Minnesota-based construction companies doing business on the storm-damaged East Coast say their projects have gotten off easy compared with the damage along the New Jersey shoreline. This photo shows destroyed homes Wednesday in Seaside Heights, N.J. Demand for construction workers and materials is likely to increase as homeowners seek to rebuild their properties. (AP Photo: Mike Groll)
From using a diesel generator to power a building site to running an HVAC systems sales office remotely, Minnesota-based construction-related businesses working on the East Coast are coping since a super storm devastated the area this week.
For the most part, Minnesota companies contacted by Finance & Commerce appear to have gotten off easy, especially when the damage along the shore of New Jersey and neighboring states is drawing comparisons to Hurricane Katrina?s assault on the Gulf Coast in 2005.
IHS Global Insight has pegged economic losses from Sandy at $30 billion to $50 billion. Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reports that demand for construction workers and materials is likely to increase post-Sandy as homeowners seek to rebuild their properties.
In the case of The Opus Group of Minnetonka, its Opus Design Build LLC company lucked out because it had yet to return a temporary diesel generator set up at a project near Trenton, N.J. It is nearly finished building a 259,000-square-foot headquarters in Ewing, N.J., for baking soda maker Church & Dwight Co.
The generator has allowed for work to continue at the site even though electricity was out Wednesday, said John Williams, vice president at Opus Design Build.
The structure saw minimal damage even as high winds felled trees in the area. The site, which normally has more than 100 construction workers on a given day, had fewer on hand Wednesday. Those workers stayed busy clearing debris in the area.
Super storm Sandy caused minor damage to the 3-million-square-foot American Dream Meadowlands complex that Mall of America owner Triple Five Group would like to complete in East Rutherford, N.J. by 2014. (Submitted photo: Triple Five Group)
Williams still thinks Opus can complete the building by December, as long as electricity is restored soon.
?We came through it a lot better than we expected,? Williams said.
The same goes for the 3 million-square-foot American Dream Meadowlands complex that Mall of America owner Triple Five Group would like to complete in East Rutherford, N.J. by 2014. MOA spokeswoman Maureen Bausch said a site manager reported minor wind damage.
The wind caused a rooftop cooling unit to tumble a dozen times on a roof, and a vent cover came off another building. There was also wind damage to the Ski Dome roof at the complex, and some glass doors also blew in. Flooding appears to have mostly bypassed the complex.
Edmonton, Alberta-based Triple Five ? which became involved with struggling American Dream (previously called Meadowlands Xanadu) in late 2010 ? still plans to pick a general contractor soon to finish the project, which is now 80 percent complete. Plans still call for a 2014 opening.
?We were very lucky, as you know so many have experienced so much worse,? Bausch said.
Opus Design Build appears to have lucked out when it comes to the 259,000-square-foot headquarters that it is building for Church & Dwight Co. in the Trenton, N.J., suburb of Ewing. (Submitted rendering: The Opus Group)
Meanwhile, Minneapolis-based Daikin McQuay has 25 HVAC systems sales employees working from home after Sandy brought flood waters into the ground level of 10 Exchange Place in Jersey City, N.J., where the company has a 32,000-square-foot showroom and sales center on the 21st floor, said company spokesman J.C. Campbell.
Campbell did not know when the space would reopen. In the meantime, Campbell expects the company to be busy when it comes to repairing and replacing air-handling units.
?There?s going to be a huge need for service,? Campbell said.
Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson Construction and Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. US said they did not have major northeastern projects under way when Sandy hit, according to officials from the two companies.
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