A large mixed-use complex fromLanterra Developmentswill soon rise from just southwest of St. Patrick subway station in Downtown Toronto. The early stages of construction are moving along at the site ofArtists' Alley, a mixed-use three-tower development, designed byHariri Pontarini Architects,being built on a block of land between St. Patrick and Simcoe Streets, just south of Dundas.

Looking southwest across site of Artists' Alley, image by Forum contributor AlbertC

The project has been under construction since site clearing wrapped up in late February, 2019 allowing heavy machinery to begin work on the site's shoring. Excavation was able to begin in June, 2019, and digging bottomed out four storeys below street level earlier this year. The first underground forming was recorded in March when crews began pouring footings for the site's first tower crane, the crane in place by the final week of March. The arrival of COVID-19 in Toronto suspended construction of some projects sites in early April, and the pit and partially-built foundations sat mostly idle until earlier in May. The relaxing of restrictions has since brought new activity to the site with new distancing protocols in place.

Much of the complex's foundation is now in place, with concrete pumps working away on the lowest P4 parking level atop the foundation slab. The base for a second tower crane is now visible at the northeast corner of the pit, expected to be installed in the coming days. Once the second crane is active, work on the four-level underground garage levels will move ahead full steam. They will be home to a total of 322 parking spaces, with 200 long-term resident spaces, 38 non-resident spaces, four car-share spaces, and 82 paid parking spaces for the Toronto Parking Authority.

Looking east across site of Artists' Alley, image by Forum contributor AlbertC

As below-grade construction continues, the project is still seeking final planning approvals for the above-ground portion of the site with a recently-submitted application for Site Plan Approval (SPA). This early April submission addresses comments from City Staff regarding minor details in the previous June, 2019 SPA application.

Looking southwest across site of Artists' Alley, image by Forum contributor AlbertC

Once complete, the complex will bring towers of 17, 35, and 39 storeys to the area, with almost 900 new homes along withretail and office space respectively measuring 1,368 m and 5,858 m. A new 1,000 m City park and a pedestrian-friendly public realm designed byNAK Design Strategieswill animate the base of the new complex.

Artists' Alley, image via submission to City of Toronto

You can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like to, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.

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Work Heating Up for Three-Tower Artists' Alley Complex on Simcoe - Urban Toronto

Residential property prices have flatlined in the past two months after seeing strong growth before the COVID-19 crisis struck.

The central bank is also looking at the dynamics of people in financial stress and where they decide to live.

"Members also discussed the effect of a possible increase in the number of people moving back home or living in larger households for financial reasons."

"At the same time, the supply of rental housing had been boosted as properties that had previously been offered as short-term accommodation were shifted to the long-term rental market," the minutes said.

The central bank also looked at the buffers households had when it came to paying their mortgages.

"Members were briefed on the resilience of Australian households in the current downturn. Around one-third of households with mortgages had prepayment buffers of three years or more."

"But a smaller share had no mortgage prepayment buffer and were more susceptible to financial stress," the minutes said.

During the week that the RBA board met, the Melbourne Institute's survey showed households were now feeling less financially and emotionally stressed than during the strict lockdown.

"Housing loan arrears were likely to increase," the board meeting minutes said, "but the extent would depend on the severity of the economic contraction and the associated increase in unemployment."

"Loan payment deferrals would reduce the increase in arrears rates for at least the following six months."

The Prime Minister Scott Morrison said last week that banks had now deferred repayments on $220 billion of loans.

Commercial property was likely to take a substantial valuation hit.

"Members discussed vulnerabilities associated with commercial property, particularly for office and retail property."

"A large amount of new office space was expected to be completed in Sydney and Melbourne in 2020. Members noted that demand was not expected to keep pace with stronger supply in the near term and therefore it was likely that vacancy rates would rise and office rents would fall."

"Rising vacancies and reduced rent would be likely to lead to lower valuations, which would pose challenges for leveraged property investors and developers."

The RBA board was also more confident on the effect of COVID-19 restrictions on the construction sector.

