When Pa. Convention Center ejected the Carpenters, Stagehands won

If union carpenters were the losers when their leaders declined to sign a new customer satisfaction agreement at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in May 2014, union stagehands were the winners.

It was IATSE Local 8 along with the Laborers union that picked up the 150,000 to 200,000 man hours that the carpenters lost.

The carpenters "offered to pay our legal bills" if the stagehands didn't sign, stagehands' union leader Michael Barnes testified Tuesday morning at a Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearing.

Barnes declined and said his union would sign the agreement and would not join carpenters on the picket line.

Construction Maintenance Plus Inc. alleged to have not paid contributions

PHILADELPHIA – Several labor union group funds allege that a New Jersey employer failed to make timely payments.

Steamfitters Union, Local 420 Welfare Fund; Steamfitters Union, Local 420 Pension Fund; Steamfitters Union, Local 420 Supplemental Retirement Plan; et al. filed a complaint on Feb. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Construction Maintenance Plus Inc. and Charles Leedy citing the Employee Retirement Income Security Fund.

Carpenters union finishes testimony to PLRB on ejection from Convention Center

Was the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority retaliating against the carpenters’ union when it distributed its work to other unions after the carpenters' leaders didn't sign a new agreement under a tight deadline in May 2014?

Oh, if only it were that simple.

Whatever happens with this week’s Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearings, the case will linger much longer. The most compelling issue will be whether the PLRB has jurisdiction. That hinges on whether the authority, a public entity, is a joint employer of union workers, including carpenters, when they install and dismantle shows at the center.

Blighted Beury Building may be the next North Broad Street comeback tale

The long-blighted Beury Building at Broad Street and Erie Avenue could be reborn as an apartment house with downstairs shops and offices, under a revitalization plan now gathering steam.

Artist´s rendering of rehabbed Beury Building at Boad Street and Erie Avenue, with new annex under consideration for adjacent lot.

Philadelphia-based Shift Capital is readying crews to rid the building of asbestos and other environmental hazards as it closes in on a package of redevelopment aid and low-income-housing tax credits to help pay for most of the $33 million project.

Kenney budget puts $90 million toward Penn's Landing park capping I-95

Funding for a large new waterfront park at Penn’s Landing will be tucked into Mayor Jim Kenney’s budget address this Thursday.

The mayor plans to announce a $90 million city commitment to capping I-95 and building an 11-acre expanse of greenery between Walnut and Chestnut streets. The project is meant to connect Center City with the waterfront. The administration expects this public project—estimated at $225 million—to spur adjacent private investment on a far larger scale.

“We have never met our potential when it comes to waterfront development,” said Mayor Kenney in an interview with PlanPhilly. “A lot of it has to do with a lot of the waterfront parcels being privately owned. But just concentrating on the central waterfront that we control, we’ve never maximized our potential. This will go a long way in doing that.”

The 2007 Civic Vision for the Central Delaware, a process led by PennPraxis*, was a first step toward that goal. It envisioned a new public park at Penn’s Landing and the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) fleshed out the idea in the Master Plan for the Central Delaware, adopted by the city in 2012. An intensive public engagement process and an initial engineering study refined the design, developed by the landscape architecture firm Hargreaves and Associates and were released in 2014.

Philadelphia to offer free rent to lure suburban companies: Report

Up to 25 suburban companies willing to move at least 20 of their employees into the city could receive thousands of dollars in free rent, according to a new report.

On Monday, the city announced it would reveal details of a "new incentive program" that "aims to attract suburban companies and other enterprises outside of Philadelphia to set up satellite offices in the city" on Tuesday.

Carpenters back at Convention Center? Hearing starts Monday

David A. Karcher, executive director of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, could see the costs mounting as workers set up his group's convention at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in 2002.

“I watched two guys take three hours to put a tablecloth on a six-foot table,” Karcher said Friday, describing the hassles and ballooning costs he experienced. “When I went over to question them, they told me to mind my own business.”

Penn plans $90M expansion at Chester County Hospital

Chester County Hospital, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, is scheduled to start a $90 million, 276,000-square-foot expansion this spring, the largest in its history, Penn said.

The expansion will include 14 modern operating rooms, 10 emergency department rooms, four labs for catheterization and other procedures, and up to 96 inpatient rooms, pending approvals. The expansion is expected to take several years to complete and will give the West Chester hospital a new front entrance, Penn said.

