CALGARY -- Some of Calgarys construction job sites are carrying on through the pandemic, but many have taken drastic measures to ensure safety.

"Definitely a lot more attention to cleanliness," said construction worker Eric Woodcock.

"Usually trades, were Neanderthals, basically all of us, theres a lot more hand sanitizing, more wash basins. We put in multiple sinks and have done what we can to get our hands on as much hand sanitization as possible."

Woodcock is working at a construction site building retail and condo buildings in the northeast.

He said construction can be tricky to navigate social distancing, but they want to keep their jobs.

"Anyone who knows this nature of this beast here, its impossible to do some things that far apart but anything physically possible were maintaining at least two metres at all times, the best we can obviously," said Woodcock.

The Calgary Construction Association said a new pandemic protocol document has been created to help companies deal with new safety measures to protect against COVID-19.

"The document we started creating was really the beginning of our effort to help the whole industry understand the safety as it related to COVID," said president Bill Black.

"Youre changing the engine of the train while the train is running to implement new standards."

Black said the document comes with guidelines companies big and small can take to ensure worker safety.

"Construction is an inherently dangerous business," said Black.

"We deal with safety everyday and safety is a profession within our industry. It is designed, enforced, monitored and measured on a daily basis."

Black suggests many companies have already come up with ideas and protocols to ensure physical distancing and sanitizing.

"Take meetings outdoors, dont have them in enclosed spaces where the space can be more readily utilized for distancing," said Black.

"Limit the size of meetings. In some sites workers are eating lunch in their vehicles alone rather than together, managing gathering points."

For Woodcock, he said there are fewer people on the job site.

"Were keeping our site numbers low, like the man count, but attached to everyone of these companies, theres an office full of people," said Woodcock.

"Just one site alone, it's hundreds of jobs."

As for any potential of spreading coronavirus, Woodcock said workers are taking different measures than usual.

"We come here and do our job, which is unfortunately in the world right now, unique, were in the minority there," he said.

"The main difference is when you leave site, you go home. You dont go the store, you cant go out for dinner, you go home, clean yourself the best you can and hopefully see your family."

The province says Occupational Health and Safety has conducted 165 inspections within the construction sector since March 15. None have been specific to COVID-19 related hazards.

"Recent inspections have taken an education and awareness focus to COVID-19 hazards, specifically social distancing, personal protective equipment and sanitization and cleaning practices," said spokesperson Adrienne South in a statement.

Read the original post:
Calgary construction workers plugging away through pandemic - CTV News

Property developer Elevate Property Group has submitted plans to bring a derelict site in Birminghams Jewellery Quarter back to life in its latest project in the city.

The plans for the residential development, Heaton House Lofts, will bring 14 townhouses, 42 apartments and 3,500 sq ft of commercial space to try and recreate a part of Birminghams history.

To revive the sites historical roots, Heaton House Lofts will also include the restoration of a large 3,362 sq ft four-bedroomed Georgian villa, with paved garden terrace and its own private garage.

The original Heaton House was a 19th century villa in Camden Street, which at the time was part of the middle-class suburban developments that grew up on the fringes of the city centre in Birmingham.

The development was subsequently swallowed up in the expansion of Birminghams Jewellery Quarter and by the end of the century, Heaton House had been converted to form part of a large industrial works.

In a paper providing an architectural and archaeological assessment, written by historic buildings consultant Richard Morriss, it states: The complex of buildings centred on Heaton House is a good example of the industrialisation of the middle-classsuburban fringes of Birmingham in the later 19thcentury a process particularly common in the area to the north of the town centre in what is now called the Jewellery Quarter.

The original house would have been a rather fine example of a gentlemans suburban residence of the early 19thcentury, set within its own miniature landscaped park.

Heaton House was the home of a leading Birmingham merchant, William Cotterill, and was said to be the second oldest residential property in Birmingham. The building and its outbuildings were eventually altered to fit their new roles in industry and in recent years have become disused.

Now, Elevate Property Group, which has a reputation for the sympathetic regeneration of historic buildings, has pledged to bring the site back into residential use.

Following discussions between Elevates professional advisers and Birmingham city planners, the proposals for Heaton House Lofts will be submitted for planning approval this spring.

The company is currently applying for B1 and D2 usage for the 3,500 sq ft of commercial space on Powell Street, meaning the property can be utilised for offices or a possible leisure/gym complex.

Heaton House Lofts will quickly come to be recognised as one of the premier new addresses in Birmingham, says David Hofton, sales and marketing director at Elevate Property Group.

Camden Street is located just a mile from the city centre, giving quick access to the central business district and Birminghams vibrant retail, leisure and restaurant offer.

Founded in 2011, Elevate Property Group has been responsible for some of Birminghams most interesting, and sometimes controversial, residential projects. Current high-profile developments throughout the country include Victoria Point (Ashford), Alban House (Hereford), Trent Bridge Quays (Nottingham), Liversage Street (Derby), Princes Gate (Solihull), Assay Lofts (Birmingham), Sheldon Court (Birmingham) and Cliveland Street (Birmingham).

The company currently has in excess of a million square feet of development either under construction or in the planning and legal process. It has recently secured new lines of funding and is actively seeking new development opportunities throughout the UK.

