Construction job openings hit third highest on record
Hundreds of thousands of hard hats went unfilled as 2022
came to a close. The construction industry had 413,000 job openings in
December, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data
from Associated Builders and Contractors.
The BLS data measures the number of jobs for which employers
are actively recruiting. December counted 82,000 more open roles than in
November, and 54,000 more than December 2021.
“The 5% of industrywide positions that were unfilled in
December is the third highest level on record, and higher than at any point
since 2000 — when the data series began — until October 2021,” Anirban Basu,
ABC chief economist, said in a release.
The majority of contractors intend to increase staffing
levels over the next six months, according to Basu, so “labor shortages will
remain a stiff headwind for the industry,” he said.
Consumer spending has begun to show signs of weakness, Basu
said, but the demand for labor remains high. In the broader economy, job
openings remained about 57% above pre-pandemic levels.
“The implication here is that contractors, who have been
facing labor shortages for several years, must now compete with other
industries for workers,” Basu said.
As contractors have increased wages in an attempt to keep up
with inflation, it
hasn’t always been enough. Indeed, workers want more now from a job in
construction, including stability, benefits and a culture that can nurture a
long-term career. Otherwise, they can turn to one of the other industries with
high demand for new blood.
“Employees are expecting a competitive and well-rounded
employee value proposition that supports them at every stage of their career,”
Alison Tripp, national recruiting leader for Redwood, California-based
commercial general contractor DPR, recently told Construction Dive.
West Hartford Inn affordable housing project an 'amazing opportunity,' developer says
WEST HARTFORD — Whenever Lewis Brown drives by the West
Hartford Inn, he can't help but think of better uses for the building.
"My brother and I used to have our birthday parties
there as kids when the restaurant was called Pancho McGee's," said Brown,
a West Hartford resident who is the founding principal of Honeycomb Real Estate
Partners. "We grew up in the neighborhood and went to Morley Elementary. I
used to ride my bike past it. Every time I drive past it now I think about what
an opportunity it could be."
Opportunity presented itself when an associate of his, Joe
Vallone, came to Brown with the idea of transforming the hotel built in 1965.
After considering opening a boutique hotel or market rate apartments, Brown,
Vallone and the rest of WHI Camelot LLC settled on creating a mixed-income
affordable housing development.
"What I kept coming back to was how much I felt this
property and location would fit an affordable use," Brown said of the
Farmington Avenue property. "With all of the market rate [housing] that is
either in planning or coming out of the ground right now in the town center …
in that immediate area, there really was a tremendous need for affordable
housing, which presents an amazing opportunity for walkability, access to
amenities and really walkable employment opportunities as well, at an
affordable rate."
Brown and his Honeycomb partner Steve Caprio, along with
Vallone, the Simsbury-based Vesta Corporation and his brother Hagan Brown's
Avon-based Corridor Ventures, are planning to transform the property into 44 units
of mixed-income affordable housing by renovating the hotel building and
constructing a new building at the site of the restaurant, which most recently
was occupied by Los Imperios.
In the hotel, the group is reducing the existing 52 hotel
rooms into 20 one-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom apartments. In the
new construction, the group will be adding 20 more two-bedroom units.
Taking advantage of the low-income housing tax credit
program, 40 of the 44 units will be affordable housing. Of the 20 one-bedroom
apartments, five will be available to earners making 30 percent of the area
median income, two will be available at 50 percent of the area median income,
11 will be available at 80 percent of the area median income and two will be
set at the market rate. The two-bedroom apartments will see a similar spread,
with 10 available at 30 percent of the area median income, 12 available at 80
percent of the area median income and two being set a market rate.
"It’s really a nice blend of meeting different
needs," said Brown, who for nearly two decades created and managed
affordable housing with the Vesta Corporation.
"I’m passionate because, and the reason I got into it
18 years ago was, it really met a lot of my core beliefs," Brown said.
"I had worked with children and families both as a teacher and as an
attorney. I worked in a domestic relations law firm and juvenile justice. When
I thought about affordable housing, it really touched upon what I see as … our
moral obligation to provide quality affordable housing."
