(Updated at 2 p.m.) Plans to demolish Alpine Restaurant on Lee Highway have been approved, inching forward the planned construction of The Childrens School daycare facility.

Despite the approval, the permit to demolish the building at 4770 Lee Highway, held by Trinity Group Construction, has yet to be issued.

Once a payment is received, the permit is then issued, said Andrew Pribulka, a spokesperson for the Arlington Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development, in an email. Demolition may not begin until permits have been issued and posted.

Trinity has applied for two other permits, one to excavate and anotherto build the facility.

Requests for comment from Trinity and The Childrens School were not returned.

The progress comes two-and-a-half years after theCounty Board unanimously approved a permit to build a three-story daycare facility for children of employees of Arlington Public Schools, to be built where the long-time restaurant has stood vacant for a decade.

The private, nonprofit child care center will oversee no more than 235 children of APS staff between the ages of two months and five years old. This new facility will also be home to Integration Station, a program for kids with developmental or other disabilities.

Both the co-op daycare and Integration Station are temporarily housed in the same Ballston office building at 4420 N. Fairfax Drive. The programs were co-located in the Reed School building in Westover, but were forced out when APS decided to open a new elementary school there.

The Reed School is set to open to students in 2021.

One year after approving the project, the Board approved a request to eliminate off-site parking and modify initial architectural plans.

Most parking is below-ground with some above ground, and the plans now includes a third-story rear play deck and an expanded rear wall to shield neighboring houses from car headlights, a concern from residents.

Alpine Restaurant served Italian cuisine and was in business for 44 years before closing in 2010 upon the owners retirement. It was acquired by the owners of the Liberty Tavern Restaurant Group, which ultimately decided against opening a new restaurant there.

Photo via Google Maps

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Demolition of Alpine Restaurant is Approved, Kickstarting Work on The Children's School - ARLnow

Leaders of REBNY, the Building and Construction Trades Council, the Building Trades Employers Association and the New York Building Congress all framed the low number of new project filings as a major threat to the citys economic recovery.

This 10-year low point for new construction activity calls for an all-hands-on-deck response by elected officials and a laser focus on policies that will generate jobs and growth without setting back crucial recovery efforts, REBNY President James Whelan said in a statement.

Brooklyn saw the largest number of project filings during the third quarter at 128, while Queens projects made upthe greatest percentage of total square feet at 38.6%, according to the report.

The largest Queens project was a mixed-use building spanning almost 500,000 square feet at 90-02 168th St. in Jamaica, and the largest Brooklyn project was a mixed-use building spanning about 240,000 square feet at 2700 Atlantic Ave. in Cypress Hills, according to the report.

REBNY's analysisfeaturedmultiple proposals for reinvigorating the city's construction industry. These included prioritizing and expediting major developments already in the pipeline, such as Sunnyside Yards and the remainder of the World Trade Center. The industry group also proposed developing a regionalmaster plan for transportation infrastructure thatwould focus on projectssuch asthe Second Avenue subway extension and the LaGuardia Airport AirTrain connection.

The analysis also recommends doing more to incentivize developmentin life sciences, a sector that has historically been stronger in cities such asSan Francisco and Boston than in New York.It specifically suggests making the Industrial and Commercial Abatement program available for new life science construction projects and creating a new tax abatement program for projects that dedicate at least 40% of their space to life science purposes.

In addition, it suggests allowing for as-of-right conversions of Class Band C office space to residential space as a way of making it easier to create new housing. Ideas around office-to-residential conversionshave become more prominent duringthe pandemicamid lingering skepticism about the resilience of the citys office market in the face of widespread workfrom home.

Investment in construction and large-scale infrastructure projects are what drive a robust economic recovery, BCTC President Gary LaBarbera said in a statement. These projects create thousands of jobs that lead to family-sustaining careers with benefits, and thats exactly whats needed to generate the economic activity and mobility that will help New York City turn the corner on this economic crisis.

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REBNY report finds New York construction hits lowest level of activity since wake of Great Recession - Crain's New York Business

GRAND RAPIDS Perrigo Co. plc is seeking a 12-year incentive agreement estimated at $4.1 million in total property tax savings for its plans to relocate its North American headquarters to downtown.

The Grand Rapids City Commission set a Jan.12 public hearing to consider the agreement. The commission will consider an Industrial Development District for the project, as well as a 12-year Industrial Facilities Exemption Certificate and a 12-year New Personal Property Exemption Certificate. Perrigos new headquarters is planned at 430 Monroe Ave. NW, where it has committed to a 15-year lease.

