Philly Teachers to Corbett: "We Will Not Settle"

Philadelphia teachers rallied in North Philadelphia today against the school district's demands for union concessions. The district has asked for $133 million a year in give-backs and changes to work rules.

About 60 teachers and their allies showed up at Julia De Burgos Elementary School, where they heard from Evette Jones, a teacher and union leader.

"Our school employees should not have to continue to pay for years of financial mismanagement and misspending. We have to tell them that we will not settle for anything less."

Passing drivers honked their horns at the assembled crowd.

Laid-off reading specialist Sue Barksdale said she's a casualty of the school district's efforts to close its looming budget gap.

"Twenty-three years I've been [teaching]. And I'm not stopping now," said Barksdale. "I want to keep going. As long as I can help, I'm going to be here."

The teachers said they plan to keep up the pressure on the school district with further rallies in August around the city.

Appearing at an event today in Philadelphia, Gov. Tom Corbett defended the state's role in the funding battle. "Forty-five million dollars in federal funding funneled through the state are contingent on reforms, including teacher concessions," Corbett said.

"We are working very closely with the local community, with the School Reform Commission. We've provided some resources, but we also need to see that there is movement from those same people that are rallying," said the governor.

Source: NBC10.com

Properties in the heart of Conshohocken up for grabs

The Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority is seeking bids for three high-profile properties in the heart of Conshohocken, Pa.

The redevelopment authority issued a request for proposals from prospective developers to buy and redevelop:

• 402 Fayette St., a 65,000-square-foot building that sits on nearly two acres and used to be occupied by Verizon Communications. It also has 49 parking spaces. A local partnership bought the building for $7.5 million in early 2007. A few months later, the borough purchased the 54-year old property for more than $3 million.

There are some requirements under the RFP, most notably that any redevelopment would entail Conshohocken leasing 20,000 square feet for its borough offices and police department. It also requires the winning developer to “provide for a means” for the borough to get out of its current lease without any financial penalty.

The Times Herald reported that Keystone Property Group of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and Brandywine Realty Trust of Radnor, Pa., submitted proposals to buy the Verizon building but the redevelopment authority declined to make them public.

• 15 West Hector St., which consists of vacant land and the historic Washington firehouse, which dates back to 1874. A proposal must include the adaptive, commercial re-use of the firehouse as well as restoring and renovating it. It must also include 300 parking spaces.

• A vacant parcel near Fayette and Elm streets that totals more than 15,000 square feet.

The borough expects to review any submissions next week and the redevelopment authority anticipates striking a development agreement by Aug. 14.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal

Olde Richmond Civic supports Wynn casino

The state gaming board is now expected to award its endorsement to one of the six casino applicants - in the form of an operating license - early next year.
The Olde Richmond Civic Association voted 191-20 in support of the Wynn Casino proposal for Delaware Avenue at a Monday night meeting.
"The voting result speaks for itself," said Olde Richmond's Phillip Stoltzfus. "Olde Richmond residents reacted positively to the creation of jobs and restored public access to the Delaware River."
“On behalf of the entire Wynn Philadelphia team, we sincerely thank the residents and ORCA for this endorsement of our resort application,” said Terry McKenna, executive vice president of Keating Consulting, which is assisting Wynn Resorts on the project, in a press statement.
Stoltzfus said some residents did raise concerns: Traffic impact, critiques of the design or layout of the plan, and the opinion of some that the casino would be isolated or disconnected from the Riverwards and the city in general.
Fishtown Neighbors Association, the New Kensington Community Development Corporation and Port Richmond On Patrol and Civic have also endorsed Wynn's plan for 2,500 slot machines,100 game tables, a hotel and spa, a 30,000-square foot nightclub, and green space including a dog park and skating rink.
But when it comes to the six proposed Philadelphia casinos, the endorsement that matters most is that of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
“The Board hopes to be in a position to make a decision sometime in early 2014,” said PGCB spokesman Richard McGarvey. This date has been pushed back a bit from the original estimate of late 2013.
The competitors in addition to Wynn are:
The Provence, proposed by Tower Entertainment, proposed for 400 N. Broad Street.
Casino Revolution, by PHL Local Gaming, for 3333 South Front Street.
Hollywood Casino, by PA Gaming Ventures, for 700 Packer Avenue.
Market8, by Market East Associations, for 8th and Market streets.
Live! Hotel and Casino, proposed by Stadium Casino, for 900 Packer Avenue.
Other proposals have also won endorsements from the communities in which they would be located, or other organizations.
PGCB staff have been vetting each proposal, looking at financial viability and the ability to build the proposed casino.
The board will also consider public input received at hearings held earlier this year in Philadelphia, and written comments, which they are still accepting. When asked if the board will consdier votes like the one ORCA just took matter, McGarvey said civic/neighborhood groups can submit written comments to the board. To submit comments, go here.  The page hasn't been changed since hearings were held earlier this year, but it lists the address and fax number for written comments. There is also a form lower on the page that allows comments to be entered and sent electronically.
Before making its decision, the PBCB will  hold another public hearing, called the suitability hearing. McGarvey said that is expected to happen late in 2013, most likely in Philadelphia. In this hearing, each of the applicants will appear before the board to answer board members'  questions.

