BRISTOL - The Bristol Development Authority approved the master plan for the development at Centre Square and the landscape plan for the Bristol Hospital Ambulatory Care Center at Monday night’s meeting.
The master plan, which was approved by the downtown committee of the development authority earlier this month, was created by engineering consultant Milone & MacBroom. It pertains to the portion of Centre Square that will not be part of the ambulatory care center.
Included is the construction of a central roadway, bus stops, two-story buildings, on-street parking, scattered parking lots, lane reconfigurations and streetscape improvements.
Justin Malley, executive director of the development authority, explained an alternative plan for a parking garage and public comments were incorporated in the master plan.
“The only things that changed, is that Milone & MacBroom incorporated public comments,” he said, and “the option to relocate the parking on the site to the center of the site, rather than having the parking garage sort of to the north end of the site near McDonald’s, which would eat up some of the prime developable area.”
The landscape plan, which was created by Rendina Healthcare Real Estate and Bristol Hospital, was approved by the downtown committee of the development authority earlier this month. It pertains to the portion of Centre Square from the sidewalk of Riverside Avenue up the slight hill to the parking lot.
Malley explained that part of the purchase and sale agreement between Bristol Hospital and the city required the development authority to approve the landscaping plan.
“This is required per the purchase and sale agreement for the BDA to look at the landscaping plan for this specific area of the site,” Malley said.
Mayor Ken Cockayne said, “Per the purchase and sale agreement, they had to show what their landscape was going to look like. Part of the council’s concern was that we weren’t going to be looking at asphalt from Riverside Avenue. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New London to sign condominium development agreement
New London — City officials on Wednesday will sign a development agreement for the Shipway 221 condominium project on Howard Street and a construction agreement for Parcel J, at the corner of Bank and Howard streets.
In June and August, respectively, the City Council approved development agreements for Parcel J and Shipway 221.
Parcel J is the site of a proposed 90-unit apartment complex, valued at $17 million. A.R. Building Co. is developing both this project and the 104-unit Mansfield Road Apartments, which is expected to open in the fall.
Shipway 221 is a $30 million, 200-unit condominium project on parcels owned by Renaissance City Development Association.
Mayor Michael Passero said in a news release that with Electric Boat expecting to hire thousands of new employees in the next decade, the city is answering the question of, "Where are all these new employees going to live?" with the three projects.
These developments come as the city works to draw in other potential developments. In June, Passero met in Boston with real estate developers John E. Drew and Michael Keyes, Legal Sea Foods President and CEO Roger Berkowitz, and former Boston Redevelopment Authority Vice Chairman Paul Foster.
Yard Goats' Season Closes, But Legal Battle Drags On
As the Yard Goats’ regular season — the first played in the team’s new, upscale stadium north of downtown — nears its conclusion, a battle wages on in the legal arena.
Team owner Josh Solomon was in court Tuesday, seeking to bring to a head a lawsuit he’s been entangled in for more than a year. The fired developers of Dunkin’ Donuts Park, where the Yard Goats have hosted dozens of sold-out games this summer, are suing Solomon, alleging he pressured the city to expand the scope of work at the ballpark, driving up the price and ultimately derailing the project.
City leaders fired the developers — Centerplan Construction Co. and DoNo Hartford — last year after they missed several key deadlines to complete the stadium. The ballpark’s opening, set for April 2016, was delayed a year and the Yard Goats played their entire first season on the road.
Arch Insurance, which guaranteed completion of the park, handled a takeover agreement and hired contracting firm Whiting-Turner to finish the park.
Attorneys for Solomon in June filed a motion for a pretrial judgment, saying there is “a complete lack of evidence of any unfair or deceptive conduct” by Solomon or the team. They asked the judge to rule in Solomon’s favor.
Raymond Garcia, a lawyer for Centerplan and its chief executive, Robert Landino, has charged that Solomon pushed the city to issue change orders that boosted the scope of the project, making it impossible for the developers to complete the stadium on time and on budget. Solomon has denied the claims.
Trump's planned building boom bumps up against worker shortage
President Donald Trump's plan to boost the economy with millions of jobs rebuilding roads, bridges and ports has a snag, the construction industry says: There aren't nearly enough skilled workers to fill them.
