February 5, 2015, 8:34 PM Last updated: Thursday, February 5, 2015, 8:38 PM

Two weeks after a fast-moving blaze nearly destroyed an Edgewater apartment complex, a bill introduced in the Assembly on Thursday calls for a moratorium on new multi-family developments using the same lightweight wood construction while the state evaluates its safety.

The measure by Assemblyman Scott Rumana, R-Wayne, would put a moratorium of up to two years on the approval and construction of multiple-unit dwellings using light frame construction.

This event in Edgewater, this catastrophe that just happened, is I think one of those moments in time where we have everybodys attention, Rumana said. Now is when you can hopefully get some positive change that results from a very negative event.

The five-alarm blaze at the Avalon at Edgewater destroyed more than half of the 408-unit complex, shut schools and roadways, displaced nearby residents and revived long-standing issues in the firefighting community about lightweight wood construction a cheaper, faster and legal style of building common in New Jersey and elsewhere.

This type of construction is of particular concern when fire breaks out because of the potential for collapse and for materials to burn quickly.

The bill calls for the commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs to evaluate the safety of light frame construction in multiple-unit dwellings, focusing on the hazards it poses in the event of a fire. Code would be revised based on the findings, prohibiting such construction in certain cases if appropriate.

Officials have said the Edgewater complex had lightweight construction with truss-style roof framing. The proposed legislation, in part, defines light frame construction as any building method using metal-plate connected wood trusses or composite wood joists as floor or roof system structural elements.

Theres not going to be an immediate revision to the code moratoriums can be put in place rapidly, Rumana said. Its something that allows for us to stop any further expansion of what we all believe is a dangerous method of construction in multi-dwelling structures.

Rumana said he put the moratorium at two years so as not to leave it open-ended. He said if all interested parties come together trade unions, code officials, fire bureau officials, developers it could be wrapped up, on the outside, in six months.

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Bill is introduced in N.J. Assembly for freeze on lightweight wood construction

Fires damage construction site, police car

By Pat Reavy

February 5th, 2015 @ 6:50pm

OREM An apartment complex under construction and a Provo police car both burned within 15 minutes of each other early Thursday.

Investigators were still trying to determine if both fires were related, but were calling both incidents "suspicious."

The fires were the latest in a series of incidents believed to be arson-related that have plagued the Provo and Orem area since last spring.

About 2:45 a.m. a marked Provo police patrol car in the area of 400 South and west of State Street, that was parked on the street in front of the officer's house, caught fire. The fire started in the engine compartment and was contained to that area, according to Orem police.

About 15 minutes later, at 420 S. State, a large fire was reported at an apartment complex under construction. The complex was destroyed as well as a vacant building nearby. Total damage was estimated at $1.5 million, according to the Orem Fire Department.

Firefighters were able to protect occupied businesses nearby. No injuries were reported. At one point, about 30 firefighters from Orem and Provo were working the incident.

A power pole also caught fire. Power was shut off for the protection of firefighters as they battled the inferno. At one point, approximately 5,000 residents in the area were without power.

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Fires damage construction site, police car

MONTVILLE, CT (WFSB) -

About two dozen residents at an apartment complex in Montville were evacuated Monday evening after their building's roof was found to be compromised, according to authorities.

Authorities said residents at the Mount View Realty Apartments, which are located at 1591 Route 32, also known as Norwich-New London Turnpike, reported hearing "loud creaking noises."

"I heard a shift in the ceiling, and then two big crack noises when two beams came flying through the ceiling," Jarrett Arato, who lives in the unit where the roof caved in, said.

After the evacuation, the fire marshal and building official declared the building unsafe until further inspection. Authorities are expected to inspect the apartment complex during the daylight hours.

The American Red Cross is assisting the residents with housing for the evening.

Residents don't think the damage is weather related because there isn't much snow on the roof.

The building was built in 1970 and there are some construction issues. The snow that has piled on top of the roof likely impacted the structure.

"Me and mother live there and if it was five minutes earlier, like if she would have got up, or I got up to use the bathroom and came through the dining hall, one of us could have got killed," Arato said.

Their neighbor Linda Tompkins was awoken by the noise too.

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Residents displaced from Montville apartment building following structure issues

CHRIS PEDOTA/staff photographer

The fire at the Avalon at Edgewater destroyed more than half of the 408-unit complex.

Bergen and Mercer county officials called Tuesday for a review of state building and fire safety codes as they stood near the site of a development planned by the owner of an Edgewater apartment complex partially destroyed last month in a spectacular, quick-burning blaze that shut roadways and schools, spurred evacuations and left hundreds homeless.