The proposed Industrial Development District will include the footprint of the new building, which will have frontage on Ottawa Avenue and Michigan Street, as well as a seven-story parking deck.

Of the estimated $4.1 million in property tax savings, the citys share would be approximately $797,000 in property taxes. Under the proposed incentives, the city would receive about $1.1 million in new property taxes.

Factoring in property and income tax revenue from the $39 million investment and 150 new jobs in Grand Rapids, the city stands to receive $2.6 million over the 15-year period, Grand Rapids Economic Development Director Jeremiah Gracia told MiBiz.

The tax incentive hinges on Perrigo having 150 employees in downtown Grand Rapids within two years of the projects completion. About 100 will be existing Perrigo employees that will transfer to Grand Rapids, and about 50 will be newly created positions.

Perrigo announced plans to relocate to Grand Rapids Medical Mile on Oct. 27, the same day the Michigan Strategic Fund board approved a $2 million Michigan Business Development Program grant for the project. The MSF support is predicated on the anticipated creation of 170 jobs in Michigan.

Perrigos offices are planned for the eighth through tenth floors of the building, comprising 63,550 square feet of what will be a 127,460-square-foot building. The development will be located within Michigan State Universitys Grand Rapids Innovation Park.

Rockford Construction Co. is the contractor on the project, which is expected to start in February and be completed in May 2022.

Employees in the new office building will make wages ranging from $25.43-$53.30 per hour for roles including managerial, professional, technical and sales positions.

While Perrigo will keep its operations in Allegan, the company is also in the process of constructing a new $13 million Holland distribution center, which is expected to create 40 new jobs and be completed in March.

The 357,000-square-foot facility at 796 Interchange Drive will be the third time Perrigo has expanded in the Holland area in the last two years. Earlier this year the company invested $13.6 million to expand its facility in Holland Township with a 66,000-square-foot warehouse. In 2019, Perrigo expanded its facility at E. 64th St. in Holland with a $7 million expansion.

Perrigo continues to be an employer of choice, strengthening their North American base of operations along the lakeshore, and we are pleased to once again take part in their continued growth, Lakeshore Advantage President Jennifer Owens said in a statement.

The new facility will add to Perrigos robust distribution and manufacturing presence in the region, said Ron Janish, Perrigos executive vice president of global operations and supply chain.

This distribution center exemplifies our consumer self-care mindset and brings together finished goods from numerous product lines into one point of distribution, which will enable our customers to receive one comprehensive shipment from Perrigo, Janish said.

The city of Holland is supporting the new distribution center development with a 12-year Industrials Facilities Tax Exemption.

We are pleased that Perrigo chose to build its distribution center in Holland, increasing its operational footprint in the region with its manufacturing facilities in Allegan County and a North American corporate headquarters in Grand Rapids, said Holland City Manager Keith Van Beek. Our support for the distribution center helps maintain and expand a robust economy and quality jobs throughout West Michigan.

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Perrigo seeks $4.1M in tax incentives for planned GR headquarters; Holland expansion moves forward - MiBiz: West Michigan Business News

On a Sunday evening in late September, with wildfire smoke hanging in the air, a few dozen people gathered in the rooftop kitchen of a Hollywood apartment building called Treehouse for their weekly communal dinner.

The buildings co-founder and chief executive, Prophet Walker, stacked plates and cleaned up cutting boards behind the tiled kitchen island, while the buildings designer, Sean Knibb, manned the pans of turmeric chicken sizzling on the stove.

The rest of the residents drank wine and chatted as they waited to eat. A woman with the vibes of an Instagram astrologer waved hi at a man who seemed to leap from a Vineyard Vines catalog. One wall of the kitchen was open to the deck outside, but people were squeezed together at small tables. Nobody was wearing a mask.

It looked like a scene from the past, or from the future. These people werent friends, at least not before they moved in. They werent family, save a few parents with their children. They were co-livers, a building-sized pod in the time of COVID, in a housing experiment with grand ambitions.

Co-living isnt a new idea, or even a new target for tech money. Start-ups like Common, Bungalow and WeLive, the co-living division of the smoldering office-space Hindenburg WeWork, have been raising venture capital and carving up apartment buildings across the country in recent years. Most sell rooms to renters as a cheaper option, a nouveau-SRO with foosball in the laundry room and catered Taco Tuesdays on the patio.

