A BOOM in the building industry is creating thousands of jobs in construction but could lead to a drastic skills shortage.

The Federation of Master Builders has warned of a construction skills time bomb, with small construction firms in particular reporting shortages of key skills.

It says 42 per cent of firms are now struggling to find bricklayers and 44 per cent found it hard to recruit carpenters.

Meanwhile, the Home Builders Federation says 44,000 more new homes were started in 2014 than in 2012.

It says more than 100,000 extra jobs have been created by an increase in house-building in the past two years, but that tens of thousands more people will need to be recruited and trained.

Dorset is seeing the construction boom in action.

In Bournemouth alone, a major Hinton Hotel is under construction, the Citrus apartment building at Horseshoe Common is already 75 per cent sold, and work has started on a leisure complex at the former bus station site off the Square.

Rob Hooker, founding director of Poole-based Greendale Construction Ltd, said: Theres definitely an upturn and theres definitely more confidence out there, which means theres more volume of work for us all to do, not only on the house building side but on commercial and with NHS trusts and local authority work.

He added: No doubt about it, with the upturn in the industry theres going to be problems with skills shortages.

He said this could have an effect on costs. The downside is if there isnt a supply of decent labour, rates will start to increase and therefore the costs of building will go up, he added.

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Thousands of jobs in construction but will it mean drastic shortage in skills?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Just on the other side of Interstate 65 from the University of Louisville campus, a block that once contained an aging apartment building and unkempt rental houses is now the latest example of the student-housing arms race at U of L.

The Clubhouse includes three five-story buildings where, starting this fall, up to 758 U of L students will rent furnished apartments that come with walk-in closets, granite countertops and amenities like a courtyard pool, movie theater and hammock lounge.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of U of L's main Belknap campus, a new development called the Retreat is meant to bring suburban comforts with 157 detached cottages shared by two to six students apiece amid luxury perks like a sauna, golf simulator and cabanas beside a resort-style pool.

As U of L continues its decade-long transformation into a residential campus, private real estate developers are gobbling up land near the school and betting millions that students (and their parents) will pay $600 to $950 a month, each, to live in suites where no one has to share a bedroom or bathroom.

The Grove, a 654-unit complex on S. 4th Street, literally could not be built fast enough last year, as students moved in amid construction and ended up getting their first month's rent for free.

In the last five years, four big apartment complexes have been built on the edge of campus with about 2,700 beds among them.

Another four complexes with about 2,400 more beds are under construction or in the planning stages.

Investors in these projects are big, sophisticated companies that specialize in student housing such as Austin-based American Campus Communities and Charlotte's Campus Crest Communities.

U of L officials view the building boom as validation of their work over the last decade to shed the campus' commuter past by adding dining halls, late-night hours at libraries and athletic venues.

We have changed the face of this campus, said U of L housing director Shannon Staten.

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SUNDAY EDITION | Thousands more high-end apartment beds planned near University of Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Just on the other side of Interstate 65 from the University of Louisville campus, a block that once contained an aging apartment building and unkempt rental houses is now the latest example of the student-housing arms race at U of L.

The Clubhouse includes three five-story buildings where, starting this fall, up to 758 U of L students will rent furnished apartments that come with walk-in closets, granite countertops and amenities like a courtyard pool, movie theater and hammock lounge.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of U of L's main Belknap campus, a new development called the Retreat is meant to bring suburban comforts with 157 detached cottages shared by two to six students apiece amid luxury perks like a sauna, golf simulator and cabanas beside a resort-style pool.

As U of L continues its decade-long transformation into a residential campus, private real estate developers are gobbling up land near the school and betting millions that students (and their parents) will pay $600 to $950 a month, each, to live in suites where no one has to share a bedroom or bathroom.

The Grove, a 654-unit complex on S. 4th Street, literally could not be built fast enough last year, as students moved in amid construction and ended up getting their first month's rent for free.

In the last five years, four big apartment complexes have been built on the edge of campus with about 2,700 beds among them.

Another four complexes with about 2,400 more beds are under construction or in the planning stages.

Investors in these projects are big, sophisticated companies that specialize in student housing such as Austin-based American Campus Communities and Charlotte's Campus Crest Communities.

U of L officials view the building boom as validation of their work over the last decade to shed the campus' commuter past by adding dining halls, late-night hours at libraries and athletic venues.

