MANILA, PhilippinesThe 11-story Makati City Hall Parking Building at the center of overpricing allegations is not world-class as it has gypsum boards for most of its internal walls and office floors covered with rolling vinyl, which is similar to linoleum, according to experts tapped by the Senate blue ribbon committee to evaluate the edifice.

Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Antonio Trillanes IV were the only lawmakers who attended the inspection of the buildings features on Monday. They were joined by engineers, an architect and a quantity surveyor.

The inspection was intended to help the committee determine whether big amounts of public funds were spent for its construction.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Junjun Binay earlier explained the P2.3-billion cost of the structure by saying that it was world-class and Makatis version of a green building.

The mayor added that the building had to be given a strong foundation because it was built on soft ground.

He and his father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, who was the mayor when the construction of the parking building began in 2007, also denied allegations that the structure was overpriced. Both father and son are facing a plunder complaint over the issue.

Unoccupied office spaces

The building, constructed from 2007 to 2012, has a roof deck with a garden, five floors of office and storage space, though many have yet to be occupied, and six parking levels.

The Senate resource personsquantity surveyor Greg Jackson and architect Danilo Alanotook note of the vinyl flooring and the drywalls in the offices, and the finishes of the building, among other features.

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Experts doubt Makati building is world-class

By Matikas Santos |INQUIRER.net

Senator Antonio Sonny Trillanes IV and Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

MANILA, Philippines The camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay lashed out at the inspection of the Makati City Hall Building 2 conducted by members of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Monday.

What the inspection proved is that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has a misjudging eye for the quality of the materials used in the buildings construction, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) Secretary General Tobias Tiangco said in a statement.

I had no idea Trillanes was also an interior decorator- at least he will have a job after 2019 [when his term as senator ends,] he said.

Trillanes, along with Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, conducted the ocular inspection of the alleged overpriced building to verify Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binays claims that it was a world-class building.

The 11-storey carpark and office building, built during the term of Vice President Binay, cost P2.2 billion.

Trillanes noted however that the building did not have even a centralized air-conditioning system. He said no ceilings were installed in some of the offices in the building.

Some of the tiles in the parking area were broken and there were visible cracks in some of the walls.

Based on these observations, Trillanes said he is convinced that the building was not world-class as Mayor Binay claimed during a previous Senate inquiry.

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Binay hits Trillanes over building inspection

LABUAN: A fire broke out at the office of Galaxy Piling Construction Sdn Bhd located at Jalan Bebuloh, Kampung Belukut here yesterday and destroyed almost 50 per cent of the building.

Labuan Fire and Rescue Department spokesperson, Jason Bilin said that their operation room received the distressed call around 9.26am reporting the incident.

Soon after receiving the call, we deployed our personnel to extinguish the fire where we managed to control the flames before 10am.

Unfortunately, the fire was too strong and quick to burn the office building, he said, adding that there was no victims or human injury reported in the incident.

When asked about the cause of the fire, Bilin said that it was still under investigation and some samples from the building would be sent to Kota Kinabalu for further investigation.

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Building Gutted In Labuan Fire

CHEP New Zealand will shift into new premises being built at this Sturdee St site. Photo by Linda Robertson.

Construction is under way on a $4 million office and warehouse development for CHEP New Zealand in Dunedin.

CHEP, which provides pallet, container and crate pooling services, will move into the Sturdee St premises in late November, relocating from Strathallan St.

An extensive search of property options was undertaken by Chep's Sydney-based property consultants before the decision was made to partner with Port Otago's property subsidiary Chalmers Properties Ltd, Chalmers general manager David Chafer said.

The property comprised 200sq m of office, 1152sq m of warehouse and a 384sq m canopy on a 4658sq m site, while the new pallet and container centre would process 640,000 pallets a year.

Chalmers has subdivided the 7570sq m site, with the remaining land on its own title for future development.

CHEP was keen to be located in the industrial precinct in an area where it could operate 24-hours a day, while Chalmers was pleased to ''kick off'' a significant brownfield redevelopment, Mr Chafer said.

The site was previously occupied by Transfield Services and the buildings were demolished to enable the redevelopment.

It was hoped other building owners in the area would look to redevelop their sites with new industrial developments to benefit the city's economy, he said.

