Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Why Philly's new buildings come wrapped in glass and retail



Glass creates transparency, and that's why Jeffrey Brown, the developer behind the 17-story Bridge building in Old City, wanted to use so much of it. Brown also doubled the width of the sidewalk so his retailers would have maximum exposure.

When completed this spring, Bridge  at 205 Race St. will feature 14,000 square feet of retail wrapped around the building, all visible through 16-foot-high, floor-to-ceiling glass.

“Ground-floor retail presents the connection between the building and the fabric of the community in Old City,” said Brown, of Brown/Hill Development in Huntingdon Valley. “Retail makes the building inviting to the people walking around it.”

CARPENTERS JOINT APPRENTICE COMMITTEE: 2017 APPRENTICE TEST INFORMATION



APPRENTICESHIP APPLICATION AND TESTING

Applications for apprenticeship will be accepted for the following trades: Carpenter, Mill/Cabinetmaker, Millwright, Wharf & Dock Builder, Resilient Floor Layer, Lather and  Drapery Worker.

Applicants must apply in person on one of the following dates: February 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, Saturday, February 18, and February 21, 22 and 23, 2017, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. only. The test day is Saturday, March 18, 2017. The test time will be given when you apply. The address is the Carpenters  Training Facility, 10501 Decatur Road, Philadelphia, PA   19154.

For the rest of the information and a link to the Carpenter’s JATC site, go here….

Disowned by their union, Lawrence County jail workers face new policies



Lawrence County jail corrections officers and cooks will have a new set of personnnel standards, now that they are non-union employees.

Some are to their benefit. For example, they will have four extra holidays per year, and the number of their vacation days may be more to their liking.

But they will have to dip into their paychecks to come up with 5 percent of the cost of their health care premiums.

The Lawrence County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a list of personnel policy changes for the jail, which include the employees switching over to the county's health insurance plan under Blue Cross and Blue Shield and contributing to their coverage.

County administrator James Gagliano said the changeover in health care will mean a savings of about $25,000 to $30,000 a year to the county. The workers previously were covered under a different health care plan provided under their labor union, Construction and General Laborers Union Local 964.

However, the labor union management on Jan. 18 notified the 47 members of the jail's bargaining unit that after more than 40 years of representing them, the union was disowning them and the employees no longer would have a bargaining unit at the jail.

Setting what county officials believe is a statewide precedent, the union sent letters to the employees and to the prison board, notifying them of its disassociation from the jail workers. The union's decision affects 44 full-time corrections officers and three full-time cooks, and came as a surprise to the county commissioners and members of the county prison board.

The primary reason cited by the labor union in its letter to the workers was a growing mistrust between the bargaining unit members and the union's management.

The policy changes approved Tuesday go hand in hand with other proposed changes that will be detailed at a special meeting of the county salary board, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Friday, according to County Controller David Gettings.

Gettings, who also is the county prison board president, told the commissioners that the jail worker policy changes are in light of the union's action. He and Warden Brian Covert and the county's special labor counsel, Michael A. Palombo, worked together on the policy revisions, so the county can "effectively and efficiently run the jail."

The jail employees no longer are covered under a bargaining agreement. Their previous pact had expired Dec. 31 and they were in the process of negotiating a new contract. The jail workers recently had rejected the most recent offer of the county for a bargaining agreement, which included acceptance of the county's health care plan. Gettings said the jail workers wages and other policy matters concerning wages are among items for consideration at Friday's salary board meeting.

The health care plan change will go into effect March 1, Gagliano said.

The new policy changes are:

•Effective this week, all corrections officers shall begin the bidding process for shifts — midnight, daylight or afternoon — beginning with the most senior full-time officer and ending with the least senior full-timer.

•Beginning Monday, a work schedule rotation will consist of a 7-6-7-hour and a 7-7-6-hour rotation to provide equalization for all employees.

•For calculating overtime, only time worked will be considered. The following leaves will not be considered as time worked: personal or sick days, vacation or non-working holidays. Gettings noted that under labor laws, employees are ineligible for overtime unless they have worked 40 regular hours.

•Shift differential no longer will be calculated, meaning employees no longer will be paid extra for working certain shifts.

•Holiday pay will be paid as straight time. If an employee works on a holiday, the pay will be at time and a half. The employees will receive four additional holidays than they received under the contract. The four additional are Good Friday, the day after Christmas, Flag Day and the day after Thanksgiving. Gettings noted that most of the changes make things consisted with all other non-union county government employees. Other holidays are New Year's Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Martin Luther King Day, Easter, Labor Day, Veteran's Day and Christmas.