Companies including AECOM, Skanska USA Inc. and Turner Construction Co. say the industry is hard-pressed to find enough people for current openings, let alone with the expansion Trump envisions with an additional $1 trillion in spending over the next decade. And though its full impact isn't yet clear, rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Harvey are likely to increase the demand for workers in the coming years. "I don't think we could even dream of finding enough people," said Richard Cavallaro, president and chief executive officer of Skanska USA Civil, said of Trump's plan to employ millions. "I just don't think it's going to happen like that."
With the U.S. economy at close to full employment, economists say there aren't millions of unemployed people looking for construction jobs there were about 225,000 unfilled posts in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's only slightly down from a nine-year peak of 238,000 openings in July 2016, data show. On top of that, about 3 million of the current 14.5 million construction workers will retire or leave the industry over the next decade and need to be replaced, according to Joseph Kane, a former economist at the BLS who is now at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "There really isn't a lot of breathing room in that market," he said.
The administration's immigration policies could compound the stress by making it more difficult to bring in qualified workers from other countries, said Stacey Bledsoe, director of human resource services for PCL Construction in Denver. In 2014, almost one of every four construction workers was an immigrant, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data.
Companies have already been reaching for whatever levers they can find to draw workers. Because firms are competing to secure subcontractors, New York-based Turner Construction has a program to pay them more quickly than other companies to ensure their availability, said Attilio Rivetti, vice president and director of preconstruction and estimating. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Survey: Contractors Cannot Find Enough Craft Workers to Meet Demand
Seventy percent of construction firms report they are having a hard time filling hourly craft positions that represent the bulk of the construction workforce, according to the results of an industry-wide survey released today by Autodesk and the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said that many firms are changing the way they operate, recruit and compensate, but cautioned that chronic labor shortages could have significant economic impacts absent greater investments in career and technical education.
"In the short-term, fewer firms will be able to bid on construction projects if they are concerned they will not have enough workers to meet demand," said Stephen Sandherr, chief executive officer for the Associated General Contractors. "Over the long-term, either construction firms will find a way to do more with fewer workers or public officials will take steps to encourage more people to pursue careers in construction."
Of the more than 1,600 survey respondents, 70 percent said they are having difficulty filling hourly craft positions, Sandherr noted. Craft worker shortages are the most severe in the West, where 75 percent of contractors are having a hard time filling those positions, followed by the Midwest where 72 percent are having a hard time finding craft workers, 70 percent in the South and 63 percent in the Northeast.
The labor shortages come as demand for construction continues to grow. Sandherr noted that construction employment expanded in 258 out of 358 metro areas that the association tracks between July 2016 and July 2017, according to a new analysis of federal construction employment data the association also released today. Growing demand for construction workers helps explain why 67 percent of firms report it will continue to be hard, or get harder, to find hourly craft workers this year. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
With No Federal Infrastructure Spending Plan, Construction Stocks Drop
Construction stocks are losing money as President Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure spending plans could be pushed back to 2018. Although Trump promised to get the money early is his first year as president, he has now said that he will try to get a bill through Congress at the end of this year, but Bloomberg Markets reported that 2018 is looking more likely.
So far, both Fluor Corp. and Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. (CBI) have seen cost overruns on some larger projects.
“Clearly, we had a pop in all these names with the election,” said Brent Thielman, a construction industry analyst with D.A. Davidson & Co. “As investors are digesting that this is going to take more time — if it happens at all — we're sort of back to the reality of the market.”
According to economic advisor Gary Cohn, the Trump Administration would like for Congress to approve an infrastructure plan this year, but it must first prioritize the nation's debt ceiling and an unwritten tax bill.
Half of Fluor's money comes from energy, chemicals and mining endeavors. In August, the company took a $124 million writedown after $30 million charges in Q1 and $265 million in 2016 due to problems with its gas-fired power plants and a petrochemical facility, Bloomberg Markets reported.
After CBI's $548 million writedown in Q2 related to issues with liquid natural gas processors and gas-fired plants, the company announced it will sell its technology unit.
Fluor and CBI aren't the only companies seeing a decline in stock prices: Jacobs Engineering Group has dropped by 11 percent this year, and AECOM has plummeted by 14 percent, Bloomberg Markets reported.
Included is the construction of a central roadway, bus stops, two-story buildings, on-street parking, scattered parking lots, lane reconfigurations and streetscape improvements.
Justin Malley, executive director of the development authority, explained an alternative plan for a parking garage and public comments were incorporated in the master plan.
“The only things that changed, is that Milone & MacBroom incorporated public comments,” he said, and “the option to relocate the parking on the site to the center of the site, rather than having the parking garage sort of to the north end of the site near McDonald’s, which would eat up some of the prime developable area.”
