NEW YORK (AP) The city has halted work at a midtown Manhattan office building where a construction worker plummeted to his death.

The buildings department issued a stop work order for 424 West 33rd St. following inspections Monday and Tuesday.

Inspectors cited unsafe working conditions, improper storage of materials on the roof and the Monday accident.

The department says work cannot resume until the violations are corrected and the building passes an inspection.

The worker fell more than 100 feet. He landed on a scaffolding about 25 feet above the sidewalk between 9th and 10th avenues.

A woman who answered the phone at the building's management office said owner Vectra Management Group had no comment.

The company performing renovations on the building, Stonehenge Restoration, did not immediately return a telephone message.

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NYC halts work at building after deadly fall

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Construction is close to starting on the Walmart Neighborhood Market on the south side of the Rio Rancho Shopping Center near NM 528 and Southern Boulevard.

Walmart spokeswoman Delia Garcia said the construction contract has been awarded to Roche Constructors Inc. of Colorado.

Construction is imminent, she said. We would expect construction to start within the next few weeks.

The 42,039-square-foot store will sit on a four-acre site between Grande Boulevard and an existing office building, south of the shopping center that houses Samons, OHares Pub and Grille, Lindas Laundry and other business.

According to the Roche website, the work will include demolition of an existing parking lot, overlot grading, utilities, parking lot paving, site lighting, landscape, some off-site infrastructure and roadway work. A construction trailer has already been moved to the site.

Garcia said Walmart anticipates an opening of the store late this year. Hiring will likely start in early fall, she said.

We will be hiring for about 65 positions, full- and part-time, she said. Were always seeking strong talent thats customer-focused and excited about serving our customers in Rio Rancho.

Walmart, which touts the neighborhood market as a convenient grocery-shopping experience, has four other markets in New Mexico. The stores are about a fifth the size of its superstores.

Roche was founded in Greeley, Colo., in 1971 and has regional offices in Las Vegas, Nev., and Westminister, Colo., according to its website.

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Construction nears for Walmarts convenience grocery store

By Suzanne Baker sbaker@stmedianetwork.com April 15, 2014 1:32AM

The School District 300 administrative offices have moved from this wing of Carpentersville Middle School to temporary quarters into Hampshire High School. This structure will be for special education and problem behavior students. | Sun-Times Media file

storyidforme: 65004032 tmspicid: 22585303 fileheaderid: 10871612

Updated: April 16, 2014 2:36AM

ALGONQUIN Plans have taken a step closer to fruition by Community Unit School District 300 to build a new administration building in Algonquin and revamp the former central office space in Carpentersville for use by the districts alternative school.

The school board Monday night awarded the first of two sets of bids totaling $1.64 million for the construction of the new central office building, just south of Jacobs High School. The cost, which accounts for 31 percent of the overall projected $5 million to $5.5 million, will pay for excavation, site utilities, improvements, asphalt paving, landscaping, building concrete, masonry, structural steel, roofing and plumbing.

In addition, the school board on Monday also approved spending $489,637 on the first phase of work on the new home for the Oak Ridge Alternative School in the building adjacent to Carpentersville Middle School. The cost includes demolition, general trades, metal studs, drywall, acoustic ceilings, flooring and painting, and represents 40 percent of the overall project. The renovations are estimated to cost between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, which would be offset by the sale of the Oak Ridge property and a $50,000 grant from the Illinois State Board of Education.

Earlier this year, the school district closed on the Oak Ridge School property, on Lake Marian Road in Carpentersville, selling the site for $750,000 to the Childrens Home and Aid Society, which plans to build a preschool there. Starting in the 2014-15 school year, the 78 special education and problem behavior students who had been housed in a mobile classroom unit will move into the renovated space at 300 Cleveland Ave. With the work, the alternative school will have larger classrooms, more space for small group of students to work with teachers, a nurses office, larger cafeteria, and access to use the Carpentersville Middle School gymnasium for physical education.

School board member Joe Stevens, who is co-chairman of the boards Construction and Facilities Oversight Committee, said that while bids for the renovation work came in slightly more than anticipated, bids for the new construction came in less than expected.

In a memo to the board, Susan Harkin, the districts chief financial officer, said that based on bid results for the first phase and the estimated cost of the second phase, the central office building is $117,763 under original estimates, unlike the renovation work on the former administrative office building on Cleveland Avenue that is coming in $86,039 over budget estimates.

