By Carl Rotenberg crotenberg@21st-centurymedia.com

Council voted 4-1 for the tax abatement and deteriorated area designation after a brief public hearing. Councilman Sonya Sanders voted against the designation. Council members Marlon Millner and Linda Christian were absent for the vote.

The Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act (LERTA) zone designation will allow Westrum Development Company (WDC) of Fort Washington not to pay real estate taxes on a diminishing yearly schedule. The tax exemption contains a 100 percent tax abatement in the first year and a 10 percent abatement in the 10th year with 10 percent changes each year.

If the Luxor at Sandy Street project were developed without the LERTA public subsidy, annual tax revenue would be $280,000 for the Norristown Area School District, $110,000 for the Norristown municipality and $28,000 for Montgomery County. If the 10-year, LERTA tax abatement for 900 Sandy St. is adopted by all three taxing authorities, full tax revenue would be postponed to the 11th year.

The resolution adopted by council said the property abuts a property (770 Sandy St.) that contains an unsafe building built with a defective design, is vacant, and has been condemned as unsafe for human habitation by the municipality of Norristown and thus is considered a deteriorated area pursuant to Section 4725(a) of LERTA.

However, the building at 770 Sandy St. was vacant after Norristown condemned it in May 2010 under a court order. Nine condo owners and 15 renters were forced to vacate. The municipality repaired it for more than $3.4 million at taxpayer expense. Four condo owners resided in the repaired building after the first condemnation was lifted on Aug. 17, 2012, and until it was condemned for a second time in August, said Ryan Schofield, a 770 Sandy St. condominium owner who lived there before the first condemnation.

The 26-unit condo building at 770 Sandy St. has been vacant since the August condemnation, Schofield said.

In February, Norristown officials announced they would no longer pay the $40,000 annual cost for maintenance, electricity and repairs at the building after winning that right in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

John Westrum, chairman of WDC, said the mix of 113 one-bedroom units, eight studio apartments and 36 two-bedroom apartments at 900 Sandy St. would discourage rentals from families who children that would attend the Norristown Area School District.

The Lofts at Valley Forge in West Norriton has 388 units and six school-age children attending the district, Westrum said at an earlier council workshop meeting. Continued...

The rest is here:
Norristown council OKS tax abatement for apartment building

SINGAPORE - Imagine an apartment block built by stacking separate rooms together, complete with finishings and fittings. That is how a new executive condominium at Canberra Drive will be assembled, using an advanced construction method that is expected to raise productivity by more than 40 per cent.

Get the full story from The Straits Times.

Here is the media statement from Singapore Press Holdings:

Transforming construction productivity through innovative technologies at BuildTech Asia 2014

BuildTech Asia's exhibition showcase and conference sessions span across the 'hardware and software' of the built environment - from construction technology to facilities management solutions

SINGAPORE - The fourth edition of BuildTech Asia 2014, the region's leading trade show for the built environment, opens today as part of a week-long series of events under the Singapore Construction Productivity Week.

Organised by Sphere Exhibits and hosted by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), the three day trade exhibition is held from 14 to 16 October at Singapore Expo Halls 3 and 4.

The event was officially opened by Ms Grace Fu, Minister, Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Over 200 exhibiting brands from nine countries including Australia, China, Germany, Ireland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan will be showcasing a wide array of products, machineries and cutting edge technologies from Autodesk, Bonco Enterprise, Higa Trading, Hydro Dynamic Engineering, Shinhan Tech-Engineering, Straits Construction, and Zuuse Australia among many others.

To address the productivity challenges faced by the industry as it copes with a tightened supply of foreign workers and evolving standards, this year's BuildTech Asia provides a platform for the exchange of knowledge and ideas for a more streamlined workflow, from sourcing of building materials to management of building facilities.

See the original post here:
More funding, facilities and training for construction productivity drive

The tallest apartment building in New York has reached its peak of 425 metres but the spectacular views over the city don't come cheap.

The penthouse, which is currently under construction at 432 Park Avenue, sold for $US95 million ($108.7 million) and the sub-penthouse on the 95th floor is currently listed for $97.3 million.

Prices in the 104-apartment tower more than half of which have sold start at $8 million.

But given the super-tall skinny tower is located at the southern end of Central Park, an area colloquially known as the 'billionaire's belt', it is likely that many of the remaining apartments will sell before it opens next year.

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"It's almost like the Mona Lisa," said Harry B. Macklowe, the developer building the $1.49 billion tower.

"Except instead of it looking at you, you're looking at it wherever you are. You can't escape it."

Not that everyone agrees the building, developed with the CIM Group, based in Los Angeles, is a work of art.

"God, does it stand out," said New York resident Marlene Rosenthal.

"It's a status symbol, and that's the name of the game in this city."

View original post here:
New York's tallest apartment tower tops out

DBOX for CIM Group/Macklowe Properties432 Park towers over neighboring buildings.

