General Contractor Florida

02/25/2019

https://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2019/02/22/heres-how-miami-county-is-getting-construction.amp.html

State and national eyes are on Miami County for its "cutting edge" way of doing business.

02/25/2019

Post all your general contractor stories and info here

03/19/2017

See you in court

Business may be slow for realtors and developers, but it’s booming for Gary Brown, a Miami attorney with Arnstein & Lehr specializing in suing builders for construction defects. “I’ve got about half a dozen cases I’m currently working on,” Brown recently told The Real Deal. “As more projects get completed this year, I don’t expect a shortage of construction defect lawsuits in 2017 and 2018.”

Indeed, the slowdown in the once-red-hot luxury condo market has created a post-boom flurry of litigation over construction defects between attorneys like Brown, who represent condo associations, and their adversaries representing developers, architects, general contractors, engineers and subcontractors.

The activity has been fueled by the glut of buildings that developers rushed to get finished before the boom phase of the most recent cycle grinded to a halt, as well as by buyers feeling remorse over having signed contracts at the top of the market.

From condominium buildings built more than 10 years ago, like the Trump Towers in Sunny Isles Beach, to recently constructed glass towers like Faena House in Miami Beach, dissatisfied unit owners are turning to the courts to force developers and construction companies to fix alleged errors or pay up.

“The increased number of lawsuits should be directly reflective of the increased number of buildings,” Gil Dezer, developer of Trump Towers I, II and III, told TRD. “So the fact that many buildings were built [in the last decade], more than ever before, is the reason you are seeing more lawsuits than ever before.”

Under Florida law, condo associations and owners must go through a 120-day mediation process with a developer and its contractors once construction defects are identified after a building has been delivered. Once the developer or contractor receives a notice of defects, they typically notify their insurance carriers to pay for their own experts and attorneys to investigate claims submitted by an association or owner.
After state courts were inundated with construction defect lawsuits in 2009, following the real estate market crash, the Florida Legislature set up the mediation process. “It was designed to curtail litigation we had in the condo sector years ago,” Brown said. “The process allows the parties to resolve their disputes before going to court.”

However, a 2015 court case in which construction company Altman Contractors sued its insurance carrier threw a monkey wrench into the process. The insurer, Crum & Foster, won a ruling in Miami federal court that the notice of claim filed by an association or owner is not a lawsuit under state law, so therefore an insurance company is not required to defend the contractors, including covering payments for attorney and expert fees.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is hearing an appeal by Altman, has asked the Florida Supreme Court to rule on whether the defect notice process can be defined as a lawsuit under a comprehensive general liability policy.

If the appeal is denied, even more cases are going to end up in court, says David Haber, a partner at Haber Slade, who won a $22.5 million settlement in September for the San Matera Condominium Association. After six years of litigation, Kolter Signature Homes and its contractors agreed to pay the money in order to address numerous construction defects at the San Matera at the Gardens development in West Palm Beach.

“The problem with these very large projects is that very few developers want to settle the claims,” Haber says. “They force you into litigation. There are going to be a lot more lawsuits in the next two to five years.”
During the last six months of 2016, lawsuits have been filed against the developers of some of the ritziest condo towers built in the most recent cycle.

In August and December of last year, owners of three units at the Chateau Beach Residences filed separate construction defect lawsuits against the developer, the general contractor and a subcontractor of the Sunny Isles Beach luxury condo tower. The plaintiffs are seeking millions in damages resulting from a gas explosion on the top floor of the 34-story building that injured six people in October 2015, one month after Chateau Beach was completed.

The New York-based developers of the Marquis Miami condo tower in downtown Miami were also hit with a construction defect lawsuit this past September. The building’s condo association accused Shaya Boymelgreen and Lev Leviev, as well as the construction companies they hired, of failing to fix alleged defects found in the roof, structural components, post-tension cable assemblies, the plumbing and the fire and life-safety system, among other accusations.

In October, a Russian family sued the Trump Group (no relation to President Donald Trump) and general contractor Coastal Construction for alleged defects in their $7 million apartment in the Mansions at Acqualina in Sunny Isles Beach, which was completed in 2015. According to the complaint, the unit was damaged due to water coming into two bedrooms from a poorly installed window and a faulty fire sprinkler system.