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D300 OKs $2.1 million in construction bids

The group representing Montgomery developers has accused the county of accumulating large cash surpluses through excessive fees for building permits and inspections necessary to complete construction projects.

The Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association asked County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) to revise the fees established by the Department of Permitting Services. The department, which is responsible for processing and approving construction plans, is projected to collect $42.5 million in fees $13million more than its original estimate for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Robert Kaufman, the associations vice president for government affairs, said in written testimony submitted to the County Council on the fiscal 2015 budget that the fee structure is raising construction costs at a time when Montgomery is seeking to improve its economic competitiveness.

The permit fees paid come from the pockets of County homebuyers, businesses, property owners, tenants and our residents who make the conscious decision to relocate, expand or grow in Montgomery County, Kaufman said.

The associations protest is noteworthy, in part, because its membership includes some of the heaviest contributors to county political campaigns. Their pitch for lower fees comes two months before the June 24 Democratic primary.

Last year, after intense industry lobbying, Leggett agreed to lower two types of charges: fees for permits to build certain types of wood-frame apartment buildings and fees to support the departments IT operations.

But Leggett said Tuesday that he wanted to see a detailed study of the countys fee structure scheduled to be conducted this year before agreeing to further reductions.

We need to look at this comprehensively and not just pull at the threads, he said.

Unlike most county departments, Permitting Services depends entirely on user fees, and it receives no money from the tax-supported general fund. For several years 2007 to 2011 the agency operated in the red, a product of the economic slowdown and internal problems in collecting revenue.

In the past three years, however, the agency has been relatively flush, running up tens of millions in fund balances. The departments director, Diane Jones, said that fees were not raised and that the revenue stream reflects the ups and downs of the construction market.

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Developers target Montgomery County construction fees, surpluses

By Suzanne Baker sbaker@stmedianetwork.com April 15, 2014 1:32AM

ALGONQUIN Plans by Community Unit School District 300 to build a new administration building in Algonquin and revamp the former central office space in Carpentersville for use by the districts alternative school took a step closer to fruition.

The Board of Education Monday night awarded the first of two sets of bids for the construction of the new central office building, just south of Jacobs High School, in an amount totalling $1.64 million. The cost, which accounts for 31 percent of the overall projected $5 million to $5.5 million, will pay for excavation, site utilities, improvements, asphalt paving, landscaping, building concrete, masonry, structural steel, roofing and plumbing.

In addition, the School Board on Monday also approved spending $489,637 on the first phase of work on the new home for the Oak Ridge Alternative School in the building adjacent to Carpentersville Middle School. The cost includes demolition, general trades, metal studs, drywall, acoustic ceilings, flooring and painting and represents 40 percent of the overall project. The renovations are estimated to cost between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, which would be offset sale of the Oak Ridge property and a $50,000 grant from the Illinois State Board of Education.

Earlier this year, the school district closed on the Oak Ridge School property on Lake Marian Road in Carpentersville, selling the site for $750,000 to the Childrens Home and Aid Society, which plans to build a preschool there. Starting in the 2014-15 school year, the 78 special education and problem behavior students who had been housed in a mobile classroom unit, will move into the renovated digs at 300 Cleveland Ave. With the added space, the alternative school will have larger classrooms, more space for small group of students to work with teachers, a nurses office, larger cafeteria, and access to use the Carpentersville Middle School gymnasium for physical education.

School Board member Joe Stevens, who is co-chairman of the boards Construction and Facilities Oversight Committee, said while bids for the renovation work came in slightly more than anticipated, bids for the new construction came in less than expected.

In a memo to the board, Susan Harkin, the districts chief financial officer, said based on bid results for the first phase and the estimated cost of the second phase, the central office building is $117,763 under original estimates, unlike the renovation work on the former administrative office building on Cleveland Avenue which is coming in $86,039 over budget estimates.

Stevens said unforeseen asbestos work is partially to blame.

For the central offices, low bidders awarded contracts were Schneider Excavation, $134,382 for excavation; River Valley, $76949 for site utilities; Champion Paving, $33,890 for asphalt paving; Chadwick Contracting, $80,050 for site concrete; Sebert Landscaping Inc., $41,364 for landscaping; Alright Concrete Co., $242,900 for building concrete; Burr Oak Masonry, $355,500 for masonry; McKinney Steel, $391,470 for structural steel; Metalmaster Roofing, $119,770 for roofing; and Joe Bero Plumbing, $152,000 for plumbing.