For more information on Elevates new development at Heaton House Lofts, contact sales@elevatepropertygroup.co.uk or call David Hofton on 0121 272 5729.

Read this article:
Heaton House Lofts to restore Birmingham's 19th century heritage - Property Investor Today

The UK government is being urged to follow Scotlands lead and close all but essential construction sites in England and Wales.

Scotland announced a list of essential sites yesterday, bringing an immediate stop to work on the majority of the countrys construction projects.

New Civil Engineer understands that the UK government is poised to follow suit, and has been consulting industry bodies about a list of essential sites since last week.

However, the government has been reluctant to publish the list or introduce stricter controls on the construction sector thus far.

Construction groups are now urging the UK government to see sense and close non-essential construction sites.

Federation of Master Builder (FMB) chief executive Brian Berry said: It is almost impossible to follow Public Health Englands social distancing advice on many sites, and it would therefore be safer to close them".

The government has already advised that non-essential construction sites to close down, but has stopped short of defining what is essential.

However, the Scottish government is now being much more prescriptive announcing which sites should remain open and which should close.

Work on domestic housing, education institutions and office buildings are among those which must now be closed north of the border. Certain health and transport jobs are deemed essential and are allowed to stay open.

If sites can be safely completed within 5 working days they can be completed.

Road works and some energy related jobs will go forward. The Scottish government warned any projects can only continue operating if they can comply with the guidance on the safety and welfare of people.

Work on hospitals in Edinburgh and Glasgow including the Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh and the refurbishment job on the Childrens Hospital in Glasgow will also go ahead.

Sites which need to close in Scotland

Sites that can stay open in Scotland

The Scottish Government website has the full explanation of the new regulations.

Like what you've read?To receive New Civil Engineer's daily and weekly newsletters click here.

Here is the original post:
Government urged to publish 'essential sites' list - New Civil Engineer

Although work has stalled because of coronavirus restrictions, the developers of the Union Square Tech Hub now known as Zero Irving are still on the hunt for office tenants and planning their next steps for construction.

RAL Development halted work on the 21-story office building earlier this week after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that all nonessential construction was suspended to prevent the spread of the respiratory virus. Before then, workers had put up six stories of concrete and were getting ready to pour the seventh floor on the site of the former P.C. Richards store near Union Square South.

However, its not your typical office project. The development, which is being built on city-owned land, is going to be partially devoted to training new generations of coders and helping them get jobs. It will also include step-up space for young, growing tech companies.

The ground floor retail space is about to be leased to Urbanspace, which will operate a 10,000-square-foot food hall with a 1,700-square-foot outdoor terrace in the rear yard. Tech networking group Civic Hall plans to operate the second through seventh floors on a significantly below-market lease of $50 per square foot. (Civic Hall has been involved in the project for quite some time, but its lease is not yet finalized.) There will be an event and conference center on the second floor, and the third, fourth and fifth floors will be licensed to job training and workforce development organizations focused on placing people at tech companies. The eighth through 12th floors will offer step-up space for younger startups that need shorter lease terms, ranging from six months to five years. As part of RALs ground lease with the city, the developer cant ask for more than one years security deposit from tenants who rent on these floors. The rent for these floors will not be discounted.

The remaining 13 floors will be typical market-rate office space for established tech firms. Asking rents range from $95 to $145 per square foot, with higher floors renting at pricier rates. The 14th and 21st floors have smaller private terraces, and there will be a top floor, 6,300-square-foot roof deck with seating and landscaping thats accessible to all of the office tenants. The building will also feature a full-service gym. JLLs Mitch Konsker and Ben Bass are handling the leasing.

Some developers have struggled with supply chain issues since coronavirus hit China and Italy, but RAL planned so far ahead that most of its materials were ordered before the pandemic.

The vast majority of our curtain wall system is actually coming from Colombia, said RAL President Spencer Levine. Weve been working on the curtain wall for two years. The vast majority is ready to ship. We have a small portion that is being fabricated in China. There is a slight delay in that and were seeing how we can work with the sequencing of construction to fit that in afterwards.

Read the original here:
Developers of Zero Irving Manage a Construction Shutdown and Leasing - Commercial Observer

An indoor garden at the American Dream.

Source: American Dream

It is becoming even harder to call American Dream a megamall.

Instead, theroughly 3 million-square-foot developmentthat sits alongside a bustling highway in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is morphing into more of an ultimate amusement park. More like Disneylandif it fit under one roof. With shifts in strategy over time, retail is becoming even more of an afterthought, while entertainment takes center stage.

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic hitting the U.S., American Dream was slated to be a mix of 55% entertainment-related tenants and 45% retailers, when it was completely finished. Now, the project will be roughly 70% entertainment and 30% retail, according to its developer, Triple Five Group.

American Dream shifting its leasing strategy amid this pandemic could serve as the most damning evidence we have seen against the retail industry to date. The property, years in the making, has helped to take the pulse of retail as long as it has been under construction.

When ground was broken in 2004, under the project's original developers,Amazon's ascent and the e-commerce boom was just beginning. Names like Circuit City, Sports Authority, Blockbuster, RadioShack and Toys R Us were still in business. American Dream's blueprint has, as a result, been rewritten time and time again.

