By The Record

February 27, 2012 12:00 AM

California - even with a state prison medical facility already under construction southeast of Stockton - has been advised by the Legislative Analyst's Office to hold off on building new medical facilities for inmates.

That view contradicts plans by the court-appointed receiver who has run the prison health system since a federal judge declared it unconstitutional and inadequate. The receiver has plans for $2.3 billion in new clinics and upgrades.

Construction is one of the final sticking points before the state can end six years of federal oversight of inmate medical care. The judge has ordered preparations for returning control to the state but said the lack of new medical facilities is an ongoing problem.

California is already building a new facility for long-term medical and mental-health care near Stockton. But the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, also wants to convert three nearby former juvenile correctional facilities to provide care to adult inmates and spend $750 million on upgrades to clinics throughout the 33-prison state system.

Although the Legislative Analyst's Office said in a report issued last week that some medical facilities remain in poor condition, it questioned the need for new construction. The prison population is declining because low-level offenders are being kept in county custody to reduce overcrowding.

That rerouting "may make it possible to close some prisons in the future," the report said. "It would be unwise to make significant infrastructure investments at such facilities at this time."

Kelso has said that some new medical facilities will be necessary anyway. Prison medical needs are increasing as the inmate population ages.

There are 70,000 prisoners with chronic health problems such as hypertension, HIV and diabetes, and 50,000 inmates are at least 50 years old.

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State advised to postpone prison medical facility

Wet weather has hindered ongoing work at District Judge Charles Conway's new office building in Export.

A rainy fall and not-so-cold winter have caused muddy conditions during construction of the 3,000-square-foot building between Grant Avenue and the Export Moose, said Jay Bandieramonte, construction and maintenance manager for the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp.

"We would have been much better if everything were frozen," he said. "The biggest problem is we've been fighting Mother Nature."

Even at the groundbreaking ceremony in September, tents were pitched to shield officials from rain. Bandieramonte estimated that the $636,000 project will be completed at the end of April.

A roof is up and crews are doing interior work. "They're putting the drywall up, doing the electrical work and such," Bandieramonte said.

Conway is still holding court in his Corporate Lane office.

The new building will be a "cookie-cutter" image of offices constructed in recent years for other district judges, Bandieramonte said.

Amenities will include security features for the staff and judge, such as separate entrances and restrooms. Holding cells will have improved safety features.

A fixed glass window will separate staff from the waiting room, replacing a sliding window that separates the two in the current office.

"It's much safer for the guards, it's much safer for the employees," as well as those there for hearings, Bandieramonte said.

Construction of the Export district judge's office is the fifth such project Westmoreland County has undertaken since 1999.

Special Courts Administrator Don Heagy said commissioners in the past decided it was more cost-effective to build new facilities rather than lease space in privately owned structures.

"Previous boards were interested, where feasible, to relieve the county of private leases," Heagy said. "Building justifies our existence in those facilities for 20 years or more."

The county has built district judge offices in Youngwood, Jeannette, Monessen and Allegheny Township.

Heagy said preliminary plans call for magistrate offices to be built in Scottdale and West Newton, with construction on those projects beginning later this year or early in 2013.

Part of the Export property, which was owned by the local Moose lodge, was sold to the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp. The borough owned the remainder of the land, which officials donated to the county.

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Weather delays work on district court office in Export

Originally published February 26, 2012 at 8:00 PM | Page modified February 26, 2012 at 10:49 PM

Longtime Seattle developer Martin Selig says he has scrapped plans for an eight-story apartment building next door to downtown Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park, and now plans a four-story office building there.

"When I see this many apartments getting developed, it scares me," Selig said Friday.

More than 6,000 apartments are under construction in King and Snohomish counties, with thousands more planned. The region hasn't seen this much new multifamily development in 20 years, and, while most developers remain bullish, some researchers now say the apartment market could be overbuilt.

Selig's property at 3031 Western Avenue, just north of the much-praised sculpture park, now is the site of a two-story garage. Selig, who has owned it for 30 years, has floated several plans to redevelop it.

When he proposed a 14-story luxury-apartment project on the site in 2007, some neighbors and others said it would ruin views from the park and was out of scale. A city design-review board agreed in 2010 that the planned building seemed to "simply loom over the park," and should be shorter.

So Selig proposed a seven-story office building — taller than zoning allowed — and neighbors again expressed objections.

Then came a proposed eight-story, 64-unit apartment building, which complied with the city's higher height limit for residential structures.

Selig said his decision to drop that plan and build a shorter office building instead was driven entirely by the market. He said he will pursue permits now, but wait to build until tenants in two nearby office buildings he owns want to expand.

Former state Sen. Sylvia Skratek, who lives nearby and led opposition to several of Selig's previous proposals, said in an email that she isn't familiar with his new plan, but neighbors "will take a look at any submission that he puts forward and review it as we have in the past to determine if it is consistent" with the neighborhood and city guidelines.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com

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Selig now plans short office building near Sculpture Park

February 24, 2012

By Sharon Ko and Jessica Cox

MEDFORD, Ore. -- The Medford post office is moving its location to the former Dollar GMC showroom on south Riverside Avenue.