Source: PlanPhilly.com

City needs remapping before impacts of new code are felt, builders say

There’s a lot in Philadelphia’s reformed zoning code, now nearly a year old, that developers, architects and other code users seem to like. It’s shorter, for one. Easier to understand. Better organized. The residential building height limit is a little higher. It gives incentives for projects near transportation hubs, and for environmentally friendly design elements. More uses are allowed by right, saving small-time builders frivolous trips to the zoning board.
But, developers say, the new rules won’t have a truly meaningful impact on construction activity in the city until the field is redrawn.The city’s zoning maps have not kept pace with the prevailing land uses in many neighborhoods. Most industry has abandoned the still-industrially-zoned southern end of the American Street industrial corridor in South Kensington, for example. Ditto large, vacant swaths of waterfront real estate. Sixteen percent of land in the University/Southwest district is used for institutional purposes, according to the Planning Commission, but just over ten percent of it is zoned that way. And so on.
Until the Planning Commission finishes updating the zoning maps through the Philadelphia2035 planning process--sometime in 2016, the Commission hopes--developers say they’ll continue to need to go to the zoning board on a far-too-regular basis. The need for remapping is also one possible reason cited by the Planning Commission for the zoning board’s steady approval rate for variances: more than 90 percent of all variance requests are granted, according to a draft report compiled by the Commission.
“It’s basically all about the mapping,” said Rustin Ohler, an architect at Philadelphia-based firm Harman Deutsch. “If the property is mapped like the rest of the neighborhood, we’ve been able to build projects by right--our clients have made concessions to build by right--because it’s easier than going to the zoning board.”
Back in the fall of 2011, during the run-up to City Council’s vote to adopt the new code, Councilman Bill Green pushed to give the Planning Commission more funds to complete the remapping more quickly. He predicted that the code alone would be insufficient to revitalize construction in the city; dealing with the outdated zoning maps needed to get done.
“We’ll sap the energy very quickly if we don’t do the remapping,” Green told PlanPhilly the day the code was adopted.
Nearly a year into the new code’s tenure, it’s not clear whether the energy’s been sapped, but it is clear there’s been no significant retreat from the use of zoning variances among developers.
“The main problem is remapping,” said Janice Woodcock, an architect and former director of the Planning Commission,” and there really isn’t a great mechanism for dealing with it.”
Woodcock said that the Zoning Code Commission did a “fantastic job” rewriting the code, and praised its new clarity and ease of use. But she said that until all the zoning maps are brought up to date, developers will be encouraged to get their properties rezoned legislatively, through City Council. And that process, she said, favors builders who can muster political influence.
Offering that it was unlikely in a city not overflowing with extra resources, Woodcock said the Planning Commission should be given more resources to finish the remapping and keep the maps current, as well as more deference when it comes to development.
“If you look at the [Home Rule] Charter, the Planning Commission is supposed to oversee the orderly development of the city,” Woodcock said. “That’s their job.”
Equinox Properties’ Jonathan Weiss, who has built an array of student housing projects near Temple University and elsewhere, said his architects work hard to design projects to code whenever possible. Weiss said he has three projects in the permitting phase, and that of those, two can be built by right, and the third needs only minor variances.
“I have a number of projects brewing, and we’re working very hard to design them as of right, and have been very successful doing so,” Weiss said. “We’re paying a lot of attention to [the code]. There are still some tricky pieces to it, but on the whole, for us, we think it does make things a little easier.”  
There are other issues with the code. Many of the developers PlanPhilly has spoken with said that the code’s provision on Registered Community Organizations, which was amended early this year by a bill from Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, is confusing and onerous. The bill changed the provision to require both zoning applicants and RCOs to notify every property owner on every neighboring blockface when a project is proposed that requires zoning board action. Anne Fadullon, a developer with Dale Corporation, said the current law needs tweaking, but isn’t sure whether the provision as written would have been better.
“To be honest,” Fadullon said, “that section was changed so quickly that I don’t think we know whether it was going to work or not.”
Fadullon also pointed out that some more specific provisions are likely generating variance requests, such as the residential height limit of 38 feet combined with the prohibition on rear-yard parking. (At a zoning board hearing last week, attorney Hercules Grigos argued that those rules needed to be reconsidered as well.) The market, Fadullon said, “really seems to want” residential housing with ground-floor garage space and three stories above that, which can’t be squeezed into 38 feet.
But Fadullon also suggested that incorrect mapping and specific rules aren’t the only reasons the ZBA’s caseload hasn’t been substantially reduced. She said that most developers would always build by right if felt they could, just to avoid the ZBA, but that for some, “You don’t let the code really dictate your project, because we are so used to not doing it that way.”
“We’re a city that’s done things a certain way for a long time,” Fadullon said, “and it’s hard to get out of that mode …”
Craig Schelter, of Development Workshop, who worked diligently during the zoning reform process and after to make sure the code isn’t unduly burdensome for property owners, said the Planning Commission’s draft report made clear that “almost everybody” is unhappy with the code’s RCO provision. As for the steady drip of variances, Schelter said those are just part of the development process in Philadelphia.
“It doesn’t surprise me that all of the variances were still there in the first year ...” Schelter said. “If [the ZBA] just turned off the spigot, that doesn't make sense either. For the first year effort, I think it's OK.”

