Archive

31 May 2022
0

Dylan Cruess Featured in NEREJ Industry Leaders Spotlight

May 31, 2022 | 0 Comments | , ,

New England Real Estate Journal’s May 27th issue features an Industry Leaders Spotlight with 11 professionals from numerous industries, including TFMoran’s Chief Operating Officer, Dylan Cruess. Dylan gives his perspective on how the first half of 2022 is going in the engineering field. Check out the full article here or continue reading below.

Despite Economic Challenges, Development Remains Resilient

New England Real Estate Journal
Industry Leaders Spotlight – Engineer

This has been quite a year thus far!  I started my article off last year with the exact same sentiment.  Many of the same growth factors and uncertainties from last year are still present now.  Despite many economic challenges we are experiencing, including the continued rise of construction costs, the availability of building materials, and now rising interest rates, development in Southern New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts remains incredibly strong and resilient. The pent-up demand from not building during the height of the pandemic, changing consumer demand for housing and entertainment, and the large amount of private and public capital available in the market has fueled new developments in just about every sector. 

Over the past few years, New Hampshire has seen a huge in-migration of the population as people have moved out of major cities seeking a more rural or suburban lifestyle.  This in-migration population has caused the demand for housing and other services to increase, which in turn has led to a huge increase in new multifamily and single-family housing developments throughout the southern part of the state and the upper valley.  Northern New Hampshire has also seen an incredible increase in demand as people are purchasing second homes.  Along with increased housing demand, we are seeing rapidly rising housing and rent prices which are leading to an affordability crisis for many people.  In New Hampshire, there is a very strong push for affordable housing projects and there are many available sources of public funding to help with the economic viability of having below-market rental rates.

Another sector that we continue to see very strong demand for in New Hampshire is warehouse and manufacturing projects.  International supply chain problems have led to a noticeable trend of companies bringing their distribution, product storage, and even their manufacturing back to the United States, and more specifically New Hampshire.  We are seeing new facilities being proposed across many different sectors including aerospace, defense, construction materials, and food processing, among others.  Warehouse and manufacturing projects often require infrastructure improvements such as increased electric capacity or the availability of municipal water and sewer. These requirements may limit where facilities can be located, resulting in projects concentrated around the suburbs close to larger municipalities that already have the necessary infrastructure in place.

From a design and permitting point of view, one of the largest challenges we are seeing to development projects moving forward is the unpredictable length of time it will take to obtain all the necessary permits.  We are often asked by our clients how long it will take to go through the permitting process so they can set timeframes in their Purchase and Sale Agreements or plan for construction. With new environmental regulations for wetlands impacts and stormwater runoff requirements, we are often unable to give a definitive timeline for permits.  We have been recommending to our clients that they substantially increase the time for permitting or have multiple extension provisions in their contracts with Sellers to mitigate the impact of permitting delays. 

In conclusion, even with the many economic uncertainties the economy is facing including inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain disruptions for construction materials, we continue to see very strong activity for development projects going forward across many different sectors of the economy.  The demand for new housing, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and other projects continues to be greater than the uncertainties and challenges that developers are facing when considering new projects.  Hopefully, this trend continues through all of 2022 and beyond!  

05 May 2022
0

TFMoran’s Sophie Haddock Published in High Profile Monthly

May 5, 2022 | 0 Comments | , , ,

High Profile‘s May issue covers Landscape Architecture and Civil Engineering and Technology and Innovation. Sophie Haddock, Assistant Land Planner and Landscape Designer at TFMoran gave her perspective on the evolution of visuals we provide to our clients.

Read the article below, or see the full issue here.

Also in this issue, TFM Staff News! Robin Carter and Matthew Bean have joined our team in the Bedford Office.

Evolving Towards Seamless Visuals in the Digital Age

As our world modernizes and design programs advance, we see a trend in clients looking for visuals that utilize the latest technology to provide accurate and lifelike models. While still worthwhile, hand drawings pose a challenge when design modifications are needed. Computer programs provide the flexibility for the designer to make revisions seamlessly. This efficiency is valuable to both the client and the designer. 

