Mayor Tightens Safety Operations

Changes to demolition and abatement regulations will significantly impact industry work. Also, air rights deal finalized to build schools.

Mayor Promotes Procedure Changes

To view the safety report: http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/2008/pr277-08_safety_report.pdf

New Look for Major Avenue in Queens

Jackson Avenue in Long Island City is currently lined up for a major redevelopment project, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

“The Jackson Avenue Streetscape Improvement project aims to transform the central spine of Long Island City’s Central Business District into an attractive and enhanced landscaped boulevard,” said Libby Langsdorf, senior associate in Public Affairs at NYCEDC. “The physical improvements aim to further enhance the district's image and attract continued development in the area.”

The project improvements to Jackson Avenue will include roadway realignment and resurfacing, streetscape improvements and amenities, new lighting, a landscaped median and the improvement and expansion of several open spaces in and around Jackson Avenue. Renderings courtesy of NYCEDC.

The project improvements will include roadway realignment and resurfacing, streetscape improvements and amenities, new lighting as well as a landscaped median. The project also includes the improvement and expansion of several open spaces in and around Jackson Avenue. The parameters focus on Jackson Avenue from Queens Plaza to 21st Street and open spaces on Hunter’s Street.

Stantec, who is responsible for more than 90% of the work, provided landscape architecture, civil engineering, traffic engineering, lighting design and public art consulting for the design of streetscape improvements. The design creates a cohesive streetscape and establishes Jackson Avenue as a major corridor within Long Island City's Central Business District, according to Stantec.

“We prepared all the schematic plans for the streetscape project because the project has been broken up into phases, and there are other capital project that effect this one, and how it will ultimately look,” explained Gary Sorge, the principal in charge of the project at Stantec. “What is really behind the project is revitalizing Long Island City; a lot of things are being underutilized.”

The $825,000 project is slated for completion in September 2010.

Air Rights Deal to Benefit Schools

A $4.2 billion air rights agreement to build an educational, residential and retail complex at 250 East 57th Street in Manhattan has recently been closed, according to real estate and construction law firm Anderson Kill who directed the deal.

The project is a collaboration between the New York City Educational Construction Fund and local developers World Wide Group and includes a new 1,400-student high school that will replace the existing High School for Art and Design, a new 730-seat elementary school, approximately 200,000 sq ft of retail space, and a 488,000 sq-ft, 320-unit residential tower.

World-Wide Group has just completed construction on a school on East 63rd Street, located at the converted Annex of the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, which will house PS 59 during the construction phases. After PS 59 relocates to its newly renovated home on 57th Street, the 63rd Street site will continue to serve as a new neighborhood school.

“Demolition began in July 2007 and actual construction started in November 2007, which was a complete gut renovation,” said Michael Gordon, Director of Construction for The World-Wide Group. “We had to raise the roof to create a column free space a gym. It was a pretty fast-track construction schedule, nothing stayed but the exterior walls and the slabs.”

The school design by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of New York includes an additional 330 elementary school seats, expanded classrooms, reading rooms, art galleries, studios, two new auditoriums, two new gymnasiums and an outdoor athletic field and play areas.

“The current PS59 didn’t even have a gymnasium, only a multi-purpose room that they use as a cafeteria, gym and auditorium, so in our opinion it’s a substantial upgrade in the facility,” explained Gordon. “[The 63rd Street location] was seen as a temporary solution because that school will stay and become a new neighborhood school, so it becomes a boom to the New York public school system.”

“We’re enthusiastic and honored to be working with the ECF to build new schools, new retail and new housing that will revitalize and energize this important intersection of the Upper East Side,” said Julia Hodgson, director of development for The World-Wide Group.

Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2008 and will be conducted in two segments. The first phase of construction will include the two schools, a primary school and the High School for Art and Design, as well as about 70,000 square feet of retail space. The second phase will consist of the balance of planned retail space as well as a 59-story, 320-unit residential tower with 100,000-square-feet of retail at its base, explained James Cullen, head of Anderson Kill’s real estate and construction practice, who represented NYCECF in the air rights agreement.

