[Dartmouth] 307 Prince Albert Road | ? m | 16 fl | U/C

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by pc123

spoke to site manager this morning he said if all goes according to schedule mid next week work on the crane will began.

And yet as of today, still nothing has happened. I drove by an hour ago and swear I could hear crickets up on the 8th floor.

[pc123]

i wonder if theres something wrong with the crane causing this delay or what the problem is.. i noticed they have long metal beams sitting on the ground i think those are to tie the crane into the building

[pc123]

i think they started work on the crane today, i drove by and saw some guys on it

[Jstaleness]

The site has had some activity again. As mentioned above, it's as if there is a specific piece or something that's delayed the jacking.

Hope to see it continue before someone gets the height chopped off.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Definitely the most talked about project with the least going on since the NFB building.

Could this project just be somebody's hobby? Like, "I always wanted to build a hotel but it's hard to find the time in between work and the kids' soccer practice. Luckily, this week a few of my buddies got some time off work to help me with it..."

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Jstaleness

The site has had some activity again. As mentioned above, it's as if there is a specific piece or something that's delayed the jacking.

Hope to see it continue before someone gets the height chopped off.

There were a half-dozen or so workers on site when I drove by about 15 minutes ago and they all appeared to be gathered around the crane base, though I didn't see anything actually happening. There was an operator (I assume) up on the jib, apparently inspecting the concrete counterweights.

It's hard to say exactly what's going on with this project. I see that Sancton Access (scaffolding guys) has now filed a $69K lien against the owner (MCO Investments) and contractor (Optimo Group) for work completed on the site in February.

Builders' liens are not in and of themselves necessarily signals of a project in trouble; they can (and often do) result from legit and arguable contractual disputes, as opposed to cash flow difficulties. Still, Sancton has also just liened (claiming $65K) the MR Apartments project on Roberts Street, where Optimo is also the contractor, and the owner-developer there is Maynard Holdings.

MCO's principals are Tony Maskine, Wadih Jabbour and Pierre Jabbour.

Maynard's principals are Jean Alphonce, Wadih Jabbour and Pierre Jabbour.

The contractor for both projects when Sancton was retained was Civil Tech Construction, which was later purchased by Optimo. Nikkah Hamid is the sole officer and director of both Optimo and Civil Tech, for whatever that's worth.

Confusing enough?

I'm not connecting any dots or drawing any conclusions here - just laying out some facts.

[Jstaleness]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Definitely the most talked about project with the least going on since the NFB building.

Could this project just be somebody's hobby? Like, "I always wanted to build a hotel but it's hard to find the time in between work and the kids' soccer practice. Luckily, this week a few of my buddies got some time off work to help me with it..."

Too Funny

[pc123]

when a company puts a lien on the developers such as sancton did, that is because they are not getting paid by whoever is renting material which in this case would be the formwork company civiltech/optimo, which i heard was bought out by a new company called iforms, and driving by ive seen the iform logo on trucks parked outside this site.

[kph06]

Originally Posted by pc123

when a company puts a lien on the developers such as sancton did, that is because they are not getting paid by whoever is renting material which in this case would be the formwork company civiltech/optimo, which i heard was bought out by a new company called iforms, and driving by ive seen the iform logo on trucks parked outside this site.

Interesting, looking iForm (which I think I've seen in the past) up on joint stocks, it's owned by the United Gulf owner. This makes sense as I think Civiltech/Optimo did all of Boss Plaza.

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by pc123

when a company puts a lien on the developers such as sancton did, that is because they are not getting paid by whoever is renting material which in this case would be the formwork company civiltech/optimo, which i heard was bought out by a new company called iforms, and driving by ive seen the iform logo on trucks parked outside this site.

Yes, I'm very familiar with the how and why of liens.

The point I was trying to make was simply about the reason someone isn't being paid. It can be because there's a cashflow problem - simply no money available to pay - or it can be because there's a contractual dispute over what's legitimately owing (as is the case with significant litigation currently brewing over work at Queen's Marque, for example).

The former can be (but isn't necessarily) a sign of a project in trouble. The latter typically isn't. In this case, we don't know the facts, so we really can't draw any conclusions.

Anyway, the site is dead quiet again today.

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by kph06

Interesting, looking iForm (which I think I've seen in the past) up on joint stocks, it's owned by the United Gulf owner.

Yes, Navid Saberi is the sole director and officer of Iform Works.

[pc123]

site still on standstill

[Saul Goode]

The intrigue continues: the crane at this site is being disassembled as I post this.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by Saul Goode

The intrigue continues: the crane at this site is being disassembled as I post this.

It will be double height in a day.

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Empire

It will be double height in a day.

Why disassemble it? I've never seen a tower crane jacked up that way.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by Saul Goode

Why disassemble it? I've never seen a tower crane jacked up that way.

It's not a self jacking crane. To add tower sections the boom & cab have to be removed. If you look at the main tower crane at Richmond Yard you can see a larger section below the cab. This is a self jacking crane and basically it jacks and pulls in a new section that is bolted to the lower section and repeats until the desired height is achieved. Looks like Richmond Yard will jack again before completion.

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by Empire

It's not a self jacking crane. To add tower sections the boom & cab have to be removed. If you look at the main tower crane at Richmond Yard you can see a larger section below the cab. This is a self jacking crane and basically it jacks and pulls in a new section that is bolted to the lower section and repeats until the desired height is achieved. Looks like Richmond Yard will jack again before completion.

Yeah, I understand the mechanism. I guess I've just never seen (or even heard of) a tower crane that isn't self-jacking...not that I'm a crane expert (obviously!). And in fact, I'm quite sure I saw a climbing frame section on-site at the Prince Albert Road project a few months ago. That's why I was puzzled.

[kph06]

The jacking frame had been on site for weeks, so I feel like they were going to attempt it. My guess is with the age of it they opted to reassemble higher. MR Apartments in Halifax had stalled too with Optimo doing the formwork, it is back under way. Maybe the issues with Optimo were resolved.

[pc123]

i believe optimo was fired from the MR site and a different formwork company is now doing it. also crane might not be at full height for a few days because once the jib is off the whole crane has to be re inspected and sometimes you might have to fix some stuff on it which can delay a few days. im assuming this is the case here because they did not add any sections today.

[kph06]

Here's one from yesterday, the bracing has been on for a few weeks I think. The fact the mobile crane is there makes me think something may happen soon, or is happening today.