A thousand reasons to love Long Island City. Tips: Editor@LICtalk.com
TF Cornerstone launched leasing for their latest waterfront tower in Long Island City last week. Combined with the recent launch at 5Pointz, this should be a good litmus test for rental demand.
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Did you winter sur la piste o en la playa this week? Either way you didn’t miss much here at home. Nevertheless I had the interns beating the bushes and when they couldn’t come up with the obligatory 500 words I had them slap this together:
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There’s one thing we’ve got in this country and that’s ways of fightin’ back. Gettin’ the facts to the public. Testifyin’ for what you know is right against what you know is wrong. Now what’s ratting to them is telling the truth for you. Now can’t you see that? Can’t you see that?
Two local stories about construction labor in the past ten days caught my eye. The first reported that four non-union steamfitters walked off the humongous 1,800-unit Tishman Speyer residential project on Jackson due to low pay.
In this case, that happens to be between $16-$33 an hour for an occupation whose definition is:
“one that installs or repairs equipment (as steam pipes) for heating, ventilating, or refrigerating systems”
In other words, not quite the same level of skills and knowledge as a brain surgeon, but far from grunt work. According to the union representative, this type of occupation in this city should receive $110 an hour. Thus there seems to be a pretty wide chasm, one that makes both developers and unions suspect.
Which leads to story number two, first reported by Bill Parry at the TimesLedger on July 1, about a labor conflict going on at the infamous 5Pointz site. The developer, Jerry Wolkoff, is admittedly using some non-union labor, despite an apparent gentleman’s agreement with …well, we’re not really sure with whom, in order to receive a variance to build his towers higher than existing zoning codes allow. Nevertheless:
“Look, I’ve got nothing against the unions, believe me, but it has to make sense. I have to be able to build at an affordable cost,” Wolkoff said. “I wouldn’t sign a PLA {Project Labor Agreement} that would let them tell me who to hire and who to fire. In this game you’ve got a few chiefs and a lot of Indians when it comes to the unions. Say you’ve got a job for 40 workers and they’ll bring eight supervisors just to watch them. It gets silly and remember, I’ve got to build all those extra affordable units.”
Don’t weep for Jerry, those extra affordable units were a term agreed to in the contract which granted him the variance. As for the labor picture, the ball seems to have been dropped somewhere. Either way, just like with the steamfitter story, nobody comes out smelling too good. Furthermore, given how far this project has already progressed, they shoulda had class, there shoulda been a school here. [Read more…] about TROUBLES OFF THE WATERFRONT & MUCHO 3-BR’s COMING TO LIC