As for the housing component, 20 percent of the 320 rental units will be affordable housing and the project will also utilize the Inclusionary Housing Program, according to developers World Wide Group, which will result in approximately 30 additional affordable units within Community Board #6 limits.

As for juggling the multi-phased construction schedule, Gordon, said “it’s pretty well-thought out.” A 75-ft exaction and 100,000-cu yards of rock removal and a hybrid structure of structural steel and reinforced concrete is planned. A multi-faceted façade with precast concrete and unitized curtain wall slopes in certain areas, has different cantilevers and the east side of buildings has scoops, explained Gordon.

Additionally, the project will create approximately 1100 construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs, said World Wide Group.

The income generated from the 75-year lease will finance the construction of the new schools. New York City will receive two new schools at no cost to itself or taxpayers, the lease will also produce a 75-year stream of income that may be used for similar public school projects, said Anderson Kill. “We have the opportunity to build more classrooms with improved facilities without any of the costs going on the city’s books,” said Jamie Smarr, director of the NYCECF.

“These air rights leases are a boon to New York City on multiple fronts - educational infrastructure, housing stock and livability,” said Cullen. “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to help the city maximize its air rights assets.”

Construction Underway at NJ College

The new 153,000-sq-ft campus center at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Pomona will be the largest single building project in the school’s history. Rendering courtesy of KSS Architects.

Construction is progressing on a new 153,000-sq-ft campus center at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Pomona. The new campus center will be the largest single building project in the school’s history.

Designed by project architect KSS Architects LLP of Princeton, and associate architect VMDO Architects of Charlottesville, Virginia, the building will include a food service market, a coffeehouse at the west end of the building, a large event venue, meeting rooms, a theater/recital hall, a bookstore, lounge spaces and offices for student organizations. The structure is a new facility that will include space for functions previously dispersed throughout the campus.

“The building gives Stockton an iconic cultural and social center right at the heart of campus,” said KSS’ partner-in-charge for the project, Michael Shatken, who explained that the campus center will help meet the needs of Stockton’s growing enrollment.

The design of the building draws inspiration from Stockton’s setting in the New Jersey Pinelands, said KSS Architects.

Striving for LEED Gold certification, the new facility will run on the campus’ existing geothermal wellfield, which will utilize Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage—the new geothermal heating and cooling system that was completed in 2007. A digital building management system will monitor and control how the campus center can best operate on alternative energy sources to provide energy-efficient heating, ventilation and lighting conditions, said KSS Architects. The building’s roof will collect stormwater to irrigate an onsite rain garden plants.

The construction manager for the entire, two-phase project is Bovis Lend Lease of New York. “The first phase includes site-utility relocations and some small demolition and renovation work required to facilitate the Campus Center construction [which] commenced construction in May and the general contractor for Phase one is Art Anderson, Inc.,” said Shatken. Phase two construction includes the remainder of the project and will likely go to bid in the fall, he said.

The campus center is part of Stockton College’s 10-year plan to upgrade facilities and enhance the campus community. “We believe the intent of the College is to pursue LEED certification on future construction,” said Shatken. “The College is pursuing additional projects as part of their long-term master plan.”

The campus center is slated for completion in early 2011.

Downtown Condo/Hotel Breaks Ground

Construction manager HRH Construction of New York recently broke ground on 50 West Street, the new, 65-story hotel and condominium complex in downtown Manhattan. Rendering courtesy of Murphy Jahn Architects.

A 65-story hotel and condominium complex, 50 West Street, in downtown Manhattan recently broke ground.

The new 580,000-sq-ft, mixed-use development will contain 240 residential units, 150 hotel rooms and two retail units, which will almost certainly be a restaurant and spa, according to Phillip Gesue, project director at Time Equities, the developer of 50 West Street.

