AG’s office: Hanover High contractor misled the town

The state Attorney General’s Office has ruled that the contractor in charge of building a new Hanover High School misled the town in a questionnaire as part of its bidding for the job…

Deborah Anderson, an assistant attorney general, on Friday approved a protest filed by the Laborers’ New England Region Organizing Fund and N.B. Kenney Co., a plumbing and HVAC contractor based in Devens.

Anderson ruled that Callahan Inc., the Bridgewater firm that was awarded the job by Hanover’s school building committee in September for a base bid of $37 million, exaggerated the experience it had in public school construction on the questionnaire it submitted to the town…..

From masslive.com (MA):

Construction begins on new $5 million White Street fire station in Springfield

City officials gathered Wednesday to announce the start of construction on a $5 million fire station on White Street, replacing two older, deteriorated stations….

Fontaine Brothers Inc., was hired in August as the general contractor for the city-funded project. Dore and Whittier Architects Inc., in partnership with CR Architecture and Design, created the architectural plans.

From the Boston business journal (MA):

William A. Berry & Son merge with Suffolk Construction

The arrangement between two construction titans, Peter Campot and John Fish, was more of a shotgun wedding than a blissful courtship.

Campot’s $566 million construction firm, William A. Berry & Son Inc., had a backlog of big projects but did not have the cash needed to bond future jobs. Fish, president of the $1.5 billion construction firm, Suffolk Construction Co. Inc., had money but was unable to persuade life science companies to hire his firm because it lacked the clout to build highly specialized labs.

One industry source said it was a strategic move by Fish who needed Berry to compete for lab work…

Taxpayers paid for four projects before they realized that the contractor was not performing.  Those are better chances than in baseball.  What ever happened to the three

Company barred from public jobs

A construction company that was the subject of numerous complaints of shoddy work on public projects has lost the ability to perform public work in this state.

Barr, Inc. lost state certification last Friday, meaning the company is ineligible to perform public work for at least a year, after which they can re-apply for certification again.

The state Division of Capital Asset Management removed the Connecticut-based company’s certification because Barr received too many failing scores from municipal projects around the state.

“This Final Determination is based upon your firm receiving failing scores on four project evaluations,” DCAM compliance officer Richard Sharp wrote in the Sept. 4 letter.

FOX Undercover reported last May that Barr, Inc. was the general contractor in several problem construction projects. Despite the company’s history of cost overruns and other problems, the state continued to certify them to continue doing public construction.

Cities and towns grade contractors on every major public construction project. After three failing scores within five years, and the state will bar contractors from public work.

But Massachusetts Inspector General Gregory Sullivan said that too many shoddy contractors continue getting public jobs by persuading cities and towns to give them scores higher than they deserve.

“This is the absolute most expensive form of grade inflation you can imagine. The contractor who gets passing grades for failing projects are then allowed to go on and do the same thing, across town, across the state,” Sullivan said.

Sometimes these contractors “blackmail” cities and towns to give good grades, Sullivan said, by not finishing projects or filing lawsuits unless good scores are given out.

“Some of the shoddy contractors have basically held up government officials by stopping the work and using a form of like blackmail and coercion in effect by saying, ‘If you don’t give us a good score, we won’t finish the work,’” Sullivan said. “’Let’s just settle. We’ll do the punch list. In fact we’ll do some more work for you. Give us a high score.’”

These inflated scores are given out so often that Sullivan calls them the best kept secret in public construction. And an expensive one. Sullivan estimates it cost probably more than $100 million over the past 10 years.

“It’s a very big and expensive problem,” Sullivan said.

Barr, Inc. president Robert Darigan told FOX Undercover last spring that he doesn’t negotiate for higher scores. But an e-mail obtained by FOX Undercover suggests the company did just that over a score for building a new police headquarters in the town of Grafton.

The e-mail, from an architect involved in the project, says, “Barr agreed to drop about $20,000 in change order claims at the end of the project, but only if the Town agreed to give them a 90 DCAM rating, to which the town agreed.”

The town of Dartmouth gave a passing grade of 89 to Barr, Inc. for building the town’s new police station despite numerous quality problems and delays, all outlined in a nine-page letter from the town’s attorney which was obtained by FOX Undercover. Darigan earlier told FOX Undercover that the Dartmouth attorney’s letter contained “inaccurate” information.

DCAM said they were investigating both the Grafton and Dartmouth projects, but neither were ultimately used to revoke Barr, Inc’s certification. DCAM instead used failing scores from the Southbridge Department of Public Works facility and public library projects in Middleton, Great Barrington and Dracut.

Barr, Inc.’s certification was temporarily suspended after FOX Undercover’s original report. The company rebutted each of the failing scores, but DCAM in its final determination last Friday rejected the company’s appeals.

Darigan did not respond to a message left at his office Tuesday.

Natic Condos to be auctioned

Bankrupt mall operator General Growth Properties is planning to auction off more than 40 high-end condominiums attached to the upscale Natick Collection with minimum bids starting at $160,000, about 70 percent below previous asking prices.

The 215-unit project, known as Nouvelle at Natick, opened last year and was supposed to usher in a new era of suburban living – marrying shopping and luxury – without the hassles and high prices of the city. But with only 37 of the residences sold or under contract, GGP has hired Accelerated Marketing Partners to handle the auction of 42 units on Oct. 4 as a way to jump-start sales and get some desperately needed cash.