"Members noted that some of the concerns that construction activity could be severely affected in the near term by supply chain disruptions and health-related site closures had not been realised," the minutes said.

"The effect on retail businesses of the social distancing measures was likely to exacerbate these problems."

Read more from the original source:
What the RBA is thinking about property prices - The Australian Financial Review

Joe Sitt and 905 W. Fulton Market (Credit: Thor Equities)

Thor Equities investment in booming Fulton Market is paying dividends.

In its latest move, the New York-based firm led by Joseph Sitt sold a 98,000-square-foot office building it developed for $85 million, according to Crains. That marks the priciest sale in Fulton Market to date.The buyer was German real estate firm Deka Immobilien.

The five-story building at 905 W. Fulton Market is the future global headquarters of snack maker Mondelez International, which will take 77,100 square feet of space there. That long-term lease deal was announced in January 2019, and includes more than 6,000 square feet of retail space. In December, DineAmic Hospitality owner of Prime & Provisions inked a deal to lease 8,000 square feet at the building.

The sale to German-based Deka works out to around $870 a foot. In September, Shapack Partners sold its 70,000-square-foot building at 811 W. Fulton Market to Intercontinental Real Estate for just over $50 million, pegging it at $774 a foot, Crains reported at the time.

Cushman & Wakefields Tom Sitz, Cody Hundertmark, David Knapp and Josh McGee advised on the Deka deal.

The future home of Mondelez is along a block-long stretch of Fulton Street filled with Thor-owned properties. In December, the firm landed a $144 million construction loan for an 18-story spec office tower along the 800 block of West Fulton Market. It also owns 1003 West Fulton, 942 West Fulton and 229 West Randolph Street. [Crains] Alexi Friedman

Read this article:
Thor Equities big bet on Fulton Market is paying off - The Real Deal

Michael OLeary has always been willing to conduct more than one fight at a time, but the Ryanair chief executive, who seems in danger of exploding with fury every time he speaks at the moment, may be well-advised to calm down and deploy smarter tactics.

For starters, his outrage over state-aid dopers, as he calls Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and others, is unlikely to achieve much. Alitalia was being bailed out quietly by the Italian government even before Covid-19 arrived, so the chances of persuading the EU to jump on multiple instances of illegal state-aid are roughly zero.

Ryanairs own 600m loan via the Bank of Englands coronavirus lending facility falls into a different bracket, OLeary argued, because the scheme is not sector-specific and is generally available to credit-worthy borrowers. Thats true, but dont expect the distinction to cut much ice with EU regulators. However unfair it is, flag-carrying airlines have always been treated differently.

OLearys other rant about the idiotic nature of the UK governments 14-day quarantine plan will enjoy some popular support among would-be holidaymakers, but the audience Ryanair would surely prefer to influence is government itself. Ministers, after all, will make the rules, not Ryanair.

OLeary may help himself by sounding more constructive. Heres an idea: since not sure and hope for the best Covid cases could be most dangerous in spreading the virus in airports and on planes, Ryanair could offer a refund to any passenger, and member of their family, who feels even mildly ill in the days before a flight.

No-quibble refunds are not Ryanairs normal style, but an effort in that direction would show more seriousness than the current exercise in throwing insults.

The beleaguered board of Intu, the over-borrowed owner of shopping centres, has thought long and hard (again) about how to resolve a 4.5bn debt nightmare and heres its latest idea: boot the problem Intu the long grass.

The update on lender discussions was really a proposal not to hold meaningful discussions for a while. The owner of the Trafford Centre near Manchester, the Metrocentre in Gateshead, Lakeside in Essex, and others is seeking a standstill arrangement that would allow it to operate on a pay if you can basis with lenders until the end of 2021.

In other words, covenant tests on borrowings, which the company is at severe risk of failing in June, would be waived and everybody would pledge to revisit the mess another day.

There is no guarantee all lenders will play ball, of course. Intu is a complex financial construction and has many flavours of lenders everything from high street banks to hedge funds. But the board will probably get most of what it wants since it is impossible to round up buyers for large malls, as Hammerson proved when a sale of seven centres collapsed this month. Most lenders dont want to take control of acres of retail space.