And housing — particularly the kind defined as affordable —
is what West Hartford town leaders say they need more of right now. They
recently set aside $6 million of its COVID relief funds to encourage
developers to build more affordable units.
"We have a real shortage of housing in West
Hartford," Mayor Shari Cantor said in January at a news conference
about the project. "Rental properties have gone up in price. There’s
immense pressure on families to find affordable places to live. This will ease
some of that. It doesn’t solve all of our problems. This is a really strategic
and important part of the plan."
Recently, the town made a commitment to increase its
affordable housing stock by around 600 units, which would bring the
town closer in line with the state mandate that 10 percent of a
municipality's housing stock be "affordable." In December, Town
Manager Rick Ledwith said West Hartford has around 2,000 "affordable"
units, good for 7.8 percent of the total housing stock.
West Hartford is poised to gain approximately 223
"affordable" units out of the 814 housing units that have either been
approved or are close to being opened at eight different developments across
town, including The Byline, the
former Children's Museum property, One Park Road, 540 New Park, the
Residences at Berkshire Road, the West Hartford Inn, West Hartford Fellowship
Housing and the development at the corner of Arapahoe Road and LaSalle Road.
These affordable units vary, with some being available to earners making 80
percent or less of the area median income, and
others being exclusively for seniors and people with disabilities.
Even more affordable units could be made available at other
proposed housing developments, including the former site of the Puritan
Furniture, the former
University of Connecticut property, the building S.K. Lavery Appliance used
to occupy and the
Corporate Center West property.
Before Brown and his associates can break ground, the West
Hartford Inn site will undergo remediation with the assistance of a nearly
$1 million Brownfield state grant to help clean up the property, which
has some environmental issues.
"We didn’t know this until we did our environmental
reports, but the actual historic use dating back to the '20s and '30s was an
auto repair shop," Brown said. "That was the business that preceded
the hotel. When we did the testing, that’s when we came to learn there were
some subsurface issues and some environmental issues."
Lewis said he's looking forward to what the building will
offer to the West Hartford community.
"We are very excited to move this important development
to a closing and finally renting the apartments," Brown said. "We are
extraordinarily appreciative of the collaboration at the local and state levels
and really without that kind of support, these important developments would not
move forward. This has the potential to be a model for other municipalities
that are struggling to meet the 10 percent affordability requirement."
Future Eastern Courtyard and Parcel B
NORA GRACE-FLOOD
A 200-space Munson Street parking lot could be the site of
New Haven’s next biotech lab building — according to
a Winchester-factory-redevelopment zoning update that received
a favorable, if still skeptical, recommendation from the City
Plan Commission.
Local land-use commissioners took that vote Wednesday night
during the City Plan Commission’s latest special meeting, which was held online
via Zoom.
The vote was in support of a request submitted by the
redevelopment team behind the so-called “Winchester Center” project in
Science Park.
That Planed Development District (PDD) zoning-update request
would take the expansive surface parking lot near Munson and Winchester and
include it into the existing Science Park PDD — which is a slate of
specially zoned properties based around the former Winchester Arms Factory that
developers have been looking to repurpose since the 1980s.
The proposal gained a vote of support Wednesday night
alongside a few other changes to the self-described neighborhood reinvestment
project. The requested PDD update now heads to the full Board of
Alders for further review and a potential final vote.
Wednesday’s 3 – 1 vote (with Chair Leslie Radcliffe casting
the sole dissenting vote) saw the the City Plan Commission support the
following changes to the city’s zoning manual which governs the rules of the
40-year-old district, known as PDD #49:
• Add 88, 110 and 116 Munson St. to the PDD under
the title of “Parcel M” and allow the developers to use the land for
potential lab use.
• Allow for the demolition of the former Winchester Factory
buildings at Munson and Mansfield, which were recently found to be contaminated
to the point that past plans for conversion are impossible, and approve
a proposal to build a parking structure topped with a mixed-use
building on the site.
