Real Estate & Construction News Roundup (5/22/24) – Federal Infrastructure Money, Hotel Development Pipelines, and Lab Space Construction
June 17, 2024 —
Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team - Gravel2Gavel Construction & Real Estate Law BlogIn our latest roundup, Virginia’s governor signs two bills into law, $929 billion in outstanding commercial mortgages come due, banks prepare for delinquencies related to office space, and more!
- Demand for lab space is set to ramp up, with market activity expected to increase in the coming months. (Joe Burns, Construction Dive)
- Federal infrastructure money is keeping the country’s infrastructure woes from getting worse, but that progress will be lost when that funding ends. (Julie Strupp, Construction Dive)
- In the first quarter of 2024, several major hotel companies saw their revenues down—or lower than expected—but their development pipelines were up. (Jenna Walters, Hotel Dive)
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Pillsbury's Construction & Real Estate Law Team
Daiwa House to Invest 150 Billion Yen in U.S. Rental Housing
March 07, 2014 —
Kathleen Chu – BloombergDaiwa House Industry Co. (1925), Japan’s biggest homebuilder by market value, plans to invest 150 billion yen ($1.48 billion) in U.S. rental housing, three times more than it had aimed to allocate to overseas investments, to boost revenue.
Daiwa House will acquire and develop leasing properties in Texas and allocate the funds over the next three years, the Osaka-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. The homebuilder targets 50 billion yen of revenue in the U.S. by the year ending March 2019, it said.
Japan’s shrinking population has prompted the country’s homebuilders such as Daiwa House to seek new revenue sources. Texas is the most that Daiwa House is investing overseas for rental housing and compares with the 50 billion yen the company had announced for investments abroad in its mid-term plan in November.
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Kathleen Chu, BloombergMs. Chu may be contacted at
kchu2@bloomberg.net
Building the Secondary Market for Reclaimed Building Materials
August 30, 2021 —
Christopher G. Hill - Construction Law MusingsFor this week’s guest post Friday, Musings welcomes Mark Rabkin of Deconstruction Management, Inc., the first, dedicated, for-profit deconstruction management firm in the country. Based in Northeast Ohio, it through all stages of building removal from property acquisition to deconstruction to recycling and architectural salvage.
With 10 years of professional experience as an independent risk advisor focusing on sustainable real estate and development, Mark counsels his clients on effective strategies to reduce hazards and mitigate losses. Mark oversees the marketing and administrative functions of Deconstruction Management, Inc. and is responsible for managing the architectural salvage and the upcycled material reuse and resale side of the business.
Mark is a leader in the advocacy of sustainable building strategies both locally and nationally. Mark serves as the volunteer Director of Advocacy for the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the United States Green Building Council. He is also an active contributor on many of the chapter’s strategic implementation teams. Mark is a member of Entrepreneurs for Sustainability, the Council of Smaller Enterprises’ Sustainability Task Force and is an active participant in the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Initiative.
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The Law Office of Christopher G. HillMr. Hill may be contacted at
chrisghill@constructionlawva.com
Newmeyer Dillion Named 2023 Best Law Firm in Multiple Practice Areas By U.S. News-Best Lawyers
November 07, 2022 —
Newmeyer DillionNEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – November 3, 2022 – Prominent business and real estate law firm Newmeyer Dillion is pleased to announce that U.S. News-Best Lawyers® has recognized the firm in its 2023 "Best Law Firms" rankings, in seven practice areas earning the highest ranking possible - Tier 1 in the Orange County Metro area. The practices recognized include:
Commercial Litigation
Construction Law
Insurance Law
Litigation - Construction
Litigation - Insurance
Litigation - Real Estate
Real Estate Law
Additionally, the firm has been recognized as Tier 2 in Employment Law - Management and Tier 3 in Litigation - Labor & Employment.
"Newmeyer Dillion prides itself on genuinely partnering with our clients to offer business-oriented solutions for their legal issues," said Managing Partner Paul Tetzloff. "Receiving this honor shows that our clients appreciate the quality of our work and our team's dedication to their organization's success."
Firms included in the 2023 "Best Law Firms" list have been recognized by their clients and peers for their professional excellence. Firms achieving a Tier 1 ranking have consistently demonstrated a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal expertise.
To be eligible for the "Best Law Firms" ranking, a firm must have at least one attorney recognized in the current edition of The Best Lawyers in America for a specific practice area. Best Lawyers recognizes the top 4 percent of practicing attorneys in the U.S., selected through exhaustive peer-review surveys in which leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.
About Newmeyer Dillion
For over 35 years, Newmeyer Dillion has delivered creative and outstanding legal solutions and trial results that achieve client objectives in diverse industries. With over 60 attorneys working as a cohesive team to represent clients in all aspects of business, employment, real estate, environmental/land use, privacy & data security and insurance law, Newmeyer Dillion delivers holistic and integrated legal services tailored to propel each client's operations, growth, and profits. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with offices in Walnut Creek, California and Las Vegas, Nevada, Newmeyer Dillion attorneys are recognized by The Best Lawyers in America©, and Super Lawyers as top tier and some of the best lawyers in California and Nevada, and have been given Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review's AV Preeminent® highest rating. For additional information, call 949.854.7000 or visit www.newmeyerdillion.com.
