakeholders, which includes a global roster of institutional investors, is a part of its fiduciary duties. Our responsible investment values are reflected in both what we invest in and how we partner in the delivery of our projects. Through our investments, which include electricity generating facilities, essential infrastructure such as hospitals and schools, private equity investments and real estate investments that provide student and senior housing, we understand the privilege of being part of the fabric of our communities. We strive for thoughtful delivery through partnerships with responsible labour groups, reputable design-builders and operators, and meaningful engagement with local communities.
Tax revenue creation
Economic stimulation
Creating fair-wage job opportunities for the construction sector Fair-wage job opportunities
Growing employer contributions to pension plans Pension contributions
Stimulating local economies by supporting jobs in other industries
Creating tax revenue for local, regional and national governments
10M+
Construction union worker hours1 generated from over 14 trade unions across 16 investments during the reporting period.
This report covers a six-year period beginning at the start of 2019 through to the end of 2024. It follows the significant progress made in 2024 to implement Fengate’s Responsible Labour Program.
Fengate’s Responsible Labour Program embeds strong Responsible Contractor considerations throughout the investment lifecycle, including project notification, inclusive bidding, monitoring, hours tracking and reporting. Building a dedicated in-house responsible labour team, Fengate strengthened its commitment to ensure compliance with the firm’s Responsible Contractor Policy.
About Fengate
Fengate is an alternative investment manager headquartered in Toronto, Canada, focused on North American infrastructure, real estate, and private equity investing. The firm has total capital commitments of $7 billion and manages approximately $16 billion in assets. With over 250 professionals across offices in Toronto, Oakville, Houston, and Miami, Fengate leverages 50 years of entrepreneurial experience to deliver excellent results on behalf of our clients, partners and the communities we work in. We believe that responsible corporate behaviour and responsible investing are intrinsic to strong, long-term investor returns, and we strive to align these principles with our portfolio objectives.
Our responsible investment values are reflected in both our investment choices and our project partnerships. We understand the privilege of being part of our communities’ fabric and strive for thoughtful delivery through partnerships with responsible labour groups, reputable design-builders and operators, and meaningful engagement with local communities.
1
2 Capital commitments to Fengate-managed vehicles from third-party investors and General Partner.
3 Assets under management represents enterprise value adjusted for Fengate’s ownership (Infrastructure and Private Equity assets) and project gross asset value (Real Estate assets), plus undrawn commitments and recallable distributions.
Active Fengate markets
Fengate staff
Fengate offices
Responsible labour philosophy and approach
Fengate was founded with a deep commitment to community, and responsible labour principles have been integral to the firm’s mission from the start. We fundamentally believe that utilizing Responsible Contractors promotes private capital investment and leads to enhanced risk-adjusted returns for our investors in the regions in which we invest. Fengate recognizes that the use of responsible labour groups, comprised of skilled craft professionals, can enable productive and safe working conditions that comply with or exceed regulatory requirements while delivering quality assets with minimized construction and operational risks.
Fengate is continuously improving and innovating to turn its commitment to responsible labour practices into meaningful action.
Responsible Contractor Policy
In 2024, Fengate updated the firm’s Responsible Contractor Policy (‘RCP’) for Fengate Infrastructure Fund IV (‘Fund IV’) and Fengate Infrastructure Yield Fund (‘Yield Fund’). This update enhances the definition and inclusionary policies of Signatory Contractors and other Responsible Contractors (together referred to as ‘Responsible Contractors’) during construction, renovation, maintenance and operations. The updated RCP further establishes labour-related investment objectives and requirements within the funds.
The RCP aims to foster a safe, healthy, and profitable business environment by:
Encouraging the use of Responsible Contractors
02 Ensuring a competitive bidding process and notifying Responsible Contractors of upcoming work
Promoting the use of Project Labour Agreements (‘PLAs’)
Utilizing Fengate’s Labour Liaison to connect internal and external parties on labour matters
A Signatory Contractor is an organization that is party to, or bound by, collective bargaining agreements with North American labour organizations pertaining to building trades. While a Signatory Contractor is a Responsible Contractor, the reverse is not necessarily true: a Responsible Contractor is not necessarily a Signatory Contractor.
A Responsible Contractor is an organization with relevant experience, a good safety record and reputation, and dependable to provide high quality and cost-efficient services on a comparable and relevant basis in the applicable local market, consistent with the relevant contracting criteria. A Responsible Contractor provides fair compensation and fair benefits, demonstrates a track record of compliance with local, municipal, provincial, state and federal laws and regulations, and values employee training and safety.
