Al Gogolin. Photo courtesy of Procopio Companies

Procopio Companies is ramping up its outside construction management services, in a strategic move that seeks to fill an overlooked niche in the multifamily development sector. 

Al Gogolin, a former executive for Boston-based developer Synergy and Skanska, leads the Middleton real estate firm’s construction services division. The target market is small- to mid-sized housing developments that are looking for an experienced construction manager, Gogolin said. 

“We are having success in this middle range, which is too small for the big guys and too big for the small guys,” said Gogolin, who joined Procopio Companies in April as an executive vice president. 

Larger construction managers dominate the development market in the over-175-unit segment, so Procopio Construction is focusing on the next tier down. The new division is currently working on the 140-unit Vesa apartment project in Marlborough, Massachuetts, and a 25-unit housing project at 103 Cottage St. in Lynn, Massachusetts. 

In its role as construction manager, the division will coordinate the hiring and supervision of subcontractors. 

Financing hurdles have forced a steep downturn in multifamily construction across the nation and in New Hampshire. But opportunities still exist for owners of development sites that have owned them for an extended period, before land prices skyrocketed. 

“These are people who have owned a property for several years at a relatively low cost basis,” Gogolin said in an interview. “They have been sitting on the dirt for a while, whether it’s a small office building or a two-family property, and now trying to get entrepreneurial and opportunistic with it.” 

The new division represents a return to Procopio Companies’ roots in construction before its expansion into multifamily development in recent decades. 

Procopio’s in-house development projects include The Beck, a 290-unit apartment complex that recently opened in Haverhill, Massachusetts.