Prepare, then, for another round of extend and pretend. It may make short-term sense at Intu, but a delayed restructuring adds another layer of uncertainty to valuations across the retail property sector. Nobody knows what anything is worth and the answers are likely to take ages to arrive.

An encouraging Covid vaccine trial by the US group Moderna pushed stock markets everywhere higher on Monday, but there was a medical breakthrough on a different front closer to home. GlaxoSmithKline said its trial to develop a two-monthly injection to prevent HIV infection has shown excellent results.

This could be very big news for GSK, which is strong in HIV treatment but has been eclipsed in prevention by the US group Gilead, whose Truvada daily pill generates sales of about $2.5bn a year. GSK said a trial of its cabotegravir medicine had been stopped three years early because the data were so good 69% more effectiveness than Truvada.

The result seems to have been way beyond GSKs expectations and could mean approval for cabotegravir in the US and Europe later this year. It is just one treatment and nothing can ever be taken for granted in drug development but its another piece of evidence that the long-promised improvement in productivity in GSKs labs may finally be happening.

The rest is here:
Refunds rather than insults would serve Ryanair boss well - The Guardian

Plans have been approved for a 36-storey tower at 50 Fenchurch Street in the City of London, despite concerns over the impact of its views on city landmarks.

The City of London Corporation's planning committee unanimously approved the plans for the new Square Mile skyscraper, ignoring an objection from Historic Royal Palaces that the building would be intrusive on the protected views of the Tower of London. The committee said the 150 metre-tall building would not impact on the protected views.

The building will deliver a 36-fold increase in public space on the ground-floor level, in comparison with the existing seven-storey office block currently on the same site. It will include a public roof garden on the 10th floor, and will deliver 60,000 square metres of office space and 800 square metres of retail space. Plans also include more than 1,200 cycle parking spaces, and the relocation of a 12th-century chapel crypt, called Lambes, that lies below the current building to a new location in the free public exhibition at lower ground floor level.

The new tower is set to include living walls across 30 storeys to help improve biodiversity and mitigate air and noise pollution.

City of London Corporation planning and transportation committee chair Alastair Moss said: The new 50 Fenchurch Street building will be of the highest-quality design and has a number of innovative features, including extensive urban greening all the way into the higher floors and a new public space. It provides a significant increase in flexible office floorspace, meeting one of the primary objectives of the Citys Local Plan and London Plan policies.

Historic Royal Palaces has been contacted for comment.

Last year Christopher Hayward, the previous chair of the City's planning committee,told Construction News the corporation wanted to encourage more tall buildings and expected the space between20 Fenchurch Street (commonly known as the Walkie Talkie) and the Leadenhall Building (the Cheesegrater) to be filled with a series of skyscrapers.

See the original post:
New skyscraper approved in City of London despite objections - Construction News

Developers have unveiled plans to extend a highly controversial 310-home development in Faversham by almost 20%.

Barratt David Wilson Homes, which has this week restarted its construction work, wants to add 58 homes to the sprawling Perry Court Farm scheme in the heart of the town's countryside.

The firm has submitted the proposals to Swale Borough Council and stresses the extra homes will boost the council's housing delivery rate, which is currently falling shy of its targets.

The land earmarked for the additional properties is a five-acre parcel of former farmland behind The Abbey School and next to a Grade-II listed oasthouse.

If approved, the new houses will be a mix of two, three and four-bed, while 20 of them will be affordable homes.

Developers say the extension of the development, which has proved to be the town's most contentious scheme in recent memory, will add an extra 400,000 to the local economy each year.

A planning document compiled on behalf of the applicants, states: "The proposals will deliver much-needed new housing that is integrated, has a distinct sense of place and is fit for purpose and will become a successful contribution to the market town of Faversham."

A pond will be installed at the site, while the design of the homes will be "sympathetic to the surrounding area".

But Bergamot Road resident James Charlton fears the scheme is "cramming" too many houses into a small area.

He also harbours fears over the increased traffic on Brogdale Road, on which long-standing rural houses are now being surrounded by new-builds.

