Central-city office building wins top award DAVID KILLICK

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/ Fairfax NZ

AWARD WINNER: The Stranges building in Lichfield St has be lauded for mixing new design while referencing its architectural past.

A new office building capturing elements of its historic predecessor has won the supreme award in this year's Christchurch Civic Trust Awards.

The Stranges building, on the corner of Lichfield and High streets, was designed by architect Jasper van der Lingen, of Sheppard and Rout, and replaces a historic building that occupied the site from 1899 until the Canterbury earthquakes.

Read more: Architecture awards celebrate city's urban renewal

The Civic Trust said the design "acknowledges the original character of a major corner site and gives consideration [to] inner city urban revitalisation".

"While construction utilises 21st century design in terms of its structure and the use of materials, it also makes strong and meaningful references to its architectural past," it said.

The building was among the first to be completed in the inner city's former earthquake red zone.

Trust chairman Neil Roberts said the trust, which has been in existence for nearly 50 years, was "shifting its focus slightly away from the heritage architecture emphasis it has had in the past".

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Corner building blending past and present wins top Civic Trust award

Rents are expected to rise in the city as white-collar employment increases.

Melbourne's city office construction cycle will take a breather in 12 months as nearly 200,000 square metres of space is completed and a year goes by before another building opens its doors and cranks up its lifts.

Real estate agents Knight Frank expects the office vacancy rate to rise to 9.2 per cent by the middle of next year before contracting through to 2017 due to the slowed development pipeline. Rents are also expected to rise as white collar employment in the city increases every year.

A string of buildings on Collins and Bourke streets, including 567 Collins Street, 699 Bourke Street and KPMG's new 55,000 square metre office at Walker Corp's Collins Square, will round out the present cycle of construction.

Knight Frank director Hamish Sutherland said this "will give the market a chance to catch up. It will be good for landlords and rents, and it gives us a chance for any oversupply to reduce".

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"But 12 months isn't a long time," Mr Sutherland warned.

CBRE director Andrew Tracey agreed.

"There's a long lead time for new projects. Smart tenants are taking advantage of the state of the market. If they do a deal now they can lock in a good lease for the next 10 years," Mr Tracey said.

Knight Frank research showed that prime net face rents increased by 5.3 per cent to an average of $486 a square metre in July, but incentives designed to encourage new leasing deals increased to 30 per cent from 26 per cent, which led to a slight decrease in effective rents.

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Office construction in Melbourne to take a break

A 10-unit apartment house with three affordable units is proposed at 2 Island Hill Avenue, on the corner of Danbury Road.

Development plans for a 10-unit apartment building and an office building on the corner of Danbury Road and Island Hill Avenue will be up for public commentTuesday.

The commercially zoned one-acre property proposed for development is the site where a proposed Stop & Shop gas station was turned down two years ago, after fierce public opposition led by residents of the Island Hill neighborhood.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will host public hearings on the plans next Tuesday, Oct. 14, starting at 7:30 in the town hall annex.

The one-acre property is the site of a former construction yard with a small garage at 65 Danbury Road and a vacant house at 2 Island Hill Avenue.

The plans were submitted to the town by attorney Robert Jewell on behalf of two development corporations whose principal owners are James and Don Sturges of the Ridgefield-based building company Sturges Brothers.

The plans are to divide the roughly one-acre property, creating separate lots for two projects:

Of the apartment buildings 10 units, at least three would need to be affordable under state guidelines to qualify the application for treatment under the states affordable housing law, 8-30g, which makes projects exempt from local zoning rules.

Under 8-30g, at least 30% of apartments in a project must meet the states affordability guidelines.

The shingle and stone apartment building designed by MacMillan Architects of Boulder Hill Road shows a footprint of just over 5,000 square feet, with 10 apartment units five on each of the two floors. The proposal envisions eight two-bedroom units and two one-bedroom units.

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Affordable apartments, offices get public hearing

By Doris C. Dumlao |Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines The Keppel and Banco de Oro Unibank groups are investing $265 million for the redevelopment of The Podium complex in Ortigas, bringing additional retail and office space inventory to the property market in the next two to five years.

