Immigrant Investor Program Gets Boost from Congress
A 25-year-old program that allows foreign nationals to “purchase” U.S. citizenship in exchange for a $500,000 or $1 million investment in specific U.S. business sectors has renewed bipartisan support in Congress. The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program began in 1990 and was set to expire this September, but Congress extended it through the end of the year and is looking to continue it into the future. While controversial in nature – 97% of the “conditional visas” issued in 2014 were to centers associated with this program – the program requires that investors create U.S. jobs, and construction jobs are very likely to count, writes Duane Craig of the Construction Informer blog. You can read more about the program, its effects on America’s aging infrastructure and its impact on the construction industry in Craig’s Oct. 20 write-up here. The blog’s home page can be found here.
It’s Time to Winterize Your Building
Freezing temperatures are just around the corner for much of the country, which means now is the time for facility managers to think about winter building preparations. Chuck Taylor, director of operations at Illinois-based Englewood Construction, offers four timely tips on Hard Hat Chat to get commercial buildings ready for the season’s first freeze. Early planning and intervention can save expensive repairs. The blog post can be accessed here. The Hard Hat Chat home page is here.
Contractor Raises the Roof with Unusual Construction Method
Most construction projects start by laying the foundation and building up from there. But a contractor in Montreal is taking a top-down approach as it builds a 10-story condo building. To avoid an excessive construction footprint near the busy downtown district, the contractor built the first floor and the roof. Then, it sandwiches another floor between the first floor and roof and when ready, it raises the roof, elevator-style. A time-lapse video of the process, also known as the “upbrella” construction method, is posted here at Gizmodo. You can also read more about the technique here at CBC News.
Residential Construction Guides Help Ease Contractor-Client Relations
Residential construction projects are inherently stressful for owners and contractors alike. Capterra Construction Management Blog writer Rachel Burger offers up a list of four performance guide books that if followed, will help ease that relationship because standards will be followed, which creates for a happier end customer. And an added bonus, she says these books are great reference guides for homeowners, too. See her list here. The Capterra Construction Management’s home page is here.