Treehouse is taking a different tack. Walker and co-founder Joe Green, a tech entrepreneur in the Facebook orbit and big booster of psychedelic research, say they want to create the togetherness of intentional communities like co-ops, communes, or Burning Man without the anticapitalist politics or freegan cuisine. In an era when luxury is synonymous with isolation private jets, private islands, Uber Black versus Uber Pool theyre betting that real community can be packaged as a premium, an amenity that keeps atomization at bay as surely as heated floors banish cold feet.

From the outside, the five-story building on Carlton Way near the open cut of the 101 looks like any other upscale new construction sans serif font, little balconies, black-painted steel. But inside its walls, things look different, starting with a floor plan heavily tilted toward shared spaces.

The laundry/art room in the basement.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Rotating committees of residents determine which rental applicants get approved, and the process involves more checks of vibe than credit. Leases come with signed commitments to community values, and instead of simply showing up for scheduled events, residents are encouraged to create their own classes and shindigs for the rest of the building. Only 10% of the units are set aside as affordable for low-income tenants, but all are currently occupied by poets.

The rooms are pitched at the upper middle of the rental market in central L.A., with rents starting at $1,715 a month, plus a $210 fee to cover utilities, housekeeping, free coffee and Sunday dinners, yoga classes and other events.

Specifically, theyre pitched at people like Kimberlee Archer. When Archer left Facebook for a high-ranking job at Snap in May, the 38-year-old marketing executive could have rented an upscale pad with ocean views or found a spot up in the hills. But she wanted to live with other people, pandemic be damned. Before leaving Oakland, she googled coliving space.

A few weeks later, she moved into one of Treehouses units really just a bedroom and a private bathroom, furnished in the style of a cozy boutique hotel (Knibb also designed the Line Hotel in Koreatown).

Ive lived by myself, Ive lived with family members, Ive lived with roommates, Archer said. But after a career heavy on work travel, she realized she didnt need a lot of space she was used to living in a hotel room. What I enjoy is having really good conversations with people I dont work with.

A bedroom in Treehouse Hollywood.

(Treehouse)

She shares a kitchen with four other suitemates and shares the common spaces of the building with the rest of Treehouses 40-plus residents: Theres the lobby/cafe, laundry room/art studio, screening room/Japanese-themed bar, two-story library curated by the resident librarian, and on the roof, a garden, a deck, the communal kitchen, and yes, a little treehouse, wrapped around a 100-year-old olive tree shipped in from Sacramento.

The company views the Hollywood building as a beta test for its bigger plans: a network of Treehouses across Los Angeles, from Koreatown to Compton. A complex keyed toward families interested in co-life is already in the works in Leimert Park. Residents will be welcome to stop by any other Treehouse in the city for coffee or drinks on the roof when theyre in the neighborhood.

Walker and Green make an odd couple of utopian housing entrepreneurs. What brought them together was loneliness.

Walker grew up in Watts, broke someones jaw in a fight over a DiscMan, and went to Ironwood State Prison on an assault and robbery charge when he was 16. He got out and got into Loyola Marymount University, then worked on some of L.A.s splashiest real estate projects as a developer with Morley Builders, attempting a run for state Assembly in 2014 along the way.

Green grew up in Santa Monica and went to Harvard, where he found himself sharing a dorm with Mark Zuckerberg. He declined a chance to quit school to go work at the social network but managed to start a series of successful tech companies of his own. In 2013, he teamed up with Zuckerberg to start FWD.us, a lobbying shop that used tech money to push for immigration reform, among other issues.

By the time Green and Walker met in 2016, both had reached a similar conclusion: They had found success but felt more alone than ever.

I never experienced lack of community until I made money, Walker said. Growing up in Watts, he said, he felt like the child of everyone on the block. Prison, if anything, was an even more intense experience of closeness with his neighbors. Living in a hundred-person open dorm requires radical transparency literally theres no dividers between 15 toilets, Walker said. We needed each other to not go crazy.

After his run for office, he started thinking about how L.A. bred loneliness the skyrocketing rents, the neighbors who never met, the way that markets and neighborhoods in the city segregate people by race, class, age and interest.

For Green, loneliness struck when he was on a spiritual sabbatical following the self-described failure of his lobbying efforts. Alone with his thoughts, he realized he had been happier as a kid first in his Santa Monica neighborhood, with friends up and down the block, and then at Harvards Kirkland House, where undergrads lived in separate rooms but shared common space.

He began reading about the spread of loneliness in modern society, and was drawn to the work of Johann Hari, who argues in his book Lost Connections that leaving the multigenerational home and familiar neighborhood is a new phenomenon of the last 70 years, and that this isolation is to blame for increasing depression, anxiety, addiction and suicide.