Philadelpia City Council mulls upping fees for permits & licenses

On Thursday Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez introduced a bill to retool the Department of Licenses & Inspections fee regimen. The bill would modestly increase many fees across the board, ranging from street vendor permits to the licenses required to install heating systems.

Quiñones-Sánchez says that in recent years the city reduced the overall number of licenses and permits, in an attempt to scrape antiquated regulations. Her bill is merely meant to bring the fee amounts for the remaining licenses up-to-date.

“This is a reform of everything,” says Quiñones-Sanchez. “It was actually a suggestion of the private sector that there were some fees that had not been touched in many years that the department should look to increase. We’ve shared it with the development constituency because it’s an area they told us we should look at for potential revenue.”

South Jersey Gas pipeline gets OK

Regulators in New Jersey have given the green light to South Jersey gas to construct a 22-mile pipeline that will run through the federally protected Pinelands preserve.

South Jersey Gas said the pipeline, which will run underground in Cumberland and Cape May counties, will serve more than 140,000 customers in Cape May and Atlantic counties.

PHL, other Pa. airports split $5.9M in state funding

The Philadelphia International Airport and three other Pennsylvania airports have received a combined total of more than $5.9 million from the state. The funds are earmarked for facility upgrades.

PHL Airport is amid an evolution to make it an even more competitive and attractive airport. Among recent and completed changes is the $160 million worth of upgrades to Terminal F that now feature a new baggage claim facility and a food court area that seats more people, among other changes.

Guards become first Sands casino workers with union contract

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) — Security officers at a Pennsylvania casino have become the first to ratify a union contract under billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

Security personnel at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem on Wednesday agreed to a three-year deal with Las Vegas Sands Corp., The (Allentown) Morning Call reported.

The officers are the only union members at Las Vegas Sands, which has more than 50,000 employees worldwide at casinos in Las Vegas, Singapore and Macau. They are part of the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America.

OFFICE MARKET: Why Philadelphia's West Market corridor will stay strong

A few years ago, a lot of people were pointing to 2017-18 as the time when the Central Business District (CBD) office market might start to soften up, providing relief to tenants who might be looking for space. A “perfect storm” of factors all indicated that vacancy should be picking up this year and into 2018. That really hasn’t happened. We’ll explain why.

First let’s summarize the tenant friendly future we were contemplating back in 2014-2015; then we’ll discuss how five unexpected things helped change the market we were expecting.

Big sale of land between Old City and NoLibs offers chance to make a mark

For sale: a major stake in what may be central Philadelphia’s next big real-estate hot spot.

Property investor Mark Rubin is selling a portfolio of aged industrial and office buildings covering 7.75 acres — an area bigger than Rittenhouse Square — north of eastern Center City, situated between the booming neighborhoods of Old City and Northern Liberties.

The eight-property assemblage, which sprawls east of Ninth Street along Callowhill and Spring Garden Streets, includes a large tract that already has zoning permissions for a pair of residential high-rises designed by architect Cecil Baker and a historic former bank building that was home to one of restaurateur Stephen Starr’s earlier ventures.

Holland Construction hires new VP

York County-based Holland Construction has hired Jeremy Haines as its vice president of preconstruction.

Haines, who has more than 28 years of construction industry experience, will oversee the Penn Township company's estimating group and all operations prior to starting construction on new projects.

"With design-build, integrated project delivery and other alternative delivery methods becoming more prevalent, Jeremy is a great addition to our team with his background and leadership know-how," said Joe Holland, the company's president and CEO.

Holland is a full-service construction firm that was founded in 1907. The company serves a wide range of health care, office, industrial, retail, food service and residential clients throughout the East Coast.

Source: Central Penn Business Journal

Betting on A.C.'s rebirth, Blatstein spends $6M on more A.C. properties

Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein continues to put money behind his view that Atlantic City is poised for an upswing, reportedly spending $6 million on several properties adjacent to his Showboat hotel.

The purchase includes roughly three acres that sit between the Showboat, which he bought for $23 million last year, and the Glenn Straub-owned and shuttered TEN, formerly called Revel, according to the Press of Atlantic City.

Stadium study on hold; opposition continues: Temple’s Project Delivery Group has not worked on the stadium “for months.”