Now, this project will also be the true test for consumers paying for touch-and-feel experiences, once coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Will people want to ride roller coasters? Ride down water slides? Go ice skating within 6 feet of someone else? Play put-put? American Dream will teach us.

"We are going to come out of this super strong ... really strong on the entertainment side," Don Ghermezian, co-CEO of American Dream, told CNBC in an interview. "I think when [coronavirus] is over, people will be so stir crazy. Initially there will be some trepidation ... but I think we are going to have so many people."

Up until March 13, when Triple Five Group announced it would be temporarily closing American Dream to try to help halt the spread of COVID-19, what had already opened there was aNickelodeon theme park, an NHL-regulation-size ice skating rink, and an indoor snow park for skiers and snowboarders that had opened in the winter. The only retail at American Dream, so far, had been a towering IT'SUGAR candy store.

On March 19, a first wave of retailers like Zara and H&M were anticipated to open their doors to the public, in addition tothe world's first DreamWorks Animation Water Park.But all of that, along with the final construction at the property, has been delayed until further notice. A fresh reopening date has not been set, with the entire country still uncertain when this pandemic will subside.

Coping with its own losses, American Dream has furloughed "most staff" and cut the salaries of others, according toGhermezian. "This has cost us a lot of money," he said.

But the onesilver liningin the situation if there ever was one has been being able to rethink the future of American Dream, the co-CEO said. As of March, the development was not yet fully leased, giving Triple Five Group flexibility to reassess the new deals it wants to sign.

"There is no doubt that when this is over, there will be retailers that were just making it along ... trying to survive. Those retailers that were on the bubble I fully expect a number of those retailers to be gone," Ghermezian said.

"They cannot handle having no income coming in," he said. "And some of them are furloughing. It is a very difficult time. I fully expect there will be records set for retailers' closing [in 2020]. This virus has exacerbated that situation. A lot of retailers aren't going to reopen."

Ghermezian said no retailers have backed out of American Dream to date. The property is slated to have a Saks Fifth Avenue department store in the luxury wing, along with a variety of high- and low-end retailers including Ulta, Lululemon and Old Navy.

Now, instead of adding even more apparel and shoe stores, American Dream will have a trampoline park and one-of-a-kind, Instagram-worthymuseums,where visitors can pay to spend an afternoon exploring themed rooms with extravagant props and backdrops, Ghermezian said, citing these as two examples of what is to come post-COVID-19.

American Dream is also zoned for 3,500 hotel rooms, with plans to construct several hotels that will connect directly to the rest of the project via skybridges. The hotel operators have not yet been announced.

The purpose of adding this space, according toGhermezian, is to give out-of-town visitors easy access and room to spend a night or two during their excursions.

American Dream said it will be adding eight more rides to the already open Nickelodeon theme park, building on its early success.

Source: American Dream

To be sure, after living for weeks or months in social isolation, being advised to wear face masks and ordered to stay at minimum 6 feet away from anyone else, it will likely take many consumers additional time to ease back into day-to-day life, as they remember it, before coronavirus.

Also, many people are being put out of work either temporarily furloughed or permanently laid off by closures related to the outbreak.

The wave of Americans looking for unemployment insurance skyrocketed at the end of March, as more than 6.6 million new claims were filed, bringing the total of Americans who have filed to roughly 10 million over the most recent two weeks, according to the Labor Department. And the unemployment rate in the U.S. has risen to 4.4% from 3.5% its highest level since August 2017.

But the situation will grow much worse before it gets better, according to analysts. Goldman Sachs has forecast that the unemployment rate will peak at around 15% later this year.

"I think it will take a while for people to get comfortable," Mizuho Securities analystHaendel St.Juste said about consumers going back to America's malls.

Until recently, it has been in commercial real estate landlords' best interests to bring "experiences" to malls, St. Juste said. "But now experiential equals human risk. Humans are not going to the mall."

"In theory, yes, it's still a good idea to build assets with things people cannot do online," he added. "Ultimately we will see fewer malls."

Skeptics also still abound that American Dream will ever be 100% completed. Mall of America owner Triple Five Group took over the project, when it was named Xanadu, in 2011. Construction has been stalled and restarted on and off for years. Opening dates have been pushed back. The coronavirus has drawn out, even further, an already extensive timeline.

Read the original here:
Stalled by coronavirus pandemic, American Dream rethinks its future and retail becomes an afterthought - CNBC

Monday, April 06, 2020 5:54 p.m. CDT by Michael Leischner

WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) -- Wausau Mayor Robert Mielke provided an update Monday on the progress of the city's Riverlife development near the Wisconsin River.

According to the developers, the apartment complex is now 50% complete and leasing for the units is underway, with a quarter of the 75 units spoken for.

The apartments will lease for $925 a month with each unit including cable TV and managed WiFi. Other amenities will include heated underground parking, secure access, and a fitness center.

An on-site manager for the apartment complex has also been hired by the management company. According to Monday's release, the units should be ready for occupancy by July 2020.