•Vacation policy states that all vacation days must be scheduled by April 1. Those days not scheduled by then will be scheduled by management. No changes will be allowed after vacations are scheduled. Any that need to be rescheduled because of exceeding the daily maximum must be resubmitted within 24 hours.

•The number of vacation days per employee are: six days for those having worked between six months and a year; 12 days for those having worked one through 7 years; 18 days for those having worked after the seventh year, through 14 years; and 20 days for those who worked after the 14th year or longer.

•Part-time corrections officers are authorized to work no more than 40 hours per week. Gettings noted that part-timers work intermittently.

•All employees must become enrolled in the county health care plan and will be provided coverage as necessary. Each correction officer and cook will be responsible for 5 percent of the cost of his or her health care premium.

Gagliano pointed out that the shift change and some of the other requirements will help ensure adequate staffing at the jail, while there may be a slight savings in overtime costs.

"The jail runs 24 hours a day," he said. "You have to provide the staffing."

"What's really being done here is to try to make it consistent with all of the non-union personnel," he said.

The county through the changes is hoping to realize some savings in addition to the health care, Gagliano said, adding that the jail comprises 26 to 27 percent of the county's general fund budget each year.

"That's a big bite," he said, adding that the majority of that expense is wages and benefits of employees. Between those costs and the cost of health care for inmates — the jail must provide health care to inmates while incarcerated — plus groceries and meals, that's 80 percent of the jail budget, Gagliano said. Other expenses there include maintenance and utilities and supplies.

With $500 million to spend, Council and Kenney administration clash over terms of Rebuild



It was a dramatic few months in City Hall, as City Council weighed Mayor Kenney’s proposed tax on sugary drinks.

But that was only the first act.

As the second begins, tensions are already building.

Up next is a debate over the mechanics of Rebuild, a $500 million overhaul of the city’s parks, recreation centers, and libraries that the soda tax will in part fund.

Lone bidder approved for costly Scudder Falls bridge-replacement work



The $396 million bid by Trumbull Corp. of Pittsburgh, the only general contractor willing to replace the free I-95 Scudder Falls bridge with a twin toll bridge under conditions set by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, was accepted by the commission at its meeting in New Hope today.

The commission had hoped to build the bridge for $300 million to $325 million. Two nonunion general contractors told the Inquirer the felt they were discouraged from bidding because the commission is requiring a Project Labor Agreement binding builders to work with unions in case of work disputes.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Land Bank revises targets in 2017 strategic plan



We are seeing first hand why the land bank may not be as efficient as it could be,” Aviva Kapust, executive director of the Village of Arts and Humanities, told the Philadelphia Land Bank board in a public hearing on January 5. “Two days ago, we were informed that two of our properties in the middle of the art park, two of those privately-owned tax delinquent parcels which were meant to not be on the Sheriff's Sale list were mistakenly added to it. And they were purchased.”

Trump $137.5B infrastructure projects list includes Phila. bridges



The Trump administration reportedly has put together preliminary lists of 50 targeted infrastructure projects, with investment in bridges on Interstate-95 in Philadelphia mentioned as part of the roughly $137.5 billion worth of spending, according to a McClatchy report.

The document notes "15 bridges on I-95, Philadelphia" are part of the possible infrastructure plans, though it is unclear whether these projects are already underway. The report indicates PennDOT would be the authority, and also says the status of engineering and permitting is "in progress." No specific bridges are mentioned. The report describes them as "structurally deficient."

Corcoran to retire from waterfront organization



Tom Corcoran, who was appointed as the first president of the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. when it was formed in 2009, has decided to retire.

Corcoran told the organization’s board that he intends to step down on June 30.

Joe Forkin, who has served as executive vice president for development and operations at the DRWC, will assume the role of president effect July 1.

3 suburban counties to get piece of $82M investment in water infrastructure projects



Three suburban Philadelphia counties are among the 12 municipalities around the state to receive a piece of the $81.9 million investment in water infrastructure systems.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday Montgomery County received a $10 million grant dedicated to the Horsham Water and Sewer Authority.

The funds are intended to aid Horsham residents impacted by chemical run-off from the former Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove. At least one nearby homeowner has filed a lawsuit against the Navy over water contamination. The Governor's Office said the $10 million will be used to install new water distribution lines and other connections for Horsham neighbors with private wells that have been contaminated. The funds will also be put towards treatment systems for five existing drinking water wells.

Toll Bros. shrugs off call for Jewelers Row preservation in condo plan



Developer Toll Bros. has cast aside calls to preserve at least parts of the aged buildings on Center City’s Jewelers Row, where it plans a luxury condo tower, proposing instead a contemporary design with traditional flourishes.