Unit owners at the Epic Residences Miami and Faena House in Miami Beach also filed construction defect lawsuits in the latter part of 2016.

Alleged construction defects are the subject of a lawsuit at Faena House in Miami Beach.
While the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Miami-Dade has not compiled statistics on the number of construction defect lawsuits, the court system recently expanded its Complex Business Litigation Division to accommodate the looming caseload.

The division, which handled the tsunami of foreclosure litigation between 2010 and 2014, also went from one to four judges specifically assigned to construction defect cases, according to an administrative order that went into effect on Jan. 2.
“That was an excellent decision by the court system,” Haber says. “By their very nature, construction defect cases are complex, with multiple parties, multiple lawyers and multiple experts.”

Richard Morgan, a shareholder with the law firm Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney, said construction defect cases require judges who can spend a lot of time reviewing thousands of hours of testimony and evidence. “For a judge in the general circuit division, it is difficult to get engaged in all these issues,” Morgan said. “We had a major case that involved 40 different disciplines from the roofing to the plumbing to aesthetics.”

Lawyers affirmed that the increase in lawsuits is a byproduct of builders’ looking to cash in as quickly as possible during the boom part of the real estate cycle. “Because Florida is so boom-and-bust, there is a very compressed cycle for developers to get their plans and buildings off the ground before foreign
currencies go down and people don’t want to buy anymore,” Haber said. “The more you compress time and push people harder to finish a job, the harder it is to get good workmanship.”

Michael Kurzman, a partner at Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, said that during a construction boom, qualified labor is in such high demand that some general contractors and subcontractors cannot find skilled workers. “The labor pool is only so big, so companies are stealing quality laborers from one another,” Kurzman said. “They hire people that don’t get proper training when they are building like crazy. As an end result, some projects suffer because of the shortage of trained labor.”

In the past six months, Kurzman said he has experienced a significant increase in his construction defect claims workload. “I am working every day,” he said. “I can’t keep up.”
He said developers could easily avoid construction defect lawsuits by hiring an engineering firm that oversees construction. “So when you turn it over to the association, there will be very few issues the condo board can complain about,” Kurzman said, adding: “But some developers don’t want to spend the money because the engineers aren’t cheap.”

Of course, developers have a different take. Dezer, whose company was sued in April 2016 over alleged shoddy construction work at Trump Towers I, II, and III, said lawyers and engineers hired by condo associations to go after builders for construction defects never want to see a case go away. “They need to prove their value, so they convince condo boards to continue fighting instead of settling during the mediation process,” Dezer says.

“They want to be able to continue billing their clients.” Dezer also argued that engineers hired by condo associations are theorists with little hands-on experience in condo construction.
Alex Lastra, president of the Latin Builders Association, said sometimes condo owners resort to construction defect lawsuits to extract money from developers to offset falling prices for their units when the cycle slows down and a glut of inventory exists.
“As the market tightens, you tend to see more of these lawsuits,” Lastra said. “When an investor is not sitting on as much equity on a unit, they try to find someone who is at fault for that.

They reach out and use the construction defect lawsuit as a crutch.”
Developers are not looking to get caught up in litigation over construction defects, and would prefer to just solve any legitimate issues, Lastra said. “A majority of developers, when presented with a true defect, will always want to go in and get it resolved.”

The Real Deal New York

09/18/2016

Construction Veteran Rygiel Joins Walbridge to Lead Florida Group

TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida construction industry veteran Frank Rygiel has joined Walbridge, a top-50 U.S. contractor, as its new Vice President and General Manager of the company's Florida Group. Rygiel comes to Walbridge from Batson-Cook Construction, where he worked for eight years and served most recently as Project Executive/Vice President of Business Development.

Rygiel began his career as an estimator with Lincoln Construction, then joined Skanska and worked there as a Senior Project Manager for nine years. He earned a degree in Construction Management from East Carolina University.

