Last Weeks Largest Leases Include: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Bayern, Genzyme, Hillary Clinton, Juno, National Association of Broadcasters, New York Life, and more

A leading automotive financial services company, Ally's lease includes 13 full floors and puts an even tighter constraint on tenants looking to move into the city's central business district and occupy more than 100,000-square-feet of contiguous space, the result of large leases being signed in the CBD. This lease deal brings the building to 100% occupancy.

The newly named Ally Detroit Center is a 45-story, 957,355-square-foot, Class A office tower built in 1993 and designed by architects John Burgee and Philip Johnson. The building is recognized as the tallest office building in Michigan and houses Dan Gilberts Quicken Loans offices and various Detroit, MI-based law firms.

Beginning in spring 2016, Ally will consolidate its current headquarters in the Renaissance Center, along with other Southeast Michigan offices, to its new location, which is expected to house 1,300 employees.

James Ketai of Bedrock Management Services represented the landlord, Bedrock Real Estate, in negotiations. By Rudolph V. Walker III

The new location affords Alnylam 295,000 square feet of Class A laboratory and office space over six stories, more than doubling the size of its current 129,000-square-foot headquarters located across the street at 300 Third St. Alnylam will relocate to its new Kendall Square location following Vertex Pharmaceuticals move-out in May 2018.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is a life science company that is championing the development of RNAi - or RNA interference - therapeutics, a potential new category of medicines aimed at genetically-defined diseases with limited treatment options. The company signed a 15-year lease with two five-year options starting at an annual rent of $19.8 million with 3% yearly increases.

Under the lease agreement with Alnylam, BioMed has agreed to commit a total of $56.1 million towards base building and tenant improvements.

Steve Purpura, Eric Smith and Jonathan Varholak of Transwestern RBJ served as dual brokers in the transaction. By Brad Blum

The company will fully occupy the 10-story, 251,000-square-foot office building currently under construction at 50-60 Binney St. The project is expected to deliver summer 2017.

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Office Lease Up (Apr 13) Ally Financial Signs 322,000-SF HQs Lease in Detroit CBD

AURORA, Colo. There are hospital doors at the half-built Veterans Affairs medical center outside Denver that were supposed to cost $100 each but ended up running $1,400. Theres a $100-million-and-still-rising price tag for an atrium and concourse with curving blond wood walls and towering glass windows. And entire rooms that had to be refashioned because requests for medical equipment changed at the last minute and in other cases the equipment didnt fit. No one had bothered to measure.

Not even completed yet, this $1.7billion facility is already among the most expensive hospitals in the world, and its just one of several VA hospital projects that are greatly over budget and behind schedule, according to the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Everything that could have gone wrong did. Its just an astounding price tag, said David Wise, who wrote in a GAO report about the Aurora project and VA construction problems in Orlando, Las Vegas and New Orleans.

The hospital construction woes are the latest in a long line of troubles that the Department of Veterans Affairs faces, from accusations of retaliation against whistleblowers to a backlog of compensation benefits to reports that wait-times for appointments in some parts of the country still havent improved. Wait-times range from 30 days to more than six months.

Last May, President Obama accepted the resignation of VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki in the wake of a coverup of months-long hospital wait-times for veterans seeking treatment for everything from cancer to post-traumatic stress disorder. Obama and Robert McDonald, Shinsekis replacement, have vowed to restore trust in the agency.

At a hearing of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs on Wednesday, one of nine held on the Colorado hospital cost overruns and delays, members will discuss whether they should allocate another $830million to finish the project.

The GAO report, written by Wise in 2013, highlighted the failure of VA in Orlando to hire specialists in medical equipment construction who could have ensured that the rooms would accommodate MRI machines and other crucial machines. Multiple revisions to lists of medical equipment meant plans kept changing, to the tune of $14million, according to the GAO report.

Think of it like this youre building a kitchen, Wise said. But you dont check how big your stove or refrigerator is. You measure too late. And nothing fits, so you have to hack up a whole another piece of wall. Thats very expensive and time-consuming.