The Riverlife development began as a mixed-use office and retail space that was to be built by Mike Frantz and Quantum Ventures. The group racked up more than $2 million in debt to local contractors during initial construction and later abandoned the project. That led to legal proceedings that left the project delayed for more than a year.

RELATED: Frantz officially out as Riverlife developer

Later, the city chose Oregon, WI-based Gorman and Company was chosen to take over the project. That was later shifted to Wausau Riverlife LLC, a conglomerate of three local developers that shifted the project from mixed-use retail and residential to all apartments.

RELATED: Wausau group to take over Riverlife Development

Developers have since expressed interest in adding a complex of condominiums to the area, along with other retail and dining options. The city will also be extending Fulton Street to serve the new neighborhood, that project is currently out for bids.

Go here to see the original:
Riverlife Apartments on track for July opening - WSAU News

Sterling Construction Company, Inc. (NasdaqGS: STRL) ("Sterling" or "the Company") today announced that its subsidiary, Ralph L Wadsworth Construction, LLC ("RLW") was selected by the Woodbury Corporation for a Utah structural project totaling $26.4 million.

The $26.4 million project is part of a $500 million revitalization effort of University Place, a 120-acre multi-use development project located in Orem, Utah. RLW is contracted to provide the structural concrete for a nine-story structure with the bottom five levels consisting of 115,000 square feet of structured parking and a lobby and the top four levels with over 115,000 square feet of Class A office space, boasting unobstructed 360-degree views of Utah Valley. Construction is scheduled to begin this Spring and is expected to be completed in the Fall of 2021.

Joe Cutillo, Sterlings CEO, commented, "We are pleased to begin work with the Woodbury Corporation, one of the premier retail developers in the United States and the local community. Residents of Utah County have made their desire for growth, urban town centers and diverse housing choices known, and we are extremely glad that, we are able to aid in the redevelopment effort of University Place."

Sterling, a Delaware corporation, operates through three operating groups specializing in heavy civil, specialty services and residential projects in the United States, primarily across the southern U.S., the Rocky Mountain States, California and Hawaii, as well as other areas with strategic opportunities. Heavy civil includes infrastructure and rehabilitation projects for highways, roads, bridges, airfields, ports, light rail, water, wastewater and storm drainage systems. Specialty services projects include site excavation and improvement, foundations for multi-family homes, parking structures and other commercial concrete projects. Site excavation and improvement entails construction site preparation primarily in the Southeast region of the United States for blue-chip customers in the distribution center, warehousing, e-commerce, data center, big box retail and energy sectors, as well as other growing end markets. Residential projects include concrete foundations for single-family homes in Texas.

This press release includes certain statements that fall within the definition of "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including overall economic and market conditions, federal, state and local government funding, competitors and customers actions, and weather conditions, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including those risks identified in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, such statements should be considered in light of these risks. Any prediction by the Company is only a statement of managements belief at the time the prediction is made. There can be no assurance that any prediction once made will continue thereafter to reflect managements belief, and the Company does not undertake to update publicly its predictions or to make voluntary additional disclosures of nonpublic information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200406005713/en/

Contacts

Sterling Construction Company, Inc.Ron Ballschmiede, Chief Financial Officer281-214-0777

Investor Relations Counsel:The Equity Group Inc.Fred Buonocore, CFA 212-836-9607Mike Gaudreau 212-836-9620

More:
Sterling Awarded a $26.4 Million Project in Utah by the Woodbury Corporation - Yahoo Finance

THE BUZZ WERE NOT NEW YORK: In California, theyre still building. New Yorks Gov. Andrew Cuomo had issued an executive order that shuttered most construction sites, and so did Boston mayor Martin Walsh in response to the Covid-19 crisis. But California which has taken some of the toughest and earliest measures to control the coronavirus pandemic is not going there.

Were not New York, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday, arguing that there are "very different conditions in the state of California'' than in other states and cities that have severely restricted most construction. Newsom's statements came days after Robbie Hunter, who leads the powerhouse Building and Construction Trades Council of California with a membership of 460,000 workers and 60,000 apprentices personally appealed to him on the matter.

Advertisement

After seven Bay Area health officers issued updated stay-at-home orders that specifically prohibited most residential and commercial construction, Hunter spoke to Newsom about what he said are tough standards instituted since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak to protect workers including taking temperatures at work sites, sterilizing tools and equipment, banning food trucks, implementing strict measures to discourage gatherings and mandating strict social distancing.

On Thursday, Hunter spoke to POLITICO after giving a hard-hatted Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg a personal tour of the Sacramento Convention Center construction site to show him those measures. Newsom and Steinberg both said they were satisfied that the workers, and the public, were protected by the strict oversight.

HUNTER TELLS POLITICO: Weve trained our people to work in the Borax mines, in tunnels underneath the Bay and we build 80-story skyscrapers without losing a worker or even a serious injury. We are used to serious training for different scenarios and we have applied everything we've got on this. Heres the full story by Carla.

OTHER TAKEAWAYS:

NOT OUT OF THE WOODS, but hospital trends looking good: Newsom said it was the individual acts of tens of millions of Californians that allowed him to say that hospitalization numbers, while theyre growing, are not growing as significantly as youre seeing in other parts of the country. POLITICOs tracker shows California has fewer than one-tenth the number of coronavirus-related deaths as New York, which has half the population of the Golden State and where Cuomo says theyre just days away from running out of ventilators.

