Charlotte developer Daniel Levine is preparing to start construction on an apartment building uptown that should bring 264 more units to First Ward, he said Wednesday.

The 10th Street Apartments will be located on Brevard Street, at the intersection with an extension of 10th Street. The six-story apartment building will wrap a 1,400-space parking deck, Levine said. Site work, such as removing light poles from the existing surface parking deck, has begun, and Levine said grading should begin in less than 30 days.

Its a full-block development, Levine said.

He said the parking deck and first apartments should be ready in about 16 months. Samet Corp. is signed on to build the apartments, and Rodgers Builders will handle the parking deck, Levine said.

His company, Levine Properties, has long held land in First Ward. In September, Levine broke ground on First Ward Park. The 4-acre site occupies former parking lots between Seventh Street at the ImaginOn childrens library and Ninth Street at UNC Charlottes Center City Building.

The park, to be completed this year, is expected to be the centerpiece of a new urban village. Its expected to be the first step of an ambitious plan to redevelop the area with as much as $1billion worth of hotels, offices and residences.

Levines company is also building a 105-unit upscale apartment building just south of Plaza Midwood, at St. Julien Street and Commonwealth Avenue.

The Charlotte Observer welcomes your comments on news of the day. The more voices engaged in conversation, the better for us all, but do keep it civil. Please refrain from profanity, obscenity, spam, name-calling or attacking others for their views.

Have a news tip? You can send it to a local news editor; email local@charlotteobserver.com to send us your tip - or - consider joining the Public Insight Network and become a source for The Charlotte Observer.

The Charlotte region is vast and diverse. The more voices engaged in conversation, the better for us all. The Charlotte Observer welcomes your comments on news of the day, but we ask that you keep the discourse civil.

Here is the original post:
Levine getting ready to start construction on uptown apartments

New home construction in Connecticut rose by 14 percent in 2014, with single-family houses leading the way, a new report Wednesday shows.

Permits for single-family houses, condominiums and apartment units rose to 4,603 last year, compared with 4,027 for 2013. The levels of building were the highest since 2008, when 4,910 housing units were authorized by cities and towns, according to the report from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

Norton C. Wheeler III, president of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Connecticut, said Wednesday that new residential construction last year showed promising gains, though there is still a way to in the industry's recovery in the state.

"This is the highest since 2008, but make no mistake that it is still less than half of what we were doing in 2004," Wheeler, owner of the Mystic River Building Co. in Mystic, said. "We're all surprised at the slow pace of the recovery, but the most important part is that we are recovering."

Wheeler noted that construction of single-family houses led the way, followed by building of multifamily structures with five or more units. Two years ago, it was just the opposite, amid a boom in rentals.

Wheeler said rising rental rates are starting to make homeownership more attractive, especially for first-time home buyers.

"Builders are starting to gain confidence themselves that there is a market for the single-family home," Wheeler said.

New home construction fell to a decades low in 2011 but turned around the next year. The levels are still well below the 9,000 to 10,000 units a year that Connecticut's residential construction industry considers a healthy building market.

Wednesday's report is based on a monthly survey of 128 municipalities conducted by the U.S. Census. Once a year, all 169 towns and cities are surveyed for an annual tally.

Typically, monthly and annual counts have closely tracked each other in past years, but that wasn't the case in 2013. The monthly survey showed a decline of 2.7 percent and the annual tally showed a gain of 16.2 percent.

Continued here:
Home Construction Up 14% Last Year

EDGEWATER, N.J. (CBSNewYork) Two tenants of an apartment complex in Edgewater, New Jersey that was mostly destroyed in a fire have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all residents.

The suit, filed this week in Bergen County Superior Court, seeks damages for economic and property losses from the massive fire at the Avalon at Edgewater complex last week.

The five-alarm blaze destroyed 240 units, permanently displacing 500 residents and temporarily displacing another 520 residents from surrounding buildings.

Our clients have been displaced, many of them from their homes. Many of them have lost everything that was in their homes, attorney Bruce Greenberg, with the firmLite DePalma Greenberg, told 1010 WINS. The lawsuit includes not only people who lived at the Avalon but people who live in the neighborhood and were damaged by the fire as well.

The suit alleges that Avalons property managers initially told residents there was a minor fire in the complex nearly two hours after the fire first started.

EXTRA: Click Here For The Full Complaint

For a short time, building employees were telling residents at the time that the fire didnt seem serious, Greenberg said. Two hours after the fire was first reported, Avalon sent an email to tenants saying that there was, what Avalon called, a minor fire in the complex. In fact, of course, it was a fire that was visible across the river in New York.

While no people died in the blaze, the suit says the fire claimed the lives of many pets and destroyed other irreplaceable items.

It was filed by Robert Loposky and Richard Kemp, who were both residents at the complex, according to the suit. It says Loposky lost all of his personal belongings, including his dogs. It says Kemp also lost all of his personal belongings.

The suit names Maryland-based AvalonBay Communities Inc. as the defendant as well as unknown entities and individuals that may be responsible for and/or may have participated in the improper activities of defendant AvalonBay.

See the original post here:
Tenants File Class Action Lawsuit In Wake Of Massive Fire At Edgewater, NJ Apartment Complex

Alfresco Patios 9405 8417
As Featured on http://www.tradiesperth.com.au - Alfresco Patios Quality Patios and Pergolas designed and built Steel framed We can help with all approvals and counc...