“The homes are rather spectacular, but clearly there was a disconnect between what the consumer wanted to pay and what the developer wanted to get,’’ said Jon Gollinger, East Coast chief executive and cofounder of AMP, who added that the auction will determine the value for the remaining 100-plus residences.

Nouvelle is one of about 10 major developments in Massachusetts that have hit the auction block as the housing market unraveled over the past few years. Developers, facing tight lending markets, overdue debt, and a slow housing recovery, have turned to auctioneers to sell off high-profile properties not in foreclosure. But Nouvelle is the first project that is using an auction as a grand opening sale of sorts, rather than as a way to cheaply sell the last few units.

It’s also the first uber-luxury development in the suburbs to head to auction, offering amenities such as a sports club membership, rooftop garden, 24-hour concierge, and, of course, instant access to the mall.

“It’s an extremely efficient way to clear the market and remaining units in a project in a short amount of time and let developers move on,’’ said John Ranco, a broker and president of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. “And buyers who were on the sidelines are coming out and getting good deals.’’

AMP served as the auctioneers last spring to sell off about 40 units at Longwood Towers in Brookline, where starting bids were as much as 59 percent below asking prices. The auctioneers unloaded 42 units that day for a total of $26 million, according to Gollinger. In June, AMP helped sell about 35 units in the 1850 project in the South End.

AMP also worked on one of the first major auctions during the recent downturn – Folio Boston in 2006 – a new condo development on Broad Street in downtown Boston. Gollinger said 34 units sold for $26 million in one hour and 45 minutes. Other condos that have been put up for auction include the Broadluxe, a loft project in the Financial District, and The Modern, at the fringe of the South End.

“It’s the way the market is going. When you set a date for when that property is absolutely going to sell – that’s what brings these people in, especially people who have sat on the sidelines in the past,’’ said Charlie D. Gill, vice president of sales at JJManning Auctioneers.

Since the Nouvelle units were first marketed in 2007, several sold for prices ranging from $420,000 to $1.6 million. Now, minimum bids for the 14 one-bedroom and one-bedroom-plus-study units range from $160,000 to $210,000. These homes – from 796 square feet to 1,078 square feet – previously had asking prices up to $739,900.

The 25 two-bedroom and two-bedroom-plus-study residences have opening bids between $220,000 to $315,000. These units, ranging in size from 1,068 square feet to 1,591 square feet, had last asking prices up to $984,900.

There is one three-bedroom residence – last marketed at $1.1 million for 1,774 square feet – that has a minimum bid of $350,000. And the two penthouse units, ranging in size from 1,596 square feet to 2,110 square feet, have minimum bids of $375,000 to $495,000. These residences had last asking prices up to $1.68 million.

Several residents who previously purchased condos at Nouvelle declined to comment.

Gollinger said most residents living at properties where an auction is being planned initially react with some surprise, concern, and fear. But the majority, he said, eventually realize the best thing that can happen is to live in a 100 percent sold community. “They bought into a vision with a community of homeowners,’’ he said. “In the long run, they know the values will come back.’’

Earlier this year, the project’s developer tried to lure buyers with incentives, such as offering to make the buyers’ mortgage payments for them for several months, or covering some condo fees, which are 61 cents per square foot, in advance. But that made little difference with the tight lending market and deteriorating economic conditions.

So far this year, sales of condos in Natick are down 33 percent, compared with an estimated 20 percent decline statewide, according to Warren Group. Median prices for condos in Natick this year have dropped about 8.4 percent to $206,200, compared with a 10 percent drop statewide to $252,100.

In the case of Nouvelle, AMP and other real estate analysts say price – and not the idea of living in mall – has been the main obstacle to attracting buyers. The residences were part of a multimillion-dollar expansion at the shopping center that included a luxury wing with new merchants such as Neiman Marcus and Burberry. The Natick Collection has also struggled since opening in the fall of 2007, just as consumer spending began to slow down.

General Growth filed for bankruptcy protection in April after the Chicago real estate investment trust was unable to sell some of its property leases – including one at Faneuil Hall – to raise money to refinance nearly $1 billion in debt. Contractors recently filed a lien on the condo complex. In papers filed in US Bankruptcy Court in New York, Silktown Roofing Inc. claimed it is owed more than $326,000 by Dimeo Construction, the general contractor for the mall expansion and the condos. Dimeo filed its own $12.6 million lien on the Nouvelle condos in May. The case is still proceeding in bankruptcy court, but General Growth received approval to move ahead with the auction.

Nancy Nelson, who put down a $23,000 deposit in 2007 shortly before losing her job, has been fighting for more than a year to get her deposit back.

Nelson, who said her current home in Marlborough is in foreclosure, said, “Natick overestimated the attraction of the units. For the price of the units they were offering, it’s not the bustling, exciting metropolitan type of feel that was promoted during the initial phases. It’s almost like a ghost town.

Firm banned from Norwood High job

Agostini Construction Corp., the general contractor for the $68.6 million new Norwood High School, has banished one of the contractors working at the Nichols Street site because a truck showed up shortly after 4 a.m. and the noise workers made removing equipment woke up the neighbors.

Looks like one of their subs was trying to get a jump on the job..

“I apologize and we will continue to work with the Police Department to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Michael Moise, executive manager for Agostini, at Friday’s weekly high school update meeting at Town Hall. “We try as hard as we can that we don’t disturb the neighborhood.”

Moise, who did not name the company, has since told the “sub-subcontractor,” which was on site at 4:15 a.m. on Wednesday, that its workers are not welcomed back on the project…….