Designed by architect Helmut Jahn of Chicago, Illinois, the $600 million tower will be a green building striving for LEED Gold certification. When completed it will include a green roof, water-efficient plumbing fixtures, automated blinds and energy control systems, an energy efficient HVAC system where the individual condominiums control their own energy and bike rooms. Also, demolition waste will be recycled and the new construction materials will be sustainable and renewable.

Both hotel and residences will feature an energy efficient glass facade for daylighting and UV ray filtration. To compose the façade, a number of different components were considered: glass thickness, coating on the glass, insulation thickness and insulation material. The two major components that were used, according to Gesue, were the special coatings and the clear glass. “We have a very special coating that lets in a lot of daylight and prevents heat rays from coming into the building,” he explained. “And we used argon instead of air, which has a better insulating capacity and prevents heat transmission.”

In regard to current construction, the project team has taken a few precautionary measures to ensure the building’s durability. “We are in an area in lower Manhattan that is at a fairly low flood elevation, but we have a fairly low basement and have elevated the ground floor so that it is 7.5 ft, so that they are above the flood plane,” said Gesue. “If there ever were flooding, the building would be higher than it needs to be.”

Developers of 50 West Street have also formed a public-private partnership to build the structure. “We recognized that there are certain things the community needed, so we worked with public officials to create a package of incentives for community benefit,” said Gesue. Time Equities will donate $4.6 million to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s affordable housing preservation fund, $350,000 to the NYC Board of Education for a Lower East Side Space Sciences Center and $430,000 to local P.S./I.S. 89 for a computer science program including computers for a new computer lab. The project will also create 740 construction jobs and 175 permanent jobs.

Construction manager HRH Construction of New York began work on the project in June 2008 and it is scheduled for completion in 2011.

New Plans for Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn

Plans for the remaining buildings on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn have been delayed due to the unavailability of bonds, said developers Red Apple Real Estate. The $26 million initial phase is being financed personally by John Catsimatidis, chairman and CEO of Red Apple as well as market rate bank financing. Rendering courtesy of Dattner Architects.

Developers Red Apple Real Estate, Inc. has recently broken ground on the first phase of its Myrtle Avenue development project in the Fort Green, Brooklyn.

The project will include three low-rise buildings and a high-rise tower. The first phase of the project features 85,000 sq ft of market rate apartments and 22,000 sq ft of retail space. A drug store and supermarket will also be included.

Designed by Dattner Architects of New York, 218 Myrtle Avenue is a new nine-story residential and retail building at Myrtle Avenue and Ashland Place. “The exterior of the building is brick in several colors and patterns with metal panel highlights,” said a spokesperson for Red Apple. “Canopies and sunscreens shade public areas as well as adding scale. The first floor of the building at the street is a carefully designed retail storefront interspersed with the residential lobby to provide a neighborhood shopping experience on the lower two levels of the building.” The remaining eight residential floors will have 95 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. Amenities will include a physical fitness center, community room, an outdoor recreation area and parking facilities.

Plans for the remaining buildings have been delayed due to the unavailability of bonds, said Red Apple. As such, the $26 million initial phase is being financed personally by John Catsimatidis, chairman and CEO of Red Apple as well as market rate bank financing.

“Before Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the host of other factors plaguing our economy we envisioned a much larger project being developed all at once on our three block property on Myrtle Avenue including a luxury condominium tower, additional condominium units and a retail ribbon spanning the length of this three block ‘superblock’,” said a spokesperson for Red Apple. “In recognition of current markets conditions we’ve split the project into four sites and four buildings. Previously they would have been connected by retail bridges. Now each being will be freestanding although we still envision this as one project and optimally would like to stage each phase one after the other so as to achieve certain synergies.”

“New Yorkers deserve the best quality of life possible and moving forward with a development that will include a neighborhood supermarket and a drugstore to meet the needs of this underserved community is the right thing to do,” said Catsimatidis. “I am pleased that we were able to structure a transaction that will allow this to happen.”