Source: PlanPhily.com

Central Delaware Waterfront zoning overlay adopted

With the adoption this spring of the Central Delaware Waterfront zoning overlay, the comprehensive visioning process begun six years ago is now as concrete as it’s going to get. Those who hope to see this underused waterfront turn into vibrant, publicly accessible space with well-designed buildings and an active mix of uses must trust the overlay--and the individuals who own the property.
For the rest of the summer, PlanPhilly will be taking a closer look at some of these properties and their owners to try to get a better sense of what the real possibilities are for the waterfront’s development in the near future. The parcels range in size from the nearly billion square foot Conrail property at the northern edge of the overlay to small plots holding single-family houses. They are owned by private individuals, current and former industrial companies, city agencies, and inscrutable LLCs. Their development over the next few decades will be a test of how effective zoning can be as a tool to guide private development.
The attached map shows (almost) every non-residential property in the overlay, which stretches from Oregon Ave. to Allegheny Ave., and Interstate 95 to the Delaware River. These properties were identified on a parcel map of the city and cross-checked with data from the Office of Property Assessment current as of January 2013. Take a look around and let us know what tracts pique your curiosity.

Source: PlanPhilly.com

With overlay in place, future of Central Delaware is in private hands

With the adoption this spring of the Central Delaware Waterfront zoning overlay, the comprehensive visioning process begun six years ago is now as concrete as it’s going to get. Those who hope to see this underused waterfront turn into vibrant, publicly accessible space with well-designed buildings and an active mix of uses must trust the overlay--and the individuals who own the property.
For the rest of the summer, PlanPhilly will be taking a closer look at some of these properties and their owners to try to get a better sense of what the real possibilities are for the waterfront’s development in the near future. The parcels range in size from the nearly billion square foot Conrail property at the northern edge of the overlay to small plots holding single-family houses. They are owned by private individuals, current and former industrial companies, city agencies, and inscrutable LLCs. Their development over the next few decades will be a test of how effective zoning can be as a tool to guide private development.
The attached map shows (almost) every non-residential property in the overlay, which stretches from Oregon Ave. to Allegheny Ave., and Interstate 95 to the Delaware River. These properties were identified on a parcel map of the city and cross-checked with data from the Office of Property Assessment current as of January 2013. Take a look around and let us know what tracts pique your curiosity.

Source: PlanPhilly.com

Senate Confirms All NLRB Nominees

(WASHINGTON) — The Senate voted Tuesday to fill all five seats on the National Labor Relations Board and prepared to consider President Barack Obama’s picks for top diplomatic and law enforcement posts as the chamber whittled down a pile of stalled nominations.

Tuesday’s votes included the last of the seven nominees that were part of a bipartisan deal earlier this month in which some Republicans agreed to end stalling tactics. Democratic leaders hope to also push other nominations through the Senate before Congress begins its summer recess this weekend, but some face uncertain fates.

Even so, that bipartisan agreement — which saw Democrats drop a threat to change Senate rules to weaken minority party clout — has let Obama fill some major gaps in his second-term administration. That deal and the momentum it has created has let him install leaders at agencies including the FBI, the Labor Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

On Tuesday, the chamber moved rapidly for the normally glacial Senate and approved three Democrats and two Republicans to serve on the NLRB, which helps resolve labor disputes.

Without confirmation of at least one of them before Congress’ recess, much of the NLRB’s work would have ground to a halt by late August. That is when NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce’s current five-year term expires, which would leave the agency with just two members — short of the three legally needed for it to conduct business.