In 2016, mutual friends introduced the pair at the opening of Locol, a burger stand in Watts started by celebrity chefs with the mission of bringing healthier fast food to low-income neighborhoods. Walker had helped build the restaurant with a construction crew drawn from the neighborhood, and he says he was looking for a new project that captured the same feeling of building community and using physical space to actually do so.

They hit it off, but Treehouse wasnt fully born until Green went on a silent meditation retreat a few months later. I spent several days being unable to get my mind off of a vision for this building, Green said. When he got back to San Francisco, he spoke with his friend Michael Birch, the tech millionaire behind the elite S.F. social club the Battery, who reintroduced Green to Walker. Soon, they started scouting out locations.

Unlike most co-living companies, which reconfigure existing apartment buildings, Walker and Green saw that they needed to build from the ground up to get the mix of public versus private space they wanted.

But the decision to start from scratch presented its own challenges. Banks typically finance real estate projects based on dollars per rentable square foot, a model that assumes that shared spaces in the building, such as stairwells and lobbies, are worthless. Green and Walker had trouble finding a lender willing to back their plan. It was, frankly, through some relationships and luck that we finally found a bank that was willing to do a construction loan, Walker said.

A number of prominent tech names have since bought into the vision, though Green is the largest financial backer. Alexis Ohanian, who started the online community Reddit, chipped in, as did L.A. investor Arlan Hamilton and Justin Kan, who co-founded the streaming platform Twitch.

By that Sunday in late September, it seemed like the vision was working, at least to a visitor, even in the face of the pandemic.

After Knibb introduced the meal squash blossoms, jeweled rice, chapulines and a big salad along with the chicken Elizabeth Williams, an Australian screenwriter, saw that a journalist had joined for the evening and immediately introduced herself.

Williams had moved into Treehouse after a few cripplingly lonely months in a Studio City apartment, after moving to the U.S. in 2019. She explained that she grew up in a close-knit neighborhood in Townsville, North Queensland, no locks on doors, the kids would just swarm around like bees, where her fondest memories were of neighborhood game nights and jam sessions. She was happy to pay extra for a built-in community.

Michele Esquivel, Treehouses lone inhabitant older than 50, sat eating squash blossoms and rice at a table with three building mates. Her 14-year-old daughter, Violeta, hung out at the next table over.

For years, Esquivel had wanted to move into the city from Orange County, where she worked as a nurse at Kaiser, mostly to help Violeta pursue her budding career as a slam poet. The closest place they had been able to afford was in Long Beach, until she heard about Treehouse earlier this year.

Now they live in a suite with three other poets, whose rooms make up the 10% of units that are affordable in Treehouse, which the building includes in exchange for denser zoning allowances. Esquivel said that it could feel like a retirement home for millennials from time to time, but she was surprised at how well it was working out.

I felt the vetting process was long and tedious, and they asked really odd questions, but I understand it now, Esquivel said. To maintain the vibe of the building, potential renters have to go through an extensive application process, with other renters serving on the application committee. Everyone has to sign a commitment to the buildings core values being kind, present, curious, candid and responsible as part of their lease.

Prophet Walker, left, and Joe Green in a communal space at Treehouse. Every Sunday, residents gather here for a shared meal.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

One question had been what she would bring to the table as a resident; she had picked her cooking and her massage therapy practice. Now she sets up her table on the roof deck and gives massage sessions to residents. Other Treehousers give fitness classes in the basement gym, or teach lessons on medicinal herbs in the rooftop garden. Every Sunday, a rotating group of residents get a $500 budget to cook or order family dinner for the whole building.

The building shares a Slack for internal announcements, which also plays host to the occasional call-out and heated conversation. To keep conflicts to a minimum, residents have set up a regular series of conversations, called Tree Talks, where the community values are often invoked to keep things kind and candid when residents are being less than responsible. A resident who washed their dogs clothes in one of the shared machines was a source of building-wide tension. Now, after a Tree Talk, a washer and dryer set is earmarked just for items that might have pet hair on them.

Esquivel said there were some initial issues with dish-doing and living room clutter within the poets suite, but the benefits have outweighed the rough patches. We would have never met anybody in these circles, Esquivel said, and especially for her daughter she thinks its been a wonderful experience, shes learning to cohabit with other people, other age groups.

A dissenting voice on the deck came from James Swiderski, who owns a solar energy company. He had always lived alone, and described his decision to move into Treehouse as a personal challenge. He planned to leave soon. Im glad I came, I dont regret it, Swiderski said. But it was an overstep for me, to be honest.

