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New York Legislators Propose Wicks Law Changes
Changes negotiated by state leaders could affect 70% of public projects. Also, the NYPD plans a new academy complex in Queens.
Reactions Mixed to Proposed Wicks Law Reform
Public officials hailed – and some construction industry leaders frowned upon – a new measure that aims to reform New York’s 86-year-old Wicks Law. Unveiled by state leaders in June, the proposal aims to reduce the cost of construction on most public projects, but it would not affect larger-scale projects.
New York State’s top lawmakers agreed to revamp the law, which for years has been a heated topic of debate in Albany. The change is in the form of bills in the Assembly and Senate that leaders of both houses pledged to pass. But a split between Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, and Sen. Joseph Bruno, the Republican majority leader of the State Senate, stalled several compromise measures, including the Wicks proposal, late in the legislative session that ended in early summer, leaving them on the table for future action.
The agreement between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and leaders of the two chambers sets a higher monetary threshold for projects to fall under Wicks Law requirements, which mandates the issuing of four separate contracts for the major trades on publicly funded construction projects – typically general contracting, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing.
Originally enacted in 1921, the Wicks Law covers any public project costing more than $50,000 – a benchmark that was set in 1961 for state contracts and 1964 for local government contracts. With nearly all public projects coming in over that amount, many in the industry have blamed the law for driving up construction costs because it creates coordination difficulties among the major trades.
The new agreement will raise the cost threshold to $3 million downstate, $1.5 million in major suburban areas, and $500,000 upstate.
The changes will exempt about 70% of public projects from Wicks Law requirements and help save money for schools, local governments, and other public agencies, according to a statement from Spitzer. It also will allow contracting entities to avoid Wicks Law requirements through use of project labor agreements, unless the project is receiving federal dollars.
The hold-up in adopting the measure was good news to the General Building Contractors of New York State, an Associated General Contractors of America chapter that represents 180 union and nonunion contractors in the state. The GBC sent a “legislative alert” to its members contending that the changes would have a “significant negative impact” on the construction market.
While the GBC has generally supported Wicks Law reform, its alert contends that the proposed changes “will be worse than the status quo and not in the public interest.” It particularly warned about the proposed law’s provisions allowing a prequalification process for some public project bids and “a host of labor-friendly attachments” such as the PLA exemption, a prevailing wage requirement, and mandatory apprenticeship programs for projects valued at more than $3 million.
Joe Hogan, the GBC’s executive vice president, says that he fears the pre-qualification provision could lead to “Boss Tweed-era corruption” that limits competitive access to bids. He also says that the PLA, prevailing wage, and apprenticeship measures could negate any cost savings from the proposed reform as well as hurt minority- and women-owned contractors.
“This isn’t a Wicks Law bill,” he says. “It’s disguised as a Wicks Law bill, but by and large, it’s a construction contract and labor bill. We’ll have to see what we can do now.”
NYPD to Build Two New Facilities
A new complex in the College Point section of Queens will consolidate multiple facilities now serving the New York Police Academy onto one campus.
Meanwhile, the city is also selecting designers for a new 9-1-1 call center in the Bronx to act as a mirror image and backup of its current center in Brooklyn.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office and the New York Police Department narrowed eight possible locations for the new academy down to a 30-acre NYPD tow pound at 129-05 31st Ave. in Queens. The new complex will include facilities for civilians, recruits, and active officers, which are currently spread across the city.
The new campus, for which the city plans to allocate $1 billion under the mayor’s capital plan, will include instructional space, administrative offices, indoor shooting ranges, a tactical village, driver training grounds, vehicle maintenance facilities, K-9 facilities, and housing. The city expects to select a designer for the campus this year.
The city’s Department of Design and Construction will oversee construction of the project once the site goes through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, currently under way, and the city’s Environmental Quality Review. The agency also will select a construction manager, with work slated to break ground in late 2009.