The landscape plan, which was created by Rendina Healthcare Real Estate and Bristol Hospital, was approved by the downtown committee of the development authority earlier this month. It pertains to the portion of Centre Square from the sidewalk of Riverside Avenue up the slight hill to the parking lot.
Malley explained that part of the purchase and sale agreement between Bristol Hospital and the city required the development authority to approve the landscaping plan.
“This is required per the purchase and sale agreement for the BDA to look at the landscaping plan for this specific area of the site,” Malley said.
Mayor Ken Cockayne said, “Per the purchase and sale agreement, they had to show what their landscape was going to look like. Part of the council’s concern was that we weren’t going to be looking at asphalt from Riverside Avenue. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New London to sign condominium development agreement
New London — City officials on Wednesday will sign a development agreement for the Shipway 221 condominium project on Howard Street and a construction agreement for Parcel J, at the corner of Bank and Howard streets.
In June and August, respectively, the City Council approved development agreements for Parcel J and Shipway 221.
Parcel J is the site of a proposed 90-unit apartment complex, valued at $17 million. A.R. Building Co. is developing both this project and the 104-unit Mansfield Road Apartments, which is expected to open in the fall.
Shipway 221 is a $30 million, 200-unit condominium project on parcels owned by Renaissance City Development Association.
Mayor Michael Passero said in a news release that with Electric Boat expecting to hire thousands of new employees in the next decade, the city is answering the question of, "Where are all these new employees going to live?" with the three projects.
These developments come as the city works to draw in other potential developments. In June, Passero met in Boston with real estate developers John E. Drew and Michael Keyes, Legal Sea Foods President and CEO Roger Berkowitz, and former Boston Redevelopment Authority Vice Chairman Paul Foster.
Yard Goats' Season Closes, But Legal Battle Drags On
As the Yard Goats’ regular season — the first played in the team’s new, upscale stadium north of downtown — nears its conclusion, a battle wages on in the legal arena.
Team owner Josh Solomon was in court Tuesday, seeking to bring to a head a lawsuit he’s been entangled in for more than a year. The fired developers of Dunkin’ Donuts Park, where the Yard Goats have hosted dozens of sold-out games this summer, are suing Solomon, alleging he pressured the city to expand the scope of work at the ballpark, driving up the price and ultimately derailing the project.
City leaders fired the developers — Centerplan Construction Co. and DoNo Hartford — last year after they missed several key deadlines to complete the stadium. The ballpark’s opening, set for April 2016, was delayed a year and the Yard Goats played their entire first season on the road.
Arch Insurance, which guaranteed completion of the park, handled a takeover agreement and hired contracting firm Whiting-Turner to finish the park.
Centerplan has also sued the city, claiming it was wrongfully terminated, and is seeking $90 million for work performed at the park, for its inability to continue development in Hartford’s downtown north neighborhood — and collect payment — and for funds that Arch Insurance is seeking to recover from Centerplan.
The developers were supposed to complete several other phases of construction in the area, including housing, retail, a hotel and a much-needed grocery store, but the lawsuits have thrown those plans into limbo. Attorneys for Solomon in June filed a motion for a pretrial judgment, saying there is “a complete lack of evidence of any unfair or deceptive conduct” by Solomon or the team. They asked the judge to rule in Solomon’s favor.
Raymond Garcia, a lawyer for Centerplan and its chief executive, Robert Landino, has charged that Solomon pushed the city to issue change orders that boosted the scope of the project, making it impossible for the developers to complete the stadium on time and on budget. Solomon has denied the claims.
Centerplan also accused Solomon of failing to come through with a $2 million payment to help cover a portion of the construction cost overruns.
In court Tuesday, Garcia said Centerplan was excluded from a series of meetings last year that the city, the team, ballpark designers and others attended. Both sides are expected to review documents and depose witnesses before a ruling is made on the motion. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUETrump's planned building boom bumps up against worker shortage
President Donald Trump's plan to boost the economy with millions of jobs rebuilding roads, bridges and ports has a snag, the construction industry says: There aren't nearly enough skilled workers to fill them.
Companies including AECOM, Skanska USA Inc. and Turner Construction Co. say the industry is hard-pressed to find enough people for current openings, let alone with the expansion Trump envisions with an additional $1 trillion in spending over the next decade. And though its full impact isn't yet clear, rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Harvey are likely to increase the demand for workers in the coming years. "I don't think we could even dream of finding enough people," said Richard Cavallaro, president and chief executive officer of Skanska USA Civil, said of Trump's plan to employ millions. "I just don't think it's going to happen like that."
