General contractor INLINE Commercial Construction is seeking subcontractors to help build a new gymnasium and a new modular classroom building for Mooberry Elementary School in Hillsboro.

The gymnasium will be built on the campus and be used for physical education classes and other activities. It will be constructed to “immediate occupancy” seismic standards, providing an emergency shelter resource to the community following a sizable earthquake.

The new modular building, meanwhile, will be constructed off-site and then assembled on the campus, at 1230 N.E. 10th Ave. The structure will include five individual classrooms and restrooms.

A number of smaller improvements also will be carried out as part of the project. They include seismic upgrades, installation of new roofing, installation of new air conditioning, replacement of a domestic water pipe, construction of a new playground with a synthetic surface, and safety and security improvements.

The project has a total budget of $6.77 million. Work is being paid for with money from a capital bond approved by voters in 2017. Mahlum Architects is the project’s designer.

Work is set to begin by June 2019, and be substantially completed in mid-August.

Bids for the “A” package are due by 10 a.m. on Jan. 29. All bids and questions about the project may be emailed to Kevin Redinger at kevinr@inline-cc.com.

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Exceptional communication can turn a good project into a truly great one. That was the case for the project team involved in the recent $4.5 million renovation of the Multnomah County Health Department‘s North Portland Health Center.

Designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects and built by Aloha-based general contractor INLINE Commercial Construction, the remodel provided a much-needed upgrade of a 15-year-old clinic on North Lombard Street in St. Johns. Crews added a host of new exam rooms and team rooms, replaced a pharmacy, and installed security improvements.

The clinic remained open during the entire 12-month project – well, almost.

“INLINE discovered about a third of the way through the project that the main sewer line underneath the building had deteriorated and needed to be replaced,” Multnomah County project manager Greg Hockert said. “And it was only closed one day, which is an amazing feat. That’s like throwing a magic wand over the building with some fairy dust on top of it.”

With INLINE already on-site, the fix was remarkably easy, Hockert said.

“From my side, once you bring a contractor on board, it’s about building the relationships with the people you’re servicing,” he said. “It was clear and open communications, and that’s how you have a successful project. It takes a special talent to do what they did in here; it’s a skill set that’s not easy to find.”

The North Portland Health Center was built in 2003, but aging quickly. It had a rather dour color palette as well as security deficiencies that left staff and patients vulnerable. Possibly the worst flaw in this regard involved the former first-floor pharmacy, which was located barely 10 feet from an exterior door and just around the corner from the main entrance.

“Having two entrances and exits for the public is not a good security move,” said Meg Matsushima, project manager for Hennebery Eddy Architects.

The two-story clinic’s floor plan was changed extensively to enhance security, Matsushima said. Also, the facility gained new interior and exterior cameras, staff card-lock access, duress alarms and more. Perhaps most noticeable to the public is that there is now only one public entrance and exit.

Also, fencing and a gate were added to the parking lot, while a new dental office was built on the second floor next to the pharmacy. However, the dental office cannot open until additional funding is provided.

In addition, the building’s interior now is highlighted by a range of blue and green tones to provide patients with a calmer atmosphere than the previous one.

Project costs topped out at roughly $150 per square foot, Matsushima said. Funding came from a half-dozen different sources, including a $935,000 federal Health Resources and Services Administration grant.

“We didn’t use extravagant materials; we used good, sustainable materials where they counted,” Matsushima said. “I think this project represented good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and people now think it’s a new clinic. If they can get the dental portion up and running it’s going to be incredibly viable.”

INLINE project superintendent Bill Anderson also credited communication with the smooth outcome. In working with neighboring residents and businesses, as well as clinic staff and patients, it took constant juggling to complete the project, he said.

“One of the things was just the team atmosphere from the county to the clinic to the architect, as well as our team just trying to figure out the intent and the best way to get there,” he said. “And always keep in mind that we have to make sure they’re still operating and keeping the doors open and keeping the patients happy.”

Now, the county health department has a new crown jewel.

“It’s really all about the access for the patients,” county project manager Nicki Winchester said. “And this is really the high point of our system now.”

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President Donald Trump’s newly introduced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports have stirred up debate across the country since they were signed into law.

Steel manufacturers are virtually alone in voicing support for the new 25 percent charge on foreign steel and 10 percent on foreign aluminum. American manufacturing and construction firms have largely rebuffed the policy, which they say will reduce demand for projects and ultimately result in job losses. Trump, however, is merely the latest in a long line of American presidents who have used tariffs to protect the domestic steel industry. Previously, George W. Bush imposed a 30 percent tariff on steel in 2002.