"Although improvements to the road have been made, this will add considerable amounts of traffic to an area that was never designed to take the amount that is now being expected of it," he said.

Barratt Homes, however, does believes the road network can cater for the extra 58 homes, and stresses the land is not being over-developed.

Meanwhile, over the other side of the development, just off the A251, plans have been revealed for a terrace of shops next to the already-approved Aldi supermarket.

The new commercial units will be near to the rubber-stamped three-storey Premier Inn hotel and 66-bed care home.

Henry Davidson Developments say the terrace of shops, for which occupiers are yet to nailed down, will either be split into two or three units - offering retail space or becoming food and drink outlets.

The plans for both the commercial units and the 58 extra homes will be decided on by Swale council bosses later in the year.

Work will however continue on the first phases of the original 310-home scheme.

On construction work restarting this week, Paul Kitchingman, managing director at Barratt Homes, said: "Our first priority is the health and safety of our employees, sub-contractors and customers.

"We have created a detailed set of working practices and protocols for employees and sub-contractors to ensure that we can reopen our construction sites safely, in a phased and measured way, which minimises risk."

Head to our business page for all of the latest news about businesses in Kent

Read more: All the latest news from Faversham

Excerpt from:
Bid to expand controversial housing estate by 20% - Kent Online

A major multi-million pound development consisting of shops, offices and housing has been earmarked for Newry city centre.

An application for the development which would create substantial jobs during construction and upon completion has been submitted to Newry, Mourne and Down District Council for consideration.

The would-be developer the Belfast-based Kerr Property Holdings Ltd has plans for a site in excess of 10,000 sq metres.

This includes over 2,000 sq metres of office space, taking in the three-storey listed building at 47 Merhants Quay, the former Renault car sales showroom and garage. It was owned by the Goss family from Mayobridge, but has been vacant for many years.

The development would also include three retail units, each with service yard area.

There would be a coffee bar incorporated too, this to be located within the ground floor of the listed building.

The ambitious proposals would also involve a substantial programme of demolition of existing properties with replacement new-builds.

Buildings at Merchants Quay and Cornmarket would be taken down and the site completely redeveloped and transformed.

There is a major emphasis on housing as part of the scheme.

A total of 82 units is planned. These would be within multi-storey blocks and the residential accommodation will consist of a mix of both private and social housing.

There would be landscaping too as part of the plans.

And tenants of the new units would have access to parking and a communal courtyard around which the properties would be constructed.

In all three applications have had to be submitted.

A full planning application, as well as two others one for Listed Building Consent and the other DCA, which is permission for demolition within a conservation area.

The DCA bid is for demolition of the former car sales showroom/garage located at Nos 49-54 Merchants Quay and the premises located at No. 46 Merchants Quay, Newry.

The listed building consent is specifically for 47 Merchants Quay.

It seeks approval to develop a vacant storage unit to proposed commercial use, consisting of coffee bar at ground floor with office accommodation above. This would then connect at the rear to a new proposed office complex.

It would require remedial works to external and internal fabric of the listed building including repairs to stonework and brickwork; timber beams and joists and the roof structure, which would involve glazing, as well as the repair or replacement of timber windows and doors.

The three retail units as yet for unspecified tenants are located elsewhere on the site.

All three applications relation to this scheme are due to be publicly advertised this week.

Original post:
Multi-million pound retail, office and housing plans on site of former car showroom in Newry - Armagh i

The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has broken ground on a 3,500-square-foot commercial fish processing facility for Red Cliff Fish Co. that will process commercial fish and provide packaged products to distributors and local markets.

This groundbreaking today for the Red Cliff Fish Co. is an historic milestone in furthering our community and food sovereignty goals, Tribal Chairman Rick Peterson said in a news release. The need to be able to feed our own community with our own resources has really been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our people have been fishing the waters of Lake Superior for many generations and this new facility will also allow our tribal fishermen to have a more direct role in selling their catch.

Chad Abel, the director of Red Cliff Treaty Natural Resources, said with this new business the tribe can achieve local food control, maximize fisheries economic potential and preserve commercial fishing traditions.

