Posted: 4:17 pm Wed, May 16, 2012 By BurlGilyard Tags: Mall of America

The Mall of America is planning to build an addition on the north side of the complex in Bloomington, between the Sears and Nordstrom stores. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

Owners of the Mall of America in Bloomington have been touting a Phase II expansion almost since the day the mall opened nearly 20 years ago. But now it appears that the plans will unfold piece by piece, rather than in a single large expansion of the mall.

Mall executives have plans for $200 million to $225 million addition on the malls north side, which will add another hotel, medical office space and more retail space.

This is part of the Phase II development Radisson Blu was part of Phase II, said Kurt Hagen, senior vice president of development with Triple Five Worldwide, the Edmonton, Alberta-based owner of the mall. The 500-room Radisson Blu hotel is under construction on the malls south side and slated to open in March 2013.

The latest expansion plans will combine retail, hotel and office space into a single building with two towers. The retail space will be on the lower three levels. Plans call for adding 135,000 square feet of retail space, about 140,000 square feet of medical office space and an as-yet-undetermined number of hotel rooms.

In 2009, the Rochester-based Mayo Clinic announced that it had signed a letter of intent for inclusion in the malls second phase. But no deal has been finalized. On Wednesday, a representative of the Mayo Clinic could not be reached for comment.

We are hopeful that Mayo would be the anchor of that [medical] office building, but we anticipate there will be other tenants in that office building, Hagen said. We think its a great fit.

Hagen said the retail mix for the space will emerge after the hotel and medical office plans take shape.

We think these would be higher-end retail tenants, Hagen said.

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Mall of America plans hotel/medical/retail addition

COLUMBIA, S.C., May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CMARK International, Inc. (CMIT.PK), a global provider of facility and logistic support services for government and commercial institutions, issued a shareholder letter.

Dear Valued CMARK International, Inc. Shareholders,

As we approach the second half of 2012, it is with great pleasure that I write this letter to share some recent corporate developments with you and thank you for your continued support, loyalty and belief in us through the years.

There have been significant changes for the better in the last year and you will find a summary of these developments but most of which should give you some immediate insight into the substantial progress we are making.

We have successfully achieved an up-listing on the pink sheets to Pink Current Information with a goal this year to become Fully Reporting. This was our first priority and commitment to you, our valued shareholders, to achieve this, so you have the transparency you deserve when evaluating your continued investment in CMARK.

Secondly, and equally important, we have made significant strides with our senior lender in overall debt restructure and fully completed in December of 2011 a complex conversion of approximately 80% of our debt to favorable equity, thereby reducing the senior debt on the balance sheet from over $11 million to $2.5 million. This has made many of those involved in the Company, much more comfortable in continuing a business association with CMARK overall.

Our senior lender also confirmed its long-term support by offering a working capital loan of $500,000 with favorable terms allowing us to execute on major business development activities and complete work in progress.

Operationally, I have personally negotiated with several of our top vendors for better net terms, freeing up some working capital for necessary human capital preservation and other vital ops issues. These relationships are now on solid footing.

Further to my personal operations management process we have reduced overhead over the past three years by approximately 70% including the consolidation of various physical office locations into one corporate office. As a function of this we have eliminated a lot of redundancy in those various offices, significantly reduced the costs of infrastructure and streamlined the corporate staffing accordingly to effective and efficient levels.

In our highly competent sales and marketing department, we have significantly narrowed our focus on certain product groups providing a more efficient marketing and sales effort, along with more concentrated engineering and design oversight. This has had a major impact on our team who are now thriving in this carefully cultured work environment! Additionally, we have substantially increased efforts in alternative energy projects, and our private brands offerings in food service equipment and furnishings.

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CMARK International, Inc. Has Issued a Shareholder Letter

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

Name of Product: Toilet and Cabinet Locks

Units: About 183,000 toilet locks and 685,000 cabinet locks

Importer: Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG) Inc., of Columbus, Ind.

Hazard: Young children can unexpectedly disengage the toilet locks and gain access to water in the toilet, posing the risk of drowning. The cabinet locks are being recalled because young children can disengage the lock, posing the risk of injury from dangerous or unsafe items stored in the cabinet.

Incidents/Injuries: DJG has received 110 reports of toilet locks that did not adequately secure the lid, including eight reports of children, under the age of two, who were able to disengage or break the lock. In addition, DJG has received 278 reports of cabinet locks that did not adequately secure the cabinet, including 71 reports of children between the ages of eight months and five years old who were able to disengage the cabinet locks. In one of the reported incidents, a 13-month-old boy swallowed small, toxic beads from a craft kit. The child was admitted to the hospital, observed overnight and released the next day.

