BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — A developer pitched the idea, but it took a lineup of heavy hitters that included the mayor of the state’s largest city, the city’s largest employer and a millionaire baseball team owner to pull off a $64 million project to build a baseball park and museum in downtown Birmingham.

With a whirlwind of legal and financial maneuvering Thursday afternoon, deals were completed on the purchase of all of the property for the baseball stadium near Railroad Park and to lock up $64 million in bank financing for the project.

But it took a lead-off batter to get the pro­ject to this point. It was nearly three years ago when Robert Simon, president of Cor­porate Realty, went from thinking it would be neat to have a downtown baseball park to putting effort into making it a reality.

“This was a vision I had, but what amazes me is seeing the commitment that was put forth by so many others to get this deal done,” he said.

Virginia Williams, executive assistant to Birmingham Mayor William Bell, said the bulk of the work for the city started in Octo­ber 2010 after the City Council approved a 3.5 percentage point increase in the city’s lodging tax to pay for the project.

“The time since has been devoted to as­sembling the site, putting a development team together and getting the design work complete in addition to securing the actual financing,” she said.

Assembling the property took the most time, she said.

“The originally proposed site wasn’t the best for the project, so we had to explore other options,” Williams said.

That caused the project to shift a couple of blocks south and east from the original plan that had the ballpark going on the cur­rent Merita bread factory to the west of the Railroad Park.

“Birmingham had to take the lead on a project of this size, scope and scale,” Simon said. “It needed to happen and it needed to happen there at the Railroad Park.”

Williams said the Negro League Museum will be on 16th Street, a symbolic location given the place the 16th Street Baptist Church holds in civil rights history.

“Now, 16th Street will have the new Children’s Hospital and the Negro League Museum on one end and 16th Street Baptist Church and the Civil Rights Institute on the other,” she said. She said work has started to assemble items for the museum.

In a round-robin of signatures at the law offices of Sirote & Permutt on Thursday, one conference room was devoted to completing the property sales and land swaps with UAB for the portions of the four blocks it owned where the baseball park will be built. Another conference room was where BBVA Compass Bank and Citizens Trust Bank handled the completion of $64 million in loans carrying an interest rate of 3.09 percent. A third conference room was set aside to hammer out any snags the various parties encountered in the other two conference rooms.

“You had all of these attorneys working together to make this project happen,” said Jim Stanley, assistant city attorney for Birmingham. “By and large, all of them were cooperative towards the same goal.”

Lawyers from at least four different firms were on hand to get the deals done.

‘The magic date’

Now the end of the paperwork marks the beginning of the physical work.

The development team is led by Corporate Realty Development and Brasfield & Gorrie. The general contractor is a team of Robins & Morton and A.G. Gaston Construction Co. The design team consists of baseball park specialists HKS Architects of Dallas, along with Birmingham firms Hoskins Architecture and GA Studio.

“Ballparks are unique in how you go about designing them,” Simon said. “You really start from the inside out with what amenities and features you want to have and then you bring in the structure and then you finally skin it.”

Williams said the ballpark will build off the city’s industrial past and pay homage to the surrounding area with lots of brick and steel.

Simon said final designs may also include a corporate name if naming rights are sold.

Nearly all of four blocks — First Avenue South to Third Avenue South and 14th Street to 16th Street — have to be razed to make way for the baseball park and museum. Demolition will start early next year.

Look for the final designs of the ballpark to be completed in March, making it possible for construction to start as the demolition ends. At that point, construction has to move at a very brisk pace to have the ballpark ready in time for the opening pitch of the 2013 baseball season.

Robert Gambrell, senior vice president of Robins & Morton, said the plan is to move rapidly to build the project.

He said if demolition starts in January, utility and site work should follow and actual construction could be under way by next April or May. The work will take about a year.

“Spring of 2013 is the magic date,” Gambrell said.

Can they make the ambitious schedule?

“I know we’ve got some great subs (subcontractors) in Birmingham and we’re all going to push to make this happen,” Gambrell said. “It’s a high-profile project that always gets everyone excited to go to work.”

Bill Morton, president of Robins & Morton, said the ballpark is something the construction industry and everyone in the region needs right now.

“I really believe the baseball stadium is a transformational project for Birmingham and the surrounding area,” he said. “This project will create a new entertainment draw for downtown Birmingham and complements the beautiful work already done at Railroad Park.”

UAB President Carol Garrison said she thinks the project is an economic development home run.