In the Oak Ridge work, low bidders were Robinette Demolition, $84,200 for interior demolition; Hargrave Buildings Inc., 151,800 for general trades; Peak Carpentry, $102,995 for metal studs and drywall and $46,599 for acoustic ceiling; Carpetland USA, $79,562 for flooring; and Five Star Decorating, $24,481 for painting.

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District 300 OKs $2.1 million in construction bids

CDC: 1 in 68 children on autism spectrum

An estimated 1 in 68 children have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, a 30 percent spike of reported rates in two years, according to findings released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With Record Store Day on the horizon for this weekend, its easy to get caught up in more limited edition stuff that will be hitting the racks. Dont get too far ahead of yourself though, theres plenty to get excited for before that one day of the year where vinyl gets swept off the shelves.... Read more

Last week, Boston mayor Marty Walsh announced that a task force has been assembled to to find the citys second-ever poet laureate. After six successful years in the position,Sam Cornish will be relinquishing his seat to a newcomer, and this is a perfect opportunity to inject some youth, vigor, and innovation into position. Who better... Read more

It's time start thinking about how on Monday, April 21, we will once again come together as a community and show our collective strength.

WASHINGTON (AP) Speaking for the first time in more than two weeks, President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin showed little sign of agreement on Monday, with the U.S. leader urging pro-Russian forces to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine and Putin denying that Moscow was interfering in the region.

You want to be more conscious of helping Mother Earth, but youre busy with work, school, driving the kids to endless sports and activities, dinners, movies, concertsI get it. Were all very busy, day in and day out. So I thought I would give you a few easy ways to to make small changes in... Read more

If you prefer an Aviation to a glass of wine or an Old Fashioned to a light beer but lack mixology chops, a Somerville design firm recently conceptualized a smart solution to your imbibing woes. The Connected Cocktail Project, from design house Altitude, is a a full cocktail-making ecosystem complete with Bluetooth pour spouts, cloud... Read more

Yes, its still early in the season. But dropping three out of four to the Yankees hurts no matter what time of year it is. Sure, it was a weekend without Koji Uehara and Dustin Pedroia (and manager John Farrell for the series finale), but that was only part of the problem. Chad Finn and... Read more

Dustin Pedroia's left wrist injury is still being checked out in Boston, but the Sox second baseman's injury does not appear serious.

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DivcoWest buys One Winthrop Square office building in Boston

Construction of an office building, renovation of another and addition of a parking garage comprise the latest expansion project at the Edward Jones campus in Maryland Heights.

The projects by the financial services firm represent the next major growth at the campus since the opening in 2009 of an office building that includes space to train new brokers.

The Maryland Heights Planning Commission considered the latest expansion plan this week. Michael Zeek, the city planner, said commissioners agreed with the plan in concept but requested more information. The plan requires a zoning change that could gain city approval in May.

Also in May, Edward Jones plans an event to mark completion of the $40 million renovation of what had been its headquarters from 1972 to 1994, at 201 Progress Parkway.

The renovation is part of the growth program, which includes a $19 million parking garage connected to the office building by a walkway over Progress Parkway. The garage, like the rest of the new construction, requires city authorization because Edward Jones has acquired property outside the boundary of its earlier corporate footprint.

The restoration of our original West County headquarters facility will preserve a piece of our firms history and support our growth as we expand in order to serve more individual investors, Jim Weddle, the companys managing partner, said in a statement Thursday. 201 Progress Parkway is rich in firm history. Both Mr. Jones Sr. and Ted Jones worked in this building, and this is where I began my Edward Jones career.

The building at 201 Progress Parkway became the companys headquarters in 1972 when Edward Jones moved its offices from downtown St. Louis.

At the time, the firm had 152 financial advisers, revenue of $9.6 million and occupied only one floor of the three-story Progress Parkway building. The firm now has more than 13,000 advisers. Revenue in 2013 topped $5.6 billion. Edward Jones also has campuses at its current headquarters on Manchester Road in Des Peres and in Tempe, Ariz.

Edward Jones hopes to complete the Maryland Heights parking garage next year. A cost estimate has yet to be released for the office building the company plans to build at the northeast corner of Progress Parkway and Kimler Drive.

At first, the building was to have gone up west of Progress Parkway. Edward Jones shifted the building site to allow for more green space west of Progress Parkway. In 2012, the firm completed what it calls Founders Footpath, a walking path along that street.