• Grant residential and retail uses while reducing the
required number of parking and loading spaces at “Parcel B,” a PDD lot
located at the corner of Division Street and Winchester Avenue.
Click here to read a summary of the proposed PDD amendments
in full.
Those proposed amendments to New Haven’s zoning ordinance
text and map were submitted by the city’s Economic Development Administration
and presented on Wednesday by local attorney Carolyn Kone.
Wednesday’s meeting focused primarily on the addition
of “Parcel M” — that is, the surface parking lot on Munson Street — to
the PDD. Commissioners questioned and debated whether laboratory use
immediately adjacent to what are primarily residential properties would
be appropriate.
Twining Properties founder Alex Twining, whose company is
one of the lead co-developers of the “Winchester Center” project, pitched
the PDD expansion and amendments on Wednesday as part of the “making
of a neighborhood place” that would see the “replacement of parking
lots with places to work and live.”
He said the each portion of the overall PDD could
create up to 1,000 apartments — with 20 percent set aside for tenants making no
more than 50 percent of the area median income (AMI). It would also lead to
business and job opportunities, and new green space.
Overall, he said, the changes to the area would
create “more reasons to come to this location and reconnect the
neighborhoods that used to be connected through Winchester.”
Read up on the latest of that ever-evolving PDD here,
and about the rise of bioscience research and programming developments across
the city, not just in Science Park but at places like the new lab and office
tower at 101 College St, here.
And click here and here for
previous Independent articles about the overall Winchester Center development,
including already approved plans to build 287 new apartments, two new privately
owned streets, and a new public plaza.
Wednesday’s proposed amendments to the PDD also
sparked further debate about the broader implications of bringing new housing,
retail and science centers to a long under-invested area at the crux of
two historically Black neighborhoods, Dixwell and Newhallville.
The public hearing, during which only a handful of
individuals testified, saw disparities in warmth towards the project, with some
local business owners welcoming the PDD expansion as Newhallville
native and local small-business contractor Rodney Williams warned about
a potential gentrification threat that he said has failed to engage
members of the Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods.
Those words of caution swayed at least one member of the
City Plan Commission, Chair Leslie Radcliffe, to vote against the PDD expansion.
Radcliffe argued that while the project might help New Haven
when it comes to housing and job creation, she wasn’t convinced it would help
the long standing neighbors of the communities located directly next to the
ongoing and upcoming developments. Commissioners Adam Marchand, Joshua Van
Hoesen, and Carl Goldfield, voted in support of providing a favorable
recommendation for the amendments — and asked the Board of Alders to
specifically examine the potential impact of placing a biomedical research
facility directly next to current housing.
Apartments & Jobs For Whom?
During his presentation to the commissioners Wednesday,
Twining detailed what he saw as the benefits of the PDD amendment and
resulting redevelopment.
He said that including 88, 110 and 166 Munson St.in the
overall PDD would allow for the congruent redevelopment of
a significantly sized parking lot that is rarely filled while providing
parking for the employees of Winchester Works. Twining also sought permission
to allow biotech and lab use in the lot, though the area may ultimately be
developed as a mixed-use residential building.
Carolyn Kone spoke to the deteriorating former Winchester
factory buildings at the corner of Munson and Mansfield Streets. While
the PDD had originally included plans to rehab the properties,
a recent environmental study found “there were all kinds of gasses
emanating from slabs of the floors and ceilings due to the kind of
manufacturing that was done there.” She said the State Department of Health had
found that some of the gasses were concentrated at amounts more than 400 times
what the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection would
permit. As an alternative to the previous rehabilitation plan, Kone said
developers are hoping to tear the buildings down and build a parking
garage topped with mixed use development including more apartments.
Science Park and neighboring business owners and workers
jumped on Zoom Wednesday to voice support for the development.
Ricky Evans, who has owned Ricky D’s Rib Shack on Winchester
Avenue for seven years, said the project would be “good for business and
good for the community… if you plan to add more restaurants, don’t make it
anymore barbecue, because we got barbecue over here.”