SM Keppel Land Inc. (SMKL), a joint venture between SM-led Banco de Oro Unibank and Keppel Philippines Properties Inc., is set to add over 34,000 square meters (sq.m.) of retail space to The Podium, hiking the total leasable space of the five-story retail mall to 50,000 sq.ms. by 2016. This was based on a disclosure by Keppel Philippines to the local stock exchange on Tuesday.

Likewise part of the project is the construction of a new 42-story office building, which will offer a net leasable area of over 89,000 sq.ms. of premium grade office space and will rise above the expanded retail mall by 2019, according to the disclosure.

When The Podium was constructed many years ago, its structural base factored in the eventual construction of a high-rise building above it. The SM-Keppel consortium group was only awaiting a good time to activate this plan, banking on good prospects for the Philippine economy in the years ahead.

Total construction cost for this second phase of the Podium development has been estimated by SMKL at about $265-million, the disclosure added.

Based on an earlier announcement by the BDO, the upcoming office tower top The Podium was uniquely designed to rise from the ground as one continuous, soaring form but it balances its mass by the transparency of its curtain-wall and the random play of the vertical metal panels in its facade. The building has been designed to international grade A standards. The tower was designed to achieve the Gold LEED rating, from its choice of construction and building systems, to the design of the curtain-wall, to the optimum lease depths for good office day-lighting.

LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods. The system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The buildings LEED compliant design is seen not only benefiting the environment or reducing the tenants operational costs but also creating a better work surrounding for the building users, seen as an important factor in the competitive office market.

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SM Keppel to invest $265 million to expand The Podium

Downtown motorists, your one-way adventure on New Hampshire Street may just be beginning. Motorists may have up to two more years of the construction cones.

Lawrence city commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday are scheduled to approve a partial closing of the 800 block of New Hampshire Street to accommodate the construction of a new multistory apartment and office building at the northeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire streets.

The project will create lane closures on New Hampshire Street north of Ninth Street and south of the midblock crosswalk in the 800 block of New Hampshire Street. Officials are estimating it will take 18 months to build the new building, but are asking for permission to close the street up to 24 months, in case the project takes longer than anticipated. The citys director of public works is supportive of the request.

You have to have some room to get equipment in and around the building site, said Chuck Soules, the citys director of public works. You dont want people that close to a building site anyway. I think it is going to be in everybodys interest to let the project proceed in this way.

For the duration of the project, the northbound lane on New Hampshire Street is expected to be closed to all traffic. Periodically, the southbound lane also will be closed to traffic. But the Journal-World previously incorrectly reported that both lanes would be closed for much of the project. Soules said the plans call for the southbound lane to remain open except during times when a waterline that is located in the middle of the street is being replaced.

Soules said that portion of the project likely would take weeks, not months, but said a firm timetable for the work wasnt available. An attempt to reach a representative with the developer Lawrence-based First Management wasnt successful.

Downtown leaders also are waiting to see how the project will affect the Lawrence Farmers' Market, which hosts a Tuesday and Saturday market in the city parking lot adjacent to the building site. Plans call for the southernmost row of parking in the city lot to be closed during the construction project. Other parking spaces used by market visitors will be open, Soules said. The midblock crosswalk that leads to the market area also is scheduled to remain open, Soules said.

Amanda Cook, chair of the board of directors for the Lawrence Farmers' Market, said parking and ease of movement around the site is a concern. She said the market previously has worked well with the development group, so she is hopeful the developers will work to accommodate the market as part of the project.

One way or another, our plan is still to be at that location during all of this, Cook said. Well probably have to spend a little more money on advertising and work a little harder to make sure it works for our customers.

If the lane closures are approved by the commission, Soules said it is uncertain when the work may begin. He said crews may begin blocking traffic on the portion of the street within the next couple of weeks, but he has instructed the developer to be certain that the building project really is ready to proceed before the street is blocked.

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City to consider closing portion of New Hampshire Street to accommodate building project

A first-term state lawmaker is taking some heat for comments made this week at a candidate forum in Albert Lea.