The combination of extravagant planning divorced from financial reality and bungled execution has bedeviled several recent VA projects, the GAO found.

In Orlando, VA shifted the location of the proposed hospital project three times, inflating the cost by more than $350million and delaying it at least three years.

Originally posted here:
VA building projects riddled with mistakes and cost overruns

Four men have been charged with stealing a former district attorneys safe from his law office at the Bank Towers building, clearing a case that went cold for nearly a year, Scranton police said Thursday.

Justin Tyme Andrews, 33; Joseph R. Reed, 33; Aaron Robert Kern, 20; and Jaime Walton, 39, were all charged with burglary and theft-related counts on allegations they stole a safe containing $5,000 and important documents from attorney Paul Mazzoni in December 2013.

Francis Caputo, the maintenance director of the office building in the 300 block of Spruce Street, noticed several damaged second-floor doors on Dec. 2, 2013. Mr. Mazzonis law office had been entered and a large safe taken, detectives said.

Detectives found surveillance footage that showed people loading a safe onto a silver Dodge pickup at the buildings Oakford Court exit. Detectives tried to identify the suspects, but the case went cold on March 18, 2014.

Then, on Feb. 13, Officer Steve Derenick of the Taylor Police Department called with a tip. Officer Derenick had investigated a burglary at a construction company in the borough and had a suspect, Mr. Reed, who knew that a safe had been stolen in the Bank Towers heist something that only the thief would have known, detectives said.

Mr. Reed also said Mr. Andrews, who was listed as homeless, and Mr. Kern, of 228 Oak St., Old Forge, were the ringleaders. The two managed to get a key to the building from Mr. Walton, who worked for the buildings cleaning service, Mr. Reed told detectives.

They had the safe on my tailgate and had trouble pushing it on, so I got out and helped them push the safe on, and that was it, Mr. Reed, 705 W. Taylor St., Taylor, said to detectives..

Mr. Reed told detectives he drove the other three to Mr. Waltons house at 19 Rockledge Terrace in Taylor, where they opened the safe.

(Mr. Walton) opened the safe by knocking four pins out of the bottom of it, and it just opened right up, Mr. Reed said, according to detectives.

They took the money and hid certain documents under Mr. Waltons trailer, detectives said.

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Four charged for 2013 Bank Towers safe heist

Developers planning to construct a $2.5 million retail and office building at the long-dormant lot at the northwest corner of Division Street and Third Avenue hope to break ground in July and complete the project by year-end.

The project, now tentatively named Peppertree Plaza, will include a two-story structure with 9,500 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, and 5,500 square feet of office space on the second floor, says Rita Santillanes, who with her husband John, owns the property.

Baker Construction & Development Inc., of Spokane, is the contractor on the project.

This is going to be an expedited development, says Brooke Baker, of Baker Construction. We will have it ready to go by the end of the year.

Baker Construction and Mercier Architecture & Planning, of Post Falls, have teamed up to design the project, Baker says.

The Santillaneses own four hotels through Liberty Lake-based Peppertrees of Washington LLC. They plan to consolidate administrative offices for the hotels into a headquarters that would take up 3,000 square feet of space on the second floor of the Peppertree Plaza, leaving 2,500 square feet of space for a second office tenant, Baker says.

The first floor would include up to six retail bays.

Santillanes says the current design is preliminary and could be modified to accommodate a couple of potential tenants that have been looking at the project.

Brooke Baker, a business-development specialist with Baker Construction, says several quick-service restaurants are looking at the development plans, although none have committed to leases yet.

We have lots of interest, but no letters of intent, she says.

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Hoteliers plan summer start to office-retail plaza

Work on the construction of the Manapparai panchayat union office has been in full swing and will be completed by the end of this month, three months ahead of schedule.

The new building has been built as the old building had become inadequate. The availability of sprawling space near the old building enabled construction of a new building at an estimate of Rs. 2 crore under the Scheme Component of Pooled Assigned Revenue of the Rural Development Department.

