“The owner of the Home Depot Center in Carson has unveiled plans to build a new hotel and training facility next to the venue in conjunction with Los Angeles’ bid for the Olympic Games. Anschutz Entertainment Group said it will build the facilities if L.A. is awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics. The U.S. Olympic Committee is expected to choose on April 14 whether Los Angeles or Chicago will be the nation’s candidate city. AEG plans call for a 150-room hotel and conference center and a training facility.”
“Throughout Southern California, various trade contractors working on building projects with Lennar Corporation have received letters from the builder directing subcontractors to reduce and resubmit invoices for previously contracted work. Within the letters, Lennar threatens the contractors with being shut out of future
work unless they meet the company’s demand to lower prices for work in progress and, in some cases, already completed. The January letters offer ‘trade partners’ the option of lowering their previously arranged prices or ‘be excluded from bidding future work for a minimum of 6 months.’ According to Beth Curran, executive director of the California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors, Orange County/Inland Empire (CALPASC OCIE), this amounts to extortion and sets a dangerous precedent.”
“USG Corp. on Monday announced two major deals to expand operations in the West, including a new wallboard plant in Stockton. The Chicago-based company will begin construction soon on the $220 million plant at the Port of Stockton. The 90-acre plant should open in the first six months of 2010. The 150-employee plant, which will make Sheetrock grand gypsum panel, will replace two higher-cost plants that USG closed in California, USG chairman and chief executive officer William C. Foote said in a news release.”
“Despite an occasional frustrated outburst, the state High Speed Rail Authority outlined a determined but non-confrontational strategy Monday to press for survival of a state bullet train. The agency is trying to counter recommendations by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to give it only a fraction of its proposed budget next year and to drop permanently a $10 billion bond for the train from the ballot. ‘That’s not good news for high speed rail,’ Visalia Mayor Jesus Gamboa said of the governor’s proposals after testifying in favor of the train that would run through the San Joaquin Valley. HSRA board member Rod Diridon had a stronger reaction about the plan to jettison the bond to fund the first phase of the train linking Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. ‘That is obnoxious,’ he said.”
Jacobs Engineering is on a roll. In addition to a big seismic retrofit project of the Transbay Tube between Oakland and San Francisco, and an indefinite delivery contract with the GSA, they have just been awarded a contract with a major manufacturing firm in the Netherlands. According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, the contract is with Teijin Twaron B.V. to provide engineering, procurement, and construction management services as part of the “NIKKO Project” being implemented at Teijin Twaron’s existing site in Emmen. “Teijin Twaron is an international company that supplies customers throughout the world with a broad portfolio of aramid high performance fibers. Jacobs will develop a new spinning facility to turn base polymer materials into Teijin Twaron’s synthetic aramid fiber, called Twaron”, the article said. Jacobs is based in Pasadena and provides technical, professional, and construction services globally. It employs more that 45,000 worldwide.
“The housing slowdown hit KB Home as charges and price concessions piled up to bring a fourth quarter loss for the Los Angeles homebuilder. For the quarter, KB Home recorded a loss of $49.6 million, or 64 cents a share, including $343.3 million in charges related to inventory and joint venture impairments, as well as the abandonment of land option contracts.”
“California leads the rest of the nation on a list of 122 levees that are at risk of failing, according to a list released Thursday by the Army Corps of Engineers.”
The California Building Standards Commission has unanimously approved the use of PVC piping in home construction. Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride pipes are much less expensive than copper piping but have been criticized because of the possibility that toxic chemicals could leach into the soil or water. California is one of the last States to approve these pipes but the timing of this decision has raised suspicions. The building industry’s has made more than $16 million dollars in contributions to Governor Schwarzenegger since 2003 and nine of the 10 commission members who approved the pipe change are Schwarzenegger appointees.