With the U.S. economy at close to full employment, economists say there aren't millions of unemployed people looking for construction jobs there were about 225,000 unfilled posts in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's only slightly down from a nine-year peak of 238,000 openings in July 2016, data show. On top of that, about 3 million of the current 14.5 million construction workers will retire or leave the industry over the next decade and need to be replaced, according to Joseph Kane, a former economist at the BLS who is now at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "There really isn't a lot of breathing room in that market," he said.
The administration's immigration policies could compound the stress by making it more difficult to bring in qualified workers from other countries, said Stacey Bledsoe, director of human resource services for PCL Construction in Denver. In 2014, almost one of every four construction workers was an immigrant, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data.
Companies have already been reaching for whatever levers they can find to draw workers. Because firms are competing to secure subcontractors, New York-based Turner Construction has a program to pay them more quickly than other companies to ensure their availability, said Attilio Rivetti, vice president and director of preconstruction and estimating. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Survey: Contractors Cannot Find Enough Craft Workers to Meet Demand
Seventy percent of construction firms report they are having a hard time filling hourly craft positions that represent the bulk of the construction workforce, according to the results of an industry-wide survey released today by Autodesk and the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said that many firms are changing the way they operate, recruit and compensate, but cautioned that chronic labor shortages could have significant economic impacts absent greater investments in career and technical education.
"In the short-term, fewer firms will be able to bid on construction projects if they are concerned they will not have enough workers to meet demand," said Stephen Sandherr, chief executive officer for the Associated General Contractors. "Over the long-term, either construction firms will find a way to do more with fewer workers or public officials will take steps to encourage more people to pursue careers in construction."
Of the more than 1,600 survey respondents, 70 percent said they are having difficulty filling hourly craft positions, Sandherr noted. Craft worker shortages are the most severe in the West, where 75 percent of contractors are having a hard time filling those positions, followed by the Midwest where 72 percent are having a hard time finding craft workers, 70 percent in the South and 63 percent in the Northeast.
The labor shortages come as demand for construction continues to grow. Sandherr noted that construction employment expanded in 258 out of 358 metro areas that the association tracks between July 2016 and July 2017, according to a new analysis of federal construction employment data the association also released today. Growing demand for construction workers helps explain why 67 percent of firms report it will continue to be hard, or get harder, to find hourly craft workers this year. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
With No Federal Infrastructure Spending Plan, Construction Stocks Drop
Construction stocks are losing money as President Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure spending plans could be pushed back to 2018. Although Trump promised to get the money early is his first year as president, he has now said that he will try to get a bill through Congress at the end of this year, but Bloomberg Markets reported that 2018 is looking more likely.
So far, both Fluor Corp. and Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. (CBI) have seen cost overruns on some larger projects.
“Clearly, we had a pop in all these names with the election,” said Brent Thielman, a construction industry analyst with D.A. Davidson & Co. “As investors are digesting that this is going to take more time — if it happens at all — we're sort of back to the reality of the market.”
According to economic advisor Gary Cohn, the Trump Administration would like for Congress to approve an infrastructure plan this year, but it must first prioritize the nation's debt ceiling and an unwritten tax bill.
The country's 18 largest engineering and construction companies all saw stock increases immediately following President Trump's win last November. Between Nov. 8 and the end of 2016, Fluor's stock grew by 18 percent, and CBI's by 13 percent. But ever since January, both companies have seen losses, with Fluor dropping by 28 percent and CBI by 65 percent, Bloomberg Markets reported.
In 2014, both Fluor and CBI signed fixed-priced contracts for electricity, petrochemical and natural gas processing plants, but both companies have learned that the payments from these projects are falling short thanks to equipment and worker issues and inaccurate estimates.Half of Fluor's money comes from energy, chemicals and mining endeavors. In August, the company took a $124 million writedown after $30 million charges in Q1 and $265 million in 2016 due to problems with its gas-fired power plants and a petrochemical facility, Bloomberg Markets reported.
After CBI's $548 million writedown in Q2 related to issues with liquid natural gas processors and gas-fired plants, the company announced it will sell its technology unit.
Fluor and CBI aren't the only companies seeing a decline in stock prices: Jacobs Engineering Group has dropped by 11 percent this year, and AECOM has plummeted by 14 percent, Bloomberg Markets reported.