The new building, with a plinth area of 726 square metres, houses separate chambers for the chairman and block development officers, besides the council hall. A separate unit for conducting training programmes under the rural development programme would be a new facility, according to official sources.

A new toilet block and vehicle shed are other new facilities.

District Collector K.S. Palanisamy recently visited Manapparai and inspected the progress of the work.

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Panchayat union gets new office

Construction will start within a week for a single-story office building on four acres of farmland in the American Center business park on Madisons Far East Side.

The 35,440-square-foot building will be the final piece of St. John Properties four-building Madison East Business Center at South Biltmore Lane and Eastpark Boulevard a sort-of mini-office park within the 447-acre business park being developed by American Family Insurance.

We cater to small tenants, said Greg Fax, a regional manager in charge of Wisconsin holdings for St. John Properties, a commercial developer based in Baltimore, Maryland. Thats kind of a niche, small tenants. I can subdivide to as small as about 1,100 square feet, so I could potentially have up to 16 tenants there.

Already home to insurance offices and other white-collar companies or non-profit agencies in the other three buildings of the Madison East Business Center, there so far is no anchor tenant lined up for the fourth building, which will have an address of 4618 S. Biltmore Lane .

Its a speculative building, but were talking to people, Fax said. And the markets strong.

Fax said construction would take about six months, with tenants moving in by years end.

With a portfolio of more than 17 mil lion square feet, St. John Properties has real estate investments valued at more than $2.5 bil lion in eight states including Wisconsin, according to the companys website. In Madison, it also owns Nelson Road Business Center, a nearby office/warehouse development on Felland Road.

Charles Redjinski, a sellers agent with NAI MLG Commercial who represents American Family in all land transactions at the American Center, said the decision by St. John Properties to put up the new building before any tenants were signed bodes well for the Madison market.

There are very few developers in Madison that are kicking off a speculative office building, Redjinksi said. The market has seen an uptick, especially on the East Side, and the activity in the (American Center) is great. This is just one of many closings we have coming up.

Located off the southwest border of American Familys national headquarters at Interstate 39-90-94 and Highway 151, the center is nearly 61 percent finished, with 139 acres still for sale.

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Construction of multi-tenant office building set for mid-April in American Center

F. BRIAN FERGUSON | Gazette

A historic sign for McMillion Chevrolet was uncovered during renovations along Virginia Street West.

Workers renovating the facade of the Goodwill office building on Virginia Street West in Charleston found something they werent expecting recently. They discovered the building had once housed one of the citys more well-known car dealerships.

John Taylor, director of mission services for Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley Inc., said workers found a hand-painted sign for McMillion Chevrolet emblazoned across the entire facade of the Goodwill Industries building at 209 Virginia St. W.

There were four layers of stuff on that facade, Taylor said.

Goodwill is turning the old building into a career center to provide training and help for local residents to get jobs. The $1.5 million renovation project, paid for almost entirely through community donations and sales at the Goodwill retail outlet next door, is expected to be finished next month.

Taylor said officials for Goodwill decided they wanted to take the building back to its original appearance on the front, restoring the buildings original brick facade. We wanted to keep the integrity of that building, and we wanted to keep the history, but also make it modern, he said. Officials decided to put in new windows, but keep the old brick.

But first they had to go through four layers of stucco, slate and brick. When they finally got to the original building front, they were surprised to find the McMillion Chevrolet sign.

In the 1920s and later, the building served as a streetcar barn, then as a bus barn for the Charleston Transit Company. Taylor said Goodwill has owned the building for decades, using it for offices and as a storefront before a new Goodwill retail store was built next door.

Our Goodwill has been in the area for 50 years, Taylor said. We knew about the car barn and stuff, but we didnt know about the dealership.

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Sign for iconic car dealership discovered during construction work

Grafton-based orthodontic practice Butterfoss and Barton and a Hayes dental practice both plan to expand in a new office building under construction along Route 17 in Gloucester.