North America’s Building Trades Unions (‘NABTU’)
Fengate received a score of 88% for NABTU’s Responsible Contractor Policy Scorecard and achieved the maximum score in 8 out of 10 categories. Fengate will continue to enhance our program and policy implementation consistent with NABTU expectations and guidance. Fengate continues to work closely with NABTU on advancing the firm’s responsible labour practices, including quarterly pipeline notification calls, policy language updates, and labour impact reporting.
About NABTU
NABTU is dedicated to creating economic security and employment opportunities for its construction workers by growing infrastructure investment and union construction jobs, safeguarding workplace, wage and benefits standards, promoting responsible private capital investments, investing in renowned apprenticeship and training, and creating pathways to the middle class for women, communities of colour, military veterans and justice-involved in the construction industry.
88% NABTU’s Responsible Contractor Policy Scorecard1 1
~70% of Fengate’s total capital commitments come from labour-sponsored pension plans
Labour at the core of our company: The LiUNA story
Fengate has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with construction labour unions and their pension plans for nearly 50 years. The Laborers’ International Union of North America (‘LiUNA’) and Fengate have a deep history built on a shared commitment to community-building.
From modest beginnings, Louis Serafini Sr. (‘Sr.’) founded a real estate brokerage in Hamilton, Ontario in 1974, a challenging period of economic transition for the city. Sr.’s uniquely collaborative approach to doing business, based on relationships of deep trust, has driven every pivotal moment in Fengate’s history. In 1981, through Hamilton’s fraternal Sons of Italy organization, Sr. met Mr. Enrico Mancinelli, business manager of LiUNA, local 873. Raised in the same community of newcomers to Canada, they forged a close business partnership and a deep friendship.
Mr. Mancinelli entrusted Sr. to manage LiUNA’s initiative to develop affordable housing, becoming an integral part of creating the LiUNA Hamilton Association. Together, LiUNA and Fengate rallied many community groups and developed more than 2,000 affordable homes in Hamilton, Burlington, and Niagara Falls, Ontario. Developing over C$150 million of affordable housing gave Fengate the opportunity to expand Sr.’s passion of investing in commercial real estate. This successful development grew relationships and crystalized Sr.’s reputation as a savvy investor. Over C$20 million in commercial real estate was acquired, supported by approximately 40 committed individuals who believed in Sr.’s vision. These investments would later form the foundation of Fengate’s first investment fund.
Over 1.6 million LiUNA hours on projects tracked1
For more than four decades, Fengate and LiUNA have forged a partnership shaped by mutual trust, shared vision, and exceptional returns. Across numerous ventures, Fengate continues to share LiUNA’s ambition to innovate, empowering our members to build vibrant communities and secure futures.”
Joseph Mancinelli LiUNA International Vice President and Canadian Director Chair, LiUNA Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada
Fengate’s Responsible Labour Program
The Responsible Labour Program provides a framework for Fengate to engage with labour partners and ensures responsible labour practices are integrated in the investment process. There are five key pillars to the program that guide our approach to every investment:
1
Active project notification
Provide advance notification of upcoming construction work through quarterly labour pipeline notification meetings. Responsible Contractors can participate and learn about projects in Fengate’s pipeline.
Notify NABTU affiliates when a project is planned for a region. Establish meetings to discuss the project in more detail and request Responsible Contractors in the relevant geographies.
3
Monitoring
Monitor project progress throughout the construction phase by maintaining consistent communication with the project directors, general contractors, design builders, and/or subcontractors.
Proactively identify and address potential labour-related issues that may emerge during the construction period.
2
Inclusive bidding process
Encourage Responsible Contractors to bid on upcoming projects in relevant geographies by ensuring they are made aware of the project and given the opportunity to submit a bid.
Continue to build out a Responsible Contractor database to assist in the notification and inclusive bidding process.
5
Reporting
Publicly reporting on labour impact through annual labour impact reports. The annual reporting process will include detailed analysis of hours worked, case studies and economic value creation where data is available. Additionally, these reports will highlight our continuous improvements and initiatives aimed at enhancing labour relations and supporting community growth.
4
Labour hours collection
Track construction hours generated on projects on a quarterly basis to evaluate the effectiveness of Responsible Contractor mobilization across construction projects. Fengate’s responsible labour team and Labour Liaison review the collected hours for quality assurance.