“I applaud the Senate for putting in place a full board and look forward to working together on other steps we can take to grow our economy,” Obama said in a written statement that put an optimistic face on upcoming battles with Congress over taxes and spending.

Besides renewing Pearce for another five-year term, senators also confirmed Democrats Kent Hirozawa and Nancy Schiffer, who both have long experience as labor lawyers, to the NLRB. The two Republicans approved are a pair of attorneys who have worked with employers on labor issues, Philip A. Miscimarra and Harry I. Johnson III.

On Wednesday, senators planned to begin considering Obama’s nomination of B. Todd Jones to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It will also take up his selection of Samantha Power to become U.N. ambassador.

In a turnabout, Democrats were expressing optimism that they would win the 60 votes needed to end Republican roadblocks against a vote on Jones, whom Obama nominated in January to head ATF. The agency, which has not had a confirmed director since 2006, helps enforce federal gun laws.

Top National Rifle Association lobbyist Jim Baker said in an interview this week that the gun lobby would remain neutral on Jones, saying, “We find nothing in his background to concern law-abiding gun owners.” The influential lobby has opposed past nominees and been a critic of the agency itself, arguing it has been too intrusive in its enforcement of gun laws.

“I think we’re going to get it,” Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate Democratic vote counter, said Tuesday about efforts to round up 60 votes for Jones.

Many gun control groups have supported Jones’ nomination, including Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led and largely financed by wealthy New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“Senators have come to understand that one of the reasons we have the worst gun violence problem in the world is the agency that’s supposed to deal with it is rudderless and under-resourced,” said Mark Glaze, the group’s executive director.

Many Republicans still have qualms about Jones. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has complained that the nomination should not move forward because of two whistleblower complaints against him involving his work as U.S. attorney for Minnesota, a post he has held since 2009.

“It is imprudent and unwise for the Senate to give final consideration to any nominee where there is an open investigation into that nominee’s conduct,” Grassley said this week.

Jones has also been acting ATF director since 2011.

Also expected to win Senate approval this week is Power, a former Obama foreign policy adviser and long-time human rights activist, whom the president wants to become U.N. ambassador.

Power, who won a Pulitzer Prize for a book on how the U.S. responded to atrocities in Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990s, has for years advocated intervention — including military force — to halt human rights atrocities. At her Senate confirmation hearing this month, she distanced herself from her 2002 call for a “mammoth protection force” to prevent Middle East violence, calling it a “remarkably incoherent answer.”

Another of Obama’s picks seemed to be listing as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would not schedule a pre-recess confirmation vote on Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency. That agency regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-backed mortgage giants who needed huge bailouts from Washington to survive the 2008 financial crisis and that many Republicans would like to replace or revamp.

Source: swampland.time.com

Dow Chemical to open new research facility in U. Providence

So rural and sleepy over the years that you couldn't find a zip code for it, the 19-square-mile Upper Providence Township to this day is served by four separate post offices - Oaks, Collegeville, Royersford, and Phoenixville.

The postal-route system may not have modernized out there in what was the Montgomery County sticks, but the economy certainly has.

On Wednesday, Dow Chemical Co. chief executive Andrew Liveris and Gov. Corbett are scheduled to hold a news conference in Upper Providence announcing the official opening of Dow's new 800-employee Philadelphia-area research center there.

The new center is the latest evolution for Dow Chemical after purchasing Philadelphia's Rohm & Haas in 2009 for about $15 billion.

Dow, one of the nation's largest chemical companies, is seeking to transform itself into a higher-margin specialty chemical company from a low-margin bulk-commodity chemical giant - with the former Rohm & Haas, which commercialized acrylic paints and Plexiglas, forming the core of this transformation.

Dow is leasing 800,000 square feet of a Pfizer Inc. pharma complex for the new research facility. Pfizer retained about one million square feet for its own businesses.

Dow will relocate 800 employees from Rohm & Haas' "heritage" labs in Spring House, a facility of nine buildings 15 miles away in Lower Gwynedd.

Over time, according to officials, Dow could boost Philadelphia-area research staff to more than 1,000. The capacity in the new labs is 1,300 employees.

Dow has signed a 50-year lease on the Pfizer space and the center is expected to be fully operational by the end of next year.

Dow's plans for the Philadelphia area will be clearer after a presentation by Liveris on Wednesday - his first public appearance in the region. The company has designated Philadelphia as the headquarters of its Advanced Materials business, with the administrative offices on the top floors of the landmark Rohm & Haas building on Independence Mall.

To shorten the geographic and cultural distance between corporate headquarters in rural Michigan and Philadelphia, Dow Chemical runs a daily corporate jet shuttle between the two cities. The jet seats 40 and on Wednesdays brings executives or managers from Midland to Philadelphia and returns them to Michigan on the same day.