Hayes Family Dentistry with Dr. Diann Gordon will move about a half mile away into half of the 5,000-square-foot office facility near the Farm Fresh-anchored shopping center. The other half will be occupied by Butterfoss and Barton, said Hayes Family Dentistry owner Dr. Robert George. Construction should be completed by late summer.

"We'll have great visibility and a good location," said Dr. Thomas W. Butterfoss, who partners with daughter Dr. Jennifer Barton.

The project represents more than a $1.2 million investment, excluding new equipment, George said. Both offices will employ about five people each. The property is owned by 3224 GW LLC, which is owned 25 percent by Butterfoss, 25 percent by Barton and half by George.

George, who owns and works with Yorkshire Family Dentistry in York County, acquired Hayes Family Dentistry in 2008 and realized the practice needed more space and an upgraded facility. Five years ago, George through Georgetown LLC bought less than an acre of commercial land at 3224 George Washington Memorial Highway for $300,000 with that goal in mind.

"I really think it's nice to have a facility that reflects the quality of care you provide," George said.

George, who also serves on the York County School Board, said the new office provides room for him to work in Hayes, as Gordon has been the only dentist working with Hayes Family Dentistry. Additionally, he said that practice, which is separate from Yorkshire Family, now has the option of adding another dentist.

For Butterfoss and Barton, the new office will allow room for growth with the expectation that another orthodontic associate could join the practice in 2016, Butterfoss said. The practice has offices in Grafton and Hampton.

Six years ago, the practice opened a satellite office in the Gloucester Courthouse area by leasing space for one day a week from dentist Heath Allen, Butterfoss said. Since then, he estimates the practice's patient population from Gloucester has tripled.

"It'll just make it a lot more convenient for our patients to have flexibility of days and time," Butterfoss said.

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Orthodontic, dental practices to expand in new Gloucester office

The Windmill Lane studio where U2 recording their debut album Boy has been demolished to make way for a new residential and office building.

The one-acre site in the Dublin docklands are was bought by the property investment firm Hibernia REIT in 2014.

A spokesperson for Hibernia said in a statement:"The site was acquired with full planning permission (granted to the previous owners in 2011) for demolition of the existing structures and the construction of a mixed-use office, retail and residential development.

"In recent years the derelict site has become a focal point for anti-social behaviour and graffiti that has spread into adjacent streets. The studio itself has been empty for several years and contained no equipment or fittings to indicate its previous use."

A wall covered in graffiti from music fans from around the world has been retained as a reminder of the history of the site. The spokesperson explained:"Hibernia is conscious of the historical significance of Windmill Lane and plans to retain a 20-metre stretch of the studio wall."

Van Morrison also recorded there, and U2 returned there to work on their 1986 album Joshua Tree.

Originally posted here:
U2's first recording studio demolished

In this photo provided by Kaitlyn Ford, emergency personnel work the scene where authorities said four construction workers suffered serious injuries in a partial wall collapse inside a commercial building near Grand Central Terminal, in New York.(AP)

NEW YORK Four construction workers were hurt Tuesday at a building being demolished near Grand Central Terminal when an interior marble banister collapsed and they tumbled to the ground floor, authorities and the building owner said.

The men were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center after the accident at about 10 a.m. Tuesday, a fire department spokesman said. They were in stable condition.

Richard Wilde, a citywide coordinator for the city's Office of Emergency Management, said the Art Deco building on Madison Avenue is being gutted in preparation for total demolition. The building is a block west of the terminal. City officials reported earlier that a wall at the mezzanine level had collapsed and fallen on the men.

The owner of the 14-story building, SL Green Realty Corp., said the workers were removing a massive chandelier when the banister gave way and they fell about 15 feet.

SL Green Realty said there was a licensed safety manager at the building.

The city Department of Buildings issued a stop work order while the accident is under investigation.

Waldorf Demolition is the contractor, with Tishman Construction as the construction manager, SL Green Realty said in a statement.

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4 injured in bannister collapse at NYC building