John Cruz, CEO of Cruz Construction in Roxbury.
The Boston Business Journal published this article on June 7th, 2018.
By Robin Washington Special to the Journal
John B. Cruz III Timeline
- 1943: Born, Wareham, Mass.
- 1964: Graduates Wentworth Institute of Technology
- 1970: Marries wife Barbara; takes first vacation
- 1982: Cruz Management Company is incorporated
- 2016-18: Receives awards from Boston Branch NAACP, Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and Justice, Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus and others
Title: President/Owner, Cruz Companies Inc.
Age: 75
Education: Bachelor’s degree in building technology, Wentworth Institute, 1964; Minority Developer’s executive training program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986
Residence: Jamaica Plain
For many successful entrepreneurs, the path to a lifelong career is often laden with twists and turns. For John B. Cruz III of Roxbury’s Cruz Companies Inc., it was pretty straightforward — except when he told his high school guidance counselor he was thinking of majoring in drama during senior year.
“He pulls out these statistics, and he shows me what someone in the arts makes. I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t want to be poor!’” recalls Cruz, who had been working for his father’s construction company since he was old enough to hold a hammer. The counselor — John D. O’Bryant, later a Boston School Committee member for whom the district’s science and math high school is named — knew that.
“He said, ‘Your father has a business, doesn’t he? Maybe you could help him build the business. You can still do acting in summer stock, and if it really pulls you in, that’s what you could do.’”
Summer stock never called, and Cruz went to work for his dad, John “Bertie” Cruz Jr., who had started a two-man carpentry operation in 1948. The son found his niche on the administrative side. “My father was a lover of dirt and mud. If somebody walked in on the job, they’d ask him who the boss was,” Cruz recalls. “He didn’t like paperwork, so with me he didn’t have to worry about the office, and I didn’t have to worry about working in the field.”
While Roxbury today is one of the region’s hottest housing markets, developers ignored it for much of the second half of the last century, giving Cruz an opportunity. A track record in homebuilding led to a nod in 1980 by what was then the Boston Redevelopment Authority to renovate the Cox Building in John Eliot Square, a then-vacant historic landmark. The mix-use building now houses the company’s headquarters.
Among 1,500 housing units Cruz has developed are the 17-story Council Tower elderly residences and the Orchard Commons and Cass House complexes, all in Roxbury. Most recent is Harvard Commons, a single-family/affordable development at the former Boston State Hospital site that lay fallow since 1979. The company also participated in building the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, the Fortress Building, Boston police headquarters and the One Lincoln Street office tower.
The elder Cruz died in 2008. While his business thrives, it’s not quite at the level his son says it should be.
“On the one hand, I’m fiercely proud of the fact that we’re a third-generation, black-owned firm that my father started 70 years ago,” he says of what’s now three companies — John B. Cruz Construction Co., Cruz Management Co. Inc. and Cruz Development Corp. — doing $15 million, $18 million, and $26 million respectively.
“On the other hand, I’m disappointed that we haven’t gotten to the point that we should have,” he continues, citing Boston’s less-than-embracing reception to black businesses, and not just his own.
“There should be five Cruz Companies here,” he continued. “I’ve been to other cities. Even though they didn’t have sophistication (of Boston), they were doing better.”
Another black developer advised him to look at other markets, leading Cruz to Miami. There, he says, “They didn’t give a darn about race. They just wanted you to use local labor. The minute you did that, you were welcomed.”
The result was Biscayne, a 30-story, mixed-use apartment tower and low-rise complex, designed by Boston architects Stull and Lee.
Warmer climes also offered more leisurely pursuits.
“My father had me convinced that ‘vacation’ was a long weekend. It took all the courage in the world for me to approach him,” Cruz recalls of planning his 1970 honeymoon. Meeting fellow vacationers in Acapulco, he asked: “‘You do this every year?’ I said, ‘I’m going back to tell my father I want a week’s vacation every year!’”
He’s made good on that, taking up scuba diving with his daughter and visiting Italy frequently; for its people, food, wine and history. “Wine is history and geography to me” — an analogy that applies locally: “I enjoy driving through Roxbury and looking at the old structures. When you go to other cities, you realize it’s something that sets our city apart. It’s like drinking a great French Bordeaux compared to an OK California.”
That appreciation for the neighborhood and giving back has not gone unnoticed.
“John not only has worked hard to take care of his family and build a business, he has a concern for the whole community on his agenda,” says Melvin B. Miller, publisher of the Bay State Banner, on whose pages Cruz has appeared often. “He’s tough, honest, stalwart, and I love to say he’s a good friend of mine.”
So with modest successes compared to major developers, did Cruz achieve his high school dream of striking it rich?
“The most important things in life are treasures of the heart: family, friends and loved ones,” he says. “I’ve always been rich right there.”