Spotlight On: Scott Zuckerman, Principal, Domus Inc.
April 2025 — In an interview with Invest:, Scott Zuckerman, principal of general contractor Domus Inc., discussed the company’s resilience and adaptability in the construction industry, particularly in affordable housing. “Our sweet spot has always been affordable housing,” Zuckerman said. He highlighted the company’s ability to navigate challenges like rising costs and material shortages while maintaining a strong focus on projects that serve vulnerable populations.
What were the key milestones and achievements for Domus over the past year?
For Domus, one highlight would be the completion of 417 Callowhill Street (The Keystone), a market-rate project. Given the state of the economy, a lot of market-rate projects have been put on hold or stopped midway. We were lucky to work with a good developer who had the financing in place prior to COVID shutting down a lot of projects. That was a great project for us in a high-visibility location that garnered a lot of attention.
We also did an exciting project: relocating a historic structure from the 1700s at Fourth and Vine streets. For Philadelphia, it’s a significantly historic structure that we were able to relocate to construct a new building and incorporate the historic structure into it. That, along with many other projects, has kept us busy over the past year.
How do you view the state of the construction industry and the impact of tariffs on construction costs and the labor force?
I’ll start with the beginning of COVID. Probably 75% to 80% of the work that Domus does was deemed essential. We had just moved into new offices, which was fortunate because it gave us areas to spread out.
Our work was not shut down by the city. We never went remote like a lot of our competition or other industries did. Everybody has been in the office from 8 to 5, Monday through Friday.
Through COVID, the biggest struggle was getting material, cost containment, and getting people to be in the office. Everybody wanted to be remote, which is difficult in the construction industry. It was tough getting people to work and navigating what was going on in the world — how close people were allowed to be, contradicting information.
We saw a huge price increase between 2020 and today. Part of that is labor. Part of it is my opinion that people aren’t working as efficiently as they used to. And then, of course, there are material costs. Where we were building for about $225 a square foot, we’re now at about $375 a square foot. That’s a 70% increase in cost.
As far as today, with our new president and the impact that’s having, so far we have not been impacted. We’ve picked up six jobs in the past several weeks. We have about 25 projects on our plate. We’re busy.
We do a lot of housing for seniors, veterans, homeless people, battered women, and people coming out of incarceration. There’s always a need for that. There’s money for it. But there seem to be issues with the programs and funding that support it, so there might be a slowdown.
I was at an event where people involved in market-rate projects said they’ve come to a screeching halt. Philadelphia went from 90% occupied to 30% occupied during COVID.
Everybody was remote. Our previous mayor didn’t require people to come back to the office. I think it was great that our new mayor, Cherelle Parker, told everyone to get back to the office.
But many are still remote or hybrid. Comcast, one of our biggest landlords in Philadelphia and a major employer, is still three days a week, not five. That’s a big chunk of the population in Philadelphia. During the day, the city is still unfortunately a little quiet.
What shifts in project types and client demands are you seeing across the commercial, residential, hospitality, and academic sectors?
For us, our sweet spot has always been affordable housing. The reference is LIHTC deals: low-income housing tax credit deals. Historically, 75% to 80% of our work has been that, although we have done some really cool projects like the Divine Lorraine, the Metropolitan Opera House, and restaurants.
That work has faded away, but our sweet spot of affordable LIHTC deals has continued and is very strong. While we’d like to pick up a market-rate project every now and then, those projects are few and far between.
We’re a union contractor, so a lot of people are moving to what we call an open shop: using different general contractors because of the cost difference. But the sector that has kept us alive and going all these years is still very strong. We have a good stronghold in that world, and people continuously come back to us for that work.
When you look at the work we do, almost every project is with a repeat client; however, we have picked up a few new ones.
What are some of the most pressing affordable housing challenges today, and how is Domus working to address them?
It’s interesting because I think Philly is in a different position than some other areas. Philly is planning to build 30,000 units of housing. Philadelphia embraces it more than the suburbs. You get pushback, but not as much as in the suburbs or other areas.
I would say pricing is an obstacle. We’ve explored modular housing and panelized construction to help with costs. We’ve looked at other options but always come back to what has worked for us and our clients. We’re about to start one modular project, but they generally don’t work well in Philadelphia due to road constraints and funding issues specific to affordable housing that don’t exist in the private sector.
We’ve explored these options to help with overall costs. These are the challenges we’ve faced. Knock on wood, we haven’t had too many challenges. Getting materials was a challenge until recently. We had a couple of projects where we couldn’t get electrical breakers, so we purchased them on eBay from across the country just to complete the project.
What are your top priorities for Domus over the next two to three years?
I think we’re going to stay focused on what we do best and what our clients expect of us, which is the LIHTC deals. I don’t think we’re going to change course. We might expand geographically a little into the suburbs to pick up additional work, but Domus has been around for nearly 50 years — I’ve been part of it for 26 years — so we’re going to stay with what’s true and tried.
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