Mixed Bag

Construction Activity Thrives in Some Upstate Regions, Flounders in Others

By Diane Greer

Eastern New York still boasts a steady roster of projects while Central and Western markets are becoming more volatile.

At every quarterly directors meeting of the General Building Contractors of New York State, Jeffery Zogg, the organization’s executive director, asks the attendees how their companies are faring.

For awhile, they were pretty optimistic meetings that announced a beehive of activity throughout the region. But recent meetings haven’t been nearly as rosy.

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“Over the last two years business has been good and backlogs have been good,” Zogg says. But he adds that during the last two meetings, he started to hear that backlogs are shrinking.

“Concerns about economic conditions are clearly growing,” he says. National issues, such as financing and escalating materials costs, are impacting the industry, and state budget issues are challenging public work levels, Zogg adds.

“I see activity dropping off slightly,” says Len Bower, executive vice president of marketing of the Pike Co. in Rochester. “Our backlog is good through the end of 2009 and into 2010, but we aren’t seeing as many opportunities now as we did six months ago.”

Regionally, the market presents a mixed picture. Business is generally good in eastern New York around the Capital District, Zogg says. “The Albany market is pretty stable,” he adds. “It has a mix of government-based activities and it is becoming a high-tech corridor.”

The central and western N.Y. markets are fluctuating up and down. “They are not as bad as they have been in previous years, but they are not booming either,” Zogg says.

Mike Johns, director of marketing for VIP Structures in Syracuse, sees business moving along reasonably well, though it’s less robust than it has been. “We have not seen a dramatic downturn,” but some of company’s private has been work tabled, he says.

“It is kind of a mixed bag of us,” says Patrick Murnane, president of Murnane Building Contractors, Plattsburg, N.Y. His company does work in central and northern New York. “Some of our areas are somewhat down but we have good activity in others.”

Jeffery Streeter, president of Streeter Associates, Elmira, N.Y., says the market in western New York is keeping its head above water. “There is a fair amount of public work, mostly in education, and there continues to be some private work in business and health care,” he says.

But economic conditions are causing concern. “When there is economic instability decision makers at private companies are not as confident moving ahead with major capital projects,” Johns says. “The projects are still needed, but the timetable slips.”

Streeter says he is concerned about a year or two from now because, “If we actually enter a recession, people will put the brakes on a lot of projects and it will take a while for things to come back.”

Johns is hopeful that whatever downturn occurs will not be too deep. “In central New York the highs are not too high and the lows usually are not too low,” he says.

Across the state, higher education construction remains strong. “Institutions are investing heavily in their science and technology schools,” says Mark Breslin, vice president and general manager of Turner Construction’s Albany office. He points to work under way at the University of Buffalo to construct a $45 million facility for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. When completed in 2012, the 130,000-sq-ft building will include sophisticated laboratory and communication equipment to support the departments of computer science and engineering and electrical engineering.

Ithaca College’s Gateway building is on track to achieve LEED Platinum certification. Sustainable features include: geothermal heating and cooling using 36 500-deep wells; and rain water capture for use in PARANAC construction law-608 (2)graywater applications. (Image courtesy of Holt Architecture.)

In central New York, Syracuse University is constructing a $76 million Life Sciences Center. The 220,000-sq-ft, five-story complex will house teaching facilities for the biology and chemistry departments, classrooms, administrative offices, conference space and a greenhouse.

In May, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., broke ground on an $80.5 million Animal Health Diagnostic Center for the School of Veterinary Medicine. The 125,000-sq-ft facility, scheduled for completion in 2010, will house laboratories for diagnosing emerging diseases that can spread between animals and humans.

Competition for students is increasing. Changing demographics mean fewer seniors are graduating from high school, says Robert O’Brien, principal at Ithaca-based Holt Architects. At the same time, student’s expectations for facilities, dorm spaces and classrooms are much higher, Murnane adds. To compete, schools are upgrading and replacing facilities.