The university’s study into the feasibility of building an on-campus football stadium has been put on hold and administrators could not say when — or if — it would resume, The Temple News has learned.

The feasibility study, for which the university had budgeted $1.25 million, was supposed to examine possible designs of a stadium as well as its impact on traffic and the environment.

A representative from the Ohio-based architecture firm Moody Nolan, which began the study nearly 11 months ago, said it is “on hold,” meaning that all data collection has ceased. The university said through a spokesperson on Monday that it is still continuing its “community outreach efforts.”

Smylie Times building in Far Northeast sells

A two-structure complex along Roosevelt Boulevard, which includes what has been known for decades as the Smylie Times building, has sold for $17 million.

George Comfort & Sons Inc. sold the complex to Harrison Street Real Estate Capital of Chicago. The transaction was arranged by Ben Appel, Philip Mahler, Evan Kovac and Eric Anton of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler.

Construction firm chosen for historic Manor House project

Jerdon Construction of South Whitehall Township will transform the Historic Manor House Inn into the home of Molinari Oswald LLC, a Certified Public Accounting firm.

The project, announced in December, did not have a construction firm until now.

The building dates to the 1740s, when it was established as a colonial tavern at 4508 Old Bethlehem Pike in Upper Saucon Township. According to a news release, the tavern was known as the Bald Eagle Inn, The Eagle Hotel in the early 1900s, Inn of the Unicorn from 1972-1985 and The Manor House, a French restaurant that operated from 1985 until it closed in 2015.

Harley-Davidson to build Lehigh Valley location

If final approvals are met, the owner of a Harley-Davidson dealership will build a new location for his business in Whitehall Township.

The spot will be next to the planned Lidl grocery store at the intersection with MacArthur and Eberhardt roads, said Bob Eggstein, owner and president of Keystone Harley-Davidson in Parryville, Carbon County.

He said the Whitehall motorcycle dealership will be a relocation of his Parryville spot. He said he is not certain if he will also keep open that location.

Le Méridien going after millennials with $1M in renovations

The Le Méridien Philadelphia will get a million-dollar renovation — its first major update since it opened in 2010 — that will re-imagine the common and food-and-beverage areas, gearing the spaces toward the millennial traveler.

Millennials are an audience hotel brands have been targeting for some time now. This demographic has an annual spending power of $200 billion, with each U.S. millennial spending an average of $3,900 in 2015, according to a report by Oracle Hospitality.

The 202-room Le Méridien, which opened in May 2010, will undergo a $1 million to $1.5 million renovation — the scope of which includes a remodel of the common areas, including the entry vestibule, arrival zone and bar; and a transformation of the food-and-drink area into an all-day dining concept catered toward millennials who want to eat, drink and work at the same time.

Mariner East 2 pipeline work begins after Environmental Hearing Board judge rejects bid to block it

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP said Friday afternoon that it had begun building the contested Mariner East 2 pipeline, after a Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board judge earlier in the day rejected a request to block key state permits allowing its construction.

"Work has already started in several areas," Sunoco spokesman Jeff Shields said by email Friday.

Judge Bernard A. Labuskes Jr. on Friday turned down a request by three environmental groups to block permits issued Monday by the state Department of Environmental Protection that would allow Philadelphia-based Sunoco Logistics to start construction of a 306-mile underground segment of the pipeline to deliver Marcellus Shale propane to Marcus Hook.

Tourism group: Sports complex in Montgomery County could bring $100M in economic impact

A multiuse sports complex in Montgomery County could generate $100 million in local economic impact in its first five years, according to a study commissioned by a board that promotes tourism in the county.

No such facility is currently planned, and no money has been identified to pay for one. But the feasibility study, released Wednesday by the Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board, said the county has "ideal demographics and location" for a private complex.  Such an indoor-outdoor facility could attract up to 300 tournaments and events over five years, it concluded.

Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission borrows $430M to build new Scudder Falls Bridge

The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission secured more than $430 million in bond money on Tuesday to finance the Scudder Falls Bridge replacement project. The structure carries Interstate 95 over the Delaware River between Lower Makefield and Ewing in Mercer County, New Jersey.