The tribe has been planning the processing facility for nearly a decade and hopes to complete it in September for a Labor Day weekend opening.

Once operations begin, Red Cliff Fish Co. will buy catch from independent tribal commercial license holders, and the facility will process, package and sell different fish products to distributors, markets and restaurants. The facility also will have a 400-square-foot retail space to sell products such as fresh and frozen filets, smoked fish, fish spreads and caviar.

Fish waste will be composted for use at the Mino Bimaadiziiwin Tribal Farm.

The tribe has 33 commercial fish license holders who bring in more than 600,000 pounds per year, the news release said.

Despite contributing 10.61% of all Great Lakes lake trout harvest, 17.26% of all Great Lakes herring harvest and 5.51% of all Great Lakes whitefish harvest, there is not a means to process the tribal catch on-reservation or through a tribal-owned business, Abel said. As a result, nearly all tribal catch is sold at wholesale prices to off-reservation processors.

But once the fish processing facility starts up, it will provide more competitive prices, help create or maintain 105 jobs and allow the Red Cliff community to reap the economic benefits.

The construction and operation of the processing facility was made possible by a series of grants, including a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Native Americans.

Funding sources also included a $543,140 HUD Indian and Community Development Block Grant for dock expansion and improvements to Dock Road, and $595,000 for building construction and equipment.

The Red Cliff Band has invested more than $271,000 in the development and success of the Red Cliff Fish Co. as well.

Excerpt from:
Red Cliff breaks ground on fish-processing facility - Ashland Daily Press

Utahs construction industry has felt the initial sting of the coronavirus pandemic, which has fundamentally altered job sites. But the bigger challenge looms, as experts predict a lengthy downturn in demand for new buildings as the states economy sags.

Nearly a quarter of all Utah jobs are tied somehow to construction, real estate or retail three sectors closely intertwined in any recovery from effects of the health emergency.

Home prices along the Wasatch Front have stayed relatively level so far, according to Dejan Eskic, research associate at the University of Utahs Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. But home sales dipped nearly 24%, Eskic said, and this is a big deal, especially as April is usually the start of the home-buying season.

Construction activity is down 45% compared to last year, Eskic said, and tens of thousands of job losses among Utahs renters could well slow future demand for nearly 5,500 new apartments that were under construction when the crisis hit.

The Beehive State had the benefit of going into the outbreak with both its residential and commercial real estate markets thriving, according to David Layton, president and CEO of Sandy-based Layton Construction though its unclear how long that cushion will last, even as the economy starts to reopen.

We entered this with strength and that momentum has really tempered the impact so far, Layton said Tuesday, as part of an online business conference sponsored by the University of Utahs Eccles School of Business.

But I foresee the next seven and a half months being very telling of where our industry ends up going into 2021 and 2022, he said.

Construction, Layton and others noted, has been deemed an essential business in state and county health orders. Thats meant work has continued but it has required changes at building sites including daily employee questionnaires, segregated chemical toilets and new hand-washing stations, the CEO said.

Layton Construction and other firms have also seen their access to supplies of key building materials interrupted in the crisis, he said, forcing some slowdowns.

In hopes of keeping its workers healthy, Layton said, the company has treated each of its 175 job sites across the U.S. as its own village. And as a member of the village, he said, employees have responsibilities to follow the protocols, both at the job site and certainly away, because irresponsible behavior outside of work could put co-workers in jeopardy.

Adequate social distancing isnt always possible at a work site, Layton said, but his employees use protective gear and are interviewed when reporting to work on their risk for exposure the night or weekend before, Layton said.

Thats been proven very beneficial in keeping the virus from entering our job sites, he said. They have embraced this because they know we're kind of all in this together.

But as businesses from a variety of industries are now getting squeezed by effects of an abrupt decline of commercial activity, many are postponing work or modifying construction plans with the absolute requirement to save money, Layton said.

