4 World Trade Center construction site (right)
In the wake of last month’s accident at 4 World Trade Center, the Department of Buildings is asking all companies using that model of crane to limit their loads to 75 percent of the total recommended capacity, DNAinfo reported.
The city wants contractors to limit loads until the investigation into why the cable at the Tishman Construction project suddenly snapped, sending steel beams careening 40 stories onto a flatbed truck, is concluded. [more]
[Updated at 3:25 p.m. with comment from Tishman Construction] Tishman Construction and SL Green Realty have filed a $2 million lawsuit against United Hispanic Construction Workers, alleging the group has illegally harassed and intimated employees during demonstrations at Tishman’s 100 Park Avenue offices.
According to the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court Dec. 9, the Bronx-based union has been picketing outside of the building, which is owned by SL Green, since Oct. 1, alleging that Tishman has failed to hire women and minority contractors at various sites around the city.
Tishman and SL Green that vans with up to 25 picketers have illegally parked in front of the offices and picketers have yelled at workers, while storing baseball bats inside the vehicles. [more]
From the May issue: With 7.6 million square feet of commercial space under construction at the World Trade Center site, the New York City skyline may appear to be adding an unprecedented amount of office space. But a closer look shows that office builders were far busier in the previous periods of Manhattan history.
New Yorkers accustomed to cranes looming overhead might be surprised to hear that Manhattan commercial construction is in one of the slowest periods of the past century, according to a recent report by Newmark Knight Frank. In fact, Manhattan lost more office space than it gained in the aughts, according to the report, which details how the city’s commercial construction has ebbed and flowed over the past 100 years.
And even as commercial lending begins to rebound, experts say they don’t expect a huge burst of activity in the next few years, despite activity at the World Trade Center site and, eventually, Hudson Yards. [more]
The steel for Extell Development’s International Gem Tower at 44 West 47th Street is set to rise the last week of March or the first week of April, Extell’s Raizy Haas told the Post. The $750 million, 34-story condominium tower, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, had its design by Skidmore Owings & Merrill unveiled nearly four years ago. But since the October 2008 market crash badly hurt the diamond industry, progress on the tower has been delayed. Now, Extell and Tishman Construction have just turned on their public information hotline as work begins, giving details on trenching, sandblasting and related activities for this month and next. Comments
With 2010 winding to a close, Crain’s has listed the notable New Yorkers who passed away this year, including some of the real estate industry’s biggest names. Among the fallen titans are Tishman Realty & Construction CEO Robert Tishman and billionaire Paul Milstein, co-founder of Milstein Properties, one of the city’s biggest development firms. [more]
Dan Tishman
With proceeds from the $245 million sale of Tishman Construction last month, Dan Tishman has plans to push further into the hotel business, the Post reported. His family’s real estate business, Tishman Hotel & Realty, is a separate entity that includes the Westin New York at Times Square and the nearby InterContinental Hotel at 300 West 44th Street at 8th Avenue, which opened last month. “I think you will see more activity in that area,” Tishman said. “We’re heavily invested in hotels… We are extremely bullish on that sector and believe there will be a lot of opportunity.” He expects that hotel occupancy rates will improve next year. Despite his roots in construction, Tishman thinks it is smarter in this economy to buy existing hotels, specifically financially distressed properties, rather than build new ones. Tishman is eyeing the Times Square area from Eighth Avenue west, near the Javits Convention Center, where construction is underway to expand and renovate the complex. Large corporations, including the New York Times, Bank of America and law firm Proskauer Rose have moved into the area.
The Department of Buildings has issued 1,342 summonses — worth about $2.1 million in fines — for illegally smoking at construction sites since September 2008, but there are still too many workers lighting up, the New York Post reported. The summonses were issued as part of a crackdown prompted by the deaths of two firefighters in an August 2007 blaze at the former Deutsche Bank building, which was sparked by a cigarette. About $900,000 has been collected, with the remaining $1.2 million in penalties still to be adjudicated. Tishman Construction had the most violations in each of the last two years. “We strictly enforce smoking regulations on all job sites and have terminated individuals who have been caught smoking,” said Tishman spokesperson John Gallagher. [Post]
Jay Badame
Jay Badame, the president and COO of Tishman Construction of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has been named the new chairperson of the Regional Alliance for Small Contractors, a trade group aimed at promoting the growth of small, minority- and women-owned construction companies. Badame said that he plans to help “foster employment” and spur “competition within the construction industry” in his role with the New York City-based group. While Badame is new to the role, he’s not the first Tishman exec to hold office with the organization — former chairman of Tishman Construction John Tishman was a founding member of the group. TRD
Los Angeles-based Aecom Technology has acquired Tishman Construction in
a $245 million deal, the companies announced today. New York City-based
Tishman, one of the largest construction companies in the country, has
overseen numerous high-profile projects including the original World
Trade Center, One Bryant Park — the first LEED-Plat [more]
Dan Tishman is the fourth generation of his family to sit at the helm of Tishman Construction. In the last century, the firm has built some of the most high-profile projects in New York and around the globe. It’s currently building the iconic One World Trade Center. And while the firm mostly handles construction for others, it does some of its own developing too (it’s invested in two Times Square properties, the Westin Hotel and the InterContinental, the latter of which is to open within weeks). From his office at 666 Fifth Avenue (which, incidentally, his firm built), Dan, chairman and CEO, can gaze upon a skyline his family helped define. Click here to take a peek at Tishman’s desk.
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