Prevailing Wage Reform Introduced in PA Legislature: House Bill 1225

Short Title: An Act amending the act of August 15, 1961 (P.L.987, No.442), known as the Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage Act, further providing for applicability.

Prime Sponsor: Representative BLOOM

Last Action:  Referred to LABOR AND INDUSTRY, April 17, 2017 [House]

Memo:  Prevailing Wage Reform - The Competitive Wage Initiative (Previously HB 1095 of 2013-14 Session)

Printer's No :	1453*

Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly

 

County jail workers vote to join Teamsters

Lawrence County jail corrections officers and cooks voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to join the Teamsters union.

The 35-to-3 vote confirmed that the contingency of workers are ready to enter bargaining negotiations for a new contract under Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers Union Local 261.

The election was conducted by secret ballot in two shifts, morning and afternoon, in the commissioners meeting room of the courthouse. Members of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board facilitated the election. Jail workers marked the ballots privately inside an old-fashioned voting booth, then deposited them into a ballot box .

A.C. polercoaster gets $38.4M, to open in 2019

Atlantic City's long-talked about and first and only polercoaster is getting closer to being realized.

Wallack Holdings in August 2015 signed the lease for a one-acre pad of land on the 18-acre site of the former Sands Atlantic City casino-hotel with the goal of 350-foot polercoaster and drop tower hybrid attraction in the Shore town.

Union heat defers action on NCCo bidding rules

Under heavy pressure from a room full of local union laborers, New Castle County Council on Tuesday deferred loosening county bidding rules for those looking to win expensive public construction contracts.

The proposal's intent was to loosen requirements mandating firms conducting expensive public projects have apprentices. It was pitched as a way to save the county millions in construction costs and lead to more local work being done by Delaware firms.

In bid to defeat Sweeney, teachers’ union has no natural ally

New Jersey’s largest teachers’ union has made clear that it wants to oust Stephen Sweeney as president of the state Senate.

But the New Jersey Education Association’s options to replace him are dwindling. The deadline for candidates to apply to appear on the June primary ballot was April 3, and no Democrat challenged Sweeney for the party’s nomination.

Addiction treatment center operator bringing 200 jobs to the Main Line with new location

Recovery Centers of America’s is looking for a CEO to lead it latest addiction treatment center, which is expected to create 200 new jobs on the Main Line.

The King of Prussia company – formed in 2015 by Montgomery County-based real estate developer J. Brian O’Neill – expects to open a new 300-bed facility in Devon at the site of former Devon Manor nursing home.

The addiction treatment center will feature 250 rehabilitation and detox beds, and 42 sober living and outpatient beds within a 200,000 square-foot treatment campus, making it, according to the company, one of the largest drug and alcohol addiction treatment facilities in the United States.

Union takes issue with NCCo construction changes

New Castle County Council on Tuesday will debate whether to change controversial rules regarding who can win pricey, public construction contracts.

County Executive Matt Meyer said loosening rules that require contractors have apprentices can save millions by increasing competition for those who want to do big-ticket county jobs as well as lead to more work being done by Delaware firms.

"Our practice has shown that we are almost forced to hire out of state," Meyer said. "That is spending your tax dollar out of state for skills we have in the state."

$8M in tax credits go to renovation of former Bulova building in Lancaster

Pittsburgh developer Zamagias Properties has cleared another hurdle in its journey to renovate a long-vacant building in downtown Lancaster.

Local stakeholders gathered with leaders of Zamagias Monday afternoon to announce federal financial incentives for the renovation of the former Bulova building at 101 N. Queen St.

Community First Fund is allocating $8 million in New Markets Tax Credits to Zamagias for the $28.5 million mixed-use project, which involves renovating more than 150,000 square feet of space in the heart of downtown Lancaster.

Pennrose-led group chosen to develop sprawling city-owned site in Chinatown

A team led by developer Pennrose has been selected to build a new complex of dwelling units, offices, hotel rooms and shops on the largest remaining parcel of municipally owned land in Center City.

The Pennrose-led group was chosen largely on the strength of its proposed architecture and site plan for the 3.2-acre lot at Chinatown’s western edge, Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority executive director Gregory Heller said in an interview late Monday afternoon.

PHL Airport’s economic impact reaches new height

The Philadelphia International Airport has reached new heights in terms of the economic wallop it generates for the 11-county Philadelphia area, according to a new report that pegged the airport as "a center of significant direct economic activity."

The Philadelphia International Airport, or PHL, serves more than 30 million commercial passengers every year with about 500 daily flights to more than 120 national and international non-stop destinations.

More flights are added seemingly every month, including Alaska Airlines' upcoming flights to Los Angeles, and Frontier Airlines' flights to Puerto Rico.

Group buys former Rohm & Haas campus in MontCo, with plans for office-lab park

Horsham-based MRA Group has acquired defunct chemicals company Rohm & Haas’s former research and development campus in Montgomery County, with plans for an office and lab park at the site.

MRA said in a release Monday that it purchased the 133-acre Lower Gwynedd Township site in March from the Dow Co., which acquired Rohm & Haas in 2012.