The Horsham-based company’s latest design for the project calls for a 29-story, 115-unit building with a new brick facade rising over the venerable Sansom Street shopping enclave, according to plans presented Tuesday night to the Washington Square West Civic Association, a neighborhood group.

A more contemporary-looking alternative Sansom Street facade, with more expansive windows and less brick, also was presented.

The plans’ release comes as Toll Bros. continues to face resistance from preservationists over the demolition of five Jewelers Row buildings from the 18th and early 19th centuries, which the nearly $100 million 702 Sansom Street project would replace.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Jail employees suddenly without a union when Laborers Union Local 964 walks away.



A local labor union has dropped the Lawrence County jail's bargaining unit.

David Gettings, newly elected president of the Lawrence County Prison Board, said Thursday that all of the prison board members and the three commissioners received letters dated Wednesday from Construction and General Laborers Union Local 964, saying that it no longer will represent the 46 jail employees, "effective immediately."

As far as the attorneys representing the county know, such an action is unprecedented anywhere — where a labor union refuses to no longer represent a bargaining unit, Gettings said. "We are in uncharted waters."

High bid inflates I-95 plan for toll bridge at Scudder Falls




The folks who run the patched-up I-95 bridge that carries 60,000 cars, trucks, and buses a day above the Delaware River at Scudder Falls for free had figured on paying up to $325 million to replace the 58-year-old, four-lane connection, plus aging exits in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with a six-lane toll bridge, stronger supports, and gentler curves by 2021.

Dozens of builders - including general contractors such as Driscoll Construction Corp., Tutor Perini Corp., and China Construction of America - have scrutinized the 1,800 items in Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission's plan, complete with hiring goals for "disadvantaged" contractors and protections for short-nosed sturgeon, brown bats, and lamp mussels living under the span.

Friday, January 20, 2017

Kinsley Construction awarded $29M science center project



The Wyomissing office of York Township-based Kinsley Construction Inc. has been awarded a $29 million contract to build a new science center at Ursinus College in Montgomery County.

The 42,500-square-foot, three-story Innovation and Discovery Center will be built at the academic center of the Ursinus campus in Collegeville, connecting two existing buildings.

The project will bring together policy, entrepreneurship and science under one roof and serve about 1,600 undergraduate students. It will house the Parlee Center for Science and the Common Good and the U-Imagine Center for Integrative and Entrepreneurial Studies.

The facility is slated for completion in June 2018, according to Kinsley, the midstate's largest general contractor.

The liberal arts college campus is about 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Rowan to debut $134.2M in new additions, facilities as rapid growth continues



The new $63.2 million home of Rowan University’s William G. Rohrer College of Business will officially open its doors Wednesday, marking the completion of yet another large-scale project that’s rapidly changing the face of the Glassboro university.

While students got a look at the 98,300 square-foot building Tuesday, the first day of classes for the spring semester, a Wednesday dedication ceremony will bring out school and elected officials to the new Business Hall.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Developer gets permit for residential building at Society Hill Acme site



The Acme Markets store on Fifth Street between Spruce and Pine in Society Hill will close when its lease expires in about two years, according to Philadelphia developer Alterra Property Group, which plans a residential building at the supermarket site.

Leo Addimando, Alterra managing partner, said in an email Tuesday that negotiations to extend the grocery store's lease foundered late last year, prompting the developer to move forward with its plan for an apartment or condominium building on the property.

A conditional zoning permit issued last week allows for the market building's demolition and the construction of a 53-foot-high structure with 65 dwelling units on its second through fifth floors, a well as 43 underground parking spaces.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

When tax abatements expire, property values don't suffer, study shows



Philadelphia's current housing boom is certainly attributable to the 10-year tax abatement, yet the very mention of it can lead to complaints that the abatement favors the very rich - both buyers and developers.

The luxury 500 Walnut building, scheduled to be finished early in 2017, includes one penthouse that is said to have sold for $17.85 million.

Real estate agents and developers don't see it that way.

In fact, at a fall meeting of the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia, members not only vowed to support the tax abatement but also advocated that it be expanded.

Monday, January 16, 2017

More retail coming to Camden's South Broadway?



Stores, offices, and restaurants may soon appear on a mostly vacant block in downtown Camden, resurrecting a retail corridor that vanished years ago.

A sign on the fence of an empty lot on South Broadway between Berkley and Clinton Streets, in Camden, N.J., January 12, 2017.

The Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden Board of Governors has approached city and county officials about buying a series of parcels on South Broadway with the goal of attracting lunchtime spots and other services for residents and the neighborhood's daytime workers. The site between Berkley and Clinton Streets sits across from the KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy and is several blocks from Cooper University Hospital and the area where Rutgers is building a "health sciences" campus that includes a Joint Health Sciences Center and related buildings.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Contract talks growing tense at CCP



Mayor Kenney's new appointees have taken their seats on the Community College of Philadelphia's board of trustees - and hot seats, they are.