For Green, too, co-life has only been a temporary change of pace. When the pandemic first swept over California, he was staying in the spacious Beverly Hills house that his dad grew up in, which he said was in certain ways the peak of what Americans think they want. But Beverly Hills got lonely.

He moved into a room at Treehouse, where residents had created a building-wide bubble of viral trust after a few nervous weeks that had left the common areas mostly empty. Immediately, Green said he could feel his COVID isolation anxiety melt away. He could post on Slack and ten minutes later have a Settlers of Catan game going on the roof. It felt so much better, because I had people to be around. Still, after several weeks, he returned to his primary home in San Francisco.

Walker has no plans to leave. After the meal wound down and people began to filter back to their rooms, he finished doing the dishes, then plopped down in a booth, proud of the social feat he was in the process of pulling off: filling a building with strangers who were becoming friends, or at least fond acquaintances, against the head wind of a pandemic that has mostly driven Americans further into isolation.

Between its opening in fall 2019 and the beginning of the pandemic, Treehouse had rented only a third of its rooms. In the months since, the building has nearly filled up. The pandemic showed us if nothing else how important community and proximity is, Walker said. We have all these massive online communities, and thats like cool, cute, Walker said, but people in quarantine in New York and Italy still felt compelled to sing out their windows with their neighbors during the first lockdowns.

Walker reached for a painful memory from his teenage years in Watts to underscore the point: I watched my best friend get murdered in front of me, Walker said. That should be like a death knell to anyones psyche, but he credits the neighborhood with saving him.

The entire block came outside, Walker said, and then when they saw what happened, every single person, just about, hugged me, like youre gonna get through this, this sucks, but weve got you, and every day weve got you. His hope for Treehouse is that it can build that kind of neighborhood, one where everyone knows your name and comes together in tough times, but for people like him who left their neighborhoods behind.

And of course, he hopes that it can make a lot of money at the same time. It just so happens that through density arbitrage, through a host of laws, through real estate financials, the Treehouse business model is an incredible investment, Walker said. But truly, were trying to build a community.

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Treehouse is trying to cure L.A. loneliness with co-living - Los Angeles Times

SL Green recently celebrated the commencement of construction at One Madison Avenue, a new 1.4-million-square-foot office building in the Flatiron District. The project entails the expansion and redevelopment of an existing 13-story structure into a 27-story Class A office building.

Located on the corner of Madison Avenue and East 23rd Street, the structure will occupy an entire city block and is poised to revitalize the streetscape surrounding the property. To complete this vision and deliver a high-quality commercial product, SL Green commissioned Kohn Pedersen Fox to lead architectural design.

The vertical addition will comprise 530,000 square feet positioned above a redeveloped nine-story podium. The reinforced concrete structure will house a series of 32 35,000-square-foot floor plates with minimal support columns to improve internal flexibility.

Amenity spaces within the tower will include expansive outdoor terraces at the tenth and 11th floors, a 15,000-square-foot artisanal food market, a 9,000-square-foot tenant lounge, a three-level fitness center, and bike storage. The building will also contain a 13,000-square-foot high-tech event space designed to accommodate up to 800 people.

Rendering of outdoor areas at One Madison Avenue

Rendering of outdoor areas at One Madison Avenue

Rendering of event space at One Madison Avenue

With a focus on occupant comfort and wellness, One Madison Avenue will also incorporate state-of-the-art HVAC and circulation systems to improve interior air quality and cleanliness. In addition, the building is expected to achieve both WELL and LEED-Gold certification.

KPF has enjoyed working with SL Green over the years, recently on One Vanderbilt Avenue and now on One Madison Avenue, which is very different from its taller cousin in Midtown, but we think will have an equally dramatic and positive impact on the city, said Doug Hocking, AIA, KPF design principal. We wanted to preserve the character of the original building but also open it up so we could extend the nature of the adjacent park through the tower. When completed, were confident that One Madison will be a dynamic, inspiring workplace for the 21st century.

Additional members of the development team include the National Pension Service of Korea and Hines. Together, the trio of developers have together closed on $1.25 billion in construction financing to complete One Madison Avenue.

We are proud to be bringing an important new office development to Midtown South that we are confident will attract the top companies and talent, said Marc Holliday, chairman and chief executive officer of SL Green. Despite the headwinds presented by current and temporary challenges, we remain focused on boosting the New York City economy by creating thousands of construction jobs and bringing a new, best-in-class office tower to the highly sought-after Flatiron/Midtown South submarket for the first time in a decade.