Many Pacific Northwest construction professionals oppose the tariffs. Industry figures say the move to tax steel and aluminum only adds to existing cost uncertainties in commercial and residential building.

“It introduces a level of uncertainty into the market,” Hoffman Construction Vice President Daniel Drinkward said. “The construction market is seeing tremendous cost uncertainties even without this. We have a labor shortage that affects our subcontractors’ ability to deliver work, and to pile this on top of it, it certainly doesn’t help.”

The tariffs were signed into law March 8, but until May 1 (pending discussions) for Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, South Korea and the member countries of the European Union. This is noteworthy, because Canada is currently the United States’ largest trading partner for steel products.

“The question is: How much will that actually impact the cost of steel?” Drinkward said of the new tariff. “Certainly, some of that capacity will get picked up by domestic steel manufacturers. And it’s also uncertain how much any reduced demand will affect prices.”

Such is the uncertainty, however, that some contractors are not yet allowing themselves to worry about the unknown.

“We haven’t seen any major concerns yet from any of the major suppliers,” INLINE Commercial Construction Vice President Brandon Flint said. “And until we start seeing that, for right now we’re just doing everything business as normal. We’ve talked about it, but at the same time, how fast will it turn around? It’s yet to be determined.”

For builders, the new tariffs follow the imposition last year of an approximately 21 percent tariff on Canadian softwood imports. The latter move has already hit both residential and commercial builders. Now with the former in place, contractors are having trouble predicting where the market is heading.

“Because they’re passing it straight through to the end consumer, unfortunately we don’t have the ability to absorb that, so it keeps building,” said Mack Thames, a senior project manager with TEAM Construction of Vancouver, Washington. “You’re just raising prices.”

Thames noted that lumber prices have been impacted by not only the tariff on Canadian softwood, but also by last year’s raging wildfire season that saw a reduction in harvests and imports alike.

Overall, materials have increased in cost by 5.2 percent from February 2017, performed by the Associated Builders and Contractors. It stated softwood lumber prices went up 5.6 percent while steel mill product prices increased by 2.3 percent.

“There are a lot of materials in construction that are commodity-based,” Thames said as he looked out across the Southeast Portland project site where his firm is building the $29.9 million Stark Street Apartments. “So my fear is that I’m already starting to see some projects shelved and put on hold, and my fear is that this continues.”

The Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter declined to comment on the tariffs, but the national organization agrees with Thames.

AGC of America CEO Stephen Sandherr stated March 8 the new steel and aluminum tariffs will “cause significant harm to the nation’s construction industry,” and possibly trigger as many as 30,000 job losses. He also pointed out that companies currently engaged in fixed-price contracts will have to eat any supply cost increases, while contractors in general also will be forced to deal with a likely decrease in demand for private projects.

“The bottom line is that any short-term gains for the domestic steel and aluminum industries will likely be offset,” Sandherr said.

One of the few voices in favor of Trump’s tariffs is the U.S. steel industry. United Steelworkers officials released a glowing statement in support of the move the same day opponents expressed their displeasure.

“Adequate production and trained workers go hand in hand,” USW International Vice President Tom Conway stated March 8. “The announced relief has already sent a positive charge through the industry that the decline in steel and aluminum sectors can be reversed.”

Others, including Drinkward, aren’t so sure.

“It’s not certain to me exactly how big an impact this will have,” he said. “But it will put upward pressure on the cost of steel, and there’s just no way around it; you’re making steel harder to provide.”

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Late last week, an owner came to his INLINE Construction project manager requesting a last-second change. Asphalt in small batches was virtually unavailable given the frigid conditions gripping Portland. Concrete, on the other hand, the owner already had on hand.

Rather than risk a weekslong wait for asphalt, INLINE poured a concrete apron, against what’s in the plans. It’s one of countless complications that builders have had to contend with as the construction ecosystem abides a historic snowfall.

It’s difficult to find a builder not impacted. Trygve Berge, vice president of INLINE, estimates all of his company’s 55 active projects are affected somehow – by labor reductions, material unavailability or unsafe conditions.

“This will affect the bottom line; there’s no doubt,” Berge said. “When you push the schedule out, every day it goes on, it adds to the general conditions that weren’t figured into the project alone.”

After a snowstorm slammed Portland on Jan. 10, dropping around a foot all around the metro area, many project owners joined public agencies in closing shop Wednesday. Many took Thursday and Friday off as well.