LOOKING AT OPTIONS ON PROPERTY TAXES: Newsom seems unlikely to delay property tax deadline, but may consider alternative relief, by POLITICOs Colby Bermel: April 10 is the biannual property tax deadline that's by far the biggest contributor to local government coffers. A coalition of groups representing cities, counties and school districts wrote Newsom last month urging him to keep the date in place.

"We're working with the counties ... and we're seeing if there's ways to soften this, Newsom said. He added, however, that governments have also made their revenue worries clear to him, and that we're going to see what our options are and see what we can do to help in this moment, but I don't want to overpromise in this space.

BUENOS DIAS, good Friday morning. Look for President Donald Trump to issue guidelines to Americans to start wearing masks outdoors, POLITICOs Dan Diamond reports following in the steps of Californias vanguard big cities and urban region, as POLITICOs Victoria Colliver reports.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It's not that kids don't respect their parents. It's just that they don't respect them when it comes to educating them the way they do their teachers." Newsom opines on home schooling during the Covid-19 outbreak.

TWEET OF THE DAY: Riverside County Sheriff's Dept @RSO: We are saddened to announce the passing of one of our own RSO family members, Deputy Terrell Young. Terrell Young served this department for 15 yrs & is the 1st member to succumb to the COVID-19 virus. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his loved ones during this difficult time.

WHERES GAVIN? His daily #NewsomAtNoon briefing, to be livestreamed on @CAGovernor Twitter feed, will update COVID-19 news in California.

Sign up for POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition, your daily update on how the illness is affecting politics, markets, public health and more.

MUST READ Trump administration ended pandemic early-warning program to detect coronaviruses, by LATimes Emily Baumgaertner and James Rainey: Two months before the novel coronavirus is thought to have begun its deadly advance in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.

THE MAN WHO SAVED MAIN STREET Property owner waives rent for 65 retail tenants in Half Moon Bay, by the San Mateo Daily Journals Zachary Clark.

Navy captain of coronavirus-infected aircraft carrier relieved of command, by SF Chronicles Joe Garofoli, Tal Kopan and Matthias Gafni.

AFTER SF CHRONICLES SCOOP Navy fires aircraft carrier captain who raised alarm about virus outbreak, by POLITICOs Lara Seligman. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has fired the captain who raised the alarm about a spike in coronavirus cases onboard his aircraft carrier, which was sidelined in Guam last week, the Navy announced on Thursday.

Modly's decision to relieve Capt. Brett Crozier of command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt comes days after an impassioned letter Crozier wrote to Navy leaders pleading for additional help to combat the outbreak was leaked to the press. It appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Crozier's hometown paper.

via the Washington Post: California man who died of coronavirus was among those who tested positive after attending party at Trumps L.A. golf club Bert Argo, 75, died on Friday, his daughter Melanie Young said. She said Argo and his wife had visited the presidents golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., on the evening of March 8 for a birthday party for Susan Brooks the towns former mayor.

BATTLE OF THE TITANS! RECODEs Kara Swisher taking on Sean Hannity and Fox News fake contagion. My brother, a doctor working on the front lines of the crisis in San Francisco, called the misinformation magical thinking and wishful ignorance that persists because none of us ever wants to believe the worst. He finds it happens a lot when it comes to dire health information. If Mom does not want coronavirus to be true, pablum from Fox News makes it easier, he told me.

NO HOLMES AT HOME? Judge, defense clash in Theranos case over shelter-in-place orders, by POLITICOs Josh Gerstein: With a trial for [Elizabeth] Holmes looming at the end of July, her defense team this week petitioned the judge overseeing her case for the right to defy shelter-in-place orders in the Washington, D.C., area, the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere by continuing to meet to pore over exhibits in the case, interview witnesses and serve subpoenas.

H2O STAYS ON Newsom orders moratorium on water shutoffs for residents, critical businesses, by POLITICOs Debra Kahn: Today's order explicitly prohibits water systems from suspending residential service due to nonpayment and orders them to restore any residential services that they have suspended since March 4, when Newsom first declared a state of emergency. (Pro link)

SMALL BUSINESS RELIEF Newsom announces sales tax relief for small businesses, by POLITICOs Jeremy B. White: Newsom likened the reprieve to a bridge loan worth up to $50,000 for businesses that have been devastated as the coronavirus pandemic chokes off customers and closes businesses. (Pro link)

Here is the latest list of L.A. County communities with coronavirus cases, by the LA Times Hannah Fry.

Santa Clara is Bay Areas first county with more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases, by the Mercs Kerry Crowley.

STAY HOME California could see 5,000 coronavirus deaths a week if social distancing eases too soon, by the LA Times Rong-Gong Lin: That would mean 600 deaths a week from the disease known as COVID-19 in the central San Francisco Bay Area, and 100 to 200 deaths a week in Contra Costa County, he said.