Jason Price, one of the cofounders of Henry Street art
gallery NXTHVN, said “the use and goals of this project are
consistent with the work we’re already engaged in,” pointing to NXTHVN’s
work “developing dilapidated properties” in the hopes of both
revitalizing specific neighborhoods while benefiting the city at large.
“I think it would be great to address the rundown buildings
in the area, to improve safety, to bring jobs to the neighborhood and just
improve the overall vibe of the neighborhood,” added cancer therapy researcher
Scott Phillips. Phillips, who works at 150 Munson St., argued the
project “would attract a lot of energy and improve the economics of
the area.”
Walter Esdaile, the managing director of the New Haven
Regional Contractors Alliance, complimented the developers’ commitment to
engaging minorities and local businesses in the development of Science Park.
Esdaile said the developers have agreed to participate in city programs to hire
both minority-owned conrtactors while also helping with a student
contractor program operating out of 30 different New Haven schools
Rodney Williams, who grew up in Newhallville and founded
Green Elm Construction, disrupted that line of praise.
“I’m not saying I’m for this or against this,” Williams
repeated throughout his testimony, “but I’ve got some concerns.”
“This project isn’t gonna be in either Ward 20 or Ward 21,”
he said, “but it’s a minority community. What’s actually gonna
happen is the Blacks in this community that elect alders, they won’t have any
representation because downtown is now moving into Newhallville.” He warned
that the long-term impact of the development would be the displacement of Black
residents from their own neighborhoods.
He said that while the development might create jobs and
housing, the individuals in the community would not be the ones to receive
those jobs or live in those apartments.
As far as construction opportunities go, he mentioned,
nobody had reached out to his company for contracted work.
He further observed that “nobody’s here from the city
saying this is a great thing for us.” Where, he wondered, were the alders
or community management teams looking to express support or opposition for the
development. “I just feel like they need to put people in the community
at the table with them,” Williams concluded.
Fussin' Over Fussy
Speaking widely about the PDD, Westville Alder and City
Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand weighed in that the success of the district in
terms of uniting neighborhoods without phasing out long-term residents depended
on execution.
For example, he said, developers should be thoughtful when
it comes to site plan review stages about which businesses are brought into the
mixed-use complex.
He pinpointed Fussy Coffee on Winchester Avenue as an
example of an extant business that is less than accessible to
certain consumers.
“When I go to Fussy Coffee I have to be prepared
to spend a lot of money,” he said. “It’s not affordable for
a lot of people unless you wanna get a quarter of a cup of
almond milk.”
With a laugh, he admitted to “exaggerating
a little.” Still, he said, “I don’t know how accessible that place
is to people who live a stone’s throw away from that building… You gotta
have a pretty dang good job to get a bagel from the place, although
it’s a pretty good bagel, let me tell you.”
“The broader question,” he said, is the “significant
increase in intensity of development in this area and what does that mean, how
does that fit in with the neighborhood?”
“From a certain perspective, yes,” he said, arguing
that turning vacant lots into housing and business “is certainly
a more productive use of the land.” However, he said, upcoming and
independent developments in nearby sections of the Dixwell and Newhallville, he
said, could collectively cause larger issues with traffic impact and “change
the character of the surrounding neighborhood.”
Commissioner Joshua Van Hoesen argued in favor of
a build, build, build mindset, asserting the more density the better for
confronting the housing crisis. Commissioner Radcliffe, on the other hand,
questioned whether the affordability requirements imposed by the developers
onto themselves, although higher than the city required amount of
5 percent, would do enough to help a community in need of deeply
affordable, family-sized housing.
The developers have committed to making 20 percent of all
the apartments they develop affordable at an average of 50 percent AMI.
“Of great concern for me,” Radcliffe added, is “where’s
the community input?”
“This is something that’s sitting dead center in the middle
of the Newhallville-Dixwell community and the University. It will be
a positive development for the city of New Haven, it will bring more
housing to the city of New Haven, more dollars to the city of New Haven,”
Radcliffe said.