Howard Ungerleider, a Midland-based executive, has relocated to Philadelphia to run the Advanced Materials businesses that accounted for 20 percent of Dow Chemical's revenue in 2012, or $11.4 billion out of a total Dow sales of $56.8 billion.

Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory filings show that Advanced Materials' businesses hold 43 percent of Dow's patents in the United States, or 1,590, and 41 percent of Dow's foreign patents, or 6,440.

Advanced Materials reports its sales and earnings through two Dow Chemical segments: electronics and functional materials, and coatings and infrastructure solutions.

Electronics segment revenue fell to $4.5 billion in 2012 from $4.6 billion in 2011. Coatings and infrastructure solutions revenue fell to $6.9 billion from $7.2 billion over the same two years. Part of the decline in revenue was attributed to lower material costs - resulting in lower prices. The company also noted continued "weak end-market conditions."

Spring House's fate is uncertain. A pioneering suburban research lab, it opened in 1963. Over the last decade, Spring House has attracted media attention because of a number of brain cancers among former or current scientists and employees.

In 2010, University of Minnesota researchers found that the rate of brain cancer at the site was twice as high as in the population at large, though they were unable to pinpoint a chemical culprit. The researchers counted up to 14 cases among 5,283 current or former employees.

"We heard they might demolish the buildings and have the site cleared," Larry Comunale, Lower Gwynedd township manager, said last week. Dow officials, he said, indicated that it would cost $100 million to modernize the complex.

"We know it's being marketed," Comunale said. "We're hopeful it stays for what it is zoned - a single-business office tenant."

As for the Upper Providence-area economy, it appears to have recovered from the financial crisis and Dow will give it a boost. The area is north of booming King of Prussia, and other major employers include Iron Mountain, SEI, Quest Diagnostics, and GlaxoSmithKline.

There's a new retail shopping plaza, the Providence Town Center, with a Wegmans and more than 30 other stores, restaurants, and service outlets.

"Most of these buildings are less than 30 years old and we have seen multiple turnover of large tenants," said C. Lee Milligan, assistant township manager in Upper Providence. The Pfizer research lab, he said, was "vacant a couple years and we did not shop it at all."

Source: Philly.com

Mummers' warehouse fire site to become condos

Mummers' warehouse fire site to become condos

The warehouse at 2nd and Wharton Streets which caught fire on December 10th of 2012, was also storage for lots of Mummer regalia. Though much of the Fralinger String Band's regalia was preserved, the warehouse itself was demolished. Now, ground has broken on the condos that will take its place.

The eleven four story townhomes slated for construction don't look particularly cohesive with the neighborhood architecture, but at least there are no street-front garages. The nouveau-boxy style seems to be taking root in Pennsport as well as Fishtown and the Graduate Hospital.
In Progress: 2nd and Wharton Street Project

Here is an interesting Blog containing additional information on the project that may be found here…

Source: Curbedphilly.com

Special Investigating Committee holds second hearing on Philly building collapse

For Philadelphia's 2nd hearing into this month's fatal building collapse, City Council is listening to business, union and construction officials. 

Pat Gillespie, who heads up the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, says demolition is an inherently dangerous business even when done correctly. He says some non-union contractors use untrained, uncertified workers who are afraid to push back when they see a problem.

"Through the protection of collective bargaining, a worker can speak up and tell the forman or tell the owner and tell the boss I'm not going to do that, that's unsafe, and not put his job in jeopardy," said Gillespie.

Councilman Jim Kenney says he's concerned about the construction business in the city.

"This building was clearly a disaster, it was large loss of life," said Kenney. "Every single day that opportunity presents itself in the construction industry in Philadelphia, because it is largely in most cases unmonitored."

Former head of the African American Chamber of Commerce Bruce Crawley says back in 2006 there was a training program for minority demolition contractors.

"Over the past seven years or so virtually all of the minority demolition contractors have been driven from that specialty," said Crawley.

Before the collapse, Philadelphia did not require demolition contractors to be certified in this specialty, it's moving in that direction now.

The Council Committee reviewing the collapse has three more hearings scheduled.

Source: newsworks.org

Private Sector Innovation in P3 Relationships: Construction companies offer plan to build freeway

PHOENIX (AP) — A consortium of construction companies wants to build a proposed Phoenix-area freeway, and the state said the unsolicited plan has cleared an initial review and could pave the way for a faster and less expensive model for road-building.

The Department of Transportation says the proposal isn't to build the $1.9 billion South Mountain Freeway as a toll route. Instead, the consortium would finance, design and build the freeway and then be paid back from a regional road fund.

The long-proposed freeway would provide an alternative to Interstate 10 across the Phoenix area.