Chalmers is relocating Ray White from Filleul St to a 400sq m ground floor tenancy of its office building in Wharf St in February next year, after an internal upgrade.

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$4 million premises for CHEP operation

WEST CHESTER TWP.

Nearly finished on construction of a second Class A office building off Union Centre Boulevard, developer Schumacher Dugan Construction Inc. is now eyeing plans to build a third in the township.

At the end of 2012, Schumacher Dugan opened Union Centre Office Park I, a two-story, 32,000-square-foot office building at 9032 Union Centre Blvd. Tenants include Millikin & Fitton Law Firm, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide Insurance law offices, Employers Health and Re/Max Preferred Group.

That first $5 million building is about 70 percent leased presently, said Mark Schumacher, vice president of Schumacher Dugan.

Construction started earlier this year on a second building sharing the same parking lot, this time three stories and 48,000-square-feet at 9078 Union Centre Blvd. So-called Union Centre Office Park II, a $5 million to $6 million project, is slated to open in October, Schumacher said.

And the first tenant has been signed.

OfficeKey, which rents office space to executives and corporations, has signed a lease for about 12,000-square-feet on Office Park IIs third floor.

Once construction is completed, OfficeKey will relocate to the new space from its current location in the West Chester Twp. office building Centre Pointe at 9277 Centre Pointe Drive. OfficeKey manages five office spaces in greater Cincinnati, including West Chester.

OfficeKey provides a way for financial firms, law firms and branch offices to establish an office by subscribing rather than renting, said founder David Myers.

The traditional model is to rent space. The new way to do it is to subscribe to an office service, Myers said. You can work in any location, invite clients to any location, yet you can have a good location for your business.

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New West Chester office building gets first tenant

Robert F. Maguire III, a prominent developer who helped shape L.A.'s skyline in the 1980s and '90s, is back.

Maguire led development of several of the city's best-known office buildings including U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest structure in Southern California. Now, at 79, Maguire says he is gearing up to develop again.

He plans to build an unconventional office at Playa Vista, the expansive former headquarters site of aviation titan Howard Hughes that has become a magnet for so-called creative firms such as YouTube.

The monolithic granite and glass towers Maguire built for corporate titans of the late 20th century are not attractive to technology, entertainment and digital media firms now leading the region's economic recovery, he says.

"Smart companies want innovative space," he said. "Conventional office space is going to have a hard time competing."

The Playa Vista office market is roaring, in part because the tech-centric Westside, sometimes known as Silicon Beach, is running out of space.

"Santa Monica is full," Maguire said. "The obvious replacement for major tenants is Playa Vista."

His plan is to build an office called WE3, which would be the third building at an office campus called Water's Edge at the intersection of Lincoln and Jefferson boulevards. Maguire has held part interest in Water's Edge since he built it in 2002.

The complex, about a mile from the Pacific Ocean, was intended from the start to be a campus for creative technology types, but the timing was off. The roaring tech boom of the late 1990s was over by the time Water's Edge hit the market and it sat empty until video-game giant Electronic Arts Inc. moved there in 2004.

EA ran into financial challenges and labored to sublease much of its space, but Water's Edge is now at more than 90% occupancy, Maguire said. He plans to sell the complex to an investor willing to become a partner in the development of WE3.

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Prominent L.A. developer to build unconventional office at Playa Vista

WATERBURY, Vt. Three years after flooding from Tropical Storm Irene made most of the state office complex in Waterbury unusable, its replacement is rising out of what was a sodden mess that reeked of the nearby Winooski River.

An 86,000-square-foot office building is being constructed above the level of any expected flooding, and many of the historic buildings that are being preserved are being flood-proofed by filling in what had been their lowest levels.

The $125 million project, the largest state building project in Vermont history, is on track for completion at the end of 2015, when the first of 800 Agency of Human Services employees who will work there are scheduled to move in. It will take about four months to move everyone in, state project manager Mike Stevens said.

"The progress on-site is everything that we expected and then some," Stevens said. "The project is progressing at a very rapid rate."

Besides the new office building taking shape on the river side of the complex, a 20,000-square-foot central plant is being built. Most of the historic buildings, about a quarter of a mile from the river, are being completely renovated.