We have changed the face of this campus, said U of L housing director Shannon Staten.

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SUNDAY EDITION | Thousands more high-end apartments planned near University of Louisville

Franklin Park Mall gets new RiteAid

Vandervert Construction is building a new Rite Aid store on the north end of Franklin Park Mall. At a project value of $2.8 million, the construction will erect a 17,400-square-foot store at 5840 N. DivisionSt.

The new store will replace a Rite Aid store in Franklin Park Mall where a second Trader Joes for Spokane is set to be built. The California grocery retailer will go into roughly half of the Rite Aid building currently in themall.

Rite Aids new site, which will include a drive-thru, is

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Vandervert Construction is building a new Rite Aid store on the north end of Franklin Park Mall. At a project value of $2.8 million, the construction will erect a 17,400-square-foot store at 5840 N. DivisionSt.

The new store will replace a Rite Aid store in Franklin Park Mall where a second Trader Joes for Spokane is set to be built. The California grocery retailer will go into roughly half of the Rite Aid building currently in themall.

Rite Aids new site, which will include a drive-thru, is near the Burlington Coat Factory building. The store is expected to open thissummer.

Kettrick Properties of Seattle plans to build a 21-unit apartment building at 317 S. CoeurdAlene St. in BrownesAddition.

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The Dirt - Sun, 01 Feb 2015 PST

The national construction sector finished 2014 on a seven-year high, with residential building consents up 16% on the back of apartments built.

In the midst of what is being described as an ongoing housing crisis, 2014 booked the highest annual number of new dwellings seen in seven years, at 24,680. Value was up 20% to $9.5 billion.

However, the data was underpinned by apartment sales, which when stripped out left just a 1.6% gain to overall new dwelling consents issued.

Combined with commercial consents, the total value was $14.6 billion for the year.

The new dwelling data includes houses, apartments and retirement village units, the latter exploding at an exponential rate with rapid expansion by Summerset, Ryman Healthcare and Metlifecare.

Unsurprisingly, and reflecting the past year's Real Estate Institute of New Zealand data on major demand and growth in Auckland and Canterbury, those centres respectively booked gains in dwellings of 20%, to 7595, and 27% to 7308.

Auckland and Canterbury accounted for 60% of new dwellings during the year.

Otago, for December 2013, had 88 consents valued at $36 million, and for last December 92 consents were issued, valued at $30 million.

For the December of both years, Central Otago had 17 consents issued, while Queenstown Lakes had 39.

However, for 2014, Central Otago had 180 building consents issued, while Queenstown Lakes had 623.

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Apartments give rise to 16% boost in NZ residential building consents

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Span Tower | Apartments in Sri Lanka | Residential ...

Story highlights Entrepreneur opened up the small hotel using memorabilia from Hong Kong's Occupy Central protests For as little as $10 per night, guests can pay to sleep in an original occupy tent 11-week-long pro-democracy protests captured the imagination of people around the world

Tucked away in an apartment building on a quiet side street of Hong Kong's busy Causeway Bay district, this small hotel is a shrine to the Umbrella Revolution.

Freelance translator Stephen Thompson rented the apartment in early December, in the same week that police began clearing out the city's pro-democracy protest sites.

"I literally got the keys and then the next day I went down to Admiralty (the main protest site) and the police were coming and I just grabbed as much as I could," says Thompson.

Posters, artwork and memorabilia from all three main protest sites now plaster every inch of the 600 square foot abode.

Rows of construction helmets are mounted neatly on the wall, gas masks hang like ornaments around a door frame, newspaper clippings wallpaper the kitchen and a yellow umbrella serves a partial curtain, shielding the living room from the sun.

"I had the idea at first of an exhibition," Thompson says, "and then when they (police) gave me the tents I thought, well, I'll put the tents in here too."

And the idea for Occupy Central Hotel was born.

For as little as HK$78 ($10) per night, guests can pay via a listing on Airbnb to sleep in an original occupy tent. The two-bedroom apartment accommodates a total of eight, Thompson says, but five is the most he's rented at once. Each tent is adorned with a name relating to the movement, such as "Freedom House" and "Foreign Force HQ."

Nicholas Watmough, 26, followed the Hong Kong protests from his hometown of Manchester, England, and recently extended his visit at the hotel.