Earlier this year, Jackson County bought the federal office building that housed the current post office in downtown. Over at the new building, construction crews have already begun tearing down the walls, ceiling and floors.

Crews say the postal office plans to make its move to the new building around Memorial Weekend. Also, the U.S. Postal Service says processing operations done in Eureka, California will be moved to Medford. By consolidating, it could save the service close to 2 million dollars.

As Medford's distributing center prepares for more deliveries, the United State Postal Service says it plans to close four mail-sorting centers in Oregon.

The agency announced it will close processing and distribution facilities in Salem, Eugene, Bend and Pendleton and move operations to a facility in Portland. Letters mailed across those towns will now take two days instead of one, but longer distance deliveries will still be made in three days.

164 jobs will be eliminated from the Oregon closures, saving the agency nearly 13 million dollars. Due to a 25% drop in first class mail, the postal service is closing more than 260 processing centers nationwide, which is projected to eliminate 35,000 jobs.

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Oregon Post Office Locations Change

By Pat Krochmal pkrochmal@pioneerlocal.com February 24, 2012 2:40PM

A developer is proposing converting George’s What’s Cooking Restaurant into a two-story office building housing physicians’ offices.

Representatives of a developer appeared at a Deerfield Plan Commission meeting Thursday to request a special use and an amendment to a planned unit development ordinance to allow changes at the 350 S. Waukegan Road site.

The restaurant will close shortly because of financial issues, and a group of physicians from Northwest Memorial Hospital want to relocate there, said Lawrence M. Freedman, an attorney with Ash, Anos, Freedman and Logan of Chicago.

The plans for the site don’t change the front of the building much, said Richard N. Gordon, an architect with Interwork Architects Inc., of Northbrook. The entrance of the building will remain where it is. A second floor would top the structure and elevator towers would be added to the outside of the building.

The elevators will not go down to the building’s basement, which has access in the back of the building and will be used only as a storage area. The landscaping and sidewalk around the building will remain the same.

Handicapped parking would increase from seven spaces to nine, Freedman said. Three parking spaces will be lost to accommodate the construction of the elevator towers, but the property still has more than required, he noted.

“It’s a use that would be allowed by zoning, though it will bring us no sales tax,” commission member Robert Nadler said Thursday. “It’s a top retail and restaurant location, but I don’t know if another restaurant would make it there right now.”

Plans for the site will continue to work their way through village requirements until they receive approval.

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Office building proposed for George’s location in Deerfield

A planned explosion at a construction site injured one person and damaged several cars at a nearby gas station.

According to Maj. Michelle Jones, Morristown Police Department spokesperson, the blast happened just after 1:30 pm Friday at a construction site off Panther Creek Road at West Andrew Johnson Highway.

Jones said the contractor, Mountain Reclamation and Construction, has been trying to clear rock from a lot, and one of their explosions Friday escaped their containment system, raining debris down on the BP station across the seat.

Michael E. Williams of Morristown was inside his car at a gas pump when a rock crashed through the window and hit him. He was transported to Morristown-Hamblen Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Rocks and other debris also hit the BP sign, the building, and five vehicles in that parking lot.  Three other vehicles were also damaged at a nearby car lot.  

The state fire marshall's office is conducting an investigation into the blast.

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04/06/2001 - Plans to build a four-story office building next to the Viking Lodge and Restaurant at 10709 Watson Road are in the works.

The Sunset Hills Board of Aldermen, at its meeting of 27, unanimously voted during a first reading to rezone from E Commercial District to PD-2 Planned Development District for 6.42 acres at the northwest corner of Watson Road and Lindbergh Boulevard.

The second and final reading is expected at the board's April 10 meeting.

By rezoning the property, developers of the office building will share parking space with The Viking Lodge and Restaurant. Lower level parking at the new office building will total about 105 spaces, said Daniel Steuber, construction manager for the project. Steuber is executive vice president at A.J. Brown, Inc. in Creve Coeur.

Steuber said the office building would need 451 parking spaces in all. The Viking Lodge needs 352 parking spaces, Steuber said.

"The shared parking should work," Steuber told the board.

Roger Kroutz, who owns The Viking Lodge and Restaurant, is one of the developers of the 74,000 square foot office building, Steuber said.

Steuber told the board that the office will have hours from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Steuber said the project would begin in June and it would take nine months to complete.

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Office Building Planned Next To Viking Lodge In Sunset Hills

Published: 5:15AM Friday February 24, 2012 Source: ONE News

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Canterbury Earthquakes continues today looking into the failure of the Forsyth Barr building during the February 22 earthquake.

It is day two of the hearing, which considers whether the Christchurch office block complied with earthquake-risk requirements.