The freeway has stirred controversy because of environmental concerns and because of opposition among some residents of the Gila River Indian Community to allowing the freeway to be built on reservation land.

ADOT said it now plans to study the proposed public-private partnership in more detail.

If the proposal passes the second phase, ADOT said it may use any part or the entire unsolicited proposal as the basis for a request for proposals seeking other firms to submit competitive proposals.

"Any public-private partnership proposal has to be aligned with the goals and interests of taxpayers," said ADOT Director John Halikowski. "We look for concepts that can be done better, faster and less expensively, providing real value for the traveling public."

The private companies are led by Kiewit Development Co., Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., Sundt Construction, Inc. and Parsons Corporation. The consortium is working under the name South Mountain Development Group.

Source: timesunion.com

New $37 million complex proposed for Allentown's former Colonial Theater site

The developer already building a hotel and office buildings in downtown Allentown now has plans for a $37 million project at the former Colonial Theater site.

J.B. Reilly plans to construct Three City Center -- a five-story office and retail building -- at the site of the former theater at 513-525 Hamilton St.

City Center Lehigh Valley, Reilly's company, plans to establish 110,000 square feet of office and retail space, with 8,500 square feet of stores on the ground floor and offices in the upper stories, as well as a 112-space underground parking garage.

The Allentown Commercial and Industrial Development Authority signed off on Reilly's plans today, although the county must still approve it because it owns a portion of the property.

City Center is already constructing a 180-room hotel attached to the hockey arena, as well as two office complexes in the downtown that will be seven and 11 stories each.

Between those projects and others, such as  a five-story apartment building on Seventh Street and an expanded Arts Walk, Reilly estimates City Center has invested more than $300 million into the city's downtown.

"I've been an investor for 25 years and I've never seen this level of energy and activity," Reilly said.

Construction on the new Colonial Theater site project is expected to begin by the end of this year and be completed by January 2015.

Reilly said he has already spoken to several prospective tenants but declined to identify any companies by name.

The other office buildings City Center is constructing -- the seven-story One City Center and 11-story Two City Center -- are "basically leased out," Reilly said, so interest in the space at the Colonial Theater site was high.

"We're working with a bunch of companies from out of state and in state," he said.

Blighted and long vacant, the former Colonial Theater was demolished in 2005. The theater closed in 1982 after 62 years in operation, and the Allentown Commercial and Industrial Development Authority took ownership of the property in 2003.

Reilly will purchase the property for $1 million, although he will pay more if the plans are expanded and additional floors are added to the building, said authority Executive Director Scott Unger.

The building will have entrances on Hamilton Street and the Arts Park, and Reilly said it will help create a lively pedestrian passageway between the park and the hockey arena.

City Center was one of two firms that responded to a request for proposals issued by the authority for the property.

The second firm was a partnership between Think Loud Development and Alvin H. Butz Inc., which wanted to build a 10- to 15-story complex, Unger said.

That proposal included apartments, a club, retail stores, artist studios and a digital marquee on the building's exterior, he said.

The authority rejected that proposal in favor of City Center's. Think Loud and Butz were seeking to buy the property for $800,000 up front and $400,000 later, Unger said.

Lehigh County owns about 23 percent of the Colonial Theater lot, so Lehigh County commissioners must approve the sale. They could vote on the matter as early as Aug. 7.

Source: lehighvalleylive.com

Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone reports more than $32 million in tax revenue for 2012

The Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority said today it took in more than $32 million in its first full year of tax revenue and has allocated funds to pay bond debt service on the PPL Center hockey arena and other developments.

The authority was able to pay this year’s net arena bond debt service of almost $10.4 million and also fund about $5 million of required surplus to protect arena bondholders, according Sara Hailstone, acting executive director of the authority and also Allentown’s director of community and economic development.

Hailstone also said the authority made debt payments for multiple projects by Center City Investment Corp. within the zone. City Center Investment Corp. is owned by developer J.B. Reilly, and is building several office, residential and mixed-use buildings collectively known as City Center Lehigh Valley.

The neighborhood improvement zone is a 127.3-acre special tax district that diverts state and local non-property taxes into downtown Allentown development. It has spurred a construction boom downtown, including Reilly's projects, new development at the Alvin Butz and Co. headquarters and renovation of some older buildings along Hamilton Street.

“ANIZDA continues to hear from more and more private developers and businesses that are interested in investing in the NIZ,” Hailstone said. “The revitalization of downtown Allentown continues to gain momentum.”

Additional tax revenue amounts returned to the state, city, and Allentown School District from businesses within the zone will be determined within the next six months during a mandatory reconciliation required under the NIZ Act, according to a news release.

