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Reasons to Read
Below you will find updates on interesting projects and our upcoming seminars, as well as a summary of a novel decision out of Hamilton County. Here are a few interesting developments from the last two months.
The Real Estate and Construction Group at the Skoda Minotti accounting firm is, for the sixth year, conducting its survey of the regional real estate and construction industries. Click on either term to participate. You can also review last year's report.
A jury smacked Fru-Con Construction Company with a $54 million verdict in that company's dispute with Sacramento Municipal Utility District. SMUD terminated Fru-Con and hired another contractor after Fru-Con refused to remove and replace sub-standard concrete in one area. The award, coming after a three-month trial, included $35.5 million for extra completion costs, $13 million in interest, and nearly $7 million in liquidated damages (at $25,000 per day).
With the new year, union contractors gained new reporting responsibilities for multi-employer pension plans, writes Aaron Cook of the accounting firm Meaden & Moore. Click here to learn more.
Thank you again for taking the time to review this newsletter. If you have any story ideas, please just let me know.
Jim Dixon
216-515-1642
jdixon@frantzward.com |
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Time Does Not Run Against the King
In University of Cincinnati v. Walsh Higgins & Company, et al.,the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas agreed with UC and ruled that Ohio's ten-year statute of repose does not apply to the state. UC relied upon the doctrine of nullum tempus, a truly ancient doctrine given new life by the Ohio Supreme Court in a 1988 decision. While the doctrine does not apply to subdivisions of the state, counties, municipalities, townships, and school boards, contractors and design professionals who work on state projects should expect to see this argument more often. |
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Noteworthy Projects
Baldwin Wallace University, with the help of Bold Alternatives, constructed a 105 kW solar panel array on the roof of its Center for Innovation and Growth. Cleveland-based Go Sol LLC owns and operates the system, and sells the power to BW at below-market rates.
Residents of the City of Akron will soon have a tunnel to call their own, as the City embarks on the construction of a $200 million sewer tunnel. Akron's tunnel will be more than a mile in length and will have an interior diameter of about 27 feet. It will serve the same function as a tunnel under construction under the Black River in the City of Lorain, as the Mill Creek Tunnels already constructed by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, and as the Euclid Creek Tunnel under construction by the District on the shores of Lake Erie. Akron hopes to begin construction in April 2014.
An innovative grant competition is now part of developer Dick Pace's plans to invigorate the Fifth Street Arcades (formerly known as the Colonial and Euclid Arcades and mostly used as a nice place for lunch or a cut-through between Euclid and Prospect on rainy days). Mr. Pace, through his company Cumberland Development, took over the space as a master tenant last fall.
The area now has its second passive home, as Linda Butler and Steven Nissen have now moved into the they constructed in the Ambler Heights neighborhood in Cleveland Heights. The project was not without controversy because it involved the demolition of an historic mansion. Steven Litt, the architecture critic for The Plain Dealer, considers it "a classic example of two positive values in conflict - preservation versus sustainability." View the links to see what you think.
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