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Edward Jones plans Maryland Heights expansion

Salesforce.com announced Friday that it will be the main tenant in a 61-story building under construction in San Francisco.

When completed in 2017, "Salesforce Tower" will be the tallest office building west of the Mississippi River. However, the building will eventually be eclipsed in height by the 73-story Wilshire Grand in Los Angeles, which will be a mix of hotel, office and retail space.

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"It will fundamentally transform the skyline of San Francisco," said Burke Norton, chief legal officer for Salesforce. "It will dramatically increase the size of our company here in San Francisco."

The tower is already under construction by owners Boston Properties, which decided to build it on spec, betting it could eventually find tenants in a region experiencing a major tech boom.

"Salesforce Tower is a reflection of our mutual confidence in the city of San Francisco and the South Financial submarket as a home to successful companies that seek to employ todays highly educated and highly motivated worker," said Mortimer B. Zuckerman, executive chairman of Boston Properties, in a statement. "Salesforce.coms commitment further demonstrates the desirability of high-quality, well-designed, first-class office space to todays premier technology companies."

The announcement that Salesforce had signed a lease was made at a ceremony Friday that featured such luminaries as Mayor Ed Lee and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

"It's not just about an expanding company," Lee said. "It's about a company that has faith in our city and is demonstrating that. And has faith in the kind of values we try to teach our kids about giving back."

The ceremony came just a couple of days after Salesforce.com co-founder Marc Benioff announced a $100-million gift to the region's Children's Hospitals. With more than $250 million in donations to the city's social causes and healthcare organizations, Benioff has emerged as a dominant philanthropic force in San Francisco.

Part of that commitment has also been to keep and grow his company in the city, even as other major companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple build large, sprawling campuses to the south in Silicon Valley. The new Salesforce Tower is adjacent to the Transbay Transit Center, which will be a future hub for the region's public transportation, including a possible high-speed rail train.

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Salesforce Tower in S.F. will be tallest in the West, for a while

JOHN BISSET/ Fairfax NZ

BUYERS FOUND: Richard and Tracey Lane have bought Waimate's old post office.

Waimate's old Post Office building is to be demolished, to the dismay of heritage advocates.

Richard and Tracey Lane have bought the council-owned building, with settlement date set for April 24.

However, Richard Lane said they had decided to demolish the building, as it would have cost more than $250,000 to strengthen it to the required standard.

"It's a decision I didn't want to make but, in the end, I simply couldn't make it work any other way," he said.

"I have a strong sentimental attachment to the building. My first ever job was at the Post Office."

He hoped the building replacing it would host about three businesses once complete. "It's a long process but I hope by this time next year, we would have at least started construction on the site," Lane said.

Waimate Edwardian Heritage Society secretary Elizabeth Niven was upset by the news.

"We hoped the the facade could have been maintained," she said. "The town does not have many buildings of this stature. It's always sad to see part of a place's history disappear."

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Post Office too costly to save

Most space in a decade being built: report April 9, 2014 11:25 PM Share with others:

By Mark Belko / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Theres a whole lot of building going on in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.

In its first-quarter office report, the CBRE real estate firm found that 1.4 million square feet of office space is under construction in the Pittsburgh suburban markets the most in nearly a decade.

At Southpointe, more than 601,141 square feet is under construction. While more than half of it 383,141 square feet has been pre-committed to tenants like Ansys and Noble Energy, another 218,000 square feet will be available to firms looking for space.

In the Parkway West corridor, DiCicco Development is adding a 130,000-square-feet class A office building and Building 210 at Pittsburgh International Industrial Park will bring another 53,584 square feet, which has been leased to ANH Refractories.

Construction also has started on a 200,000-square-foot global headquarters for Industrial Scientific.

In the city, work has begun on the Gardens at Market Square project, which will add 128,000 square feet of class A office space Downtown. At Bakery Square 2.0 in the East End, another 400,000 square feet eventually will be available.

In addition, the Elmhurst Group has broken ground on the 105,000-square-foot Schenley Place development in Oakland, where there has been no new construction deliveries since 2009, according to CBRE.

The demand for space continues to be high. The overall class A vacancy rate for the Pittsburgh market was 5.4 percent for the first quarter. Downtown it was 5.6 percent.

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Pittsburgh-area suburban office construction booming