As part of the development SL Green has also donated $250,000 to the Madison Square Park Conservancy, the non-profit organization licensed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to manage Madison Square Park. The donation will facilitate the completion of a new dog run and help offset the cost of upkeep and maintenance.

As we are witnessing the success of East Midtowns development, it is fitting that we also applaud development in Midtown South with One Madison Avenue, said Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. Adding thoughtful design elements, increasing energy efficiency, and contributing to open space make this a project I can get behind.

Rendering of One Madison Avenue entrance

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Construction Begins on One Madison Avenue, a 1.4 Million-Square-Foot Office Tower in the Flatiron District - New York YIMBY

A portion of Mentors long-neglected Old Village area is targeted for a major upgrade.

Uptown Mentor LLC proposes a 40,000-square-foot, mixed-use, Class A office building at 8675 and 8695 Mentor Ave., near Little Mountain Road.

City Council recently authorized a development agreement with Uptown Mentor for construction, and exemption from taxation, of improvements to the parcels, comprising about 4 acres.

This is one of the commercial centers in Mentor's Old Village area that will be razed for a new office building project.

The legislation allows the city to provide certain infrastructure improvements via tax increment financing and property tax abatement incentives available in the Old Village Community Reinvestment Area.

Most of the existing storefronts on the property have been vacant for many years. Along with office space, developers envision restaurants and shops, and high-energy patio space.

As you know, this area is probably the most rundown, blighted and underutilized area of Mentor, said Uptown President Alison Sikora, who owns two other commercial properties nearby. It has been that way for decades, which has never made sense to me.

"I have always believed that Mentor should have a vibrant and walkable central business district," she added. "This area seems to be the prime location for such a development. The area is surrounded by well-established neighborhoods in all directions.

Studies completed by major commercial brokerage firms show that most employees appreciate the flexibility to work from home during the pandemic, but they also want to be able to work from an office, ideally closer to home, she said.

Employers, in turn, are predicted to accommodate those changes in the workforce by providing work near home options, studies show.

For this and other reasons, demand for suburban office space is on the rise, and that trend is predicted to continue, Sikora said. Mentor currently has lack of supply of quality office space. Moreover, office tenants want convenient amenities like nearby restaurants and shopping. Additionally, people are more interested than ever in outdoor dining options.

She said she and her brokers are actively pursuing tenants for this development, and they are in discussions with several that Mentor residents would be excited to have here.

She noted that she is working with local brokers and contractors with Mentor connections, where possible.

My sincere hope is that this development will have a catalytic effect, that it will become a local landmark, and that it will begin a transformation of that highly visible and vital area of our city, she said.

Her team has worked closely with the city during the last several months on bringing the project to this point. It still requires Planning Commission approval.

The project is welcomed by city officials, Mentor Economic Development Director Kevin Malecek said.

For many years, both the city and the public recognized these properties as an eyesore on bustling Mentor Avenue," he said, "And the opportunity to have a state-of-the-art, mixed-use building with Class A office facilities and a developer committed to making significant investment to improve the area is an extremely positive change.

It is also a recognition of what we are seeing in the commercial real estate market that with the pandemic, areas like Mentor, closer to peoples homes, may see growth opportunities in higher-end commercial possibilities.

Razing of the buildings is expected to take place in the spring, with construction soon to follow.

Ideally, Id like this development to be a shining example of collaboration and civic pride for many decades to come, Sikora said.

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Mixed-use, Class A office project proposed on blighted properties in Mentor's Old Village - News-Herald.com

The construction of new offices in central London has declined by half (50 percent) in six months as developers and occupiers shift their focus to refurbishment, according to Deloitte Real Estates latest London Office Crane Survey. The crane survey analysed office building data over the six months to 30 September, and included a poll of Londons biggest developers conducted at the end of September. The total office space under construction in central London is now 15.1 million sq ft. This is similar to the level recorded in the previous survey (15.3 million sq ft, the highest since 2002) as developments are now taking longer to complete.

Siobhan Godley, partner and head of Deloitte Real Estate, said: As a bellwether of developer sentiment and future office supply in the capital, this crane survey shows a decline in new construction starts to just 2.6 million sq ft across central London. This is down significantly on our previous survey, but remains broadly in line with the surveys long-term average. Notably, a higher than average 40 percent of new construction starts have already been pre-let, indicating less speculative construction.