The legislation creating the zone was authored by state Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh and Northampton.

Seymour Traub, chairman of the zone authority's board, said revenues from the zone will only get higher.

“ANIZDA expects that the tax revenues generated from the NIZ will be greater in 2013 as the greater portion of construction of the arena occurs, and existing businesses grow from the benefits of the new downtown activity,” Traub said.

Under the law, business owners within the zone don’t pay extra taxes, but they are required to file forms with the city and state annually each January 30th to avoid a penalty. The forms are used to report the taxes that businesses in the zone already pay and report to state and local taxing bodies. 

The authority's board oversees and approves projects within the zone, and also hired consultants to help businesses file their tax forms correctly.

Source: lehighvalleylive.com

Allentown School Board oks payment agreement from old Adelaide Mill developer

The Allentown School District Board of Directors approved a resolution that will allow a developer to make payments in lieu of taxes contingent upon the old Adelaide Silk Mill receiving designation as a Keystone Opportunity Zone by a 6-2 vote Thursday night.

Directors Scott Armstrong and David Zimmerman dissented. Director Joanne Jackson was absent.

Almost from the start the approval proved contentious as directors Armstrong and Zimmerman grilled Todd Collins, business development manager for the City of Allentown, about the zoning of the property and its proposed use.

"It represents an important development opportunity for the city for some time now," Collins noted in his opening remarks. "Its current condition continues to deteriorate and is not being used at its highest and best use."

He added the property is also in a 100-year flood plain, also proving challenging to any potential residential developer.

Situated at the corner of Linden Street and American Parkway, the proposed $20-$25 million residential development would consistent primarily of about 150 loft-style apartments, half of which would be one-bedroom. The other half would be split between two-bedroom units and studio apartments.

The mill will be totally renovated and provide higher-end amenities, according to documents filed with the district. The target market for the apartments will include young professionals, empty nesters, local medical workers, couples and renters by choice.

In addition a commercial component at the ground floor would be leased to retail and office tenants and would target a fresh food market, child and adult day care centers, a coffee shop, dry cleaner and other small and local type of businesses and neighborhood organizations.

In an effort to entice approval, developer Borko Milosev agreed to pay 110 percent of the real property taxes payable to the district during Thursday night's meeting.

One man who was not impressed was Armstrong, who didn't so much question Collins as interrogate him.

"This structure not only is in a flood plain, it's also in a high crime area isn't it?" Armstrong asked.

"I personally don't know the crime statistics," Collins responded.

"There's no parking there either," Armstrong said. "It's really not a desirable location for the affluent to live. It's right on the American Parkway. It's in an industrial area. It isn't zoned residential. We're taking property that is zoned business industrial and turning it over to residential."

Armstrong said the city is running out of land for business use, not residential use.

Zimmerman raised concerns about parking and an overabundance of residential property development in the city.

"Where are the people going to come from who are going to move into these apartments?" he asked.

He then spoke directly to Milosev.

"I admire what you're doing," Zimmerman said. "I would love to see it happen. That's not my concern. I'm not a developer. I'm a school board director. I'm concerned about the financial strength of the Allentown School District. And everybody who talks about these residential units always seems to minimize there will only be a few families, if any, with children. Knowing Allentown as I do I know there is a lot of children and I would expect that trend to continue."

Source: wfmz.com

AREA LABOR DISPUTE: Sheet Metal, Local#19 / Christian Street

As reported on Sheet Metal LLU#19’s Facebook Page, 12^th. & Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA

AREA LABOR DISPUTE: Sheet Metal, Local#19 / GreenePointe Co.

As reported on Sheet Metal LLU#19’s Facebook Page, 12^th. & Federal Street, Philadelphia, PA

Top Contractors [2013 Giants 300 Report]

Congratulations to Turner Construction for making #1 on the BDC Top Contractors [2013 Giants 300 Report] and to Structure Tone that comes in at #9. 

The top 100 of this list defines the who’s who in construction in the Philadelphia metropolitan marketplace and further reinforces the quality of this regions constructors and workforce.  