Governance structure
We acknowledge that a robust labour program is a shared responsibility across all business units. Labour relations roles are clearly defined and integrated into Fengate’s broader governance framework.
Fengate’s responsible labour team provides expertise and direction aligned with Fengate’s responsible labour strategy. In 2024, Fengate hired Rocco Davis, Senior Advisor, as its first Labour Liaison. The Labour Liaison focuses on the U.S. market, providing an important bridge between internal and external parties during the bidding process. Rocco closely collaborates with Fengate staff and Responsible Contractors to promote an inclusive bidding process and notify Responsible Contractors of potential work on projects. The formal process is outlined in the Responsible Labour Program section of this report. The Labour Liaison also develops and maintains relationships with NABTU leadership and facilitates connections between Fengate and Responsible Contractors’ project jurisdictions.
Labour impact
Labour and economic impact analysis
In partnership with Alec Josephson, Senior Economist, and President of Pinnacle Economics, Fengate calculated direct and indirect economic impact figures through the IMPLAN modeling software, using the union and non-union labour hours that Fengate collected over the reporting period of 2019 to 2024. Fengate selected specific projects to conduct the economic impact analysis and is proud to showcase them within the project-specific case studies of this report.
The analysis demonstrates that real asset investments with strong Responsible Contractor participation are catalysts for economic growth. Additionally, when secondary or collateral benefits are included in investment goals, the outcomes should be measured and quantified alongside investment returns.
There is specific terminology to identify the different types of impacts, including:
■ Direct impacts represent the output, jobs, and income generated as a result of project spending on the construction of new buildings or improvements to existing structures. The direct impacts are driven by project expenditures on hard costs (i.e., construction services) and soft costs (i.e., architectural, financial, insurance, legal, and permitting services).
■ Indirect impacts occur as businesses that are directly impacted by project spending buy intermediate goods and services from other businesses. These purchases of goods and services from other businesses indirectly generate sales, jobs, and income for others. Indirect impacts are typically called supply-chain impacts.
■ Induced impacts result from the increased income and purchasing power of households who are either directly or indirectly affected by project spending.
For more information about the IMPLAN Model, please see page 22 of this report.
LAX ConRAC
The Los Angeles International Airport’s Consolidated RentA-Car facility (‘LAX ConRAC’) had a positive impact on the community by operating sustainably and balancing economic, social and environmental responsibilities throughout design and construction. The project was built under a Project Labour Agreement (‘PLA’) that started in 2018 and was completed in mid-2024, which created more than 5,000 jobs and $200 million in wages for the local workforce.
This project consolidates more than 20 rental car agencies into a single facility, creating a streamlined rental car experience for hundreds of thousands of travelers each year. It also eliminates approximately 3,200 daily shuttle trips, alleviating traffic congestion on local streets and around the airport’s Central Terminal Area.
Winner 2019 ARTBA Innovation P3 Project of the Year
Finalist 2019 NCPPP
Outstanding Emerging Project
Finalist P3 Awards 2019 Best Transit Project
Winner U.S. Green Building Council’s Los Angeles Energy and Operational Carbon Design Merit Award 2023
1.7x multiplier effect $2.2B+total economic impact generated across eight industrysectors
Infrastructure | Project in construction
Clackamas County Replacement Courthouse
The Clackamas County Replacement Courthouse project in Oregon is a social infrastructure project that addresses the need to replace the existing courthouse, which no longer meets the needs of the growing Clackamas population.
Responsible labour has been a top priority since the outset of the courthouse project. Fengate’s President and CEO, Lou Serafini, met with the design-builder (PCL) and LiUNA in October 2022 to ensure a local relationship was established and a signatory list was made available to the team. PCL also partnered with signatory mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) contractors. The value of the MEP work was more than 30% of the project.
The project is on track to be completed on schedule. The project is on track to be completed on schedule, which is a testament to the hard work of the project team and union locals. Construction is nearly complete with a total of 496,000 union hours worked to-date, which is approximately 92% of the total hours.3
Real Estate | Construction completed
The King William
In the spring of 2024, LiUNA marked the opening of The King William, new purpose-built rental towers in downtown Hamilton. The project delivered a pair of 30-storey towers rising from a 4-storey podium with 12,000 square feet of retail space. Adding 581 new rental homes to the growing Hamilton community, The King William is a landmark project that furthers LiUNA’s ongoing effort to foster growth and development in the city. LiUNA is the lead investor in The King William, which was built in partnership with Fengate and The Hi-Rise Group.