Rep. Shannon Savick, DFL-Wells, told an audience Thursday that she never voted for the $90 million Minnesota Senate office building now under construction next to the state Capitol. She denied the claims made in a piece of campaign literature that an outside political group distributed in House District 27A.

That was settled before I even got to the Legislature, and I did not vote for it, Savick said at the Good Samaritan Society event. So, I just wanted to make that clear.

But Savick did vote for the project, which was included in the 2013 omnibus tax bill passed in the final hours of her first legislative session.

Then after distancing herself from the vote that critics are trying to use against her, Savick told the audience that she believes the new building is needed.

Its money spent that we did need because the Senate had no place to go once they remodeled the Capitol building, she said.

Savicks remarks were recorded by the Minnesota Jobs Coalition, the same GOP-backed group that distributed the literature.

Savick released a written statement today clarifying her comments.

While discussions about the building do date back to before my time in the legislature, the project was finalized over the last two years, Savick said. In the 2013 tax bill, I voted for funding for the planning and architectural design of the building. However, the details of the building and final approval were handled by the Rules Committee, which I am not a member of.

Savick is running for a second term against Republican challenger Peggy Bennett.

See more here:
Office issue trips up DFLer Savick

Bottomline

City Commissioners will consider a request to close down a portion of the 800 block of New Hampshire Street for up to two years to accommodate the construction of a new multistory apartment and office building in downtown.

Background

The request comes from Lawrence-based First Management, which plans to build an apartment and office building at the northeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire streets. To accommodate construction equipment, the company is asking for the portion of New Hampshire Street north of Ninth Street and south of the mid-crosswalk in the 800 block of New Hampshire to be closed for the duration of the project. Traffic on Ninth Street also would be impacted. Traffic would be open in both directions, but crews would shift all traffic to south half of the street.

The city also is noting that a portion of the 900 block of New Hampshire Street already is reduced to southbound traffic only. That is to accommodate construction of a hotel/retail building on the southeast corner of Ninth and New Hampshire. The city projecting there will be a time period when traffic in both the 800 and 900 blocks of New Hampshire Street is impacted.

Consent agenda

Approve City Commission meeting minutes of 09/09/14 and 09/16/14

Approve all claims. The list of approved claims will be posted to the agenda the day after the City Commission meeting.

Approve licenses as recommended by the City Clerks Office.

Approve appointments as recommended by the Mayor.

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Lawrence City Commission meeting for Oct. 14

GROTON The state Fire Marshals Office, which asked the state to halt operations at the Groton Wind facility last fall because of building and safety code violations, issued a report this week saying the plants owners have met the states requirements and all the needed permits have been issued.

The $120 million, 48-megawatt, 24-turbine wind-energy plant, which the states Site Evaluation Committee (SEC) threatened to close on Nov. 4, has now satisfied the fire marshal, the Attorney Generals Office and several others.

At least one intervenor still has complaints, and the SEC has more investigative and administrative work to do, so the investigation is not complete, said Michael Iacopino, the SECs attorney.

But the owners of Groton Wind, LLC Iberdrola Renewables of Spain and Portland, Ore. have fulfilled the requirements of an April compliance agreement with the Fire Marshals Office, which was the chief complainant.

The applicant has completed all of the requirements of the compliance agreement to the satisfaction of the fire marshal. Occupancy permits for the (Operations and Maintenance) building and each of the 24 towers were delivered to the site on Sept. 26, wrote Deputy Attorney General Ann M. Rice and attorney Dianne Martin of the states Transportation and Construction Bureau in a letter sent Monday to the SEC.

Art Sasse, director of communications and brand for Iberdrola Renewables, said his company has been busy, making sure it meets all the states requirements.

Public safety is our number-one priority at every single wind farm and solar plant that we operate and weve worked very hard to meet the rigorous safety standards at the state and local level, to assure the Groton community that we take our role as a responsible business partner and a good neighbor very sincerely, Sasse said Thursday.

Fire marshal investigators had said the plant did not have all the required state permits when it went online in December 2012. In August 2013, Ronald D. Anstey, section chief and investigator with the state Fire Marshals Office, found that the plants owners did not file fire code and safety code plans with the fire marshal, failed to provide required fire suppression at the turbines, and had not obtained proper approval from state agencies for its design and construction of the plant and its Operations and Maintenance building, which the company moved across the street from its originally stipulated location.