Description: This recall involves Safety 1st Sure Fit toilet locks with model numbers 48003 and 48103. The toilet lock is attached to the tank behind the lid and is intended to prevent a childs access to the toilet bowl. This recall also involves Safety 1st cabinet slide locks with model numbers 12013 and 12014. The cabinet slide lock is attached to cabinet knobs or handles to prevent access to the contents of the cabinet. Model numbers can be found on the back of the locks.

Sold at: Bed, Bath and Beyond, Burlington Coat Factory, Great Beginnings, Home Depot, Target and Walmart from January 2005 through April 2010 for between $8 and $20 for the toilet locks, and from January 2000 through March 2009 for between $2 and $11 for the cabinet locks. Amazon.com sold both locks through April 2012.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately remove the recalled locks and contact DJG for a free replacement lock of a different model. When removing the recalled locks, consumers are urged to immediately store dangerous items out of reach of children and to prevent unsupervised access to bathrooms.

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Safety 1st Toilet and Cabinet Locks Recalled Due to Lock Failure; Children Can Gain Unintended Access to Water and ...

Robert Foley is considered the most prolific killer on Kentucky's death row after being convicted of six murders. Now, he needs a hip replacement, leading to heated debate among prison officials, hospitals, and surgeons about how to balance the needs of inmate care with the need for security and $56,000 price tag on the procedure.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. A condemned killer's fight to receive surgery for agonizing hip pain pushed Kentucky officials into an uncomfortable debate over security, politics and even the possibility of inviting scorn from Fox News pundits.

Emails and memos obtained by The Associated Press show corrections officials struggling for a year to reconcile their duty to provide medical care with the political ramifications of spending tens of thousands of dollars for surgery on a man they plan to execute. A key problem would turn out to be security issues that led several hospitals to balk at treating inmate Robert Foley, who still hasn't had the surgery.

"Hip replacement for an inmate who has exhausted all appeals and will soon be executed?" Kentucky State Penitentiary warden Phil Parker wrote in an email on Nov. 22, 2010. "I can see this making Fox News on a slow news day, maybe even on a busy news day. In fact, I bet (Fox News host Bill O'Reilly) would love to put this in his `Pinheads' commentary. Just a thought to consider before it goes too much further."

Prison officials also made contingency plans to call off the surgery if Gov. Steve Beshear set an execution date, and they considered whether to consult with him about the procedure.

"I think it is that important and all this may have political consequences," Parker wrote a year before Beshear's re-election. Ultimately, Beshear's spokeswoman said he wasn't contacted about it.

Foley, 55, was convicted of killing six people in eastern Kentucky in 1989 and 1991, making him the most prolific killer on the state's death row. His status as an extremely dangerous prisoner was a key factor in the state's difficulty finding a surgeon and hospital, according to the documents obtained through a public records request and a lawsuit filed by Foley.

Foley still hasn't had the surgery, with Parker lamenting in an email they had no options after an exhaustive search.

State officials deny that politics played a role, and there's no evidence in the documents that political considerations prevented the surgery.

A spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice Cabinet which oversees corrections and law enforcement declined to comment because of the pending lawsuit.

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Robert Foley's Death Row Hip Replacement Debated Among Kentucky Prison Officials

More than 800,000 Safety 1st cabinet locks and toilet locks that are intended to keep children from danger are being recalled after hundreds of parents reported that they don't work, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced.

This comes just two months after the same company recalled 900,000 Safety 1st Push N Snap cabinet locks, also due to lock failure.

Dorel Juvenile Group, the parent company of Safety 1st, says it received 278 reports that cabinet locks either didn't properly secure cabinets and another 110 reports that the toilet locks didn't work right. Among those were reports of dozens of small children who were able to open the supposedly childproof locks.

Generally, companies are required by federal law to immediately report product failures with the potential to lead to serious injury. Consumers can report potential product defects on the government's SaferProducts.gov site.

The products being recalled are:

The recalled products were made in China and sold at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Burlington Coat Factory, Great Beginnings, Home Depot, Target and Walmart. The toilet locks were sold from January 2005 through April 2010 for between $8 and $20 and the cabinet locks were sold between January 2000 through March 2009 for between $2 and $11. The CPSC said Amazon.com sold both locks through April 2012.

If you have any of the recalled products, you are asked to remove them - and any dangerous contents from the cabinets - and contact Dorel to get replacement locks.

For more information, call Dorel at (877) 416-8105 weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time or go to their website.

Link:
Safety 1st cabinet locks and toilet locks recalled after hundreds fail

ANTIOCH, Ill., May 17, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Antioch Hotel & Suites is celebrating the completion of a major renovation, remodeling and rebranding as a full-service BEST WESTERN PLUS hotel. The Lake County community is invited from 6 -- 9 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22nd for complimentary hotel tours, a 6:30 p.m. ribbon cutting with Antioch Mayor Lawrence Hanson, as well as live music and complimentary hors d'oeuvres.