"Frank has great experience in the Florida construction market and we'll leverage that to get Walbridge in front of new customers in new industries," Walbridge Executive Vice President Donald Greenwell, P.E., said. "His overall track record in multi-family residential, private development and higher education is exemplary and with Frank's guidance we can deliver great value to owners across the state."

Rygiel is also active in local education and planning organizations, including serving as a board member with the following: Pasco-Hernando State College Foundation, Leadership Tampa Bay, the Children's Dream Fund, Lutz Preparatory School, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, and Associated Builders and Contractors – Florida Gulf Coast.

In Florida, Walbridge has constructed a number of large, prominent projects, including the Tampa Bay History Center, Gopher Resources' new battery smelter and recycling center, and Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City. Currently, Walbridge is leading the exterior renovation of the 100-year-old Tampa City Hall building. In 2016, Walbridge's Florida office was named by the Tampa Bay Business Journal as a Best Places to Work Award winner.

Walbridge (www.walbridge.com) is an Engineering News-Record "Top 50" construction company. Founded in 1916, Walbridge is headquartered in Detroit and has more than a dozen offices located across the United States and conducts international operations in Canada, Mexico and South America.

Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/

09/18/2016

Train station marks construction milestone in Fort Lauderdale while opponents hope to stop plans

Hi-speed-rail supporters marked a milestone at the site of Fort Lauderdale's Brightline train station Friday, while opponents were waiting for a federal judge to derail financing plans for the Miami-to-Orlando express passenger service.

Local dignitaries were among more than 100 people attending the "topping out" event during the lunch hour.

The aroma of barbeque wafted through the air as a yellow Brightline flag was signed and raised atop the structure to symbolize the installation of the last beam completing the train station's concrete skeleton.

Earlier in the week, lawyers for Brightline-parent All Aboard Florida and the Department of Transportation were scheduled to file, in Washington D.C., their response to a federal court challenge by Indian River and Martin counties.

But the counties' effort to stop Phase II of the project from Cocoa to Orlando — over financial and environmental concerns — did not faze Brightline President Michael Reininger.

"We are absolutely as confident today as the day we started this project that we're going to deliver service connecting Central Florida to Southeast Florida," he said at the event.

The service is scheduled to begin next summer with what Reininger estimated to be a 26-minute ride between Miami and Fort Lauderdale and another 26 minutes between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Travel between Miami and Orlando will take about three hours.

Construction of the sprawling MiamiCentral station is well underway and a "topping out" is scheduled for the West Palm Beach station Sept. 30. The Orlando Brightline station is being built as part of a transportation hub at Orlando International Airport.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler hopes Brightline will draw visitors from Orlando.

"This is a two-way street," he said. "I think there's an opportunity for the tourism industry to benefit both in Central Florida and in South Florida."

Seiler considers the Brightline connection a "game changer" for commuters, visitors, new development, redevelopment and job creation in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and he's confident a lawsuit won't stop that.

"There's a concern but my experience has been that these Brightline people have delivered on their promises," Seiler said. "I think they're going to work through these issues. I think they'll find the commitments they need."

Source:sunsentinel.com

09/18/2016

Most Florida construction firms struggling with labor shortage, survey says

The majority of Florida construction firms are struggling with a workforce shortage, especially for project managers, according to a new survey by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).

The group surveyed nearly 1,500 firms across the nation about their construction workforce needs. Labor availability is especially important in South Florida because it’s one of the busiest metro areas for development, and the lack of skilled workers can delay projects and drive up costs.

Nationally, 69 percent of firms said they had a hard time filling hourly craft positions, the people that work on the job sites. In Florida, 61 percent of firms reported the same, so the labor situation wasn’t quite as severe.

Locally, the hardest-to-fill craft positions were crane and heavy equipment operators, concrete workers, carpenters and mechanics.

AGC Senior Executive Director of Public Affairs Brian Turmail said word has gotten out that there are high-paying craft construction jobs in South Florida and workers have left other regions to land jobs here. The same can’t be said for other construction industry jobs here.

AGC found that 68 percent of Florida construction firms had trouble finding salaried field positions, compared to just 38 percent of firms nationally. Project managers/supervisors and engineers were the most difficult jobs to fill.