In its initial responses to the fire marshals claims, Iberdrola officials said they had obtained the proper permits through the Department of Environmental Services, and claimed they had acted lawfully.

But the company later agreed to the compliance agreement with the Fire Marshals Office, working to properly obtain the required permits for the wind turbines and for the Operations and Maintenance building,

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Fire marshal OKs Groton Wind operations after deeming facility safe

ORLANDO, Fla. -

Nearly half a dozen construction projects in downtown Orlando are creating a construction boom, according to Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.

The projects are mostly residential, with 900 units being built over several projects. Commercial construction is ongoing too with both a hotel and office building planned for Orange Avenue north of Colonial Drive.

Over the last few months crews have been busy constructing the 270-unit Crescent Central Station, a mixed-use development across from the Orange County courthouse at Orange Avenue and Amelia Street. The development has some two-story units facing a courtyard pool and a rooftop amenity deck. Several retail spaces are planned in units facing Orange Avenue.

Meanwhile, Dyer helped break ground Thursday afternoon on The Brownstones at Thornton Park. Twenty-eight town homes are projected to be complete next fall at Summerlin Avenue and Jackson Street.

Dyer says the spate of construction projects represents renewed interest in living in downtown Orlando.

"It continues to emphasize how much people want to live in our downtown, that the economy is coming back," said Dyer.

According to Dyer, more apartment developments are planned for downtown. He says he expects to preside over another groundbreaking sometime within the next few weeks.

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Orlando mayor: Projects creating downtown construction boom

An artists rendering of the first office development at Bay Meadows, known as Station 4. The four-story building is slated to be 210,000 square feet.

Bay Meadows will soon be ripe for companies to start roots at the massive transit-oriented development in San Mateo as developer Wilson Meany announced it will begin construction on the sites very first office complex this month.

Decades in the making, Wilson Meany and partner Stockbridge Capital Group will break ground on Station 4, a 210,000-square-foot four-story office building at 3050 S. Delaware St. that developers anticipate will attract top tenants with its central location near State Route 92 and Highway 101.

With commercial space in San Francisco and the valley dwindling, were seeing numerous companies looking to expand in the mid-Peninsula. There is an intense demand for this type of product right now, Janice Thacher, partner at Wilson Meany, wrote in an email.

San Mateo has become a hotbed of development proposals as of late. Developer Hines seeks to start construction on 292,400 square feet of office space on Delaware Street just north of State Route 92 at the end of the year. EBL&S Development submitted an application to transform the 12-acre Station Park Green site next to the Hayward Park Caltrain station into 599 residential units and up to 15,000 square feet of office space.

Caltrain itself seeks a partner to build a mixed-use development atop the agencys 2.7-acre Hayward Park Caltrain station surface parking lot and two recent pre-applications propose turning two former gas stations on El Camino Real and Third Avenue into two smaller three-story office and retail space buildings.

Bay Meadows, now in Phase II, has long sought to incorporate office space into its transit-oriented development and anticipates Station 4 to open in mid-2016.

The entire 160-acre site was broken into two phases. A shopping plaza features a Whole Foods Market, 19 live-work condos, 55 single-family homes, 98 townhomes and 575 apartments, the Kaiser Permanente medical center, Franklin Templeton headquarters and San Mateo police station, The 83.5-acre second phase includes the recently-opened private Nueva School, open space and numerous residential developments. The site between the Hillsdale Caltrain station and 25th Avenue is nearly unrecognizable from its former days as a race track.

Bay Meadows variety of services will attract a modern workforce on which companies can capitalize, Thacher said.

Todays workforce wants to be integrated into a vibrant community where there are dining, shopping and entertainment options. Bay Meadows is a compact, walkable neighborhood that will be full of shops, restaurants, parks and humming with residents and students. That environment will help a company attract top talent, Thacher said.

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Bay Meadows beginning office construction: Ground to be broken this month on 210,000-square-foot building