STAGGERING California unemployment claims top 878,000 as coronavirus pushes US jobless to new high, by McClatchys David Lightman: Nationally, more than 6.6 million people filed for the first time in the week that ended Saturday.

"California resumes disclosing how many health workers have coronavirus," by the SF Chronicle's Mallory Moench.

With the help of The COVID Tracking Project a volunteer-run accounting of every coronavirus test conducted in America POLITICO is monitoring how many Americans have been tested in all 50 states. Our live tracker will continue to update with the latest numbers across the country as they come in.

HER NEXT MOVE Pelosi forms new select committee to oversee $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, by POLITICOs Heather Caygle, Kyle Cheney and Melanie Zanona: The committee is Pelosis most aggressive effort yet to streamline the Houses efforts to hold President Donald Trump accountable for his implementation of the massive coronavirus response law, as well as to ensure that recipients of the historic taxpayer bailout use funds the way Congress intended.

California sues student loan servicer over records on federal aid program for teachers, by POLITICOs Michael Stratford.

FOCUS ON THE GOVERNORS Trump Is Politicizing the Pandemic. Governors Can Fight Back, by Eric Posner and Emily Bazelon in NYT: Unwilling to take the blame for shutting down the economy when he thought there was little public support for the move, [Trump] sparred with governors like [Andrew] Cuomo and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan while also hiding behind them.

Trump's federal coronavirus quarantine isn't happening (for now). But what can states do? by Jessica Levinson for NBC: In one corner, we have the states, armed with their power to protect the health, safety and welfare of their residents. In the other corner, we have the federal government, charged with regulating interstate commerce and protecting federal constitutional rights like the right to travel.

Ro Khanna: 'This is not some large bailout for the startups,' by Protocols Sofie Kodner.

EDITORIAL in his hometown paper, the Fresno Bee: Devin Nunes of Tulare CA has dangerous views on coronavirus: he should keep them to himself.

CALIFORNIA CANDIDATE? Biden says hell put a black woman on Supreme Court. This California justice is a leading candidate, by the LA Times David G. Savage.

SIDERS TAKE How the coronavirus is shaping the 2024 presidential race, by POLITICOs David Siders: People who do not follow politics are tuning into livestreams of their governors for the first time and learning the names of governors of other states.

INVITES ARE OUT to Joe Bidens virtual fireside chat hosted by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jed Katz, via Recodes Teddy Schleifer. See the invite here.

SPLIT ROLL DUST-UP: OPPONENTS REACTION coming in to the announcement by Schools and Communities First the coalition of education and labor groups that theyve collected 1.7 million signatures to get the split roll measure to revise Prop. 13 on the November ballot, as reported by POLITICO this week:

From California Business Roundtable president Rob Lapsley: After spending more than $3 million to qualify their first flawed property tax hike, proponents have spent millions more to qualify a second, equally flawed measure. Its clear that the public employee unions behind the largest property tax increase in state history are willing to spend and do whatever it takes to raise the cost of living for working families.

FRONT AND CENTER Nancy Pelosi plays familiar role in 2020 elections: GOP talking point, by SFChronicles John Wildermuth: Republicans are once again trying to tie California Democratic congressional candidates to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arguing that anyone supporting the party leader is just too liberal to represent the states purple swing districts.

AND THERES THIS...Caltrain, battered by the coronavirus, pushes ahead with November sales tax measure, by the SF Chronicles Rachel Swan: [O]fficials are taking steps to put a one-eighth cent sales tax on the November ballot in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

POLITICO MAGAZINE The nations best and worst governors in COVID-19 response, by Bill Scher. Hint: none of them are Andrew Cuomo, one of them is Gavin Newsom.

PG&E customers to receive climate credit in April, by KRONs Alexa Mae Asperin: The credit totals $62.91 for PG&E residential customers receiving both natural gas and electric service.

WHERE TO GO? You cant move and you cant stay: Top Democrats say COVID renter protections wont work, by the Sac Bees Sophia Bollag: Two top Democrats in the California Legislature say Gov. Gavin Newsoms executive order temporarily protecting tenants who cant afford rent because of COVID-19 doesnt stop landlords from initiating eviction proceedings and could allow a wave of evictions once the order ends on May 31.

UC and Cal State relax admissions criteria due to coronavirus: What you need to know, by the LA Times Nina Agrawal and Teresa Watanabe.

Once-disputed Costa Mesa site will house non-coronavirus patients as part of surge effort, by POLITICOs Victoria Colliver.

SHELTER FOR THE VULNERABLE Inside L.A.'s scramble to open shelters and find hotel rooms for coronavirus patients, by the LA Times Doug Smith.

PRIORITIZING PEOPLE San Francisco to prioritize placing some homeless street-dwellers in hotels after much coaxing, by Mission Locals Joe Eskenazi: Mayor London Breed on Wednesday declared that homeless street dwellers over age 60 and suffering from underlying health conditions would be prioritized for vacant hotel rooms during the COVID-19 outbreak.

FORE! Deemed essential, Sacramento golf courses remain open - and crowded - during coronavirus, by the Sac Bees Theresa Clift, Joe Davidson and Michael Finch.

Oakland gets 91 trailers to house homeless during coronavirus outbreak, by The Mercury News Marisa Kendall.