The real estate group paid $10 million for the property, Stephen Marzullo, who represented Dow in the deal as senior vice president with commercial services firm CBRE, said in an interview.

Hunting Park retail center sells for more than $50M

Bakers Centre, a 236,719-square-foot shopping center that transformed a property where Tasty Baking Co. once churned out Krimpets, KandyKakes and Dreamies, has sold for $52.4 million.

Raider Hill Advisors, a private real estate investment and advisory firm located in New York, bought the property at 2800 Fox St. in Philadelphia with the intention of holding it over the long term, said Chris Munley, who, along with colleagues Michael DiCosimo and Jose Cruz of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, arranged the transaction. The seller was a partnership involving Metro Development Co., Carlino Commercial Development and U.S. Realty Associates Inc.

The dirt gathers rust: All over NYC, projects are in limbo

The dirt gathers rust: All over NYC, projects are in limbo: TRD Special Report: The site at 111 Washington Street was supposed to be Richard Ohebshalom’s entry into the big leagues. When his firm Pink Stone Cap

Jail workers to vote Tuesday on joining Teamsters

Workers at the Lawrence County jail are poised to vote Tuesday on joining a new labor union.

About 32 full-time and nine part-time corrections officers and five cooks comprise the workforce considering joining Teamsters Local 261, housed in Neshannock Township.

The workers will vote by secret ballot between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. and between 2 and 4 p.m., accommodating crews working different shifts. The vote will be facilitated by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board in the commissioners meeting room on the first floor of the courthouse.

Office building in Trevose sells for $13.2M

Red River Asset Management of New York in partnership with Advalurem Group and Lincoln Property Co. paid $13.2 million for 1150 Northbrook Drive, a 4-story, 107,724-square-foot office building in Trevose, Pa.

It bought the property, which was constructed in 2007, from Rubenstein Partners, a Philadelphia real estate firm. Jerry Kranzel of CBRE Inc. arranged the transaction.

Red River looks for value-add real estate opportunities and even though this building is not too old and about 85 percent occupied -— Gamasa and Bracket Global are tenants — there’s room for improvement, said Bruce Stern, managing principal of Red River. “What we want to do is take what we have now and make it better,” he said. “We want to take the excellent and make it superb.”

Brandywine Realty Trust sells Cherry Hill office park to N.Y. firm for $19M

Brandywine Realty Trust has sold the three-building Woodland Falls Corporate Park in Cherry Hill for $19 million.

The properties at 200, 210, and 220 Lake Drive East were purchased by Crown Properties Inc. of New York, Brandywine chief executive Jerry Sweeney said in an email on Thursday.

The buildings, containing an aggregate 215,465 square feet, were 93.3 percent leased when the sale closed on March 30, Radnor-based Brandywine said this week in a regulatory disclosure. Tenants at the site include AXA Advisors-affiliate Oak Financial Partners LLC and M&T Bank Corp.

Brandywine has been selling off properties seen as non-core assets as part of its focus on big projects in city centers, such as its work with Drexel University on the Schuylkill Yards master-planned development in University City.

 

Source: Philly.com

Developer pays $1.4M for S. Kensington site with plan for apartments, townhouses

A Philadelphia investor has acquired a 19,000-square-foot property in South Kensington after obtaining zoning permits for a 40-unit apartment building and 14 townhouses at the site.

Devan Roberts, who helped broker the deal as an associate director with KW Commercial in Center City, said $1.4 million was paid for the 1712-28 N. Second St. property this week.

Netanel Darmon of Marmon LLC identified himself as the buyer in an interview.

The project, which also would include 2,400 square feet of ground-floor retail space, was examined by Philadelphia’s Civic Design Review board in January, the final stage in its zoning-approval process. It would replace what is now an industrial building and empty lot.

 

Source: Philly.com

Target expands central Philly footprint with new store planned for NoLibs

Target Corp. is opening its biggest central Philadelphia store yet at the former Destination Maternity warehouse headquarters at Fifth and Spring Garden Streets, a heavily trafficked area for commuters to Center City and the growing neighborhoods that surround it.

The Minneapolis-based retailer said in a release Monday that it had signed a lease for an approximately 47,000-square-foot space at the building, with plans to open in July 2018.

The store will feature a grocery section, with fresh produce and grab-and-go items, as well as clothing, sporting goods, and beauty products, a pharmacy operated by CVS Health, and other offerings, Target said.

Live Nation on board to run N. Broad's 'Met' as concert venue

Entertainment company Live Nation is apparently nearing a deal to operate North Broad Street’s historic Metropolitan Opera House as a concert venue after its renovation by developer Eric Blumenfeld’s EB Realty Management Corp.

The illuminated 1930s-style signs identifying the venue as “The Met” were part of EB Realty’s plan to secure the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based concert operator as a tenant for the 4,000-person capacity theater, Blumenfeld told the Philadelphia Historical Commission’s architectural committee Tuesday in remarks reported by real estate blog Curbed Philly.