The project accumulated over 273,700 LiUNA construction hours and approximately 918,000 total union hours. The King William joins an extensive list of LiUNA investments in Hamilton, including The William Thomas, 75 James, and 500 Upper Wellington. These achievements are a testament to the skill, perseverance, and collaboration of union labour.
1 Union construction hours were provided by contractor partner.
2 Economic impact and fiscal contributions associated with the project were provided by Pinnacle Economics and were quantified using the IMPLAN model.
union construction labour hours1
918,000+ direct and indirect jobs created2
1,800 of total economic impact created2 C$500M+ labour income created for the community2 C$181M+
1
Construction union hours summary1
IMPLAN and Pinnacle Economics
IMPLAN is a regional economic analysis software and data application that is designed to estimate the impact or ripple effect of a given economic activity or the contribution of some existing activity within a specific geographic area.
Economic impact analysis is an objective approach that establishes rigorous, standardized measurement of direct, indirect and induced impacts. The input-output modeling system, originally developed by a joint effort of the Minnesota IMPLAN Group (MIG) and the USDA Forest Service in 1978, and now privately operated by the IMPLAN Group, LLC, is a state-of-the-art software model used by over 2,000 public and private institutions and has been a standard tool for academic and professional economists for decades. IMPLAN is an input-output dollar flow model that tracks the way a dollar injected into one sector is spent and re-spent in other sectors of the economy, generating waves of economic activity, or “economic multiplier” effects.
The methods used to produce IMPLAN’s economic data set and economic impact estimates have been widely published both in professional publications as well as peer-reviewed academic journals. Many of these methods are considered standard best practices in a wide variety of applied economic fields today.
Pinnacle Economics is nationally recognized for their theoretically sound, data-driven, state-ofthe art approaches for measuring economic and fiscal impacts using the IMPLAN economic impact modeling software. Alec Josephson, Senior Economist, and President of Pinnacle Economic has been using IMPLAN since 1995 and has directed, conducted, and/or authored well over 500 economic impact projects.
The United States Department of Agriculture recognized the IMPLAN modeling framework as “one of the most credible regional impact models used for regional economic impact analysis”
For more information on the IMPLAN Model, please visit https://implan.com
Official trade name listed in Appendix
Looking ahead
Fengate deeply appreciates the trust and relationship between our firm and our investors. We continue to monitor the performance of our Responsible Labour Program, and work closely with our investors, NABTU, and other building trade stakeholders to ensure our program and investment activities reflect the values and objectives of our investors and the broader community within which we have the privilege to invest, build, and serve.
Our Responsible Labour Program reflects Fengate’s commitment to governance, accountability, and oversight of our labour practices. This is demonstrated through advance notification of our project pipeline, maintaining inclusive bidding processes where Fengate has control, active monitoring of labour relationships during construction, and tracking and transparent disclosure on the number of union and non-union work hours generated by construction and ongoing maintenance activities.
If you have any questions or feedback on Fengate’s Responsible Labour Program, please reach out to laborrelations@fengate.com
*Fengate refers to the Fengate group of companies which is comprised of Fengate Capital Management Ltd., its affiliated entities and the funds or other investment vehicles that they manage. Fengate has produced this Report for informational purposes only. The information contained in the Report is believed to be accurate at the time of publication of the brochure; however, Fengate does not guarantee or warrant or make any representations concerning the quality, suitability, accuracy completeness or timeliness of the information contained in the Report.
*Important Disclosures For illustrative purposes only. The views and statistics included are for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a forecast, a guarantee of future results, or investment recommendations.
© 2025 Serafini Holdings Corporation. All rights reserved. Designed and produced by Fengate in April 2025.
Canada | Toronto and Oakville
United States | Miami and Houston
Appendix
Official Trade Name
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
Electrical workers
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Teamsters) Teamsters
International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) Bricklayers
International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) Elevator workers
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) Painters
Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Labourers
Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association (OPCMIA) Cement masons
International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) Sheet metal workers
United Association – Union of Plumbers, Fitters, Welders and Service Techs (UA) Plumbers
United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers (Roofers) Roofers
International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Operating engineers
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers (Boilermakers) Boilermakers
International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers (Insulators) Heat and frost insulators
International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers (IW) Iron workers
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) Carpenters