On Friday, construction topped out at 432 Park, a luxury condominium that's now arguably the tallest building in New York City. It even has the new One World Trade Center beat, not counting that building's spire.

At 1,396 feet, 432 Park towers above a row ofsuper-tall buildingsrising on the southern end of Central Park, an area that's already earned its "Billionaires' Belt" nickname.These skyscrapers are so tall theyneeded approval from the Federal Aviation Administrationbefore construction could start.

Its almost like the Mona Lisa, developer Harry B. Macklowe said Friday, The New York Times reported.Except instead of it looking at you, youre looking at it wherever you are. You cant escape it.

The building, which cost $1.3 billion to construct, hastwo penthouses, one on the 96th floor that sold for $95 million and another on the 95th, currently priced at $85 million.

The building's architect Rafael Violymade news back in September 2013 when his Walkie Talkie building wreaked havoc on London's streets, emitting a reflection so hot itmelted carsandliterally fried eggson the sidewalk. But if these renderings are any indication, this building should be more of a success.

We recently saw renderings of the apartment building's interiors, and the designs are magnificent.

Designer Deborah Berke says her focus was to make the most of the apartments' perch above the city. Double-height ceilings and beautiful oak flooring are highlights, while huge square windows provide an unparalleled view.

432 Park contains 104 apartments, which start at $7 million.

From the outside, rows of six 100-square-foot windows give the building the square look of a waffle iron.

Originally posted here:
432 Park Is Officially New York City's Tallest Apartment Building

VOL. 129 | NO. 199 | Monday, October 13, 2014

Indianapolis-based developer Milhaus Ventures is preparing to move forward with the long-stalled Highland Row project near the University of Memphis.

The company has applied for a $20 million building permit through the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement for construction of a four-story apartment building at 387 S. Highland St., the first piece in the $61 million Highland Row project. Wakefield Beasley & Associates is the architect and Jordan & Skala Engineers is listed as the engineering firm.

The mixed-use Highland Row development will include 354 apartments, 35 townhomes, a parking garage and 26,000 square feet of retail space. Memphis-based Poag Shopping Centers originally planned to develop Highland Row, but those plans were shelved following the recession.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

Amos Maki

Michael Lightman Realty Co. is moving forward with an expansion of the Fieldstone Apartments.

Lightman applied for six building permits totaling $6.4 million through the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement for 66 new apartments in the 901-unit complex at 3333 Hacks Cross Road. Patton & Taylor Construction Co. is the general contractor.

Earlier this year, Lightman acquired 24 acres near Tournament Drive and Hacks Cross for the expansion, which will take place in phases and include a total of over 300 units.

Amos Maki

Link:
Highland Row Developer Applies for Building Permit

Constructing a house, rather than buying an apartment, is a dream for many. A house with a garden can be within your reach if you invest in a plot ahead of time.

Plotting the dream

Once you own a plot, building a home is not very expensive. Construction costs vary depending upon the location and the material used, but it averages 1,500 to 2,500 per sq ft for mid-range houses. So you can construct a 1,000 sq ft home with a car park for under 30 lakh.

You must, however, invest in a plot early in your career by taking a land loan. And, based on how infrastructure develops in the area, you can decide on a suitable time to build.

It typically takes two years for you to build a house, including the time spent in getting the required approvals for building and the actual construction.

During the intervening years, you can fence the plot and plant trees, which will help secure your land. By building a home, rather than selling off the plot to buy a flat, you can retain the land value over a long term.

Buying to build

There may be a few differences between buying the land as an investment and buying with an intention of building a home. For one, if you plan to construct in a few years, a prudent choice may be to buy a plot where the social infrastructure, such as hospitals and shopping, are well developed.

This may be more expensive than buying in a far away place, but it may be safer and make every day living easier.

Also, plots close to the main road appreciate more compared to those that are a little far away. However, this may not be the best choice if you prefer peace and quiet. Instead, it may be better to buy in a street that is slightly away from the main road.

See the original post:
Buy, hold and build your own home

If you go

What: Boulder City Council joint study session with Planning Board to discuss development issues and the upcoming update to the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Boulder Municipal Building, 1777 Broadway

Info: To read the memo introducing the study session, go to bit.ly/1svp8hu.

The hotel and apartment buildings, the new streets and bustling construction at 30th Street and Pearl Parkway are the result of a plan that has been on the books since 2007, and yet they seemed to take the public completely by surprise.

Solana Apartments resident Carrie Kroutil walks her dog Kona, who checks out a wood chip along the Pearl Parkway side of the complex. The Solana Apartments, 319 market-rate apartments in four buildings and more than 8,000 square feet of retail, are part of the Boulder Junction development. (David R. Jennings / Daily Camera)

Boulder Junction, with its three- and four-story facades where parking lots and low-slung warehouses once sat, became, for better or for worse, the face of a building boom that has caused excitement and angst in Boulder.