Mike Cracknell, director at Deloitte Real Estate, said: Our data reveals that 3.3 million sq ft of office construction was not completed as scheduled between April and September and remains under construction. Had these projects completed on time, the total volume under construction would be almost a quarter lower.

Leasing demand became the biggest challenge to new development this survey. The developers sentiment survey showed that 57 percent of respondents said letting conditions were either the same or worse when compared to the end of March this year.

Cracknell continued: Of the developers we surveyed, a clear majority 85 percent pointed to weak tenant demand as the major obstacle to starting any new development. Until there is more clarity about occupiers office plans, developers will hesitate to embark on new projects, particularly speculative ones. Nonetheless, the news about vaccines has already resulted in a re-rating of real estate stocks, and may see both a bigger shift back to the office in the short term, and a strengthening of investor demand in London offices over the medium term.

This reluctance to embark on new office building, especially new projects, has led to a shift towards major refurbishments. The survey found that more than two thirds of the new construction starts involved an extensive upgrade of existing office stock across 28 separate projects. By transforming outdated buildings into COVID-safe, high-quality workspaces, developers are looking to upgrade and futureproof their offices in a market where occupational demand is increasingly discerning, added Cracknell.

Construction activity

The City of London, which dominated construction activity in previous surveys, has seen new office building activity fall by 60 percent to 1.2 million sq ft across 10 schemes. This compares to 2.8 million sq ft across 16 schemes in the previous survey. Notably, just under half of the Citys new construction starts are available to let, again suggesting a lower appetite for speculative development.

Richard Hammell, UK head of financial services at Deloitte, said: The financial services sector has for many years occupied the lions share of City office space, considering its office portfolio an essential part of doing business. Even before the pandemic, the sector was actively looking to reduce costs and consolidate its office presence in central London as many functions were distributed across the UK and offshore, and there was an increasing use of automation. The seismic shift in people working from home this year has served to accelerate this trend. While specific in-person aspects of business life most valued by this sector such as business development, efficient trading, client engagement and employee collaboration mean that offices will remain part of financial services, the nature and operational use of space will adapt in the years to come.

Office building and development in the West End remained at the same level as in the previous survey, with 12 new starts breaking ground, equivalent to 500,000 sq ft. The Southbank saw five new starts over the summer, amounting to 350,000 sq ft, and Midtown observed a small uptick in new construction activity, with 500,000 sq ft across eight refurbishment schemes.

Fewer new construction starts, especially projects built speculatively, are likely to take place in the short to medium term as a result of weaker occupier demand, the lack of development finance and the economic downturn, explained Cracknell. This lower level of new construction and substantial delays in office completions will have a major impact on future supply levels, leading to a self-correction which should prevent oversupply in the short term.

Godley concluded: The UK is leading the way with remote working across Europe. Nearly three quarters (72 percent) of UK employees would like to work remotely more often in the future 10 percent higher than that of European peers*. Developers and investors are acutely aware of this growing trend and are thus in a state of suspension before committing to new projects, until there is more clarity in the market and occupiers reveal their future of work strategies.

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Focus shifts to refurbishment as new office building in London falls by half - Workplace Insight

This helps reduce the construction period.

CPWD officials said they are using special bamboo flooring in these projects which are being brought from Meghalaya.

According to CPWD, the projects, started in August this year, have already made 35 per cent physical progress. This technology has not been used in such big projects.

Its success will demonstrate that construction of buildings in cities like Delhi can be done causing hardly any damage to the environment. It takes at least two years to construct such a building complex using conventional technologies.

These two office complexes can accommodate nearly 15,000 employees.The employees, who are currently occupying office space at hutments near South Block, will be shifted here.

The vacated areas will be utilised for construction of a new PMs Office, PMs residence and for accommodating SPG employees.

Officials said the facade of the buildings will resemble the Lutyens style and terracotta tiles will be used for this.

They added the expeditious construction was possible because of 'dry wall construction technology', which uses light gauge steel frames (LGSF) for external and internal walls.

These frames are covered with cement fibre boards on the outer side of external walls.

Cement fibre boards, coupled with gypsum boards, are used for interiors. Rock wool is filled in LGSF sections for thermal insulation.

This does not need water for curing of any concrete or cement plaster work and hence, a lot of water is saved.

Moreover, to increase fire resistance of the structures, vermiculite cement plaster is being done on the steel structures.

Due to this, the structures can withstand for two hours in case of a fire.This finish is not only aesthetically appealing, but also very durable and maintenance-free for years.