Retail outlets have seen some of the greatest damage from the health-related closures, in a trend that is likely to dampen demand for new construction of stores, shopping centers and strip malls. And a further shift to online shopping as more Utah residents work from home is likely to make some of those changes permanent.

Some retailers were really in a difficult position before COVID-19, said Linda Wardell, general manager at City Creek Center in downtown Salt Lake City. And now they're in an even tougher position now.

City Creek Center, which reopens Wednesday after closing March 20 due to the pandemic, will see a gradual return to full business over several weeks, Wardell said. Many of the upscale malls tenants are behind on rent, she said, and others continue to see supply chain disruptions and cant get unique goods that define their brands.

So were all going to need to be patient, she said, while customers may need to embrace new realities on hygiene, face masks and other precautions while visiting the mall.

Its really too soon to say if our customer is going to come back into our environment to shop, Wardell said. So in some ways, this is an exciting but also a very nerve-wracking time for us.

Social distancing is transforming the prospect of building new office spaces, too. With more office employees working from home and those going to work needing more space, its unclear just how those trends will change construction plans.

We're going to see office users taking a very close look at densities and their workspace environments as we move forward with this new world, said Brandon Fugal, chairman of Colliers International, a commercial real estate brokerage with offices in Salt Lake City.

Along with other real estate firms, Colliers International has produced detailed guidelines for returning to work for office tenants, investors and landlords with a goal of instilling confidence to boost economic activity, Fugal said.

Its important that we get the machinery back in full swing here and in full operation, the real estate executive said. But with that comes great responsibility.

Read the original here:
How will Utah's construction industry rebuild in the coronavirus era? Slowly. - Salt Lake Tribune

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) The general contractor overseeing of one of Nashville's largest construction sites closed it over the weekend for extensive cleaning.

Skanska suspended operations at 5th and Broadway for three days following concern from employees after at least two workers tested positive for COVID-19.

Workers at the site contacted NewsChannel 5 Investigates concerned about a lack of transparency involving COVID-19 issues.

Parts of the 6 acre site across from the Ryman Auditorium are scheduled for completion later this year.

5th and Broadway includes two sky rises with offices, apartments, retail space and the National Museum of African American Music.

Hundreds of construction workers go there everyday.

One worker hid his identity and came forward to speak with NewsChannel 5 Investigates.

"Why are you hiding your identity?" NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked.

"For fear of any type of retaliation against me," the worker responded.

"The reason I'm reaching out is so we can hopefully get more transparency and actual facts," the worker said.

In early April, workers secretly recorded a contentious meeting in which managers told them about two positive COVID-19 cases on site.

"Some of us are hearing about this for the first time three weeks after the incident. Why?" workers asked managers in the video.

The manager told workers, "Guys, I am just as concerned about this as you."

A representative from Skanska, the general contractor at 5th and Broadway, said they had made a mistake by not telling workers immediately after learning a worker had tested positive.

A worker in the meeting said, "We've got to have information to come in here and put our lives on the line."

The manager in the meeting responded, "Absolutely, Absolutely."

The manager also said, "The decision made going forward is to be completely transparent."

Skanska sent a statement to NewsChannel 5 Investigates saying the positive test came from an "overnight delivery" person who worked in a separate building from the workers in the video.

The company said "Safety is priority one" and "We have since updated out protocols to have regular communication with all groups across the site."

Ethan Link, with the Central Labor Council of Middle Tennessee, said he has heard from workers at many downtown sites, but he singled out 5th and Broadway.

"No one really knows how safe they are right now," Link said.

"If you went and asked ten different workers on that project what they know about COVID exposures, I think you will get ten different answers. And that's a problem," Link said.

The worker told NewsChannel 5 Investigates it is not uncommon for people to be sent home because they are showing symptoms, but then there is no communication about whether the person was actually sick or it was a false alarm.

"We touch things for a living. We go around the building and we tough everything in the building," the worker said.

He is worried about bringing the virus back to his family.

NewsChannel 5 Investigagtes asked, "Why don't you just walk off the job?"

The worker responded, "Because you can't get unemployment if you just quit. So I have to provide for my family."