Fans of a more urban Boulder bike and transit advocates, supporters of affordable housing, city officials and planners, even many residents laud the projects as the fulfillment of a vision for combining workforce housing and dynamic public spaces with local and regional transit connections.

Advocates of slower growth see a plan that was misguided from the beginning because the curving stretch of railroad track was incompatible with a train station, because commuter rail to Denver looks ever more unlikely, because it would draw more people to live in a community that is already at its carrying capacity, because it would not address the jobs-population imbalance that causes some 60,000 people to come into Boulder to work every day and now is marring the city's eastern gateway with unappealing contemporary architecture.

More here:
Boulder Junction symbolic of divide over building boom

Every once in a while a piece of architecture comes along that is emblematic of a moment in a city's architectural and urban development. One Santa Fe, a 438-unit apartment complex in the arts district by Michael Maltzan Architecture, is that kind of building.

It is a fractal of contemporary Los Angeles architecture, the fragment that both contains and helps explain the whole.

One Santa Fe is not a flashy or gymnastic piece of architecture. It doesn't suggest a new design vocabulary for the 55-year-old Maltzan, who founded his firm in 1995.

What gives the $165-million project its unusual symbolic power is that it takes the generic stuff of a typical L.A. apartment building a wood frame slathered in white stucco and lifted above a concrete parking deck and expands it dramatically to urban scale.

One Santa Fe is just six stories tall, around the same height as the vast majority of new apartment buildings in Los Angeles, since by code going any higher requires trading wood for a more expensive steel or concrete frame. But it is a quarter-mile long wider than the Empire State Building is high and holds 510,000 square feet of interior space.

It is this combination that makes One Santa Fe's significance impossible to miss. The design takes banality and stretches it like taffy in the direction of monumentality.

It uses those 438 apartments to fill a pair of long train-like wings, which is fitting given that along its eastern flank the complex backs up to a rail yard and the concrete banks of the L.A. River. It makes the famously linear campus of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, directly across the street to the west, look stubby.

As they say in Silicon Valley, it scales.

One Santa Fe, with 20% of its units earmarked as affordable housing, has been a controversial building in the arts district since its construction began. Some have criticized it as wildly oversized or seen it as a kind of gentrification ocean liner, slowly drifting toward dock as an unmistakable symbol of the money pouring into this corner of downtown, which used to feel busy only when somebody was shooting a car commercial.

In fact the meaning of the project and its appeal, if you're willing to look at it a certain way springs directly from its practically Seussian width.

Read more here:
Maltzan's One Santa Fe apartment complex plays with notion of density

Developers looking for profitable apartment building sites are ranging out from Uptown and downtown Dallas.

One of the emerging construction markets is Dallas near east side, close to the central business district and Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas.

Trammell Crow Residential and Greystar Real Estate have two large apartment projects in the works on Ross Avenue and Live Oak Street.

Now another major apartment builder, Encore Multi-Family, has locked up a construction site in the same area.

Encore Multi-Family is working on plans for a five-story, 253-unit rental community at Swiss Avenue and North Peak Street.

The property is now occupied by a Bank of Texas building that will soon be replaced by one on Live Oak, said Brad Miller, president of Dallas Encore Multi-Family.

We like East Dallas, Miller said. I dont know if it will be the next Uptown, but it certainly has some promise.

Encore Multi-Family is just finishing construction on a 288-unit apartment community near UT Southwestern Medical Center on Maple Avenue.

The Maple Avenue corridor, like East Dallas, has been a growing market for apartment development.

We are really good in D-FW at expanding the definition of what is the core market and going into fringe areas, said Greg Willett, vice president with Carrollton-based apartment market analyst MPF Research. A much bigger share of the renters can actually afford the price point in these locations.

Original post:
Apartment developers head to East Dallas for new building sites

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Stephen Goddard from the Owners Corporation Network explains why the court ruling shows government intervention is desperately needed.

A High Court ruling over building defects in a multimillion-dollar apartment complex in Chatswood will make it harder for owners to seek legal redress for shoddy apartments, warn experts.

In the final chapter of a two-year court battle, the High Court ruled on Wednesday that the owners corporation of serviced apartments in a 22-storey building in Railway Street could not sue the builder, Brookfield Multiplex, to recover the cost of fixing alleged defects in common areas.

The ruling comes beforenew building laws are due to take effect in NSWon December 1 that will also limit the rights of apartment ownersto seek redress for faults.

Owners Corporation Network chairman Stephen Goddard: There is a "gaping hole in consumer protection" for residential apartment owners. Photo: Supplied

Owners Corporation Network chairman Stephen Goddard, a strata lawyer, said the State Parliament needed to step in to address a "gaping hole in consumer protection" for residential apartment owners.

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He said "about 85 per cent" of new buildings contained defects. The court's reasoning, while sound, "underlined in red" the need for additional statutory protections for consumers.

The High Court found that contracts relating to the construction and sale of the apartments set out the circumstances in which the builder or developer was liable for defects in building work.

See original here:
High Court decision bad news for apartment owners