The contract between the college and the union representing full- and part-time professors as well as janitors, secretaries, and other employees expired in August, and union members are voicing their dissatisfaction with the college's proposals, including increased health costs and a move to have them teach five courses a semester instead of four for a $7,000 boost in base pay.

Faculty yelled out "contract, contract" when college president Donald "Guy" Generals addressed faculty at a meeting this week.

Without a raise since '11, Chester Upland teachers reject latest contract offer



Years-long gridlock between teachers and management at one of Pennsylvania's most financially challenged school districts continues.

This week, teachers at Chester Upland School District in Delaware County rejected a proposed contract. Union president Michele Paulick said while members want a deal, they are willing to hold out for the right one.

"The members haven't seen a change in their salary since 2011. So, you imagine our frustration," she said. "But it wasn't a tentative agreement our membership could live with."

Breaking the curse of Rittenhouse Square's most coveted building site



If there is a cursed building site in Philadelphia, the grassy lot near 19th and Walnut is it. A small movie theater on the property went up in flames in 1994. Despite an enviable address overlooking Rittenhouse Square, bordered by some of the priciest real estate in the city, the one-acre parcel has defied development ever since.

That is not for want of trying. Every few years, a new owner would trot out a fresh proposal, only to be caught in the undertow of market downturns or buffeted by local preferences. At one point, Mayor Ed Rendell insisted the site was perfect for parking and tried to ram through a 500-car garage. An ambitious Irish developer later swooped in, paid a record $37 million for the land, and promised to bring in a celebrity designer. He went bust soon after.

Movie theater planned for revamped Gallery mall, city records show




A permit application filed with Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections for work at the Gallery at Market East shopping mall refer to a “cinema tenant” as being part of the property’s redevelopment plans.

Center City hasn’t had a movie theater specializing in mainstream films, as the Gallery cinema would likely be, since the closure of the Sameric Theatre (previously the Boyd) in 2002, said local movie-house historian Howard Haas.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Chester Upland teachers reject contract offer




Chester Upland teachers have overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer from the school district that would have given veteran educators smaller raises than less experienced staffers and, for the first time, required union members to pay for health insurance.

Michele Paulick, president of the 234-member Chester Upland Education Association, said teachers voted, 123-54, on Monday to reject the three-year pact. She said she was surveying members "to see what needs to be changed in order for them to accept it."

Delta's Trainer, Delaware County, refinery posts loss, but the airline expects $100 million profit in 2017



Delta Air Lines' refinery in Trainer, Delaware County, posted a $42 million loss in the three months ended Dec. 31, and a $125 million loss for all of 2016.

Delta, the first U.S. airline to report earnings for the latest quarter on Thursday, downplayed the loss and said the refining industry is cyclical.

Posh health club to take over Macy's building in Suburban Square as Ardmore evolves




At the Macy’s building in Ardmore’s Suburban Square, the push-ups won’t be in the lingerie section anymore.

Shuttered by the troubled department-store chain early last year, the late 1920s building is being retrofitted into what will be one of the first Pennsylvania locations for the expanding upscale health-club operator Life Time Fitness Inc.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

PennDOT gives $9.3M to 13 projects in Philadelphia region



PennDOT announced the award of $33 million in federal grants to fund 51 transportation projects primarily aimed at initiatives improving pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.

Southeastern Pennsylvania won 13 of those federal Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grants, totaling $9.3 million to extend trails, build sidewalks, and upgrade bike lanes. PennDOT gave four Philadelphia projects a total of $2.8 million.

DuPont to spend $200M to upgrade Wilmington facility, create incubator



Delaware-based DuPont will spend $200 million modernizing its century old research facility including updates that will create an incubator for third-party science companies, multiple media outlets report.

Created in 1903, the Experimental Station sits on 150 acres and is the birthplace of many noteworthy DuPont products – like nylon, the first-ever fully synthetic fiber and neoprene, the world's first synthetic rubber, according to the company website.

New boutique hotel, the Study, opens in University City



University City's newest hotel, the 212-guest-room Study, has begun taking reservations this week as part of a "soft opening," its owner and developer, New York-based Hospitality 3 LLC, said in a release.

The 145,000-square-foot, 10-story boutique hotel, built on land leased from Drexel University at the corner of 33rd and Chestnut Streets, is Hospitality 3's second Study property, after a location at the Yale University campus in Connecticut.

The Study at University City was designed by Philadelphia architecture studio Digsau. Its restaurant, called C0-op, is led by locally based chef Craig Russell, according to the release.

Source: Philly.com