Most high-quality rendering programs available today work hand in hand with AutoCAD to bring realistic context to designs. AutoCAD provides the base map, so that every plant, swale, and light pole can be placed exactly where it is intended. Using a program such as “SketchUp”, buildings or other architectural elements can be created or imported. To add fine detail, a high-quality rendering program such as Lumion can be used for realistic detail as well as other life elements, such as weather, people, and animations. 

Using today’s rendering software allows engineers and landscape architects to provide remarkably lifelike and accurate representations of the environment they are creating. The use of a consistent scale allows clients to see what their building will look like from various perspectives, and how effective their screening will be. Programs like these also provide an opportunity to design backward: the sizes, colors, and textures of plants are visually displayed, allowing the designer to see the full picture and find ideal positions before reflecting back onto a 2-dimensional landscape plan. As technology advances, we continue to evolve and provide exceptional visuals for our clients. These technologies enable designers to be their most creative and clients to understand concepts in a remarkably lifelike form.

Sophie Haddock is a landscape designer and assistant land planner at TFMoran, inc.

04 Mar 2022
0

TFMoran’s Maureen Kelly Featured in High Profile’s Women in Construction Week Supplement

March 4, 2022 | 0 Comments | , , , ,

TFMoran’s own Maureen Kelly, EIT, Civil Project Engineer in our Bedford office has a featured profile in High Profile’s Women in Construction special issue. Ms. Kelly holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she participated in several student scholarships and service-learning opportunities. In her professional role, Maureen enjoys projects that incorporate environmental benefits and equitable design. Maureen works in site design, all levels of permitting, utility layout, and stormwater infrastructure.

See Maureen’s full profile here, and check out High Profile‘s Women in Construction Supplement.

Congratulations, Maureen! And happy WIC Week!

31 Jan 2022
0

Robert Duval’s 2022 Forecast Spotlight Published in New England Real Estate Journal

January 31, 2022 | 0 Comments | ,

New England Real Estate Journal’s January 29th issue features a Forecast Spotlight with 17 professionals from numerous industries, including TFMoran President, Robert Duval. Bob gives his perspective on how the construction industry has been reinventing itself over the past few decades.

More and more, the construction industry needs people with training in digital controls and software engineering that was once exclusive to the electronics industry. These new design and construction jobs demand more skill and training than ever. Trade schools and community colleges across the country need to recognize this education gap and offer more relevance in their training programs so that young people get the training they need to become a productive part of the construction industry. When they see that construction careers can be as creative and rewarding as any other industry, we will start to see some progress in the skilled labor market.

Robert Duval

To read Bob’s full forecast spotlight article, click this pdf link or continue reading below.

2022 Forecast Spotlight

The construction industry has quietly been reinventing itself over the past few decades

Labor shortages, rising prices, and regulatory delays. No sector of the economy seems to be immune to these problems, although the construction sector seems to be among the hardest hit. “When will things return to normal” is no longer the question – the new normal is all around us. Although these problems may have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, they began long before January 2020.

Many of us in the construction industry have been concerned for years about the shortage of young people choosing careers in the design professions and construction trades. In part, this is because young people have been turning away from careers in the construction industry, which many see as less glamourous and less rewarding than careers in the medical and high-tech industries.

However, the construction industry has been quietly reinventing itself over the past few decades, moving away from hand tools to automation and prefabrication. Today, blueprints are replaced by virtual 3D models. These digital models are fed into automated fabrication shops that measure, cut and assemble parts that may never be touched by human hands until they reach the job site. And at the jobsite, buildings can now be erected by giant “3D printers” as the technological challenges are solved one by one. Even the bulldozers almost run themselves as they move tons of earth across a site with on-board computers that make adjustments automatically to the contours dictated by a 3D site model.

More and more, the construction industry needs people with training in digital controls and software engineering that was once exclusive to the electronic industry. These new design and construction jobs demand more skill and training than ever. Trade schools and community colleges across the country need to recognize this education gap and offer more relevance in their training programs so that young people get the training they need to become a productive part of the construction industry. When they see that construction careers can be as creating and rewarding as any other industry, we will start to see some progress in the skilled labor market.

We have all seen regulatory delays increasing for many years now due to the expanding scope and complexity of environmental regulation. Driving the many new and expanded rules are heightened concerns over threatened species, plants as well as animals, even in densely developed areas. Concerns over migratory birds, for example, attach to extremely wide regions. These considerations can affect timeframes for certain activities, require protective radii around certain habitats, and impose other significant restrictions.

