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N.Y.C. Contractors Adopt Historic Project Safety Guidelines
The Building Trades Employers’ Association helps to map out new industrywide safety rules. Also, the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn gains more approvals.
Atlantic Yards Clears Hurdles
The nearly $4 billion Frank Gehry-designed Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn late last year gained approval from the Empire State Development Corporation and New York State’s Public Authorities Control Board, inching closer toward reality.
Under the plan, Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner Cos. will build an 18,000-seat basketball arena to serve as the home for the New Jersey Nets franchise as well as 15 buildings ranging from 184 to 511 ft in height, with the overall plan staying within 7.125 million sq ft. In it its latest version, the development’s size was cut by 8% and the cost lowered $200 million from a prior version announced last year.
The buildings would have 2,250 units of affordable housing, 4,500 residential rental units, and commercial, hotel, and retail space. The plan also calls for more than 8 acres of public open space on the site, which is confined mostly between Dean Street and Flatbush, Vanderbilt, and Atlantic avenues.
New York City and the state have committed $100 million each toward infrastructure improvements and sitework for the project.
In its latest report on the project, the state development corporation outlined the possible use of eminent domain, one of many concerns raised by community groups opposed to the project. According to the agency’s findings, 57 households, or 113 people, remain in occupancy on the “Project Site,” representing about 33% of all residential units, “with no agreement to vacate.”
In response, the development corporation has created a relocation program that will provide or pay for all moving expenses, real estate brokerage services, and a personal relocation consultant. In addition, the corporation will offer $5,000 per household to pay for expenses such as telephone hook-up, as well as “to compensate occupants for the inconvenience of having to move.”
Last October, a group of 10 people who refused to negotiate sales of their homes on the site filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s authority to use eminent domain for the project. The plaintiffs include Daniel Goldstein, founder of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, the project’s most outspoken opponent.
BTEA Firms Enact Safety Guidelines
In an historic industry move, New York contractors have enacted self-imposed site safety guidelines intended to protect workers and the public.
The 10-point Build Safe NYC program was originally announced at a 2005 safety conference by CEOs of the city’s largest contractors – Turner Construction, Bovis Lend Lease, Tishman Construction, Skanska USA Building, StructureTone, and Plaza Construction.
The Building Trades Employers’ Association, a New York-based group that represents 1,200 contractors, and the 56 affiliates of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, helped to develop the guidelines. It underwent an extensive year-long review by construction managers and public officials and includes the following guidelines:
• effectively implement the Build Safe NYC safety and health standards on building projects in New York City
• train all project managers and superintendents for implementation of environmental, health, and safety standards
• ensure that all workers on projects receive a Build Safe NYC orientation
• provide assistance and support to subcontractors in preparing project-specific safety and health plans and performing pre-task safety and health planning
• partner with union safety representatives
• create a safety and health advisory committee of industry organizations and agencies
• engage the design community to explore safety and sustainable design ideas
• establish and build a construction skill resource pool for citywide emergency and disaster response needs
• develop, implement, and share best practices with members of the construction community in New York and establish opportunities for participation in Build Safe NYC
• and create benchmark incident and inspection data comparisons of participating firms.
Xanadu Project Changes Ownership
The Xanadu development at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, N.J., has a new developer team after completion of a major recapitalization.
The $2.3 billion project is a joint venture with Colony Capital Acquisitions of Los Angeles as the managing partner, along with the Dune Real Estate Funds of New York, KanAm Group of Munich, Germany, and the Mills Corp. of Chevy Chase, Md.
Colony added $500 million to help complete the project, which was originally a $1.3 billion plan led by Mills. It stalled last year because of funding problems. Under the deal, Mills is unlikely to recoup its investment.
Construction began in 2005 and is slated to finish in 2008. Meadowlands Xanadu will have 2.2 million sq ft in five buildings offering shopping and activities in fashion, food, home, entertainment, children’s fare, and sports. Tenants with leases include Cabela’s, AEG Live, Muvico, Strike MX, Forever 21, and the Children’s Place. The project will be anchored by the Snow Dome, a 780-ft ski slope and lodge; Wannado City, a 60,000-sq-ft playroom; and Sky Venture, a simulated sky diving adventure.
Turner Construction of New York and Whiting Turner of Baltimore are the general contractors with Adamson Associates Architects of Mississauga, Ontario, as executive architect and Rockwell Architecture, Planning and Design of New York as design architect. |
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