“We believe that the synergy between the baseball park, Railroad Park and UAB’s northern development will attract retail to the area, which will benefit us all,” she said.

Construction of the Phoebe Digestive Disease Center on Meredyth Drive represents $30 million that Phoebe Putney Health System is reinvesting into the community.

The facility will expand the hospital’s Gastroenterology capabilities. The construction project also brings almost 400 construction-related jobs.

Completion of the 85,000-square-foot facility is expected Fall 2012.

Robins & Morton is the general contractor handling the project.

The new facility is just one of the expansions or acquisitions that adds to Phoebe’s empire. Their new Americus hospital officially opens Friday, and Phoebe will officially take over its former Albany competition, Palmyra Medical Center, the same day.

Wellington Regional Medical Center celebrated the groundbreaking of its new 103,000-square-foot patient tower Wednesday, Sept. 14. The project is set to be completed in spring 2013.

WRMC and its parent company Universal Health Services contracted with the Orlando-based Robins & Morton Group to build the $50 million facility.

WRMC CEO Jerel Humphrey is eager to bring the new patient tower to the area.

“We are very excited about the new facility and what we will be able to offer the people of the western communities,” he said.

Hospital officials decided to expand the bed capacity to meet the demands of a growing community. Based on the hospital’s 2017 patient volume projections, the hospital is expected to see a continuing increase in patients.

The new patient tower is planned to ease traffic in the emergency room, which for the past couple of years has been extremely busy.

“This will allow us the space to develop our services,” Director of Marketing Marsha Israel said. “It will give us the space to have a brand new orthopedic center with all the latest technology.”

WRMC officials have been working on the expansion project for more than five years, said Dr. Melissa Carlson, who chairs the hospital’s board of governors. “This is an incredible day we have been working on for many years,” she said. “And hopefully it will increase our patient satisfaction.”

Administrators and contractors worked closely with physicians and medical staff on the design and layout of the new tower. The goal is to create a facility that is consistent with the medical staff’s workflow and improves patient comfort.

The new patient tower will be a three-story building attached to the north side of the hospital. The building will have 80 private patient rooms, an expanded pharmacy, lobby, registration area, and expanded kitchen and cafeteria.

The building will allow for an expansion of the hospital’s cardiology and neurology units, and there are plans to develop an oncology unit in the future. Each floor will have an eight-bed intensive care step-down unit and multiple nursing stations. The second floor of the facility will have ante-partum and a women’s services unit, which will be an extension of the hospital’s maternity services.

WRMC now has 158 licensed beds, and with the new patient tower, there will be an additional 95, for a total of 253. The second and third floors will have a total of 80 private acute-care beds, 40 on each floor.

“With more private rooms, less emergency room holds, and improved infrastructure and use of the space,” Carlson said, “this will make a stronger more successful hospital for our community.”

During the groundbreaking ceremony, State Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto (R-District 27) announced plans for a new rape victim treatment center in the hospital.

The treatment center will be developed by the hospital staff and Palm Beach County Commissioner Jess Santamaria, and will be the first of its kind in the county.

“This was developed as a treatment center so that anyone who is a victim of sexual assault has a safe place to go if they have been victimized,” Benacquisto said. “We would like to think that these events don’t go on, but when they do, here will be the home of a great program. And we are very excited to have it in Palm Beach County and especially in Wellington.”

Alan Miller, CEO and chairman of Universal Health Services, praised the medical staff at WRMC. “We have great physicians and great equipment,” he said.

The new patient tower will also benefit the community economically because 100 full-time staff positions will be created.

Porter Health System and EMCOR Employees Wear EMCOR Pink Hard Hats, Form Human Pink Ribbon in Visible Call to Action

On October 21, 2011, at the location of the new Porter Hospital, workers from EMCOR Hyre Electric and Shambaugh & Son working on the new hospital exchanged their green and red hard hats for pink ones in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month forming the shape of a pink ribbon.

Jonathan Nalli said, “I tip my hardhat to EMCOR, Shambaugh & Son and Porter Health Systems because you are saying world wide that breast cancer is a horrible disease. I am proud of all that are here to raise awareness. I want to thank most important the physicians and staff (of Porter Hospital) to be able to physically, emotionally and mentally have the strength and support to fight this.”

Dale Priest, of Chesterton and a Shambaugh & Son, L.P. medical gas foreman, said, “Anyone that is important in your life, make sure they get checked,” after telling of his own mother’s battle with the disease.