At Ithaca College Holt designed an $18 million Gateway building to make a dynamic visual statement for prospective students and showcase the college’s commitment to the environment. The four-story, 58,000-sq-ft building, which will house the admissions, enrollment planning and executive administration, is on track to attain LEED platinum certification.

Murnane is working with Barr & Barr, Framingham, Mass., on the 48,000-sq-ft addition and 49,000-sq-ft gut renovation of the Kirner-Johnson academic building at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.

At Cornell University, Streeter Associates is renovating 23,400 sq ft and building a three-story addition for Ives Hall, the home of the New York School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Meanwhile, Murnane is constructing the $37 million, 84,000-sq-ft Human Ecology Building for the university, designed to attain LEED silver certification.

To better integrate the Rochester Institute of Technology with the community and provide students with a wider range of amenities, the school sold 60 acres adjacent to its Rochester campus to Wilmorite Inc. of Rochester for development of a mixed-used community with 300 apartments and 80,000 sq ft of retail space housed in 32 buildings.

Called Park Point at RIT, the focus of the $75 million project is a three-building courtyard housing a 40,000-sq-ft academic Barnes & Noble and 27,000 sq ft of retail, restaurants and bars.

The market for K-12 school construction is robust, due in large part to state aid programs providing funding for infrastructure upgrades and additions, Murnane says.

Pike and Heery International of Albany are in their eighth year of managing construction for the City School District of Albany. The $204 million project, slated for completion in 2009, is building four new elementary schools, one new middle school and improving athletic fields. Pike is starting a similar project for Utica valued at $180 million, Bower says.

Buffalo-based LPCiminelli is in the final stage of a 10-year, $1 billion project for the Buffalo Public School District to renovate 31 schools and implement districtwide technology enhancements and energy performance upgrades at 40 schools. The project is renovating eight to 10 schools a year and will be completed in 2010, says Joseph Mannarino, the company’s executive vice president.

In central N.Y., the Syracuse School District tapped Gilbane Building, Providence, R.I., to serve as construction manger to renovate and expand its schools. During the first phase, started in 2007, seven schools will be renovated. Three additional phases will upgrade 21 facilities, with completion slated for 2017.

After a brief pause, which occurred while the Berger Commission wrote its report recommending the consolidation and closure of hospitals around the state, the health care sector is again taking off.

Construction is underway for the vertical expansion of the 205,000-sq-ft Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. The project will add six stories atop the existing six-story hospital by extending the existing concrete structure to accept the structural steel frame for expansion.

Turner is working with Crouse Hospital in Syracuse on a master plan that includes $40 million in major infrastructure upgrades and a 64,000-sq-ft, four-story addition. Completion is expected in 2011.

Meanwhile, Pike is managing construction of the $105 million, six-story addition atop the SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse for the Golisano Children’s Hospital, which will be completed in mid-2009.

And northeast of Buffalo, in Williamsville, LPCiminelli is managing 160,000 sq ft of new construction and renovations at the Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital for Kaleida Health. The $40 million project includes a two-story addition to the hospital’s south building, new operating rooms, laboratories and 60 inpatient beds.

For smaller hospitals and medical centers, technology change is driving projects, O’Brien says.

For example, O’Brien sites Holt’s design for the 36,000-sq-ft expansion and 46,000-sq-ft renovation of the Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca. Renovations upgraded the imaging department and added a private women’s imaging area along with CT and nuclear medicine suites. Completion of the $21 million project is slated for this summer.

“Retail was strong last year, but we do not see much on the horizon,” Breslin says.

The 1.3 million-sq-ft expansion of the Destiny USA mall in Syracuse is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification. One hundred percent of the construction vehicles are using biodiesel and the site is recycling 95 percent of its construction waste.

One notable retail project is the 1.3-million-sq-ft expansion of the Carousel Mall in Syracuse, dubbed Destiny USA. The $540 million project, scheduled to open at the end of 2008, adds hundreds of retailers, services and restaurants in an eco-friendly facility designed to attain LEED platinum certification. Developer Robert Congel has pledged to power the entire project from renewable energy sources and is installing 17,000 solar panels across the mall’s six acres of rooftop.