There is also a new emphasis on historic structures, potentially including any structure over fifty years old, and potential archeological sites, now considered almost any site near a waterbody or other landscape that may have attracted early settlements. Much attention has been paid recently to “emerging contaminants”. This includes traces of chemicals at levels that would have been undetectable even a few years ago, but are now established as regulatory limits.

These and other similar concerns are being raised at a pace that outstrips the ability of the administrative rule process to keep up. The result has been an increasing subjectivity, lack of clarity, and a dramatic stretching-out of the review process in the last few years.

So how do we manage project delivery times and costs in the face of these challenges? It beings with the understanding that projects cannot be addressed the same old way. It takes a team of experts who know their way through the regulatory jungle; who understand the high-tech nature of today’s construction. Above all, it takes careful preparation, flexible scheduling, and the ability to react quickly and effectively to this changing world.

Robert Duval, PE, LEED AP, is president/chief engineer of TFMoran, Bedford and Portsmouth, NH.

25 Jan 2022
0

TFMoran Celebrates a Decade of BOB Awards!

January 25, 2022 | 0 Comments | , , , ,

TFMoran is honored to be voted as 2022 Best of Business in the Engineering category by New Hampshire Business Review readers.  2022 marks the TENTH consecutive year TFMoran has received this award. The BOB Awards honors the “Best Of Business” in New Hampshire in over 90 business-to-business categories. According to NHBR’s website, more than 4,000 people cast their votes in the BOB Awards survey. A Big THANK YOU to all who voted for us!

NH Business Review will hold its 15th Annual BOB Awards celebration on Thursday, March 10th, at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord. This year’s theme is “Masquerade Ball” with costumes encouraged. Celebrate the best businesses in the state and network with business leaders from across New Hampshire in a fun and festive party atmosphere.  There will also be a chance to win prizes and help raise money for Girls Inc. of New Hampshire.  Don’t miss out, register early and get your tickets online at NHBR.com

“It is a great honor that we have now won for the past ten years in a row! I believe this remarkable degree of community recognition is a reflection of our core values: focusing on client service, and delivering the right engineering solution for every project”.

~ Robert Duval, president of TFMoran

Thank you to New Hampshire Business Review for this opportunity and for showcasing the Best of Business across New Hampshire.

10 Jan 2022
0

Market & Main Project Featured in The Bedford Bulletin

January 10, 2022 | 0 Comments | , ,

The ongoing project of Market & Main has been featured on the front page of the Bedford Bulletin’s January issue. TFMoran has been working with client Encore Enterprises on this project, providing Civil, Structural, and Traffic Engineering, Permitting, Landscape Architecture, and Land Surveying Services for the long-awaited development.

The plans previously included a 1,200 seat Regal Cinema, as well as a five-level parking garage. The development is now moving forward after the Bedford Planning Board signed off on the scaled-back design. Follow this link to see the full article, or continue reading below.

Market & Main OK’d with shops, hotel; cinema off plan

The Market and Main development in Bedford is strictly commercial again, with plans for shops, restaurants, offices, and a hotel.

The project, which now includes Trader Joe’s and the Friendly Toast as well as Carrabba’s Italian Grill that pre-dates the development, has been stalled for the past year since the $120 million plan to include up to 200 apartments was rejected by town planners in September 2020.

The Bedford Planning Board signed off on a scaled-back design for the long-awaited project at the site of a former Macy’s off South River Road at its Nov. 22 meeting.

The previously proposed 1,200 seat Regal Cinema and a five-level parking garage are no longer part of the plan.

Most tenants have waited for the project to be approved before signing leases, according to Mike Nelson, president of commercial for developer Encore Enterprises of Plano, Texas.

“We have some existing tenants that have been very gracious and hung in there a long time, but we are kind of down to the wire,” Nelson told the Planning Board.

The new plans include more outdoor gathering spaces, pedestrian boulevards, and outdoor seating spaces for restaurants. A barn-like structure will double as a sign visible from Interstate 293 and be able to host outdoor events complete with a firepit.

Mike Skelton, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Manchester Chamber, called Market and Main at the intersection of the Everett Turnpike and Route 101 one of the most desirable parcels for development in Southern New Hampshire.