The following is the official statement by EMCOR Hyre Electric, Shambaugh & Son L.P. and Porter Health Systems regarding the “Protect Yourself. Get Screened Today” Pink Hard Hat, Breast Cancer Awareness, campaign

EMCOR Group, Inc. (NYSE: EME), a Fortune 500® leader in mechanical and electrical construction, energy infrastructure and facilities services for a diverse range of businesses, is proud to announce that workers from its EMCOR Hyre Electric Co. of Indiana, Inc. and Shambaugh & Son, L.P. subsidiaries, both based in Indiana, as well as those of Porter Health System, and other organizations, donned EMCOR Pink Hard Hats and formed a human pink ribbon at the new Porter Health System Hospital construction site located in Valparaiso, Indiana today. As part of EMCOR’s “Protect Yourself. Get Screened Today.” campaign, more than 190 employees from the organizations formed themselves into the shape of a giant human pink ribbon, the international symbol of breast cancer awareness.

Porter Health System Hospital CEO, Jonathan Nalli was presented an official EMCOR Pink Hard Hat as part of this ceremony by Thomas R. Corsiglia, President & CEO, EMCOR Hyre Electric, and William Meyer, Corporate Vice President, Shambaugh & Son. Also as part of this ceremony, employees from EMCOR Hyre Electric and Shambaugh & Son, and other workers on the project, removed their regular hard hats and replaced them with EMCOR Pink Hard Hats in a “Call to Action” for millions of women and men to “Protect Yourself. Get Screened Today.”

“We’re excited to participate in EMCOR’s third consecutive year of conducting this national initiative. Many of our employees wear hard hats daily for personal protection, and we’re proud of their commitment to wear an EMCOR Pink Hard Hat throughout October to raise awareness for breast cancer and how to protect yourself by getting screened,” stated Thomas Corsiglia.

“As a Company that has built its reputation on being engaged in the concerns of our industry and community, it’s gratifying to demonstrate support for breast cancer screening and awareness, standing with our dedicated employees, client, and partners,” commented William Meyer.”

Jonathan Nalli said, “Porter Health System was honored to participate with EMCOR to build breast cancer awareness through its ‘Protect Yourself.’ Campaign. Together our efforts to increase awareness of breast cancer screening through the Pink Hard Hat initiative were an innovative way to remind women to make an appointment for their annual mammogram”

Among the speakers at the event was a breast cancer survivor, Allison Pera on behalf of EMCOR who brought a personal perspective to the event as a strong supporter of breast cancer awareness. It was discussed how the importance of screening and early detection of breast cancer cannot be underestimated, and how efforts here today were another step in bringing awareness to this issue.”

Visit EMCOR’s Pink Hard Hat micro-site for more information: http://www.emcorgroup.com/page.php?id=2636

“Our cardiac services were spread throughout the hospital and this new construction allows us to consolidate the majority of cardiac services,” said Doug White, CEO. “The new addition not only adds much needed space to the hospital, but also adds new technology with the electrophysiology (EP) laboratory.”

This $312 million project – and the $10 million redesign project for the Thayer Comprehensive Outpatient Center – is critical for the health and wellbeing of the 88 cities and towns in the Kennebec Valley.

The 640,000 square-foot complex is the largest new health care construction project in Maine. It is an enormous economic boost for the region and is funded entirely with private sources.

At its peak, the project will employ 630 workers daily. About 30 subcontractors will be involved in the project, with total contracts valued at about $160 million.

Local subcontractor participation was a key selection criteria for contract awards. Nearly all those chosen for the project are from Maine. Partnerships also have been forged with subcontractors that can provide the necessary volume of services by working together.

In addition to employing hundreds of workers, the project will bring new construction technology and training to give Maine workers needed competitive skills.

The new hospital is designed with patients and their families in mind. It will offer all single patient rooms, a 24/7 Emergency Department (ED), state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment services and comprehensive outpatient care. These innovations will help keep and recruit more of the best doctors and health care professionals in the region for years to come.

Robins & Morton is partnering with HP Cummings Construction Company of Winthrop, Maine on this exciting project.
B
“Local and national partnerships are key to this project’s success,” said MaineGeneral Health President and CEO Scott Bullock. “We couldn’t have reached this point alone and are grateful for the support of our partners in government and the community who share our vision and commitment to transform the lives and health of residents in central Maine.”

The new hospital is being made possible, in part, by a $35 million grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation. The gift is in two parts; $25 million is an outright gift with another $10 million in a matching gift. The foundation’s generous gift – the largest single donation to the hospital in its history and among the largest in the state – is a continuation of Mr. Alfond’s legacy.