Google revises COVID-19 ad ban after backlash, by Protocols Emily Birnbaum: The tech giant in a memo to advertisers on Thursday said it will allow some advertisements this week from government entities, hospitals, medical providers and NGOs who want to advertise about COVID-19, with guidance expected in the next few days for political advertisers specifically.

National Governors Association Partners with SF-based Nextdoor, per a statement: During this unprecedented time, the number of public agency posts on Nextdoor has tripled since the beginning of March.

SF-based Zoom booms as coronavirus pushes connection into the virtual world, by The Hills Alexandra Kelley: The spike in usage comes as the FBIs Boston office warned of Zooms privacy being compromised.

DiCaprio, others launch $12M coronavirus relief food fund, by The APs Jonathan Landrum: [Leonardo] DiCaprio serves as a co-founder of Americas Food Fund with philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs. Apple and the Ford Foundation are also providing money to help launch the new initiative.

Oprah Winfrey announces she is donating $10 million to assist Americans during COVID-19 pandemic, by the Daily Mails Christine Rendon.

Disney To Furlough Employees Whose Jobs Arent Necessary At This Time Starting April 19, by Deadlines Jill Goldsmith.

Santa Clara County bans in-store, curbside sales of recreational marijuana, by POLITICOs Alexander Nieves: The decision, issued Tuesday as part of a revised shelter-in-place order, still allows cannabis shops to make in-person sales to individuals with medical marijuana cards or on a doctors recommendation.

SILVER LINING? You can thank the coronavirus for plunge in robocalls, by the LA Times David Lazarus.

SURFS NOT UP Coronavirus at beaches? Surfers, swimmers should stay away, scientist says, by the LA Times Rosanna Xia.

San Francisco homeowners are pulling listings off the market by the hundreds, by the SF Business Journals Ted Andersen.

Can you fix ventilators? A fuel cell engineer figures it out, by The APs Adam Beam.

OP-ED via the LA Daily News: UTLAs latest shameful attack on charter schools

CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this subscriber-only service offers, click here.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO California has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Golden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause youre promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: [emailprotected].

Continued here:
NEWSOM gives thumbs up to CA construction NAVY fires whistleblower carrier captain GRANDFATHER who attended TRUMP LA property party dies of Covid-19...

Owners of a 9.8-acre parcel on Point Meadows Drive want to change the Baymeadows propertys zoning to allow up to 15,300 square feet of retail, commercial or office space.

DER Investments LLC, led by David Ergisi, owns the site. Ergisi, president and CEO of Cross Regions Group, is listed as the manager of the LLC. He bought the property in 2019.

A site geometry and layout plan filed with the rezoning request show a two-story, 15,300-square-foot professional office building. Theres a pond on the parcel that owner intends to fill for the project.

Ergisis MRED Investments I LLC owns the adjacent parcel to the south at 8100 Point Meadows Drive. He paid $862,000 for the vacant 2.6-acre site in 2018 and built a two-story, 30,000-square-foot structure in 2020.

The parcels are west of Interstate 295 and north of Baymeadows Road.

The Touring Company, a Jacksonville-based civil engineering and construction company, is listed as the applicant for the rezoning application.

Ergisi said April 6 his plans for the property were not yet certain and declined to comment further on the project.

DER Investments LLC wants to change the zoning from one Planned Unit Development to another with no change to its land use.

It is called Point Meadows Phase II.

Excerpt from:
Rezoning would allow office building on Baymeadows property - Jacksonville Daily Record

As business interruption risks become increasingly complicated during COVID-19, will Insurtech be able to step up and find ways to cover losses?

Coronavirus crept through the world methodically. First came warnings of international cases. Soon social media feeds were filled with images of desolate Chinese cities and videos of Italians singing in unison from their balconies.

In what seemed like a sudden flash, the virus was on American shores closing down schools, shuttering restaurants and leaving far too many casualties.

The economic damage was swift and heavy. The stock market crashed, unemployment claims skyrocketed, and industries like construction, retail and hospitality were decimated.

Everyone seemed to have the same question: Would insurance companies cover business interruption resulting from the pandemic?

The short answer: no. Business interruption is typically part of property insurance and doesnt kick in unless theres actual damage to property.

Attorneys will undoubtedly get creative as they fight for coverage. One recently claimed that contaminated surfaces inside a New Orleans restaurant counted as property damage. Perhaps courts will agree. Perhaps business interruption becomes part of a government stimulus package. The answers remain to be seen.

What is immediately clear? Business interruption (BI) coverage has quickly become top-of-mind for companies of all types.

BI has always been the red-headed stepchild of insuring your business, said Matthew Struck, partner and co-founder of Treadstone Risk Management.

Everyone is always concerned about traditional risks. What happens if my building burns down? What happens if someone sues me? Only if you were a risk management purist were you thinking of Black Swan events like coronavirus.

Traditionally, business interruption hasnt been tough to underwrite or assess. If a business were shut down for the entire month of August due to a natural catastrophe, a simple analysis of financials could determine probable revenue loss during that time.

But business isnt that simple anymore. Supply chains have gotten complicated. Technology is quickly evolving. Industries are changing. Its made business interruption underwriting and claims adjusting much more difficult.