The Antioch Hotel & Suites Best Western Plus is in the heart of Lake County, IL, overlooking Lake Antioch. It is in close proximity to Chain O' Lakes State Park, the Port of Blarney, and the area's other popular recreational facilities. It is less than a one hour drive from both downtown Chicago and Milwaukee.

The multi-million dollar renovation included all 68 guestrooms and suites as well as the hotel's lobby, the indoor/outdoor pool and Jacuzzi, the addition of a state-of-the-art exercise room, and new mixed-use meeting and banquet space located off of the lobby. The hotel also added Antioch's only lakefront lounge, Fox's, with its fabulous 2,000 square foot outdoor patio, large all-season fireplace and fiber optic lighting.

The 2500-square foot indoor heated swimming pool & Jacuzzi tub has also been completely remodeled with expanded outdoor sundecks that can be cross-utilized as function space. Inside the hotel, the new decor is sophisticated and welcoming incorporating natural stone and warm colors. Guests are greeted in the lobby by a beautiful grand porcelain surround fireplace and seating area. The new breakfast bar opens to the lobby and creates a comfortable place to enjoy breakfast or a meal throughout the day. Each of the guestrooms and suites includes new 37 inch flat screen TVs, new plush pillow-top bedding, updated bathrooms, contemporary furnishings including a work and seating area, and an in-room coffee maker, mini-fridge and microwave.

The BEST WESTERN PLUS Antioch Hotel & Suites offers a wide array of amenities, including a complimentary hot breakfast, complimentary wireless access, local telephone calls and long distance access, a business center, and an onsite laundry.

The BEST WESTERN PLUS Antioch Suites & Hotels is located at 350 West Highway 173, Antioch, IL . It is owned by New Midwest Hotels Antioch, LLC. For information and reservations visit: http://www.AntiochSuites.com or call: 847.395.3606.

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The Best Western Plus Antioch Hotel & Suites Completes Re-Branding and Renovation

A new tower is taking shape on Hamiltons industrial skyline.

ArcelorMittal Dofascos $120-million No. 6 galvanizing line will eventually be 65 metres tall and will be clad in high-strength steel produced in the plant.

It is state of the art. It has all the bells and whistles in terms of fuel efficiency and it will allow us to create a greater product range, said Tony Valeri, vice-president of corporate communications and public affairs.

No. 6, which is replacing No. 2 galvanizing line, will enable the development and production of a range of advanced high-strength steels that are in high demand in the auto sector, said Valeri.

Its the key steel product to (original equipment manufacturer) car designers because it adds less vehicle weight but improved safety, said Valeri.

We want to be the supplier of choice. Its a high-value product.

The flat sheets of steel are dipped in zinc, travel up one side of the tower to be annealed (a heating process that brings hardness and consistency to the coated steel) and then travel down the other side of the tower to be cooled, strengthened and levelled.

The tower design will improve the quality, consistency and reliability of the steel, said Valeri.

The tower controls the final thickness of the coating on the steel and also cools the steel strip in a controlled manner. A vertical tower is more efficient compared to a horizontal arrangement, the company said.

The project is about halfway completed. The line is fully designed, the majority of engineering is done and most of the equipment has been manufactured. What remains is equipment installation, commissioning and startup, the company said.

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Tower taking shape at Hamilton steelmaker

The Making of 127 Hobson Street: A Great Mixed Use Build

First comes the site preparation, followed by foundation construction, then framing. Installation of windows and doors is important, then add roofing, siding, and some electrical and plumbing. Builders add the insulation, drywall, underlayment, and trim. As the electrical and plumbing is completed, painting, carpet, and flooring is added. The builders will hook up the water main and sewer. Residents and tenants will start to arrive bringing with them cafes, hotels, day care centres, shops and convenience stores.

And there it is: The making of a lovely eight level building sitting in central city Auckland. 127 Hobson Street is an example of one of the best mixed used buildings in Auckland, said Hamish Firth, principal of Mt Hobson Group. I think it was the combination of efficient, smart council members that worked to approve the project, the award winning architect, an engineering-focused builder, and a seasoned developer that brought it together. When you have a team of professionals that work well together, you end up with a great build. Auckland needs more of these. Firth and team obtained the necessary permits for the old three story building.

127 Hobson Street had sat vacant for eight years until it became a passion project taken on by Dennis Parbhu, a developer from Wellington with a reputation of taking nothings and turning them into somethings. He doesnt sell his builds, but instead adds them to his personal real estate portfolio. In fact, his newest addition to Auckland includes his own 2 level penthouse that was designed for his family. Everything I do, I do it to keep. It doesnt make sense to sell. Theres no money in it.