Auburn University broke ground Friday, Sept. 23, on a facility that will offer nearly 58,000 square feet of research and office space for the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology.

Located on Wire Road adjacent to the university tennis courts, the new Department of Kinesiology building will house laboratories conducting a broad range of research relating to human movement, health and performance. The new building, designed by Infinity Architecture of Montgomery, is scheduled to open by March 2013.

Mary Rudisill, head of the Department of Kinesiology, and the Wayne T. Smith distinguished professor of motor behavior, said the new building is designed to meet the varied interests and needs of faculty and students in exercise science, physical activity and physical education and health teacher education.

“We specialize in health and performance-related activities,” Rudisill said. “We are interested in improving health through daily physical activity as well as optimizing performance. Our work can be applied to people of all ages, including everyday movers, those recovering from surgery, athletes, soldiers, marching band members and more.”

The first floor of the new three-level facility will house space for the department’s biomechanics and motor behavior laboratories. The motor behavior lab, which focuses a significant portion of its research on physical activity in children, will open onto a green space for outdoor activity. The second floor will house epidemiology and exercise behavior labs, as well as the department’s TigerFit program, which provides health screenings and fitness assessments. The third floor will feature controlled-access space for muscle physiology, cardioprotection, neuromechanics, sports optimization and thermal labs.

The department also has space in the university’s MRI Research Center for work related to gait and posture analysis, post-surgery performance and rehabilitation, exercise prescription and adherence, sports performance testing and assessment and sports psychology. The department’s Warrior Research Center, which focuses on helping the U.S. Armed Forces improve the physical and technical abilities of soldiers, also utilizes the MRI Research Center.

“We’re going to be able to do experiments that other people cannot do,” said David Pascoe, director of the Thermal and Infrared Lab and Humana-Germany-Sherman distinguished professor of exercise physiology.

Rudisill said the department’s long-anticipated move from its current home to a new building will do wonders for its long-term health and performance.

The Department of Kinesiology earned a number 22 ranking in the National Academy of Kinesiology’s most recent survey of doctoral programs. Rudisill said the new facility should help the department improve its national standing and its ability to recruit and retain top-quality faculty and students.

“We’re growing,” Rudisill said. “We’ve got a lot of great things happening.”

The promise of a new building has created a buzz among kinesiology students.

“I am ecstatic for the students who will have access to this wonderful opportunity,” said Ragan Hart, a senior exercise science major from Cologne, Va. “The new building will provide a thriving and positive learning and research environment.”

The architect’s renderings of the facility can be found at http://ocm.auburn.edu/au_kin.pdf.

By Hugh Rushing

Full Alabama Alabama Construction News Magazine article here.

Robins & Morton has built its business to the point where it was listed as the number-one healthcare builder by volume in 2010 by Modern Healthcare Magazine’s survey. In addition , the firm has been consistently named as one of the best mid-sized companies to work for in America due to its worker-and family friendly practices.

Now, the company has announced a major expansion effort with the establishment of a power and industrial division. And within just a few days of the announcement, the division also introduced an $80-million membrane conversion project for Olin Chlor Alkali at the firms’ Charleston, Tennessee, facility.

The power and industrial division will be headed by former top executives of BE&K and KBR, Bryson Edmonds and Ed Cassady, and staffed with a number of other executives who have worked with those firms. Edmonds, named senior vice-president of the division, previously was vice-president of sales and marketing for the global power and industrial business unit of Houston-based KBR, Inc. He joined that firm when it acquired Birmingham’s BE&K, Inc. where he was vice president of sales. Cassady, the firm’s new CFO and senior vice-president, was previously with The Martin Companies, a venture firm in Nashville, Prior to that position, he was executive vice-president for BE&K, with responsibilities for strategic planning, sales, and marketing. He also served on a number of boards of BE&K subsidiaries.

Bill Morton, CEO of Robins & Morton, explains that his firm actually got its start as an engineering firm designing large, heavy industrial projects. “So, in one way, this really is just a return to our roots, bringing our 65 years of experience back to this area of the construction industry,” he says. “We aim to diversify in bringing our leadership in healthcare and commercial construction to the industrial construction area.” Morton points to major projects the firm has completed in the past, such as the Kankakee Electric Steel Mill in Illinois in 1961 and a large consolidation project for Alabama Power in the early 1970s.

