Category Archives: Construction

By Jill Nagy

The company’s recent move to new offices in Burnt Hills was a “game changer” for KB Engineering and Consulting, PLLC, after more than a decade working out of a home-based office, according to owner, Kurt M. Bedore, PE.

The firm  now occupies a suite of seven offices with a conference area and an executive office for Bedore. He estimated that he currently has about 50 projects underway.

They actually planned the move a year ago but the pandemic caused postponement of the official opening to this spring.

Bedore now expects his growing company to outgrow the space in another year or so. A physical therapy practice previously occupied the space. In fact, they were clients, with KB working on the renovation and expansion of the therapists’ new building.

Recently, the company has been “unbelievably busy” and Bedore would like to add a couple of more engineers to his present staff of four but, like so many other skilled workers, they are hard to find. He especially needs draftsmen skilled in using computer-assist design (CAD). He feels that he offers competitive salaries—$40-$60,000 to start for a junior engineer—and working conditions.

He sees a number of reasons for the increased business aside from the general uptick in the economy. People had projects “on hold” during the height of the pandemic but are now ready to get going.

With people spending more time at home, many private septic systems were overloaded and the owners now need emergency replacements.  At the same time, many of the new buildings constructed on the SUNY campuses during their tremendous growth period in the 1960s and 1970s are showing their age, he said. 

By Jill Nagy

Construction work in the area appears to be back on track, though labor issues are still a concern.

“We’re close to having work scheduled out for about a year,” Tom Albrecht of Hilltop Construction in Hudson Falls estimated. Similarly, Rob Holbrook of V&H Construction in Fort Edward, noted that his company is booking work for the first quarter of 2022. Both do projects throughout the Saratoga, Glens Falls and North Country area.

“If you are thinking about a project, you probably should act sooner rather than later,”  Holbrook advised.

Both also have similar complaints: a shortage of skilled workers looking for jobs and rising prices and long delays in obtaining materials, including appliances.

Albrecht said business is “fabulous” but there is a “very healthy” shortage of materials and escalating prices. Special order items can take four to 10 weeks to arrive. That delays normal timelines.

V&H, for example, is a dealer for Butler pre-engineered buildings, mainly steel storage and similar structures. Holbrook is experiencing long delays because steel is in short supply and he expects steel prices to increase by about 10 percent a month for the rest of the year.

Lumber prices have also been increasing but that trend seems to be leveling off, he said.

By Jill Nagy

“Landscaping can be both beautiful and good for the environment,” said Jesse Peters, a landscape designer and builder whose business, Jessecology, specializes in sustainable design using native plants raised in her own gardens and greenhouse in Ballston Spa.

“We focus on sustainability and habitat restoration,” she explained.

Peters, a Skidmore College graduate, has been doing landscaping for 15 years. She has seen an uptick in business with the pandemic and has a waiting list for the company’s services. She believes that people who are spending more time at home want to make their surroundings more beautiful and relaxing.  “They love the chemical-free option,” she added.

She has seen a growing demand for rain gardens, a fairly new approach to storm water management. A rain garden is planted with plants that don’t mind getting  wet. They hold on to storm water and allow it to slowly seep into the ground instead of running off.

“It’s one of our favorite types projects to work on,” she said.

In addition to the perennial flowers and bushes from her greenhouses and nursery, Peters can now include large trees in her projects thanks to an affiliation with Eric Parisi and Don-Mar Landscaping and Greenhouses in Ballston Lake. 

Parisi has been a landscaper for 30 years and his family has been in the business for 60 years. He has a tree nursery, but also buys native trees on the wholesale market. Trees include birches, hemlocks, maples and oaks.

By Christine Graf

According to a 2020 survey conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America, 81 percent of construction firms are finding it difficult to find employees. This trend has worsened in 2021 due in part to extended unemployment benefits that have been made available by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The cost of labor has gone up 25 to 30 percent. It’s putting a lot of people out of business. We’re competing with the government for employees because people are getting paid to stay home while millions of jobs go unfilled,” said Todd Drake, owner of Cornerstone Construction. His company works throughout the Capital Region and the Adirondacks.

“It’s absolutely outrageous policy and fiscally disastrous and quite frankly socially disastrous because it’s creating complacency among people who should be working. Certainly there are those who have been able to find work that they are capable of doing. I certainly get that. But for the vast majority of people, they aren’t even calling. I know businesses—including ourselves—that run ads and get no responses at all. None.”

The origins of the labor shortage started long before the pandemic and can be traced back to 2008 recession when the bottom fell out of the construction industry and skilled workers moved to other professions, those in the industry say. The problem was compounded by a reduction in the number of young people seeking careers in the trades.

Doug Ford, vice president of sales and purchasing at Curtis Lumber, is committed to promoting trades to high school students. He is one of the leaders of the Workforce Development Taskforce, a collaboration between Curtis Lumber and Saratoga Builders. Their mission is to bring awareness to the career opportunities and benefits that are available in the construction/trade industries. Stakeholders include Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex (WSWHE) BOCES, Saratoga Economic Development Corporation, Habitat for Humanity, and Workforce Development Institute.

by Andrea Harwood Palmer

Hinman Construction of Saratoga Springs won the Best Overall Remodel category in the 2020 Capital Region Builders & Remodelers Association building awards.

The project is located at 41 Webster St. in Saratoga Springs. The single-family home was built in 1918 and purchased in 2018 by new owners Brynya and Derek Ablamsky.

Kim Hinman said the construction company worked with the new owners for over a year developing renovation plans. Hinman used 3D photorealistic CAD design for the project.

The entire house is black and white, including stair rails, kitchen, bathrooms and interior and exterior paint. The exterior is stucco. Hinman Construction hired a mason to extend the original cobblestone fireplace up through the second floor.

“I challenge anyone to look at the cobblestone fireplace and find where the old one ends and the new addition begins,” said Hinman.

She said the timing of the project was very fortuitous. The Certificate of Occupancy was issued by the city building department the last day they were open before the COVID shutdowns in 2020.

“The property is about two blocks from the racetrack. It was purchased by a wonderful young couple who moved here from Boston. They just knew that’s what they wanted to do with the home. They bought what I would call a four-square home. We basically brought it into the 21st century,” said Hinman.

by Lisa Balschunat
The COVID-19 ramifications and restrictions may have delayed commercial construction projects in the region, but Malta-based MLB Construction Services has been busy.
The company recently completed or is nearing completion on five projects in the area, totaling about $56 million.
Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), located within Saratoga Springs State Park, experienced a makeover on a grand scale when MLB got involved 12 months ago.
“This design-build project was true collaboration at its best,” James Dawsey, company president, said.
It involved demolition of the concession and restroom facilities and construction of concession areas, new restrooms, a VIP area in the new two-story building, room for small indoor performances and an outdoor pavilion.

New York’s Thruway rest areas are in line for a major makeover.
The state Thruway Authority board of directors has approved a $450 million, 33-year deal that will require a private consortium to revamp all 27 service plazas along the 570-mile superhighway system in the coming years.
Officials said the upfront costs will not fall on toll payers.
Instead, a consortium, known as Empire State Thruway Partners, will spend $300 million to rebuild 23 rest stops and extensively renovate the remaining four, with construction set to begin next year.
It will also be required to pay the Thruway Authority at least $51 million in rent and invest another $103 million in improving the rest stops over the course of the three-decade-long contract, according to the Thruway Authority.
In exchange, the consortium led by the John Laing Group, a private investment firm, will get to operate the restaurants, shops and facilities at the rest stops for 33 years.