Skip Garlits, of Yardley, rides his bicycle under the part of the Scudder Falls Bridge that crosses over the Delaware Canal and its adjacent towpath in Lower Makefield on Wednesday, Feb.15, 2017. The bridge carries Interstate 95 over the Delaware River between Lower Makefield and Ewing in Mercer County, New Jersey.

The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission borrowed just more than $430 million during a bond sale this week to build a new, dual-span Scudder Falls Bridge to carry Interstate 95 back and forth between Lower Makefield and Ewing, New Jersey.

Main Line hospital plans $52.8 million emergency department expansion

Lankenau Medical Center unveiled plans Friday to spend $52.8 million to expand and enhance its emergency department.

The Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, hospital's emergency department, built to handle 35,000 patients, is currently seeing about 54,000 patients a year. Lankenau officials expect that number to increase to 73,000 by 2025.

The proposed expansion project, which will require township approval, is expected to be completed in early 2019.

Clean-room technicians at Micro-Clean in Hanover Township go on strike

About 30 union workers of a Lehigh Valley clean-room testing firm went on strike Thursday in a dispute over wages, benefits and working conditions that came about after they were unable to nail down a contract with the company over the last several months.

And Micro-Clean's clean-room technicians — 32 workers represented by Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 — were back on the picket line from about 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Friday, holding signs and getting honks from passing cars in front of the company's facility at 177 N. Commerce Way in Hanover Township, Northampton County.

Push underway to match Philly school students with apprentice opportunities

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney got together with the schools and the building trades to talk about how to provide more good-paying jobs to city students who are not college-bound. 

The meeting at City Hall was designed to make sure more city students enter union apprentice programs. Mayor Jim Kenney says it's an effort to help people find their American dream.

"One of our biggest problems as a city is our poverty rate," Kenney said, "and that poverty rate is directly related to the inability for people to get jobs that sustain families and buy homes and raise children and all the things our parents all wanted for us."

Mike Neill runs the apprenticeship program for the electricians union and is making a commitment to find more diverse recruits for the challenging training program.

"We have to sell them on what the end goal is and let them know this is a college, the same as going to college," Neill said. "My daughter is an architect. My son is a fourth-year apprentice. Their education is very similar."

An apprentice can make $57,000 a year after graduation.

Source: NewsWorks

Apartments, high-tech center coming to York's Northwest Triangle?

Plans for about 130 apartments, along with other possible residential and commercial development, are back on the table for York's vacant Northwest Triangle area.

And if the project is developed, it could sit alongside a new high-tech innovation district where, among other things, parts for robots could be manufactured.

Plans for both of these developments moved forward at a meeting Wednesday of York’s city Redevelopment Authority, which owns the vacant triangle region along the Codorus Creek, just northwest of downtown.

Telling year ahead as Center City housing market expects excess supply, moderating rents

This year will be a telling one for Center City’s housing market as 3,127 apartment units will be completed and put to a test the demand or lack of it for living in Philadelphia.

There are 4,167 apartments under construction in the city and the units that will be finished and available for rent this year represents a 71 percent increase over the total number that were completed last year, according to Center City District’s newest housing report.

Can the city's housing market survive if millennials head to the suburbs?

Report: 2017 Housing Report: Building on Optimism

In 2016, a record number of new residential units were brought to market for a growing downtown population, with 2,506 new units delivered in Greater Center City, a 15.5% increase over the previous high of 2,168. Of these, 73% (1,833 units) were rental apartments and 27% (673 units) were for-sale housing. Six large projects of 100 units or more account for 73% of all new apartments (1,331 units) completed in 2016. At the same time, 528 single-family homes and smaller multi-family developments spread across the neighborhoods that extend beyond the downtown core, north to Girard Avenue and south to Tasker Street.

Center City is benefitting from a national trend of shifting away from home ownership toward rentals, while shrinking household size also fuels demand for apartments. Density, walkability and convenient access to restaurants, retail, culture, and medical care are appealing to all ages and, particularly, to young adults and empty nesters. The fundamentals of the homeownership market likely will remain very strong, but some excess supply of new rental units coming in 2017 could cause rents to moderate and vacancy rates to rise in some existing apartment buildings.

Download the fill report by going here…

Source: Center City District

Surge of new apartments could tip central Philly into surplus, study finds

The surging number of rental apartment projects in and around Center City will likely result in a surplus that lifts vacancies and lowers rents, according to a report released Thursday by the Center City District business-improvement group.