Flooding from Tropical Storm Irene on Aug. 28, 2011, was the greatest natural disaster to hit Vermont in almost a century. The storm killed six people and did hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to roads, bridges and public and private buildings, including homes.

Much progress has been made in the recovery. Last year, on the storm's second anniversary, Gov. Peter Shumlin marked the unofficial end to the recovery, but he made clear much remained to be done.

And part of that unfinished business was reconstructing the Waterbury complex, which had more than a dozen buildings.

While the buildings stood after the Irene floodwaters receded, much of the complex was made unusable. The only building substantially unchanged since the flood and still in use is the Public Safety building.

The complex had been home to the Vermont State Hospital. The patients were moved to other facilities during the flooding.

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3 years after Irene, new office complex rising

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. hosted a celebration this morning to mark the end of demolition work and the start of construction work for the $450 million, 32-story, 1.1 million-square-foot Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons office building on its downtown Milwaukee campus.

The new building will replace a 16-story, 452,000-square-foot office building on the campus that has been demolished. The demolition work began in December.

Planning for the new building began about four years ago.

Im so glad this day is finally here, said Northwestern Mutual Chief Executive Officer John Schlifske. All of the years of planning and demolition work is over. This is not a groundbreaking, because we broke ground long ago. But now were going to see something rise out of the ground.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett thanked Schlifske and the companys board for investing in the city.

(Schlifske) could have made the decision to build this anywhere, Barrett said. I believe that they decided to build here because they believe in this city. You have to have people that believe.

Northwestern Mutual has committed to have at least 40 percent of the workers on the project be city residents and is supporting worker training efforts for construction workers for this and other future construction projects in the area. The project will employ about 1,000 construction workers.

A lot of the work is going to be done by people that live in this city, Barrett said. A lot of people are critical of people in this city, but I have to tell you, they want to work.

The city is providing $54 million in tax incremental financing for the project.

We decided this partnership is critical to the future of the city of Milwaukee, Barrett said.

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Northwestern Mutual kicks off tower construction

LONDON, August 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Telereal Trillium has sold the Sony Building, Liverpool, to investment firm Karlin Real Estate for 4.396m, representing a Net Initial Yield of 10.75%.

The three storey purpose built office building comprises 50,655 sq ft of office accommodation on 3.07 acres of land and is situated in the highly successful Wavertree Business Park in close proximity to Liverpool city centre. It is let in its entirety to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd for a passing rent of 500k per annum.

Telereal Trillium completed a newly regeared 10 year lease with Sony in May 2014. Sony has been in full occupation of the building since construction in 1997.

Commenting on the sale, Mark Kelly, Director of Disposals & Development at Telereal Trillium said: "This deal shows the value of a committed tenant. The recent lease renewal we negotiated with Sony meant we could offer the Sony Building as a strong investment in a buoyant market."

Finn and Company acted on behalf of Telereal Trillium.

About Telereal Trillium

We are experts in managing large, complex property portfolios and ensuring that accommodation supports transformational business change.

We have long-term partnerships with some of the UK's largest occupiers, such as BT and the Department for Work and Pensions, and own a 5.5bn property investment portfolio, including over 8,000 properties nationwide.

We focus on understanding our customers' business and property requirements and delivering them through excellent service, active asset management and innovation.

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Telereal Trillium Sells Sony Building to Karlin Real Estate

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VOL. 129 | NO. 167 | Wednesday, August 27, 2014

A Memphis contractor is planning a new office building park in the city, according to a news report.

Memphis-based construction contractor Dan Walker Associates Inc. plans to develop up to 240,000 square feet in seven buildings on nearly eight acres at 3923 Forest Hill Irene Road, according to the report in the Memphis Business Journal.

Dan Walker Associates will start work on its own 10,500-square-foot, $1.2 million headquarters within two months, according to the report. The company will relocate to the building in early spring from its current location at 5350 Poplar Ave.

Dan Walker Associates bought the property, which is between Winchester Road and Tennessee 385, from Clark Metcalf for $350,000 and had it rezoned to commercial.

The Dan Walker Associates office complex would be the first new speculative office space in Memphis since Highwoods Properties opened the doors of the Triad Centre III building in East Memphis four years ago.

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New Office Building Park in Works