Bergen County Executive James Tedesco and Edgewater Mayor Michael McPartland travelled to Princeton to join its mayor, Liz Lempert, and Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes in asking state officials to take a hard look at the rules that apparently couldnt prevent the devastating, five-alarm fire in the riverside community.

"This isn't about a company. This is about construction. This is about the state of New Jersey taking a look at the type of construction that we allow and whether the codes that allow that construction to happen are up to date and allow for people to live in a safe environment," said Tedesco.

The officials want the state Department of Community Affairs to review state building codes before it evaluates AvalonBays plan to construct 280 units on a former hospital site in Princeton.

Hughes said he has spoken with DCA Commissioner Richard E. Constable III who indicated there would be a review of building codes before the Princeton project is approved.

"He says he will, indeed, review the fire code and the municipal code here, in the state of New Jersey before giving final approval..., said Hughes. We need to have all the assurances that people are safe in their homes."

There was no immediate comment Tuesday from DCA on the request or Constables plans. Questions posed to DCA last week about a possible code review and its evaluation of the Princeton development also went unanswered.

A spokesman for AvalonBay said Tuesday the firm has no comment at this time.

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Officials in Bergen, Mercer counties call for review of state codes following Edgewater fire

LAS VEGAS The big run-up in apartment building may run out of steam this year.

Apartment construction across the country has more than tripled since 2009. Last year developers started more than 350,000 multifamily housing units nationwide.

Analysts say that apartment construction increases should dwindle in the next two years.

My forecast is for a leveling not a lot more growth, said Dave Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, which recently held its annual meeting in Las Vegas. We are at the level that can be sustained by the demand.

Apartments accounted for about a third of total U.S. home construction in 2014.

Crowe said apartment construction is peaking because of construction constraints and a shift by some renters into home buying.

We are starting to see some of the older millennials moving to homeownership, he said.

During recent years in most major cities, apartments have captured a larger than normal share of new households.

Whatever the job growth has been, all of the newly formed households have become renters, Crowe said.

He said that as renters age, they are more inclined to think about homeownership.

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Apartment building boom is hitting a ceiling after five years of increases

A BOOM in the building industry is creating thousands of jobs in construction but could lead to a drastic skills shortage.

The Federation of Master Builders has warned of a construction skills time bomb, with small construction firms in particular reporting shortages of key skills.

It says 42 per cent of firms are now struggling to find bricklayers and 44 per cent found it hard to recruit carpenters.

Meanwhile, the Home Builders Federation says 44,000 more new homes were started in 2014 than in 2012.

It says more than 100,000 extra jobs have been created by an increase in house-building in the past two years, but that tens of thousands more people will need to be recruited and trained.

Dorset is seeing the construction boom in action.

In Bournemouth alone, a major Hinton Hotel is under construction, the Citrus apartment building at Horseshoe Common is already 75 per cent sold, and work has started on a leisure complex at the former bus station site off the Square.

Rob Hooker, founding director of Poole-based Greendale Construction Ltd, said: Theres definitely an upturn and theres definitely more confidence out there, which means theres more volume of work for us all to do, not only on the house building side but on commercial and with NHS trusts and local authority work.

He added: No doubt about it, with the upturn in the industry theres going to be problems with skills shortages.

He said this could have an effect on costs. The downside is if there isnt a supply of decent labour, rates will start to increase and therefore the costs of building will go up, he added.

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Thousands of jobs in construction but will it mean drastic shortage in skills?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Just on the other side of Interstate 65 from the University of Louisville campus, a block that once contained an aging apartment building and unkempt rental houses is now the latest example of the student-housing arms race at U of L.

The Clubhouse includes three five-story buildings where, starting this fall, up to 758 U of L students will rent furnished apartments that come with walk-in closets, granite countertops and amenities like a courtyard pool, movie theater and hammock lounge.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of U of L's main Belknap campus, a new development called the Retreat is meant to bring suburban comforts with 157 detached cottages shared by two to six students apiece amid luxury perks like a sauna, golf simulator and cabanas beside a resort-style pool.

As U of L continues its decade-long transformation into a residential campus, private real estate developers are gobbling up land near the school and betting millions that students (and their parents) will pay $600 to $950 a month, each, to live in suites where no one has to share a bedroom or bathroom.

The Grove, a 654-unit complex on S. 4th Street, literally could not be built fast enough last year, as students moved in amid construction and ended up getting their first month's rent for free.

In the last five years, four big apartment complexes have been built on the edge of campus with about 2,700 beds among them.