A total of 3,127 new units are scheduled for delivery this year in an area largely bounded by Girard Avenue to the north and Tasker Street to the south, between the Schuylkill and the Delaware River, the report’s authors said.

Energy grid operator PJM to invest $1.5 billion in upgrading aging infrastructure

The operator of the power grid for 13 states including Pennsylvania and New Jersey will invest $1.5 billion to upgrade aging energy infrastructure across its territory, the organization announced Wednesday.

PJM Interconnection is an independent regional transmission organization that manages the high-voltage electric power system for 65 million people across the Eastern Seaboard and into the Midwest, including the major cities of Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Its board voted to spend the $1.5 billion necessary to upgrade electric transmission projects, both small and large, but the biggest project will address aging infrastructure elements in three New Jersey counties — Burlington, Mercer and Middlesex — and rebuild transmission lines. Some PSE&G lines and facilities in that corridor have reached 80 years of age, and are showing signs of wear, PJM said.

New developer takes on stalled project in downtown Hershey: Construction could begin this summer on mixed-use Hershey Towne Square

A stalled redevelopment project in the heart of downtown Hershey may soon be back on under a new owner with a new vision for a mixed-use complex that should be a central hub and spark a wave of reinvestment in Chocolatetown.

Wormleysburg-based RVG Management & Development Co., a company known for developing grocery-anchored shopping centers, office buildings and residential communities across the Mid-Atlantic, bought the former Hershey post office property at 169 W. Chocolate Ave. last year after the previous owner failed to restructure financing to continue the nearly five-acre project.

RVG stepped in during the restructuring effort to negotiate a buyout of the property because it saw a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to create a central gathering place in Hershey, said Steve Dayton, RVG's senior vice president of real estate.

"We want to bring new life and activity to the downtown," he said.

The property changed hands in October for $3.8 million, according to Dauphin County deed records.

Construction on the post office building, part of what was dubbed the Hershey Downtown Center, stopped in early 2016. The plan was to renovate the existing two-story limestone building and then build two additional structures that could house a mix of shops, restaurants, offices and personal-service businesses.

But the post office portion was never finished and the other buildings never started.

RVG has renamed the project the Hershey Towne Square. The new plan, designed by Lancaster-based Tono Architects, still includes renovating the post office building, but for use as a multi-tenant office building. A new multi-level public parking garage would be built next to that building.

At the front of the property, two multi-tenant buildings would be constructed along Chocolate Avenue. One would be a three-story, 82,689-square-foot mixed-use retail and residential building with 32 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The second would be a 12,900-square-foot single-story retail building.

RVG believes its plan brings a modern aesthetic to the downtown that will blend with Hershey's industrial past.

"This is a significant investment in this parcel. We believe in the real estate and the community," Dayton said.

The new owners also believe this project will "raise everybody's game" and drive new investments along Chocolate Avenue.

"I think you will see reinvestment up and down the corridor," Dayton said.

Ed Fetter, also a senior vice president of real estate for RVG, said everything would be built at the same time and not in phases, as was originally planned for the site.

He hopes the project will garner necessary approvals from Derry Township over the coming months, so construction can get underway this summer. If that happens, he expects buildings would be delivered by the beginning of 2018 and tenant fit-out work would follow.

RVG hasn't begun leasing spaces, but Fetter said the goal is to attract national and regional retailers and restaurants. The developer is looking to bring some new brand names to the midstate, he said. The goal is five restaurants for the site, most with outdoor seating.

The estimated $28 million project could then open by the spring or summer of 2018.

The township's design advisory board, which reviews proposals and make recommendations of appropriateness for various construction and property improvement activities within downtown Hershey, will review the design at its next meeting on Feb. 27.

From there, the plan would need to go through the township's planning commission and board of supervisors.

RVG also will be seeking tax-increment financing, a public-private partnership tool that involves all local taxing bodies, to help pay for the cost of the parking garage. The project will add about 500 parking spaces in the downtown, most of those in the parking garage. They will be free for the public to use.

A parking garage is needed in order to maximize density on the site, officials said.

Access points on the site would be signalized intersections at Ridge and Linden roads.

Bennett Williams Commercial is handling the leasing of the site.

Source: Central Penn Business Journal