Turmail said South Florida construction firms are having difficulty finding the project managers and supervisors who plan out and lead projects because there’s so much work in the market. These jobs typically require a high level of education.

“If you don’t have folks to run a project, you aren’t worried about craft workers at that point,” Turmail said.

He said South Florida firms have increased salaries to recruit project managers and supervisors. Its survey found that 71 percent of Florida firms increased base pay rates for hourly craft positions and 61 increased pay rates for salaried positions, while 29 percent of firms awarded bonuses or incentives. That’s significantly higher than on the national survey. Sixty-four percent of Florida firms said they increased overtime because of labor shortages, compared to 47 percent nationally.

Scott Clark, president and CEO of Augusta, Georgia-based general contractor R.W. Allen LLC, said most recent college graduates in building sciences programs would prefer to work in the office instead of in the field, so that makes it tough to fill those positions. Graduates in construction programs typically get multiple job offers.

The AGC has encouraged more public investment into construction skills training, and much of that doesn’t require a four-year college degree. It advocates for expanding charter school and technical school programs in construction, in addition to comprehensive immigration reform to boost the construction workforce.

Quality and safety have become significant concerns amid the construction labor shortage, especially in Florida. The ACG survey in Florida found 57 percent of firms rated the adequacy of the local pipeline for supply well-trained craft personnel was poor and 29 percent rated it fair. Nationally, 37 percent called it poor and 38 percent said it was fair.

In the Florida survey, 18 percent of firms said there was an increase in reportable injuries and illnesses and 21 percent reported more job-site hazards due to staffing challenges. That compares to 12 percent and 10 percent nationally, respectively.

Turmail said many general contractors are hiring people who they might not normally hire because of the workforce shortage. They’re also putting more first-time workers on the job sites.

According to the AGC’s review of federal labor data, construction employment in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties increased by 14 percent, 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively, for the 12 months ended in July. The total construction job gain for the region was 10,100.

Dodge Data & Analytics reported that construction starts increased 4 percent to $6.32 billion in South Florida in the first seven months of 2016, compared to the year before. While fewer condos are expected to break ground, apartment, retail, hotel and industrial construction are picking up.

Source:http://www.bizjournals.com
Aug 31, 2016, 4:06pm EDT

06/27/2016

Remodeling? Renovating? Prepare for the nightmare

This month’s jobs numbers may have been anemic, but by other indicators, namely the quantity of home improvement projects, the economy seems to be doing just fine. Practically everyone I know is in the middle of some renovation, which invariably means one thing: they’re stressed out and going through what I call the five stages of construction: excitement, confusion, shock, anger, and I-can’t-wait-until-this-is-over.

I’m sure there are people who remodel homes with minimal headaches, within budget and on schedule. I just don’t know any.

Projects friends and family are undertaking run the gamut from the simple to the complicated. Some are redoing bathrooms, or updating a kitchen, or adding a master suite, or tiling a back porch. A couple of these brave souls have even ventured into the great unknown, gutting the entire house.

Boy, am I happy I’m not among that joyless group. The more horror stories they tell me, the less inclined I am to try anything beyond a simple paint job.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/ana-veciana-suarez/article85137842.html =cpy

Much of the growing remodeling craze, I think, is due to the popularity of reality TV shows. Watch them frequently enough and you’re sure to convince yourself that any project can be wrapped up in a one-hour episode. Sure, there’s dust and unexpected problems on the set, maybe a sulking spouse or a sullen worker, but by and large, the work is done with minimal hassles. If only life imitated art.

In the world of finicky building inspectors, slow permit offices and wacky contractors, electricians keep you waiting for hours, plumbers never show up, painters take on another project halfway through yours, and the factory that makes the 24-by-24 porcelain tile you love just went out of business. In short, everything takes longer than expected and costs more than you budgeted. Worse: there’s often little you can do about such hassles.

One of my sons refers to these glitches as "first-world problems," but when you’re suffering through them, it doesn’t matter whether you live in a developed country or if you have the money to subsidize the budget over-runs. They’re still financially and emotionally painful.