By: Tradies Perth

More:
Alfresco Patios 9405 8417 - Video

Professional Patios Cleaner in Chelmsford 07920 754 997 Best Patios Cleaner in Essex
http://www.essexjetwash.co.uk/essexjetwash-services.html ph 07920 754 997 http://www.facebook.com/essexjetwash Essex #39;s Best Pressure Cleaning Sealing Compa...

By: Dylan Hunter

See original here:
Professional Patios Cleaner in Chelmsford 07920 754 997 Best Patios Cleaner in Essex - Video

Pressure Washing Baltimore County MD | Power Washing MD
Roof Cleaning Baltimore County MD and Power Washing Services Baltimore County MD Much like Baltimore County MD is proud to be home to Norfolk Southern #39;s Enol...

By: Liberty SoftWash

Read more from the original source:
Pressure Washing Baltimore County MD | Power Washing MD - Video

Courtesy of Sundance International Film Festival

Patrick Wilson in 'Zipper'

A flaccid scandal movie that makes illicit sex a yawn

Sundance Film Festival (Premieres)

Patrick Wilson, Lena Headey, Ray Winstone, Richard Dreyfuss, John Cho, Dianna Agron

Mora Stephens

The fallout from the sexual transgressions that unfold behind America's corridors of power has provided juicy fodder for a lot of excellent television, The Good Wife and House of Cards at the top of the list. So it takes a film with sharper teeth than Zipper to expand the conversation about our endless capacity to be shocked by flawed leaders. Director Mora Stephens ponders (or purports to) what drives men in high office to risk their personal and professional reputations for expensive extramarital recreation. But she gives Patrick Wilson nothing but a sleek shell to play, so it's hard to get too worked up about his character's unraveling.

Stephens and co-writer Joel Viertel have dabbled in politics and passion before, in the director's low-budget 2005 debut Conventioneers. It's taken a decade to cook up this glossy sophomore effort, and in that time tabloid ink has flowed like Niagara Falls with the public shaming of Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, Mark Sanford and their ilk. Yet there's neither topicality nor bite in this bland pseudo-thriller, which lathers on composer H. Scott Salinas' high-suspense score like shower gel after sweaty sex, yet rarely musters an ounce of genuine tension.

Wilson plays Sam Ellis, a talented federal prosecutor whom we first encounter weeding out corruption in the mayor's office of an unnamed Southern city in a highly publicized court case. (The film was shot in Louisiana but appears to be set in South Carolina.) At the victory drinks afterwards, happily married Sam narrowly resists the aggressive advances of an attractive law school intern (Dianna Agron). But sex is on his mind when he meets a former high-end hooker (Elena Satine) while working an identity theft case. It's also probably on his browser history if his wife Jeannie (Lena Headey) a supposedly even sharper lawyer than Sam before she put her career on hold ever thought to check.

Anyhow, while Jeannie and others close to Sam are urging him to seize the spotlight and throw his hat into the political ring, he's busy sampling the services of a company called Executive Privilege. He's careful to cover his tracks at first, but as he starts working his way through the entire escort roster, he gets more desperate and sloppy, making Jeannie suspicious.

Go here to see the original:
'Zipper': Sundance Review

HomeWorx: Replacing Your Bathroom Countertops
undefined.

By: LOCAL 12

Read this article:
HomeWorx: Replacing Your Bathroom Countertops - Video

HomeWorx: Behind The Scenes At Countertops And Cabinetry By Design
undefined.

By: LOCAL 12

More here:
HomeWorx: Behind The Scenes At Countertops And Cabinetry By Design - Video

Look familiar? For many of us, closets are catch-all storage units that we all intend to clean up and organize someday. Were not that far into the new year, however, and theres no time like the present. (Dave Bemis / Noozhawk photo)

Look familiar? For many of us, closets are catch-all storage units that we all intend to clean up and organize someday. Were not that far into the new year, however, and theres no time like the present. (Dave Bemis / Noozhawk photo)

By Dave Bemis, Noozhawk Contributing Writer | @NoozhawkNews | Published on 01.27.2015 3:10 p.m.

Most of us struggle to keep our homes organized, and there may be no bigger setback than holiday hosting and decorating especially when it comes to our long-suffering closets. The urgent need to plunge back into work schedules and family routines often means that we jam our holiday decorations into any available hiding place and forget about them for another 11 months.

Knowing that a fresh nightmare lurks behind every door may make winter seem like the worst of all times to de-clutter your closets, but it can be one of the best especially if you can see that holiday hangover of disorganized decorations and unwanted gifts as motivation, rather than an obstacle.

Why do our closets suffer such indignities?

For starters, closets seem like an afterthought ... theyre not seen by friends who come over, said Lindsay Gabbard, a designer with California Closets in Santa Barbara.

From both personal and professional experience, she has seen the difference an organized closet can make. She clearly recalls the days when her closet was nothing but a pole and a top shelf. Its no wonder that people struggle, she notes, when all a closet has is one high shelf and they have to lob stuff up.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle for people who cant get their closets organized, though, is more basic: They dont know theres a better way, she said.

In addition to her design services, Gabbard endorses strategies such as donating things that havent been worn recently.

Go here to read the rest:
Simple Steps to Declutter Your Closets, Cabinets and Countertops ... Now