Another four complexes with about 2,400 more beds are under construction or in the planning stages.

Investors in these projects are big, sophisticated companies that specialize in student housing such as Austin-based American Campus Communities and Charlotte's Campus Crest Communities.

U of L officials view the building boom as validation of their work over the last decade to shed the campus' commuter past by adding dining halls, late-night hours at libraries and athletic venues.

We have changed the face of this campus, said U of L housing director Shannon Staten.

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SUNDAY EDITION | Thousands more high-end apartment beds planned near University of Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Just on the other side of Interstate 65 from the University of Louisville campus, a block that once contained an aging apartment building and unkempt rental houses is now the latest example of the student-housing arms race at U of L.

The Clubhouse includes three five-story buildings where, starting this fall, up to 758 U of L students will rent furnished apartments that come with walk-in closets, granite countertops and amenities like a courtyard pool, movie theater and hammock lounge.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of U of L's main Belknap campus, a new development called the Retreat is meant to bring suburban comforts with 157 detached cottages shared by two to six students apiece amid luxury perks like a sauna, golf simulator and cabanas beside a resort-style pool.

As U of L continues its decade-long transformation into a residential campus, private real estate developers are gobbling up land near the school and betting millions that students (and their parents) will pay $600 to $950 a month, each, to live in suites where no one has to share a bedroom or bathroom.

The Grove, a 654-unit complex on S. 4th Street, literally could not be built fast enough last year, as students moved in amid construction and ended up getting their first month's rent for free.

In the last five years, four big apartment complexes have been built on the edge of campus with about 2,700 beds among them.

Another four complexes with about 2,400 more beds are under construction or in the planning stages.

Investors in these projects are big, sophisticated companies that specialize in student housing such as Austin-based American Campus Communities and Charlotte's Campus Crest Communities.

U of L officials view the building boom as validation of their work over the last decade to shed the campus' commuter past by adding dining halls, late-night hours at libraries and athletic venues.

We have changed the face of this campus, said U of L housing director Shannon Staten.

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SUNDAY EDITION | Thousands more high-end apartments planned near University of Louisville

Franklin Park Mall gets new RiteAid

Vandervert Construction is building a new Rite Aid store on the north end of Franklin Park Mall. At a project value of $2.8 million, the construction will erect a 17,400-square-foot store at 5840 N. DivisionSt.

The new store will replace a Rite Aid store in Franklin Park Mall where a second Trader Joes for Spokane is set to be built. The California grocery retailer will go into roughly half of the Rite Aid building currently in themall.

Rite Aids new site, which will include a drive-thru, is

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Vandervert Construction is building a new Rite Aid store on the north end of Franklin Park Mall. At a project value of $2.8 million, the construction will erect a 17,400-square-foot store at 5840 N. DivisionSt.

The new store will replace a Rite Aid store in Franklin Park Mall where a second Trader Joes for Spokane is set to be built. The California grocery retailer will go into roughly half of the Rite Aid building currently in themall.

Rite Aids new site, which will include a drive-thru, is near the Burlington Coat Factory building. The store is expected to open thissummer.

Kettrick Properties of Seattle plans to build a 21-unit apartment building at 317 S. CoeurdAlene St. in BrownesAddition.

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The Dirt - Sun, 01 Feb 2015 PST

The national construction sector finished 2014 on a seven-year high, with residential building consents up 16% on the back of apartments built.

In the midst of what is being described as an ongoing housing crisis, 2014 booked the highest annual number of new dwellings seen in seven years, at 24,680. Value was up 20% to $9.5 billion.

However, the data was underpinned by apartment sales, which when stripped out left just a 1.6% gain to overall new dwelling consents issued.

Combined with commercial consents, the total value was $14.6 billion for the year.

The new dwelling data includes houses, apartments and retirement village units, the latter exploding at an exponential rate with rapid expansion by Summerset, Ryman Healthcare and Metlifecare.

Unsurprisingly, and reflecting the past year's Real Estate Institute of New Zealand data on major demand and growth in Auckland and Canterbury, those centres respectively booked gains in dwellings of 20%, to 7595, and 27% to 7308.

Auckland and Canterbury accounted for 60% of new dwellings during the year.

Otago, for December 2013, had 88 consents valued at $36 million, and for last December 92 consents were issued, valued at $30 million.

For the December of both years, Central Otago had 17 consents issued, while Queenstown Lakes had 39.

However, for 2014, Central Otago had 180 building consents issued, while Queenstown Lakes had 623.

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Apartments give rise to 16% boost in NZ residential building consents