Rinaldi Group LLC of New York began construction work on the first phase of Myrtle Avenue in May 2008 and pending the development of the remaining phases, Red Apple is optimistic about completing the initial stage in July 2009 and immediately moving onto the next phase, the affordable housing component.

Industry Forms New Construction Safety Group

Responding to a recent rash of construction-related accidents, a group of industry leaders have announced the formation of a new privately funded organization dedicated to promoting safety on New York City jobsites.

The New York City Construction Industry Safety Council will provide a forum for industry members to share safety ideas and best practices and to conduct research on how to implement those practices in the City.

“The private sector needs to get involved with this on an ongoing basis,” says Louis Coletti, president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers’ Association, one of the creators of the CISC. “This is not a one-shot deal but something that we are committed to over the long run.”

The organization’s sixteen founding members comprise the City’s top high-rise construction managers, their contractor associations, the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York and the Real Estate Board of New York. Plans call for expanding the group’s membership to architects, engineers, academics, contractors and government representatives.

In the wake of recent construction accidents, including two crane collapses on Manhattan’s eastside that killed nine people, the City Council and the Department of Buildings are proposing a raft of new legislation and rules to improve construction safety. One proposed rule would require owners and users of tower cranes to maintain tower cranes inspection, repair and maintenance records.

One of CICS’s first projects is to explore the development of a database, akin to the CARFAX Vehicle History Reports, to document and review the maintenance records of tower cranes. Preliminary discussions are underway with two consultants, McGraw-Hill Construction (which owns New York Construction magazine) and Advanced Management Systems, to develop the new system.

Coletti has had preliminary discussions about the proposed system with Robert LiMandri, the City’s acting building commissioner. “The project is intended to compliment what DOB, OSHA and other city and government agencies or doing,” Coletti says. “This is going to be a collaborative effort.”

Construction Begins on $25mil Resurfacing Project

The New Jersey Department of Transportation began a $25 million project to resurface Route 78 from Drift Road in Watchung Borough, Somerset County to Route 124 in Berkeley Heights, Union County.

“Resurfacing Route 78 will improve the movement of goods and increase safety,” said NJDOT Commissioner Kris Kolluri. “Route 78 is one of New Jersey’s most vital corridors for both commercial trucking and commuting.”

Crisdel Group, Inc. of South Plainfield, New Jersey began work on the eastbound side of Route 78 in July 2008 and will complete the portion in December 2008. Work on the westbound lane will begin immediately following and continue to December 2009. The project also includes guide rail replacement and traffic management tools including cameras and electronic signage.

New Retail Hub for UWS

Construction teams recently broke ground on a retail and residential tower at the corner of 72nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan. The new building will be on a 112-degree, 19,998-sq-ft plot and will have 48,000 sq ft of retail space on the first five floors, which will be the base for a 19-story, 196-unit luxury rental tower. Rendering courtesy of Mike Klausmeier.

Construction teams recently broke ground on a retail and residential tower at the corner of 72nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

The new building will be on a 112-degree, 19,998-sq-ft plot and will have 48,000 sq ft of retail space on the first five floors. The ground floor will be 9,300 sq ft; the mezzanine level will be 2,725 sq ft; the second floor will be 11,600 sq ft; the lower level will be 12,865 sq ft and the sub-lower level will be 10,420 sq ft.

The ground floor will have 22-ft-high ceilings and glass storefronts with 200 ft of wraparound frontage. The names of the perspective tenants are not being released, but there are Letters of Intent out for each, according to Brian Ahern, vice president of the Gotham Organization, which is managing partner of 2075 Holdings, the developer of the project.

“We believe this corner will be the city’s next great retail destination on par with legendary locations like 57th and Fifth, 86th and Lexington, and Broadway and Houston,” said stated Lynette Tulkoff, who is spearheading the retail marketing on behalf of the owners, Rhodes NY and Philips International.