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Claim for Punitive Damages Based on Insurers' Alleged Bad Faith Business Practices Fails
September 05, 2022 —
Tred R. Eyerly - Insurance Law HawaiiThe court granted the insurer's motion to dismiss the bad faith claim based upon allegations of a general business practice of acting recklessly toward an insured's rights under the policy. Sandpiper Isle Condo. Ass'n v. Empire Indem. Ins. Co., 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114279 (M.D. Fla. June 28, 2022).
Sandpiper suffered property damage from Hurricane Irma. Empire accepted the claim but there was disagreement on the value of the damage. An appraisal issued an award in favor of Sandpiper but Empire failed to pay the benefits for two years.
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Tred R. Eyerly, Damon Key Leong Kupchak HastertMr. Eyerly may be contacted at
te@hawaiilawyer.com
When OSHA Cites You
April 22, 2024 —
Michael Metz-Topodas - Construction ExecutiveWith the strong bonds that form among construction project teams, workers looking out for each other helps keep safety foremost in everyone’s mind. But sometimes, even the very best intentions alone can’t prevent an occasional misstep—a forgotten hard hat, a sagging rope line—which can and often does result in an OSHA citation. These regulatory reminders can bring unfortunate consequences: penalties, higher insurance premiums, potential worker injury claims, loss of bidding eligibility, loss of reputation and even public embarrassment, because citations are published on OSHA’s website.
Due to citations’ adverse effects, contractors have incentives to minimize them. They can do this by asserting available defenses, because a citation is only an alleged violation, not a confirmed one. But making defenses available begins well before a citation is issued, well before OSHA arrives to a construction site and well before a violation even occurs. Instead, contractors’ ongoing safety programs should incorporate the necessary measures to preserve OSHA citation defenses in three key areas: lack of employee exposure, lack of employer knowledge and impossibility.
EMPLOYEE EXPOSURE
To sustain a citation against an employer, OSHA must not only identify an applicable standard that the company violated but also show that the violation exposed employees to hazards and risk of injury. Absent evidence of actual exposure, OSHA often makes this showing by asserting that performing job functions necessarily exposes employees to the cited hazard.
Reprinted courtesy of
Michael Metz-Topodas, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.
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Mr. Metz-Topodas may be contacted at
michael.metz-topodas@saul.com
Documenting Contract Changes in Construction
December 07, 2020 —
J.D. Holzheauser - Construction ExecutiveConstruction projects are almost inevitably subject to changes in the contract. A fundamental understanding of construction changes, how those changes are governed and what is necessary to ensure a complete change are of paramount importance to all parties involved in a construction project. This article is not a treatise on construction contract changes; rather, it provides advice on actions a contractor can take during construction that will help the contractor recover time or money when a contract’s schedule or scope of work needs to be changed.
Changes Defined
Changes to a construction project affect two broad spheres—timing and scope of work. Changes usually present themselves as either a change order or a change directive. Each may go by a different name depending on the contractual scheme in the project’s prime contract, but they essentially have the same characteristics.
The difference between a change order and a change directive is one of agreement. A change order (in the owner-prime contractor context) occurs when the contractor and the owner agree to a change in the timing or scope of work in the contract. Normally, the change order is a written agreement to change the contract and is executed by the contractor and owner.
Reprinted courtesy of
J.D. Holzheauser, Construction Executive, a publication of Associated Builders and Contractors. All rights reserved.
Mr. Holzheauser may be contacted at jdholzheauser@pecklaw.com
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Massachusetts Federal Court Holds No Coverage for Mold and Water Damage Claim
February 11, 2019 —
Brian Margolies - TLSS Insurance Law BlogIn its recent decision in Clarendon National Ins. Co. v. Philadelphia Indemnity Ins. Co., 2019 WL 134614 (D. Mass. Jan. 8, 2019), the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts had occasion to consider the application of a prior knowledge provision in the context of a claim for mold and water-related bodily injury and property damage.
Philadelphia insured a condominium property management company under a general liability insurance policy for the period September 1, 2007 through September 1, 2008. In 2009, the insured was sued by a unit owner alleging bodily injury and property damage resulting from toxic mold conditions resulting from leaks that had been identified in her unit as early as 2004. Notably, the complaint alleged that mold was identified in 2006 and that repair efforts were undertaken, but that these efforts all proved unsuccessful. Plaintiff alleged that she was forced to vacate her apartment in 2008 as a result of the conditions.
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Brian Margolies, Traub LiebermanMr. Margolies may be contacted at
bmargolies@tlsslaw.com