THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611020321
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 60 lines
The developer of MacArthur Center has hired a new general contractor to take the lead in building the upscale urban mall, a company spokesman said Friday.
Sordoni Skanska Construction Co. of Parsippany, N.J., will replace Hoar Construction as the general contractor, said Chris Tennyson, senior vice president of corporate affairs for the Taubman Co.
Sordoni will be the second general contractor named for the proposed $300 million shopping center in downtown Norfolk.
Michigan-based Taubman named Hoar Construction of Birmingham, Ala., as the mall's general contractor in December 1995. Locally, Hoar has built Norfolk's World Trade Center, the Norfolk Airport Hilton, the Pembroke and Greenbrier malls. It has built more than 100 shopping centers and 200 department stores.
Taubman decided to replace Hoar mainly because the contractor didn't want to share its lead construction duties, Tennyson said.
``We wanted to bring in another contractor to share some of the work,'' Tennyson said. ``That was the fundamental disagreement.''
There were other issues on which the two firms differed but Tennyson declined to elaborate.
Taubman had signed a construction contract with Hoar that consisted of two phases, a pre-construction and a construction segment, Tennyson said. The first phase ended last month when the pre-construction segment of the contract had been completed.
Taubman decided not to renew Hoar's contract for the second portion, Tennyson said.
The decision to change contractors was made Wednesday, said David Iwans, president of Group III Communications, which represents the Taubman Co. locally.
Local sub-contractors working on the mall project will not be affected by the replacement of Hoar, Tennyson said. Taubman plans to retain the local construction companies that had been named to work with Hoar. They are Armada/Hoffler Construction Co., Curtex Construction Corp. and S.W. Day Construction Corp.
``All commitments will be honored,'' Tennyson said.
Sordoni Skanska has worked previously with Taubman in two mall expansion projects, the Mall at Short Hills, N.J., and the Westfarms Mall in Hartford, Conn.
Established in 1971, Sordoni Skanska Construction Co. is a U.S. subsidiary of a Swedish company. It specializes in infrastructure construction projects, pharmaceutical, health care, educational buildings.
The company touts itself as one of the 20 largest construction companies in the United States. It has a substantial presence in the New York area and the Southeast.
It is building Whitehall-Robins Heathcare's new $50 million national research and development center in north Richmond.
``Sordoni knows us very well,'' Tennyson said. ``We're convinced it won't set us back.''
Construction is scheduled to begin in January.
KEYWORDS: MACARTHUR CENTER MALL CONTRACTOR by CNB