“It is a highly visible, perfect location for a marquee retail development,” he said. “I think there has been a trend in recent years of these lifestyle shopping centers, which are mixed-use,” Skelton said. “There is retail, dining options, experiential things.

There are services, whether a salon or gym, so that consumers can do multiple things in one area. It is more efficient. It is more convenient.”

The original Market and Main proposal included 98,763 square feet of retail and a movie theater.

Encore later tried to add the 200 apartments as part of a revised second phase, saying the project would not be financially feasible without the residential component.

The plans brought ire from the beginning with some town officials calling it a bait-and-switch.

The new Market and Main plans include a 30,000-square-foot office building and a 125-room hotel in future phases.

Gaining Traction

REI Co-op, an outdoor equipment store, will likely become one of the development’s anchor stores, a detail that slipped out during discussions with the Planning Board. The artist’s rendering lists the store as “Mtn House” and was described as a “national outdoor retailer.”

The square footage is comparable to other REI stores, including the open that opened in North Conway in September 2019. REI had previously announced plans to open a store in the development, but put the plans on hold in 2019.

Encore hopes to have construction complete on a building for the anchor tenant by the end of next year, with an anticipated opening by April 2023.

“It seems like a lot of time, but that is not a lot of time, considering how long it takes to get everything done,” Nelson told the Planning Board.

The building will feature solar panels and skylight harvesting.

“It is about as green as you can get,” Nelson said.

In all, the new plan includes three multi-tenant buildings and two other buildings for shops or restaurants for a total of 69,141 square feet of restaurant space (10,050 square feet that already exists).

The original office building was supposed to be 98,550 square feet, but it scaled back to 30,000 square feet.

Attracting Tenants

Nelson said the company planned to attend the Innovating Commerce Serving Communities conference in Las Vegas in hopes of luring national tenants to market and Main.

The project approval in November likely helped with the prospects.

Ted Chryssicas of Newmark Group had been working on Market and Main’s leasing. He said the plan is viable for the type of tenants they are trying to attract.

“We are confident that this has a great chance of tremendous success from a leasing standpoint and will get the right tenants that are going to fit the community and the community will fit the tenants,” he told the Planning Board.

Chryssicas said they hope to secure office tenants before construction ends on the retail portion of the development.

The barn structure will feature a fire pit, and an ice skating rink could be installed on the property in the winter.

“We need to activate this, and activation is the key, so it is a community get-together,” Chryssicas said.

16 Dec 2021
0

NEREJ Project of the Month: Nashawtuc Country Club

December 16, 2021 | 0 Comments | ,

TFMoran Structural Engineers worked with Maugel Architects and Dellbrook | JKS to complete a 55,000 s/f clubhouse renovation at Nashawtuc Country Club. The recently completed project located in Concord, Massachusetts, is featured as Project of the Month in New England Real Estate Journal’s December 2021 issue.

“Special attention was given to improving clubhouse circulation by creating clear and distinct paths for visitors and members. Public and private event spaces were strategically arranged to connect to essential food service areas while providing privacy for member-only areas.”

Maugel Architects

Prior to the renovation, food service supplies and preparation areas were located on separate levels. The newly centralized kitchen was designed with staff efficiency and member experience in mind. In addition to new food service and dining areas, the renovations included a 3,500 s/f fitness center and a 1,000 s/f fitness studio set to offer a variety of classes.

The project team also included CSL Consulting and Precision Fitness Equipment.

Check out the full article.

10 Dec 2021
0

New England Real Estate Journal names two TFMoran projects as “2021 New England Top Projects in Construction, Design & Engineering”

December 10, 2021 | 0 Comments | , , ,

Bio-Techne Corporation in Devens, MA and NH SportsDome In Hooksett, NH were recently featured in the December issue of New England Real Estate Journal (NEREJ) as “New England Top Projects in Construction, Design & Engineering”. TFMoran is proud to be a part of two project teams in providing engineering design services.

Bio-Techne Corporation – Devens, MA

TFMoran provided structural engineering design and construction administration services for a 26,000sf addition to the corporate headquarters of Bio-Techne Corporation located in Devens, MA. The new single-story addition provides a combination of manufacturing and warehouse space for the life sciences company.  TFMoran worked with project architect Maugel Architects and construction manager Connolly Brothers to provide the new space broken into three areas: an extended shipping area, storage and warehouse, and manufacturing.  Two new interior mezzanines were provided, one each in the warehouse and manufacturing areas respectively. Existing gas and fiber-optic utilities within the construction footprint required a custom foundation to allow for continuous operation of the utilities during construction.