Edmonds says the initial focus of the division will be power generation, chemical, minerals, pulp and paper, and hydrocarbon projects. “Robins & Morton’s culture and its reputation for high-quality work will translate into the type of construction firm sought by leading industries when it comes to upgrading and building new facilities for the 21st century,” he observes. Cassady points out that the high degree of direct work required in many of Robins & Morton’s healthcare projects meshes well with the requirements of heavy industrial construction. “We already have some 350 gifted craftspeople in the firm,” he explains, “and we will be hiring more.” Cassady says that Mittie Cannon has joined the division as director of training and will be responsible for craft training and career development.

Edmonds ads that industrial construction has changed in recent years. “I doubt, for example, if you could get permits to build a new paper mill in a green field,” he says. “Consolidation in many heavy industries means that existing plants need refits and expansions in order to meet growing consumer demands.” The new division will also offer full-service engineering, procurement, construction, and industrial maintenance to its customers.

Cassady agrees that the areas the new industrial division is focused on will be engines of growth in the coming years. “Take pulp/paper, for instance,” he says. “This industry is converting to more tissue production. At the same time, the explosive online growth of consumer product sales means more demand for corrugated medium, so plants that produce kraft paper are seeing increasing demand. Then there’s the whole growth of a larger middle class in countries such as India and China. These people will be demanding products which the paper industry does not yet have the capacity to produce.”

Despite economic statistics by the U.S. Census that say capital spending dropped to a five-year low in 2009 to $1,090 billion, observers see spending on the horizon. In the past decade, mining, utilities, and healthcare were the all-growth engines for capital expenditures on equipment and structures. Even with the recession, economists say that rising commodity prices have ignited extractive industry development. Utilities are facing retrofits to produce cleaner and more efficient use of resources, and healthcare growth is expected to continue as Baby Boomers age into their retirement years. With these predictions, the future looks bright for Robins & Morton—and for the industry as a whole.

Breaking Boundaries
As Birmingham, Ala.-based Robins & Morton is discovering, a company does not have to travel across the Atlantic to take a bold step. What began as a friendship among three people who worked for competing companies in the same city has grown into an experienced and powerful team transforming Robins & Morton into a more diverse company.

Bill Morton is CEO of Robins & Morton, a 65-year-old firm with roots in industrial construction before it grew into the health care sector, where it has been a leader for the past 35 years. Morton pinpointed Edward Cassady, who previously worked for an investment firm, as an executive who could help the company diversify. In the course of their discussions, Cassady recommended creating a new division focusing on the power and industrial markets.

Then came the third piece of the puzzle, Bryson Edmonds, who had previously left his job with an industrial construction firm. Edmonds was the natural choice to become the new division’s leader. Morton knew their expertise in investing and industrial construction was exactly what the company needed to successfully execute the division’s goals.

“This effort developed over a long period of time,” Morton says. “It is by far our most significant initiative to add other types of work.”

Both new team members were longstanding providers to the industrial and power sectors and brought trusted client relationships to Robins & Morton.

“We have been able to aggregate a team that has an incredible number of years of experience and very strong client relationships,” Edmonds says. “We have been very heartened by the interest shown by clients.”

The division was awarded an $80 million project in June on an Olin Chlor Alkali plant in Charleston, Tenn., which will create 400 new jobs.

“They were impressed with the execution capabilities and infrastructure Robins & Morton built within its traditional business,” Edmonds says. “Operations, safety and execution for construction are superior.”

The new division has commitments from about 50 new employees and is still growing. In addition to the power sector and chemical and mineral markets in the industrial sector, the division will concentrate on the pulp, paper and hydrocarbon markets.

Coming off long-term careers at other companies, Cassady and Edmonds believe Robins & Morton has the right combination of focus on internal and external relationships.

“They have been arguably the best health care contractor for the past 20 to 30 years,” Edmonds says. “Much of that reputation is built on a culture that supports employees and treats them as family, while dedicating resources to listening to clients and proactively meeting their needs.”

Morton says existing employees are adjusting well to the changes, which have been anticipated for about a decade.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the response of our existing people. Many in our new group came from a company very culturally similar to ours, so we’ve been pleased,” Morton says. “All of our people recognized the need for more diversification and sustainable growth, so the transition has been very well received within the company.”

The merging of company cultures and ideas also has been beneficial to breaking old habits and looking at better ways of doing things.

“Everybody becomes set in the way they do things,” Cassady says. “It’s been a great opportunity to stop for a moment and decide what might be the best practice moving forward.”

Read the complete Construction Executive Magazine article.