Matthew Struck, partner and co-founder, Treadstone Risk Management

Even before the coronavirus crisis took hold, companies specializing in Insurtech technological innovation meant to create savings and efficiencies in the insurance industry have been making business interruption underwriting and claims adjusting easier and more accurate.

Thats due to the rise of Big Data and technology like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. Insurtech companies have created models to predict business interruption losses; analyze mountains of data; and output metrics in easy-to-understand charts and digital dashboards.

Companies are creating more sophisticated modeling techniques for specific losses in order to understand what a business interruption event might look like from a financial standpoint, said Chris Cheatham, CEO of RiskGenius.

Typically, actuaries, underwriters and brokers are not necessarily technology wizards. And when you dont fundamentally understand technology, its hard to understand what constitutes business interruption in the technology space.

Cheathams company has raised more than $60 million in venture capital funding, according to Crunchbase, and hes a frequent commentator on the subject to his 150,000 LinkedIn followers.

RiskGenuis uses artificial intelligence to quickly and accurately review insurance policies to streamline work for brokers and underwriters. In the business interruption space, RiskGenius can analyze which policies will cover it and what that coverage may look like. It counts FM Global, Liberty Mutual and Everest Insurance as partners.

Its surprising, but a lot of carriers dont have that kind of analysis done on their portfolios, said Cheatham.

We call it emerging risk analysis, where you can look at all the insurance policies in a portfolio, find out which ones fall into which buckets and then triage around those.

Another company born out of Insurtech is Bold Penguin, a commercial insurance exchange that uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to match small businesses with insurance companies.

Our process makes it 300% faster. It gets done without calling around and guesswork, said Amber Wuollet, director of marketing at Bold Penguin. We dont pass along any risk that doesnt meet an insurance companys underwriting criteria.

Wuollet said coronavirus fears quadrupled inquiries for business interruption coverage on Bold Penguin since February 9.

We have had many owners and risk managers calling in specifically mentioning business interruption coverage, said Wuollet.

With so many slight differences in language from policy to policy, Bold Penguin helps small businesses easily find the coverages or bundles of coverage that fit their businesses and unique needs.

Corvus Insurance uses machine learning and AI to make cyber coverage around business interruption more accurate. Corvus analyzes a companys web hosting, ISP providers, email providers and software to learn about its cyber security posture.

There is tons of information about individuals online. That same idea applies to companies, said Brian Alva, vice president of cyber underwriting at Corvus.

Were able to look at all their public-facing infrastructure to see what security they have then we map that to see which providers have above average or below average histories of client breaches. We can scan the dark web to see if employee credentials are for sale. These things can show evidence of a past breach or prevent a future breach.

An advantage of using tech like Corvus is not having to rely on error-prone questionnaires filled out by clients who unknowingly submit incorrect or out-of-date information.

Chris Cheatham, CEO, RiskGenius

We can get more up-to-date information automatically without relying on clients to answer applications. That gives us a lot more insight into what were doing on the underwriting side, Alva said.

The cyber risks that Corvus and others are working to stop have broadened in recent years.

Historically, cyber issues meant a health care organization losing records or retail companies suffering a breach of credit card information. But cyber is now a major business interruption risk due to dangerous ransomware and malware attacks.

Ransomware attacks have extracted an average of $2,300 per victim in 2019, up from $210 four years prior. One called Samsam infected more than 200 U.S.-based victims and collected $6 million and counted local governments as victims.

Before any attack occurs and stops business in its tracks, Corvus analyzes a companys email security protocols to recommend things like email filters and other security measures.

From an underwriting standpoint, calculating a business interruption claim from the actual costs incurred is still difficult but we can look at things that make someone more or less likely to suffer a claim and tailor underwriting that way, said Alva.

With the economy suffering in the wake of the coronavirus, expect Insurtech innovation to suffer in the short-term.

Startup funding is expected to dry up and companies could struggle to keep internal innovation teams afloat. Still, business interruption is so top-of-mind that innovation from Insurtech is all but inevitable.

Another wave is coming. Call it wave two of Insurtech, said Cheatham. Thats going to be great, because youre going to see a lot of ideas that are more tangible and salient start to take hold.

What will wave two look like? Expect more specialization and modeling for specific business interruption events. Data will continue to be accessible and abundant helping to further refine what constitutes business interruption and the damages associated with it.

And expect the data to be disseminated in ways that are easy to understand, like cellphone apps or interactive dashboards.

All these new data points available to people will be extremely helpful in modeling out scenarios for business interruption that we just never thought of before, said Cheatham.

I think youre going to see a lot of specialization around that.

With the coronavirus proving that business interruption coverage is hardly a given, many could look to insurtech to make sure the data and risks are disseminated accurately, so businesses are better prepared next time around.

As that demand grows, youll see new forms of companies particularly Insurtech companies coming to market to help meet those needs, said Alva.

This pandemic has brought business interruption to the forefront. As an industry were going to view the demand there to see what solutions we can come up with. &

Read the original here:
COVID-19 Is Threatening the Ability of Insurtech to Combat Business Interruption - Workers Comp Forum