However, she compared, “I don’t see the positive
impact on the surrounding community in the long term,” she said. If one of the
proposed apartment complexes included seven three-bedrooms, as Twining had
suggested earlier in the meeting, 20 percent affordability would mean just one
three-bedroom apartment made less than market rate within
that building.
Marchand then reoriented the commission’s attention to the
specific amendments before them that night.
One of the most fundamental questions, Marchand posited, was
whether it was appropriate to build lab space on Munson Street next to what
commissioners said was a long-standing housing cooperative and additional
single family homes.
“What’s the usage differential between an office building
and a medical research facility? I don’t have that answer, I’m not as
familiar with the difference in foot traffic,” Commissioner Van Hoesen
said. “I don’t necessarily know the difference off hand.”
“This isn’t like they’re creating chemicals that are gonna
run over a border into somebody’s well,” Commissioner Carl Goldfield said,
adding that the location of potential biotech labs is “more an issue of
should they be happening in a densely populated city rather than next to
someone’s house.”
Ultimately, Marchand, Goldfield and Van Hoesen provided
a favorable recommendation for the project, with Radcliffe the sole vote
against the PDD amendments. Marchand made a note that the Board
of Alders should examine exactly what uses, activities, and building type would
be implied by the presence of biotech facilities and whether that was
appropriate next to residencies.
Evergreen Walk adds new tenants, as major developments eye spring debut
Collin Atwood, Journal Inquirer
New tenants have opened at the Promenade Shops at Evergreen Walk while larger developments in the retail center are taking longer than expected.
Evergreen Walk’s most recent addition is The Lovesac Co., a Stamford-based
business that sells customizable, modular and washable furniture. It
opened Jan. 20 in the south section of the main drag, between Old Navy and
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Another new shop is Dude’s Donuts, which originally started as a food truck
business and opened its first brick-and-mortar store in the center of Evergreen
Walk on Dec. 10.
The Shake Shack building, which is nearing the end of construction at the
roundabout in north end of the shopping area off Buckland Road, broke ground in
June. The 3,200-square-foot restaurant will have a canopied outdoor seating
area and 30-car parking lot.
It was originally projected to open at the start of 2023, but spokeswoman Katie
Scott said that the milkshake and burger restaurant is now expected to open
before spring as workers are now putting the finishing touches on the property.
Another development expected to be complete by the spring is the Goddard
School, an early childhood education franchise.
Lauren and Quinten Smallwood own the school to be located at 538 Evergreen Way
not far from the Shake Shack.
Spokesman Joe Markle said the school will be nearly 13,000 square feet in size
and have 12 classrooms for more than 150 children.
The Goddard School also will include two outdoor play spaces and an indoor
gymnasium.
Further north beyond the roundabout, the new Whole Foods grocery store is still
under construction across from Shake Shack. A solid beam skeletal structure is
up with minimal exterior walls. The project broke ground in June, but no clear
opening date has been set.
“Shake Shack and Whole Foods have been on target to open according to
their respective plans and leases, and we anticipate successful openings for
all of our new tenants,” said Paul Brandes, principal of Charter Realty
and Development, the corporate manager of Evergreen Walk.
Brandes said Evergreen Walk expects to add eight new national tenants this
year.
Whole Foods is being built on the former Old Navy and Sakura Garden restaurant
site and will occupy 40,000 square feet. Another 10,000 square
feet will be available for lease.
Old Navy moved its store and reopened on Aug. 24 at the southern end of the
Evergreen retail area, across from Burton’s Grill. Sakura set up shop near
Emerald City Smoothie and Connecticut Mattress on July 6.
Nike also appears to be coming to South Windsor soon. Next door to New Balance
at the Promenade Shops is an empty storefront bearing signs that read “Nike by
South Windsor.”
Elizabeth Zigmont with Image Marketing Consultants said that J. Jill, a women’s
apparel, accessory and footwear store that had originally been in the Old Navy
area, will also be returning to Evergreen Walk. It’s unclear when or
where, however.