In the past year alone, I’ve been regaled with tales that defy responsible business practices. One neighbor, installing a generator to power the entire house, waited months to hear back from the county. Officials there insisted she didn’t have a gas line — a shocker since she’s had a gas stove and a gas clothes dryer for decades. A relative fired the crew that had been working on his house — quite sporadically, by the way — for four months, only to find out some of the renovations had to be redone. Another friend’s licensed contractor walked away from the project, claiming he was losing money. And in the process of remodeling a kitchen, a couple discovered they had to rewire part of the house’s electrical system because the previous owner had done it without following city code.

Stories of nightmarish renovations are now part and parcel of my dinner party circle. Like the experience of labor shared at baby showers, the misery of construction is the bond that unites a lot of homeowners.

And yet…yet, as I drive around the neighborhood, I’ve lost count of the number of dumpsters and sand piles. Chain hardware stores are packed on Saturdays and some people I know are waiting six months for a contractor.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, surely this is the triumph of imagination over intelligence, of hope over experience.

Source: miamiherald.com Ana Veciana-Suarez: 305-376-3633, [email protected],

06/15/2016

How this centuries-old plant might usher in the construction wave of the future

ientists and engineers from around the world recently convened at the University of Pittsburgh for a conference on what they believe could be the building material of the future. The substance rivals the strength of steel and concrete, and is lightweight and bendable. Even better, it grows naturally all over the world.

They were talking, of course, about bamboo.

Forget that people have been building with it for thousands of years — over the last century, bamboo has fallen out of favor, abandoned by builders and ignored by engineers. That could finally be changing, says Bhavna Sharma, an engineer and architect at the University of Bath, England, who attended the conference. "With the increase in interest in sustainability and carbon emissions, natural materials are experiencing a renaissance."

A type of woody grass, some 1,200 species of bamboo grow around the world, in a belt that extends from southern and eastern Asia, across Sub-Saharan Africa, to North and South America. Under tension, some species have about half the strength of steel. Under compression, they can surpass the strength of concrete. Stalks just an inch or two wide can grow 40 feet high — an amazing ratio, says structural engineer Kent Harries, who led the conference. "I cannot build a building like that." What's more, it can grow as much as three feet per day, making it quickly renewable. "Basically, nature got it right," Harries says.

As of now, bamboo hasn't been vetted by the plethora of tests and trials that help engineers judge the safety and reliability of a building made out of concrete or steel. "We're trying to backfill the science behind the material," Harries says, "to bring it up to the same level of understanding we have for timber or steel."

The first challenge is variation between species. "To say 'bamboo' is like to say 'wood' — oak is very different from pine," Harries says. Each of the 15 or 20 bamboo species routinely used for construction handles tension, compression, and bending differently. "The same species will have different properties when harvested at different times, different elevations," he says. Its mechanical properties can even change depending on what time of day it is harvested. "I need a way to be able to speak to the engineers, the technical folks, and communicate that," he says.

The second challenge is that in its natural round, or "full-culm" state, each piece of bamboo is slightly different. Bamboo also splits easily, which is why joints are traditionally constructed without nails, says Sharma. Usually, connecting poles are lashed together with a pre-soaked fibrous material, she says, which then shrinks and tightens as it dries. Because of variation in species and pole diameters, a joint that works for one species of bamboo might not work for another. "Having a circular cross-section makes it very complex to form joints, and that's one of the main barriers for adoption of bamboo," Sharma says.

Numerous universities and companies are working on bamboo coupling systems that could be transferred from one situation to another. In 2015, Penda, a Beijing architecture firm, built a prototype of a modular bamboo structure, with interlocking triangle supports. "It's a flexible system that you adapt to these imperfections," says Penda co-founder Chris Precht.

The modular structure could be quickly erected as an emergency shelter after natural disasters, or scaled up into a multi-story apartment building, Precht says. Harries also noted bamboo's potential as an emergency shelter — in many places, construction-capable bamboo grows naturally, and could be deployed faster than tents or other shelters which have to be shipped into disaster zones.