The main structure was constructed with a combination of exterior wall types including cold-formed steel studs with masonry veneer and insulated metal panel exterior.  The addition is constructed with a structural steel frame. Lateral systems consist of HSS steel chevron braces.  Both mezzanines are constructed of concrete on a composite steel deck supported by open web steel joists.  The warehouse mezzanine is supported by load-bearing concrete masonry shear walls.  The manufacturing mezzanine is supported by structural steel moment frames.

This project was also featured as New England Real Estate Journal‘s “Project of the Month” in February 2021. Check out the full story here.

NH SportsDome – Hooksett, NH

TFMoran provided survey, site/civil design, structural design, local, state, and federal permitting, landscape architecture, traffic engineering, and construction phase services for the NH SportsDome, located in Hooksett, New Hampshire. The indoor sports field is used by both youth-based sports teams and adult teams for turf sports such as soccer, field hockey, baseball, softball, lacrosse, football, etc.  The “dome” structure was inflated on January 9th and measures approximately 80,500sf and encloses one (110-yard by 70-yard) turf field with the ability to split the field into two smaller training fields available for use year-round.

 The Farley Group provided the air-supported dome structure. Capital Construction, LLC was the General Contractor. Severino Trucking Co., Inc. was the Site Contractor. The facility opened in February 2021.

This project was also featured as “Project of the Month” in April 2021. Check out the full story here.

29 Nov 2021
0

2022 BOB Awards VOTING is Now Open!

November 29, 2021 | 0 Comments | , ,

TFMoran is honored and proud to be the recipient of the New Hampshire Business Review’s BOB (Best Of Business) Award for the past 9 consecutive years, and we would love to make it 10, with your vote!         DEADLINE: JANUARY 14, 2022

Click HERE to Vote!

Please consider voting for TFMoran in the Engineering category, Question 11 in the on-line survey. You must vote for at least 15 questions for the entry to count, and only one vote per person is allowed. The ballot is open until January 14, 2022. So, please hurry and place your vote!

The BOB Awards is an annual New Hampshire Business Review awards program recognizing the Granite State’s exceptional businesses. The businesses recognized are the ones that offer the best service, pay attention to details, and have the most helpful and eager employees. BOB Award winners from over 90 different categories, ranging from “Best Accounting Firm” to “Best Engineering Firm” to “Best Business Place for Lunch”, are considered to be New Hampshire’s highest caliber businesses offering nothing less than outstanding products and services.

The annual BOB Awards celebration will be held on Thursday, March 10 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord. This year’s theme will be a masquerade ball.

Winners will be notified by early February 2022.

15 Nov 2021
0

Dylan Cruess, COO named on New Hampshire 200 List for Second Time

November 15, 2021 | 0 Comments | , , , ,

New Hampshire 200 TFMoran’s Chief Operating Officer, Dylan Cruess was recently selected as one of New Hampshire’s 200 most influential business leaders by NH Business Review. This is Cruess’ second time on the “New Hampshire 200” list, the first was in 2019, the award’s inaugural year.

This designation is a result of a year-long initiative conducted by NH Business Review editors who collected suggestions and nominations from their industry contacts throughout the state to determine the 200 individuals who have made the greatest impact on the Granite State’s economy, business climate and the state as a whole.

All the selected individuals were asked to complete a questionnaire for the New Hampshire 200 second edition publication to be published this fall. When asked what is most exciting about the company’s future, Cruess answered, “Over the past year we adopted an ownership transition plan, added four senior engineers as Principals to our leadership team. The ability for TFMoran to thrive and adapt during this challenging time has confirmed my belief and trust in our extraordinary team.”

Mr. Cruess joined TFMoran, Inc. in 2001 after graduating from Bates College earning a bachelor’s degree in Economics. In 2013 he became an owner and Chief Operating Officer of TFMoran when the company was transferred to four senior employees. Mr. Cruess is very involved in the local community and serves on the board of directors for numerous organizations.

The New Hampshire 200 Reception will be held on December 9, 2021 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown to recognize the prominent business leaders.