The retail space will sit at the base of a 19-story, 196-unit luxury rental tower containing studios, one-, two- and three-bedrooms residences.

The entire building was designed by Handel Architects of New York. Although the residential portion will have sustainable features, only the retail portion will seek LEED Silver certification. All of the apartments will be equipped with high efficiency plumbing fixtures and appliances as well as a garden roof.

“The challenge of the site was also its greatest asset; its extraordinary visibility and prominence,” says Gary Handel, the president and founding partner of Handel Architects. “We wanted to make sure that we created a building that made the most of this great site. Our goal was to create a building that was both unique and memorable, and made great retail and great apartments. Most buildings do a good job of one or the other. Here, it was imperative that we do both.”

Gotham Construction of New York began work on the $200 million project in April 2008 and is expects to finish by late 2009.

Luxury Rentals for Lower Manhattan

Formerly the City Bank Farmers Trust Building, 20 Exchange Place in lower Manhattan, was designed by Avinash K. Malhotra Architects of New York and will be a 57-story, 800,000-sq-ft tower with 350 studio, one- and two bedroom rental residences. The tower will also include 100,000-sq-ft of retail. Rendering courtesy of Metro Loft Management.

Construction continues on the commercial-to-residential conversion of the once fourth-tallest building in the world.

Formerly the City Bank Farmers Trust Building, 20 Exchange Place in lower Manhattan, designed by Avinash K. Malhotra Architects of New York, will be a 57-story, 800,000-sq-ft tower with 350 studio, one- and two bedroom rental residences. The tower will also include 100,000-sq-ft of retail.

“This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to live in downtown’s premier rental building,” said Jack Berman, vice president of Metro Loft Management, owner and developer of 20 Exchange. “As one of the tallest and most prominent buildings in the Financial District . . . 20 Exchange, with its rich architectural detailing and unparalleled views, will offer residents a dynamic living space that blends old New York with the new.”

Originally constructed in 1931 and located on a trapezoidal base, the limestone-clad building, includes Art Deco architectural detailing, including a façade replete with sculptures and engravings, as well as a domed lobby with a gold-toned travertine floor, decorative nickel and bronze, and red marble columns.

Newmark Construction of New York began work on the project in the fall of 2006, splitting the work into two construction phases. Phase one involves the conversion of the tower units, specifically floors 16 and above into residential rental apartments. The process began in fall 2006 and is slated for completion by end of 2008. Phase two, which will begin after completion of phase one, includes the lower floors two to 15. These floors will be appropriated to office tenants and is scheduled for completion in 2010.

The building’s amenities will include 24-hour doorman, concierge and valet, fitness center, residents lounge, courtesy cruiser bicycles and landscaped sundeck on the 19th floor.

Ritz Carlton Moves North

Excavation is almost complete on The Ritz Carlton Residences in North Hills, a $2.8 billion residential community in North Hills, New York.

The development, designed by architects Perkins Eastman of New York, will feature 244 Ritz Carlton five-star condominiums spread over five, four-story buildings. The project has 730,000-sq-ft of residential space and 300,000-sq-ft of subterranean parking.

When completed in 2012, the amenities for the luxury residences will include a clubhouse, restaurant, lounge, spa, fitness center, indoor/outdoor pool on 17 acres of land. Additionally, the condominiums will offer suite service, housekeeping, valet parking as well as Ritz-Carlton Concierges on staff.

“[These residences will have the] highest in standards of finish found anywhere on Long Island,” said Bob Posillico, principle of Cummings Posillico Group Construction, who is responsible for planning and preconstruction services. “[The] building automation system is very high tech. When you arrive, sensors alert the concierge of your building [and] a private elevator awaits your arrival.”

RexMidtown of New York, a partnership between RexCorp Realty and Midtown Equities, is the developer and will also be the construction manager.