On a smaller scale, Murnane Building is completing a 185,000-sq-ft Wal-mart Supercenter in Potsdam, N.Y., near the Canadian border. Construction of the $22 million facility includes wetland mitigation, a 300,000-gallon water tank and installation of a sewer system.

While some companies in the industrial sector are expanding and making improvements, overall the sector is weak. The key exception is the hightech sector in Albany where the Tech Valley Initiative is attracting high-tech companies to the area, Breslin says.

He points to Turner’s project with GE Healthcare to construct a $165 million Digital X-Ray Manufacturing Facility in North Greenbush, east of Albany. The 220,000-sq-ft facility is designed to earn LEED gold certification.

In northern N.Y., Great Lakes Cheese is renovating 23,000-sq-ft of its existing plant in Adams, N.Y., and constructing a new 166,000-sq-ft facility to expand its production of cheddar cheese and whey protein. Construction of the $45 million plant is proceeding concurrently with the installation of the processing equipment, which is too large to move in after completion of the building.

VIP Structures is working on a $25 million, 136,800-sq-ft bus assembly facility for Nova Bus, in Plattsburgh, N.Y. The facility is expected to produce 300 buses a year.

VIP is also constructing an $8 million, 150,000-sq-ft office and manufacturing facility for G.A. Braun, a manufacturer of laundry equipment and textile machinery, at the site of the former Hancock Air Park in Syracuse.

In southwestern N.Y., Corning Inc. is spending $300 million to renovate existing research and development facilities and to build a new 325,000-sq-ft facility at the company’s Sullivan Park Research and Development campus near Corning, N.Y.

One area that is seeing growth is the number of renewable energy projects currently under development in northern and western N.Y. Noble Power, Essex, Conn., is constructing three wind energy facilities in Altona, Chateaugay and Belmont, N.Y., near the Canadian border. The windparks will generate 225 megawatts (MW) of power with 150 wind turbines. In May, the company completed windparks in nearby Churubusco and Ellenberg, N.Y., that produce over 180 MW of power at a cost of $360 million.

By the end of 2008 Noble Power in Churubusco, NY will have installed 271 wind turbines that will generate over 400 megawatts of electricity.

In March, Noble started operating a 100.5 MW windpark with 67 tubines in Bliss, N.Y., 50-miles southeast of Buffalo. Construction is underway for 84 more turbines adjacent to the Bliss operation.

Northeast Biofuels completed construction in June of a corn ethanol facility in Volney, N.Y., 25-miles north of Syracuse. The project renovated and adapted a 350,000-sq.-ft. former Miller brewery to produce 114 million gallons of ethanol from 39 million bushels of corn.

Meanwhile, 20-miles northeast of Utica in Rome, N.Y., Mascoma Corporation, Boston, Mass., is spending $30 million to convert a 54,000-sq.-ft. facility into a demonstration plant producing 500,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol from 20-tons of wood waste, switch grass and paper sludge.

Federally financed construction includes the modernization and expansion of the U.S. Land Port of Entry at the Canadian border at Champlain, N.Y. Pike and Hill International, Marlton, N.J. are managing construction of the $80 million project, which requires realigning the interstate, construction of new facilities and inspection booths and sitework to facilitate vehicle processing.

In Buffalo, a $137 million U.S. Federal Courthouse is under construction on Niagara Square. Mascaro Construction of Pittsburgh is building the 10-story, 265,000-sq-ft facility.

LPCiminelli is working on the $35 million Niagara Falls Municipal Complex in Niagara, N.Y. When completed in spring of 2009, the facility will house local courts and the police department.

In Elmira, N.Y., Streeter Associates is renovating and expanding the Clemens Center, a community-based performing arts center built in 1925. The $17 million project is renovating 35,000 sq ft of the facility and expanding the stage area by 6,000 sq ft to accommodate shows requiring deeper stages.