The current police academy’s main building in the Gramercy Park section of
Manhattan was constructed 43 years ago for a police force half the size of the current department, according to Bloomberg’s office. The department’s firearms training facility is in the Bronx, while the emergency vehicle operations course is in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, the design and construction agency has also issued a Request for Proposals for the design of a new Public Safety Answering Center in the Bronx. The proposed 400,000-sq-ft building at the intersection of Pelham Parkway and Hutchinson River Parkway, estimated to cost $700 million, will house a redundant 9-1-1 call center for the NYPD and city fire department.
The new facility will be a mirror image of and act as a backup for PSAC I in Brooklyn, which receives 10 million calls a year. DDC plans to select a design consultant for the core and shell of the building this summer and start design work in the fall.
Construction on the new building will meet sustainable design and construction requirements in Local Law 86, which requires most city construction projects over $2 million to achieve the equivalent of silver-level certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program of the U.S. Green Building Council.
$187 Million High School in New Brunswick
Construction is slated to start this summer on a new $187.4 million school in New Brunswick, N.J., that will house 2,000 students. The school is expected to open in fall 2010.
The New Brunswick High School will combine three separate schools and replace the current high school, which will be converted into a middle school. The cost of the project includes land acquisition, demolition, and soil remediation on the 26-acre site off of Route 27, as well construction of the 407,000-sq-ft building, which will spread into four three-story “education pods” that connect at a central core.
Designed by Philadelphia-based Vitetta Architects, the facility will house 33 classrooms, 10 science labs, 18 resource classrooms, eight special-education rooms, six art rooms, and three music rooms. It will also house an auditorium, gymnasium, day care center, and indoor and outdoor athletic fields.
RBA Group of Morristown, N.J., is serving as civil engineer for the project, while PMK Group of Cranford, N.J., is serving as environmental consultant. Joseph Jingoli & Son of Lawrenceville, N.J., is the general contractor for the new school.
Work was slated to start this summer on the school, says Kevin McElroy, a spokesman for the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation. The schools agency is co-managing development of the new facility with the New Brunswick Development Corporation under a demonstration project initiative authorized by the state’s Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act.
The demonstration program aims to foster projects that allow schools to serve as community anchor through features such as gyms, playgrounds, or libraries accessible to both students and the community. The program further encourages an alignment with municipal redevelopment efforts to spur new housing and other projects.
The state has no plans to expand the demonstration school program, which it authorized for school projects in Camden, East Orange, Trenton, and Union City, in addition to New Brunswick.
Queens Family Justice Center Breaks Ground
Work recently began on New York City’s second Family Justice Center on 82nd Avenue and Queens Boulevard in the Kew Gardens section of Queens.
The project is being managed by the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services, with construction being led by Urban Group Ltd. of Queens. Once completed in spring 2008, the facility will serve residents of Queens County, where 45,500 incidents of domestic violence were reported last year in the borough of more than 2.2 million people.
“The name says it all – the Family Justice Center is about family, justice, and a center where victims of domestic violence can come and find the comprehensive services they need, all in one place,” says Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.
Construction of the $5 million, 16,000-sq-ft facility, designed by New York-based Perkins Eastman, is being funded by a combination of private donations and city dollars.
Some of the services that will be offered to walk-in clients include counseling, support groups, safety planning, and language interpretation.
New York City’s first Family Justice Center was created in downtown Brooklyn in 2005, and city officials say it has contributed to a 20% drop in the number of domestic violence incidents reported over the last four years in the borough.
| PROJECT SNAPSHOT |
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Trump Parc Stamford, Stamford
Owner: Trump Organization, New York; F.D. Rich Co., Stamford; Cappelli Enterprises, Valhalla
Scope: 34-story glass and cast stone building with 170 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units and duplex penthouses with wrap-around terraces on top two floors.
Cost: $160 million
Start/Finish: May 2007 to early 2009
Architect: Costas Kondylis and Partners, New York; Lessard Group, Vienna, Va.
Contractor: Cappelli Enterprises, Valhalla, N.Y. |
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