The site manager for the construction of the building and stuctural engineers who carried out a post-earthquake assessment of the site will today front the hearing.

The Royal Commission heard yesterday how workers in the Forsyth Barr building had become concerned about the stairs after the quake in September.

"It was clear that they had sagged somewhat as the paint on the wall had separated from the stair treads for most of the lengths of the flight," office worker Grant Cameron said.

When the earthquake struck on February 22 the stairs collapsed, leaving workers stranded.

"There was just a gaping hole stretching down the middle of the building with blackness both above and below," Cameron said.

"It was now plain that everybody was now trapped on their respective floors."

The stairs were compressed and failed catastrophically as the built-in 30mm seismic gap - designed to allow movement during quakes - was overwhelmed.

No one was in the stairwell at the time of the quake, but the Commission heard if there had been anyone there, they would have probably been killed.

Despite the concerns of workers the building was given a green sticker and recommended safety checks were never carried out.

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O’Brien Construction was recently awarded a Build Michigan Award by the Associated General Contractors of Michigan for the transformation of Detroit’s century-old San Telmo Cigar Factory into 5716 Wellness.

Journal Register Newspapers/KATHY BLAKE Tim O’Brien carries the torch of his father’s business, O’Brien Construction of Pontiac.

O’Brien Construction of Pontiac, which is celebrating 50 years as a privately-owned construction firm, was recently awarded a Build Michigan Award by the Associated General Contractors of Michigan. The firm received the award for the transformation of Detroit’s century-old San Telmo Cigar Factory into 5716 Wellness, a landmark health and wellness outreach center. The project, developed by Southwest Housing Solutions, is a step in reinvigorating the city’s struggling Michigan Avenue Corridor.

Already operating to capacity on a daily basis, 5716 Wellness is one of the first models of integrated primary and behavioral health care in Southeast Michigan.

Tim O’Brien, president of O’Brien, remarked that “This is a very deserving project. It is the 26th building that Southwest and O’Brien have worked on together and, like the others, it is having a huge impact in the city.”

Restoring the dilapidated 50,000-square foot structure, originally designed by famed architect Albert Kahn, required extensive gutting of the building’s interior as well as the complete restoration of its unique exposed timber frame and ceilings. As the general contractor, O’Brien Construction worked with Southwest Housing Solutions, as well as each of the six tenant organizations, to accommodate their specific architectural needs and requests while maintaining the historical constraints of the project as outlined by the Detroit Historical Society.

Early photographs of the building were studied to provide accurate architectural details such as the design and sight lines of original windows which had been removed and replaced with concrete block during the building’s long history. O’Brien ensured that no detail was overlooked, including the careful rehabilitation of exterior ornamental brick and limestone.

O’Brien Construction and subcontractors worked weekends and second shifts throughout the project in order to accomplish this massive renovation in less than a year. They did so despite many challenges along the way.

According to Dan Ross, senior project manager for the renovation, “The biggest challenge was to squeeze in as much as Southwest Solutions needed in that building within the given budget.”

Ross explained further, “Funding for these types of projects has gotten much tighter over the last few years and we wanted to stretch their dollar to the max. By doing so, we were able to accommodate the needs of all eight tenant organizations.”

This award is the second for 5716 Wellness. In July, Gov. Rick Snyder recognized the development with the esteemed “Reinventing Michigan Award.”

Previously, O’Brien Construction received the AGC’s 2009 Build America Award for the construction of Gratiot Woods Co-op Apartments as well as a 2007 Build Michigan Award for the historic renovation of Southwest Detroit’s Lithuanian Hall. Continued...

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NASHVILLE -- Memphis-based Boyle Investment Co. is helping lead a budding construction upturn in the Interstate 65 corridor south of Nashville.

Boyle recently began the area's first speculative office building since 2006, although analysts figure a construction boom is at least a year off.

"There's going to be a breakout, but not this year," Tom Frye, managing director of CB Richard Ellis' Nashville office, told the Nashville Ledger.

Boyle's seven-floor building is part of the company's Meridian development near Cool Springs Mall in Williamson County. The 177,577-square-foot building and neighboring 15,000-square-foot building are both scheduled for summer completion.

"We all felt that if a corporate headquarters wanted to come to Williamson County, there were not any large office blocks available," Boyle spokesman Shelby Larkin said.

"Although it's risky, it's a calculated risk," Larkin added. "We do have some leases signed (and) we feel strongly about the Williamson County economy."

Even though speculative building had cooled off at Cool Springs, companies continue to move there.

Cool Springs and nearby Brentwood reported a vacancy rate of 6.1 percent, according to an end-of-2011 market survey by CB Richard Ellis. Only the West End-Belle Meade area in Nashville has a lower vacancy rate.

Nashville's overall office market, as measured by the firm's survey, had a vacancy rate of 12.7 percent at the end of last year.

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Boyle bets on Nashville office market