Created by Clearwater Construction and designed by Ashton Mitchell Architecture, The Hobson Street mixed use build includes a sunny child care centre; a high end, two story penthouse; a picturesque window caf complete with hardwood floors; a convenience and grocery store; seven expansive apartments with great ocean and city views; a secure basement car park; and 44 fully furnished hotel residence rooms currently occupied by Quest Hotel.

This mixed used building was a build for leisure, entertainment, retail and residence. The design aimed to create spaces that correspond to the contemporary society that surrounds it, while catering to a heritage style that is loved throughout New Zealand. The Hobson Street team started with an old building that looked dated and ended with a building that accommodates a growing population while maintaining the character and style that was started on Hobson Street generations ago.

Of course the usual battles had to be fought. Parbhu took on the banks that dont seem to want to lend to anyone right now, and battled a water and electric company that changed charges, added costs, and demanded a list of their own costly requirements. Its getting incredibly expensive to build, said Parbhu.

But in the end, he admits that its been well worth the challenge. Now stands a building that Clearwater, Ashton Mitchell and Dennis Parbhu can add to their ever growing portfolios of design, engineering, and builds. As for Parbhu, hes not actively working on a new project right now. I say that Im not going to do another one, but then I find one to do, he says with a smile.

ENDS

The rest is here:
The Making of 127 Hobson Street: A Great Mixed Use Build

Margins matter. The more Beacon Roofing Supply (Nasdaq: BECN) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That's why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I'm looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Beacon Roofing Supply's competitive position could be.

Here's the current margin snapshot for Beacon Roofing Supply over the trailing 12 months: Gross margin is 23.5%, while operating margin is 6.7% and net margin is 3.9%.

Unfortunately, a look at the most recent numbers doesn't tell us much about where Beacon Roofing Supply has been, or where it's going. A company with rising gross and operating margins often fuels its growth by increasing demand for its products. If it sells more units while keeping costs in check, its profitability increases. Conversely, a company with gross margins that inch downward over time is often losing out to competition, and possibly engaging in a race to the bottom on prices. If it can't make up for this problem by cutting costs -- and most companies can't -- then both the business and its shares face a decidedly bleak outlook.

Of course, over the short term, the kind of economic shocks we recently experienced can drastically affect a company's profitability. That's why I like to look at five fiscal years' worth of margins, along with the results for the trailing 12 months, the last fiscal year, and last fiscal quarter (LFQ). You can't always reach a hard conclusion about your company's health, but you can better understand what to expect, and what to watch.

Here's the margin picture for Beacon Roofing Supply over the past few years.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Because of seasonality in some businesses, the numbers for the last period on the right -- the TTM figures -- aren't always comparable to the FY results preceding them. To compare quarterly margins to their prior-year levels, consult this chart.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FQ = fiscal quarter.

Here's how the stats break down:

With recent TTM operating margins exceeding historical averages, Beacon Roofing Supply looks like it is doing fine.

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Beacon Roofing Supply's Margin Hot Streak Continues

WESTMINSTER, CO--(Marketwire -05/17/12)- The 3C Network (www.3C.com), a technology and business services company serving America's major roofing contractors, has announced the addition of Piers Dormeyer as Vice President of Sales for the Eastern United States. He joins Richard Goering, Vice President of Sales for the western states.

Demand for 3C Network's cloud-based technology, which includes roofing management software integrated with aerial measurement, inspection, estimating and management tools, is growing as roofing contractors are pressed to keep pace with construction and increasingly complex codes and regulations.

Dormeyer comes from Polyglass USA in New York, where he served as Regional Sales Manager responsible for all direct and independent sales representatives over the Eastern and Midwestern parts of the United States as well as Canada, Central America and the Caribbean markets. Dormeyer's experience also includes sales positions with GAF-Elk. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, Gainesville.

3C Network, short for Consumers, Contractors and Carrier Network, is a full-service technology and business solutions provider supporting roofing contractors in North America. 3C Network formed to be a catalyst among roofing contractors to better serve consumers while improving roofing contractor productivity and profitability. Technology solutions include free cloud-based roofing management software that integrates aerial CAD measurement, inspection and estimating tools and a dashboard to manage margins and more. 3C Network's no-hassle limited warranties on all materials and workmanship and online training and certification are some of the most popular business solutions offered. For more information about 3C Network, visit http://www.3C.com or call 855-3C-MEMBER or 855-326-3623.

Documents and/or Photos available for this release:

Press Release

To view supporting documents and/or photos, go to http://www.enr-corp.com/pressroom and enter Release ID: 330035

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3C Network Addresses Roofing Contractors' Demand for High-Performance Technology and Business Solutions