This type of faade has a very low effect of ageing, fading and discolouration over time due to their low water absorption properties and high firing temperatures during manufacture.

It also provides acoustic insulation from outside, which reduces noise levels by 10-20 per cent.

Pollution control measures have been adopted at both the sites. The air and noise pollution is being monitored round-the-clock with sophisticated equipment.

Thermal comfort comes from ventilated terracotta tile faade which also reduces the use of energy for air conditioning as well as for heating.

The ventilated installation system reduces the solar heat gain of the building from the external facade, thereby reducing energy requirements for cooling.

These measures include 10 metre-high barricading all-round the perimeter, regular sprinkling of water on the open areas, use of anti-smog guns, controlled deconstruction measures, covering of all debris, sand, excavated soil and aggregates with suitable fabric sheets, covering of trucks/dumpers transporting the debris outside the site, and cleaning of tyres of all vehicles.

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New Delhi: In A First, 'Dry Construction Technology' Being Employed To Complete Office Buildings In Record Seven Months - Swarajya

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October construction starts in South Florida rose from September, but lagged behind amounts seen a year prior, according to a recently released report.

Total construction starts for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties fell 10 percent from October of last year to $964.3 million, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, a Hamilton, New Jersey-based construction data analytics firm.

While nonresidential construction starts jumped, they were offset by a decline in residential starts. Nonresidential construction rose 63 percent, year-over-year, to $583.41 million. Residential construction fell 46 percent to $380.9 million. Residential construction represented about 60 percent of the total building in the region.

Nonresidential construction includes office, retail, hotels, warehouses, manufacturing, educational, healthcare, religious, government, recreational, and other buildings. Residential construction includes single-family homes and multifamily housing, according to Dodge.

October total construction starts climbed about 72 percent from September. That puts Octobers total above those reported for March, April, May and August.

October residential construction was up 16 percent from September. Nonresidential construction more than doubled from September.

Year to date, total October construction starts fell 27 percent, year-over-year, to $7.9 billion. Nonresidential construction starts fell 35 percent to $3.4 billion. Residential construction starts fell 20 percent to $4.5 billion.

Nationwide, total construction starts rose 12 percent, year-over-year in October. Nonresidential building increased 19 percent and residential activity gained 2 percent, according to Dodge.

Year to date through October, total nationwide construction starts fell 11 percent, compared to the same period of 2019. Nonresidential starts dropped 24 percent and residential starts decreased by 2 percent.

South Florida projects that scored construction loans in October include Coral Rock Development Groups $53.5 million loan for the 260-unit residential portion of its mixed-use project in Hialeah.

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South Florida October construction starts drop, year-over-year - The Real Deal

Rendering of Project Commodore

A planned development in MidtownManhattancould bring another one of the tallest buildings in North America to the New York City skyline in the next decade.

Dubbed Project Commodore, the mixed-use building planned for the site at 109 East 42nd St. would reach 1,646 feet tall and feature more than 2.1M SF of office space and a 500-room Grand Hyatt hotel as well as 10K SF of open-air public space and 43K SF of retail, New York YIMBYreports.

RXR Realty and TF Cornerstone are pairing up todevelop the project, which would ultimately bring a suite of improvements to Grand Central Terminal and the Grand Central-42nd Street Subway station in Midtown East. Those include an upgraded subway entrance at East 42nd Street, along with a new transit hall with retail that would be built on the western side of the development site and connect to the terminal, according to theEnvironmental Assessment Statement RXR and TF Cornerstone filed with the city.

The1,646 feetwould makeProject Commodore the tallest building in the city by roof height,passing Extell Developments Central Park Tower on West 57th Street, according to The Real Deal.The project is headed to a public scoping meeting next month, with completion slated for 2030.

TF Cornerstone principal Jeremy Shell said in a release when the building was first announced in February 2019that it was an opportunity to bring a new icon to New Yorks skyline and help advance the citys goals for desperately needed new development and infrastructure in East Midtown. The area was rezonedin 2017 with the view of encouraging more office development.

The building would join new office supertall One Vanderbilt, which developer SL Green openedin September on theopposite side of Grand Central from Project Commodore. That $3B building spans 1.7M SF and is 1,400 tall, making it the fourth-tallest in New York and the tallest office building in Midtown.

JPMorgan is also moving aheadwith its plan to build a massive new headquarters at 270 Park Ave., with that building, which would house 14,000 people and reach 1,425 feet, now set to open in 2024.

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1,600-Foot Office And Hotel Tower Planned Next To Grand Central - Bisnow