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Fully occupied? Hong Kong's protest hotel

January 29, 2015, 6:01 PM Last updated: Thursday, January 29, 2015, 7:41 PM

By PETER J. SAMPSON

Marko Georgiev/ Staff photographer

A day after the five-alarm fire, the rubble and wreckage were still charred and smoking.

A mother and daughter who lost everything when their unit at the Avalon at Edgewater luxury apartment complex went up in flames last week on Thursday became the second set of tenants to sue their landlord, claiming negligence led to the inferno.

Sarah Jacobo, an executive assistant at an Edgewater specialty food company, and her daughter, Lisette Jacobo, an account training manager in New York City, were driving home on Jan. 21 when the thick smoke pouring from the two-building, four-story complex turned them away.

They lost everything, said their attorney, Barry D. Epstein of Rochelle Park. Its a very emotional situation and a difficult situation to cope with, he added.

The suit names AvalonBay Communities Inc., and Avalon Bay River Mews, owners and landlords of the 408-unit complex, as defendants, along with other as yet unknown individuals and companies, who together are claimed to be liable for the losses, property damages, emotional distress, mental anguish, and pain and suffering the Jacobos say they were forced to endure.

The suit also seeks punitive damages, claiming the defendants conduct was malicious and recklessly disregarded and was indifferent to the interests of others, including the plaintiffs.

Without being specific, the suit claims the defendants violated applicable statutes and/or building codes and standards and safety procedures and that, as a result, a fire was negligently caused to be started that destroyed more than half of the complex.

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Second lawsuit filed in Edgewater apartment building fire

January 29, 2015, 5:39 PM Last updated: Thursday, January 29, 2015, 8:31 PM

CHRIS PEDOTA/staff photographer

Officials have said the destroyed Edgewater building had lightweight construction with a truss style of roof framing.

Pressure is mounting for a review of state building codes and even a potential construction moratorium in the aftermath of a fast-moving fire that destroyed more than half of an Edgewater apartment complex last week and left hundreds homeless.

Officials in Mercer County on Thursday called for an emergency review of state construction codes before a residential community planned by the same developer for Princeton gets evaluated by the state. And Assemblyman Scott Rumana, R-Wayne, said he is working on legislation that will put a moratorium of up to two years on the approval and construction of multi-family housing developments until the states building code is revised.

The goal is not have any New Jersey residents lives at stake. But equally as important, its to not put our first responders into these buildings, which I would call fire traps, said Rumana. I have too much experience in seeing the failures of these types of facilities if this fire happened seven or 10 hours later, who knows how many people could have died?

A five-alarm blaze at the Avalon at Edgewater destroyed much of the 408-unit complex, shut schools and roadways, temporarily displaced nearby residents and brought to the surface long-standing issues in the firefighting community about lightweight wood construction a cheaper, faster and legal style of building that is common in New Jersey and elsewhere.

This type of construction is of particular concern when fire breaks out because of the potential for collapse and materials to burn quickly. Officials said the gutted Edgewater complex had lightweight construction with a truss style of roof framing.

The lightweight wood construction used to build the Edgewater complex is the reason the fire raced through the luxury apartment development so quickly, said Rumana. Buildings constructed with such highly flammable materials are virtual tinderboxes.

Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes and Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert, meanwhile, are calling for an emergent review of the states Uniform Construction Code prior to the formal evaluation by the state of AvalonBays plan to construct 280 housing units on a former hospital site.

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Assemblyman Rumana drafting legislation for 2-year moratorium on construction of multi-family housing

Tampa Bay Times

Thursday, January 29, 2015 5:35pm

After nine, teeth-rattling months, the pile driving in downtown St. Petersburg has stopped. City officials confirm the work was completed last week and won't resume. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]

After nine, teeth-rattling months, the pile driving in downtown St. Petersburg has stopped. City officials confirm the work was completed last week and won't resume. The aggravating preparation for building a 19-floor apartment building and adjacent garage at 330 Third St. S was supposed to take five months. But since April it had pounded on, eventually prompting the construction company to take a holiday hiatus and city council members to promise a still-pending review of the city's building rules. The experience has prompted other builders of proposed downtown towers to say they plan to use less noisy methods to stabilize their buildings' infrastructure.

Hear what you're missing: Pile driving in downtown St. Pete 01/29/15 [Last modified: Thursday, January 29, 2015 7:13pm] Photo reprints | Article reprints

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Hear what you're missing: Pile driving in downtown St. Pete