Along with helping to develop potential standards for building with bamboo, Harries helped design a testing system that fits in a backpack, so people can easily test bamboo's mechanical properties in the field. "As you're harvesting, you can cut specimens and find out where you are in terms of strength or fitness."

Satisfying code inspectors is only part of it, he says — the real value of bamboo is to the billion-some people worldwide who live in informal dwellings. Bamboo is often a local material, and understanding more about its mechanical properties would help people shelter themselves in a safe and sustainable way. "Bamboo doesn't take great skills to use, as long as you have some ability to grade it and know what you're getting," he says. "Safety in the built environment is supposedly a human right. We're looking at ways to address that."

http://theweek.com/
by: Zach St. George

03/21/2016

FHP: Construction worker killed by dump truck on I-4

A 34-year-old construction worker on Interstate 4 was fatally run over by a dump truck filled with dirt on Wednesday, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The male victim, who has been identified as Marvin Franklin, was killed about 11:30 a.m. on the eastbound side of I-4 between Lee Road and Maitland Boulevard, said Sgt. Kim Montes, spokeswoman for FHP.

Franklin worked for SGL Constructors in Maitland, the lead contractor in the highway's multibillion-dollar makeover.

He died in a work area after the dump truck, which was making a delivery, backed up and ran him over, Montes said.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of a SGL Constructors employee," a spokesman for the company said in a statement. "Our focus now is to ensure we support individuals and families as they deal with this tragic event."

FHP identified the dump truck driver as 49-year-old Riomar Morales of Orlando.

The accident did not affect traffic because it occurred entirely on the highway's shoulder.

I-4 is currently undergoing a 21-mile makeover dubbed the I-4 Ultimate Improvement Project, a $2.3 billion endeavor expected to take at least six years.

Construction on Orlando's major transportation network began in February 2015.

The entire job site was shut down and secured after Wednesday's accident, according to SGL.

The Florida Department of Transportation, which is involved with the project, wouldn't comment further.

I-4 worker killed by construction vehicle near Fairbanks Ave
A construction worker, working on the I-4 Ultimate project was struck and killed by a construction vehicle near Exit 87 by Fairbanks Avenue on Wednesday morning.
A spokesman didn't immediately know if Wednesday's fatality was the first since the construction started. SGL could not provide that information either.

FHP, which only covers parts of the I-4 corridor affected by the work, has not responded to any other construction worker fatalities since the project started, according to Montes.

Source:orlandosentinel.com

03/21/2016

Superior Construction: growing Florida's roadways

Infrastructure is in Pete Kelley’s blood. “My father built roads and bridges throughout his entire career so I had a good exposure to it while growing up,” he explains. Kelley continued that tradition, with an education in civil engineering and a long career in highway construction.

Kelley has been a part of the Superior Construction family since 1993. Today, he serves as President of Superior Construction Southeast, and a long with fourth-generation principal Nick Largura is currently overseeing the company’s growth strategy within the Southeast U.S. region and developing its reputation as a leading design-build contractor.

As a full service contractor specializing in heavy industrial construction, Superior Construction provides its clients with a range of construction services including earthwork, drainage, pile driving, bridge construction, and concrete paving, even working alongside clients on project development to provide budgetary cost estimates and constructability reviews. Through these services, the company plays a vital role in making bridges and roadways safer and more efficient for Florida’s commuter and business communities.

Improving Florida Infrastructure

For decades, Superior Construction has been doing its part to expand Florida’s transportation infrastructure through high profile projects like the completion of SR 9B, a project Kelley calls “the Holy Grail of transportation” for the rapidly growing Northwest St. Johns County, and the long awaited $68 million 23rd St. Interchange project.

“This is a signature infrastructure project for the 3rd District of the Florida Department of Transportation,” explains Kelley. “Due to funding challenges and ROW negotiations, this project was delayed from construction for over a decade, and is now a critical transportation component for the US 98 corridor in the Florida panhandle.”

While the logistical and financial challenges of this multi-phase project once presented setbacks, the development underway today reflects Panama City’s strong economic growth by creating a more streamlined transportation system through the viral port city.

Source: www.Businessreviewusa.com