Skanska said it closed the entire 6 acre site through Monday "for extensive cleaning."

The company said it has "mandatory temperature checks", "mandatory face coverings" and has "zero tolerance for working sick."

Link pointed to the large number of complaints the state has received from workers across the Tennessee.

"Companies right now are self policing these guidelines," Link said.

He said the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration should provide much more oversight.

"OSHA needs to be very much more involved in those downtown construction sites," Link said.

Workers on site say the uncertainty is taking a toll.

"I hear about people arguing with their families, their loved ones, their wives, people who take care of their parents. They're worried about bringing it back home," the worker said.

The full statement from Skanska as well as responses to some of our questions is below:

Safety is priority one for Skanska. We want nothing more than for our employees and subcontractors to be informed, healthy and aware. This is a 6.2-acre construction site with three separate components (apartment tower, office tower, and retail and entertainment complex). When we received word on April 2nd of an overnight delivery to the apartment tower by someone who tested positive for COVID-19, we immediately identified and quarantined the individual who had direct contact, fully traced the areas of impact, closed the floors of the apartment tower on which he was present, and informed those who were working on the apartment tower. We have since updated our protocols to have regular communication with all groups across our site.

The following answers to your questions will fill in more details about the timeline and overview our safety protocols.

Apparently the worker who tested positive was onsite on March 25. He tested positive on April 2. Workers were told after that. What is the communication timeline for that case?On April 2: Skanska received notification from a subcontractor that one of their workers had tested positive for COVID-19.

The subcontractor informed Skanska that the individual had made an overnight delivery to the Fifth + Broadway apartment tower jobsite site and it was determined they had come into contact with one other person. That person was immediately notified and told to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Skanska verbally informed the other subcontractors working on the apartment tower of this positive test result.

Following CDC recommendations, the floors the subcontractor employee visited were closed and isolated on April 2nd for four days.On April 6: Floors reopened after isolation.

Skanska sent a follow up email notification to subcontractors working on the apartment tower outlining incident and protocols.

What exactly is being constructed at that site and how many workers are present? When is the scheduled completion date?

Three different components over 6.2-acres: an apartment tower, an office tower, and a retail and entertainment center. The apartment complex will be completed first in the coming months.

What precautions are being taken on that site?

Mandatory temperature check at the gates

Mandatory face coverings

Mandatory glove policy

Cancellation of all large gathering on site meetings

Four medics on site every day

Zero Tolerance Policy for working sick

Hand sanitization centers on every floor where work is being done

Encouraging social distance for all workers on site and in elevators

Elevators and commonly touched services cleaned multiple times daily with high-grade disinfectants

Full personal protective equipment (PPE)

What do you say to workers who say there is not enough transparency?

COVID-19 is a new phenomenon that we are continually learning about daily. We continue to develop best practices in accordance with all legal requirements and evolving CDC guidance. The safety and well-being of everyone on site comes first. We are very proud of our track record of safety on this large scale, multi-year project. Our intent is to be transparent and proactive. Since the April 2nd positive test, our Local Coordination Response Team has added additional communications check-points to ensure immediate notification, no matter what component of the project site may have a suspected case. In addition to a mandatory all-hands call with all subcontractors, Skanska sends out emails to workers onsite almost daily with relevant COVID-19 updates, including every time a worker from the site gets tested for COVID-19, test results (positive or negative), and area closures for high-grade sanitization.

Has the project been shut down because of COVID-19?

The project has not been shut down by any governmental agencies. We have worked cooperatively and transparently with local government and public health agencies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the weekend, we have decided to take the opportunity to suspend operations for the entire 6.2-acre project site for 72 hours for extensive cleaning. No workers are allowed on site during this period. During this time, an advanced cleaning of primary footpaths, gathering spots and all other areas of density will be conducted. The site will be fully operational again on Tuesday, May 5th. Once it reopens, all elevated safety measures will continue, including mandatory temperature checks for all workers at the entrance gates, where medical clearance bands will be issued.

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Workers at 5th and Broadway voice concerns about safety and lack of transparency over COVID-19 - NewsChannel5.com