Rank	Company	2012 Total Revenue ($)
1	Turner Corporation, The	$9,084,870,000
2	Fluor	$4,268,290,500
3	Skanska USA	$4,076,092,814
4	PCL Construction Enterprises	$3,981,419,164
5	Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The	$3,699,782,771
6	Clark Group	$3,563,246,719
7	Balfour Beatty	$3,453,790,847
8	Gilbane	$3,083,529,000
9	Structure Tone	$2,947,433,000
10	McCarthy Holdings	$2,546,000,000
11	DPR Construction	$2,433,623,211
12	Tutor Perini Corporation	$2,400,667,992
13	Lend Lease	$2,373,097,623
14	Hoffman Construction	$2,260,000,000
15	Mortenson Construction	$2,214,750,000
16	Hensel Phelps	$2,074,730,000
17	JE Dunn Construction	$2,028,105,317
18	Brasfield & Gorrie	$2,003,628,131
19	Walsh Group, The	$1,914,425,595
20	Swinerton Builders	$1,508,442,027
21	Suffolk Construction	$1,450,327,024
22	Manhattan Construction	$1,337,689,000
23	Walbridge	$1,291,050,000
24	Jacobs Engineering Group	$1,186,700,000
25	Holder Construction	$1,154,000,000
26	Yates Cos., The	$1,145,200,000
27	Flintco	$1,075,224,000
28	Austin Commercial	$1,030,694,473
29	Hunt Construction Group	$979,000,000
30	Pepper Construction Group	$937,510,000
31	Clayco	$872,000,000
32	HITT Contracting	$831,458,166
33	James G Davis Construction	$801,206,000
34	Messer Construction	$779,902,253
35	Weitz Co., The	$757,643,000
36	Consigli Construction	$728,363,271
37	Barton Malow	$722,956,304
37	Shawmut Design and Construction	$680,300,000
39	Robins & Morton	$661,400,000
40	Ryan Companies US	$642,953,549
41	CORE Construction Group	$640,585,620
42	Layton Construction	$618,500,000
43	Boldt Company, The	$618,312,186
44	Power Construction	$584,000,000
45	B. L. Harbert International	$576,664,050
46	McShane Cos., The	$569,561,025
47	Haskell	$524,443,617
48	Kraus-Anderson Construction	$522,000,000
49	Sundt Construction	$517,252,383
50	Kitchell	$515,550,000
51	EMJ	$502,000,000
52	Bernards	$494,300,000
53	Choate Construction	$488,332,038
54	McGough	$484,000,000
55	Gray	$483,802,256
56	Hoar Construction	$469,828,000
57	ECC	$435,765,708
58	C.W. Driver	$425,729,421
59	W. M. Jordan Co.	$393,691,281
60	Rodgers Builders	$388,207,000
61	O'Neil Industries/W.E. O'Neil	$377,589,976
62	Alberici Constructors	$359,796,122
63	James McHugh Construction	$341,407,521
64	Clancy & Theys Construction	$300,730,000
65	Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors	$277,054,179
66	Weis Builders	$276,980,000
67	Batson-Cook	$275,597,000
68	HBE	$265,500,000
69	Bette Companies, The	$243,000,000
70	LPCiminelli	$241,071,128
71	Linbeck Group	$241,000,000
72	E.W. Howell	$237,677,000
73	Paric	$223,200,000
74	Harkins Builders	$220,900,000
75	Coakley & Williams Construction	$209,314,983
76	Doster Construction	$209,019,086
77	Hunt Companies	$203,894,965
78	Graycor	$203,707,723
79	Absher Construction	$186,290,000
80	IMC Construction	$173,600,000
81	KBE Building Corporation	$169,556,522
82	Science Applications International Corp.	$168,290,328
83	Summit Contracting Group	$150,000,000
84	S. M. Wilson & Co.	$133,623,959
85	New South Construction	$129,000,000
86	Carlson Design Construct	$128,000,000
87	Burns & McDonnell	$122,860,000
88	CG Schmidt	$107,000,000
89	Douglas Company, The	$90,267,091
90	Wight & Co.	$85,022,000
91	URS Corp.	$81,987,272
92	Bomel Construction	$80,000,000
93	Stalco Construction	$59,690,000
94	Astorino	$40,325,000
95	Heery International	$38,175,000
96	Allen & Shariff	$27,500,000
97	SSOE Group	$27,469,179
98	Epstein	$18,818,000
99	Modular Genius	$18,500,000
100	Eaton Energy Solutions	$17,767,839
101	S/L/A/M Collaborative, The	$15,768,000
102	ThermalTech Engineering	$11,100,000
103	KCI Technologies	$10,000,000
104	Jones Lang LaSalle	$8,862,000
105	HNTB Archtecture	$8,637,469
106	Zak Companies	$6,223,888
107	Arup	$6,170,405
108	Rolf Jensen & Associates	$6,000,000
109	Dewberry	$5,424,264
110	Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates	$5,000,000
111	Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber	$4,900,000
112	Degenkolb Engineers	$4,432,238
113	BRPH	$3,800,000
114	Aon Fire Protection Engineering	$2,500,000
115	CTA Architects Engineers	$2,308,283
116	Merrick & Co.	$2,002,000
117	Davis, Bowen & Friedel	$1,775,841
118	RDH Interests	$481,417
119	IBI Group	$250,000

See the whole list and more here…