Newark Hockey Arena Breaks Ground

The New Jersey Devils expect to start their 2007 season in the new 800,000-sq.-ft. Newark Arena. Construction on 1600 Broadway, Times Square's newest luxury condominium tower, progresses.

Work Starts on Downtown Newark Arena

Officials in Newark, N.J., broke ground in early fall on a new 18,000-seat arena for the New Jersey Devils franchise. Construction is slated for completion in time for the 2007-2008 National Hockey League season.

Designed by Morris Adjmi Architects of New York and St. Louis-based HOK Sport, the 800,000-sq.-ft. arena will have an oval shape with a glass façade partly framed by dark red brick and black iron columns. The interior will feature a nearly 5,000-sq.-ft. screen, 78 luxury suites, and restaurants, including one overlooking the ice rink.

Indianapolis-based Hunt Construction and New York-based Bovis Lend Lease, which formed a sports-facility contractor alliance last year, are leading construction on the $310 million project. Its primary financing will be from funds the city receives from its lease of Newark Liberty International Airport to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The team will pay a third of the project cost as well as any overruns.

Under the deal, the city will collect all revenue from a parking garage it will build as well as 7 percent of the arena's ticket and concession revenues and a similar share from a 300-room hotel that the Devils are expected to develop as part of the agreement. The arena and the related facilities are a focal element of Newark's Downtown Core Redevelopment Plan.

The arena will be the new home for the Devils franchise, which moved to the Meadowlands sports complex in East Rutherford from Colorado in 1983.

Times Square TowerConstruction Advances

Construction topped out in late October at 1600 Broadway on the Square, a luxury condominium tower in Manhattan's Times Square on the site formerly occupied by the Studebaker store between 48th and 49th streets.

With occupancy slated for next May, 137 units are already on sale from $725,000 to $2.8 million. The 27-story tower, on which New York-based Turner Construction is construction manager, will feature 9.5-ft. ceilings in studio- to three-bedroom residences.

Developed by Sherwood Equities and designed by New York-based Einhorn Yaffe Prescott, the building will have two floors of retail and 12,000 sq. ft. of space for advertisements. Among various luxury amenities, M. Paul Friedberg & Partners, a New York-based landscape architect, has designed a tree-lined rooftop and a fourth-floor landscaped terrace with a putting green.

Adaptive Reuse at Seminary

The General Theological Seminary in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood broke ground this fall on a renovation that will open its 19th-Century campus to the public for the first time and offer its modernized facilities for use by cultural and nonprofit institutions.

The $23 million project, with New York-based Bovis Lend Lease as construction manager, entails removing a 10-ft. wall along 10th Avenue, replacing it with a wrought-iron fence, and creating a 100-ft. long garden leading up to a new steel and glass-enclosed lobby designed by New York-based Beyer Blinder Belle Architects. The two-story lobby will serve as the entrance to the seminary's newly opened Desmond Tutu Education Center.

Additional work inside the seminary involves renovations to 59 guest rooms and other areas, as well as the addition of two new conference rooms. Outside, the project entails removing outdated fire escapes and replacing slate roofs and copper gutters. Construction is slated for completion by next summer.

Brooklyn Children's Museum Starts Expansion

The Brooklyn Children's Museum broke ground on a 53,000-sq.-ft. expansion this fall. The project is aiming for silver-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design status from the U.S. Green Building Council.

In addition to renovating the museum's original building, last upgraded in 1977, Skanska USA Building, based in Parsippany, N.J., will construct new gallery space, a media center, and a Kids Café.

The New York City Department of Design and Construction is managing the $40 million project, slated for completion next December.

With Steven Winter Associates of Norwalk, Conn., consulting on sustainable design, the team aims to meet green building standards for materials, maintenance, and cleanup. It has pledged to recycle 50 to 75 percent of all project waste. Upon its completion, it would become the first LEED-certified museum in New York City.

Two Buildings Under Way at Perth Amboy Development

Construction on the Admiral, the first building at Landings at Harborside in Perth Amboy, N.J., is on schedule, with completion slated for the spring.

Meanwhile, construction has begun on the six-story Bay View, the 49-acre development's second building.

Comprised of 86 condominium units ranging from 960 to 2,463 sq. ft., and priced between $219,000 and $700,000, the building would open for occupancy next fall. It would have 8,500 sq. ft. of retail space on the ground floor, a two-level interior parking garage, and rooftop patios overlooking Staten Island Sound.

Westminster Communities, developer and construction manager on the project, is demolishing existing structures on yet another site and expects to start construction on a third building, the Forrestal, early next year, according to a spokeswoman. The developer had described the entire development as a $600 million effort earlier this year.

The four-building project, designed in a New Urbanism layout, will have 2,300 residential units, a 6,000-sq.-ft. fitness center, more than 150,000 sq. ft. of retail, and a waterfront esplanade open to the public. New York-based Liebman Melting Partnership was designing the fourth and final building in mid-fall.

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