Hunter Roberts Construction Group is opening for business in New York with former senior executives from Turner Construction. Robert Fee, who was president of Turner Construction until he retired in 2003, is chairman of the new company. James McKenna, who in 2003 had become head of New York operations for Turner Construction, recently left that post to become president of Hunter Roberts, which will have offices in the World Financial Center in Manhattan.

McKenna said that Hunter Roberts will handle work in the tri-state area for all types of building structures as well as interiors. "We're going to be a major construction firm, including construction management, program management, and general contracting services," he said. "Right now we're building the foundation. We're building all the control tools and all of the procedures to streamline and create efficiency."

The firm is opening shop with about 20 people, and McKenna confirmed that several of them had recently left Turner.

McCarter & English, a law firm, has added a six-partner construction industry practice group to its New York office. The group had come from Buchanan Ingersoll. It includes James Frankel and Eugene Scheiman, who will be practice co-chairs, as well as Mary Jane Augustine, Andrew Ross, Mark Bloom, and Robert Bernstein.

Leewood Real Estate Group, a development and construction company with offices in Trenton, N.J., and New York, won an Innovation in Workforce Housing Award from the National Association of Home Builders. The award recognizes Leewood at North Willow Green, a new affordable and workforce housing community completed last year in downtown Trenton through a partnership with the city government, the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, and Concerned Pastors of Trenton and Vicinity.

T&M Associates, an engineering and planning firm based in Middletown, N.J., has acquired JCA Associates. T&M now has nearly 350 professionals and support personnel. The 80 former JCA staff members will continue to service their clients from their current locations in Moorestown and Clark, N.J.

United Rentals of Greenwich, Conn., will contribute up to $100,000 through the American Red Cross International Response Fund to the Asian countries devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami. The pledge consists of a corporate donation of $25,000 and a dollar-for-dollar match of employee contributions up to $75,000.

GEOD Corporation of Newfoundland, N.J., recently announced the formation of a subsidiary, Layout, Inc., that will provide surveying services to New York and New Jersey construction firms on contracts that require union personnel.

Parsons Brinckerhoff, a New York-based planning, engineering, and construction management firm, has established the PB Institute, a program to enhance educational and training opportunities at the firm and to assist employees in maintaining professional licenses and technical certifications.