With a federal holiday on Monday added to the mix, builders have struggled to dig out and restart. Freight was delayed as drivers slowed or stayed off roads completely, leaving projects without doors, lighting and hardware. With the ground frozen, earthwork has all but ceased.

Perlo Construction‘s Jeff Perala said closing the office last week was an unpleasant choice, but an easy one to make.

“It’s almost easier when it’s really bad like this,” he said.

Bremik Construction has been trying to melt the ice on the deck of the second level of the Canopy Hotel project at Northwest Ninth Avenue and Glisan Street by sealing off the lower levels and pumping in hot air day and night. The company paid employees to trek to the jobsite every 12 hours Saturday and Sunday to refuel the gas-powered generators.

The process has helped get rid of about 60 percent of the ice, estimated project manager Josh Ring.

“We’re just trying to get some production done, at a very slow pace,” he said. “But it’s better than nothing.

“You do expect some sort of impact, given the fact that it’s January, but the impacts here don’t typically last days on end, that’s for sure. This particular storm cycle has left us fairly crippled over the past week.”

P&C Construction ceased foundation work on the Lake Oswego Public Works and Parks Maintenance Facility. Pathways have been cleared and orange cones are alerting to icy spots.

“The earth is going to shift, so we’re waiting until all that’s done,” P&C spokeswoman Sabrina Henkhaus said.

Crews working on Portland Public Schools bond projects have largely been indoors – though at diminished capacity. The project at Faubion School has proceeded with about 80 percent of its crew, while workers at Roosevelt and Franklin high schools have been at about half their regular numbers.

A number of construction executives report being asked by project owners to help clear snow from roofs to prevent cave-ins.

Lease Crutcher Lewis project executive Jeff Ganz said he got a thank-you note from Roosevelt’s head custodian after his employees cleared snow from some of the school’s parking lots.

“It’s fun to do a little extra to help the school,” said Ganz, who added that the company’s backhoes and graders with plow attachments were better than what the school had available.

Ken Fisher, project manager with HEERY, which provides PPS with construction and project management services, is already thinking about how the impact of the snowstorm might still be felt this summer.

“We typically have 63 summer days to work in, and this is going to take a week away from us,” he said.

The district board has so far approved adding two school days to the calendar in the summer to make up for the snow days, with more expected to follow.

Fisher said crews will have to work to make up the lost time, but he’s confident all bond-funded school projects will open to students as scheduled.

Jim Link, vice president of Skanska‘s Portland office, said projects with less work remaining will be hit hardest.

“If you’ve got 12 months left in your schedule, you can put a good plan together,” he said.

With notice ahead of Tuesday’s expected arrival of freezing rain, Skanska was able to pre-deliver needed material, and the company’s crews worked Monday night to clear ice to lay down rebar ahead of the storm.

Erik Timmons of Yorke & Curtis said progress had slowed at all of the firm’s projects over the past few weeks. Even if weather improves later this week, “hundreds” of man-hours will be needed just to clear off jobsites in order to start work again.

“The key for us as GCs is to set clear expectations for owners and to be open and honest about the impacts ahead of time, updating them daily of the impacts,” Timmons said. “Then the entire team is on the same page, and once we are out from underneath the snow we can all hit the ground running.”

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Try thinking of construction companies that have been passed from father to son. It’s not hard. Andersen Construction and Hoffman Construction – Portland’s two largest builders – immediately come to mind.

But in 2016, a handful of firms in the Portland area could eventually go a different way, with a daughter succeeding her father at the helm.

The 91��Ƶ talked to five father-daughter pairs in the construction industry about career expectations, the charge of nepotism, and labels around the office.

There were a few constants: the women interviewed were each described as model children, high in the birth order, who never thought growing up they’d end up in construction. All said they see their father in a different light since coming to work for him, and the dads all say they’re extremely proud.

Three strikes

Lainee Perala, 23, remembers visiting her dad, Perlo Construction co-owner Jeff Perala, on a job site as a kid.

“I remember I got to wear a hard hat. It was so cool,” she said.

She remembers playing with brightly colored drafting pens – or “art supplies” to her at the time. She remembers playing with her father’s business partner’s daughter, Elissa Looney, seven years her senior.

Now a project engineer with two years under her belt, Lainee spends most of her time in the field and away from her dad in the office. She spent most of her first year with the company at a major Subaru auto parts distribution center project in Gresham.

Jeff Perala, the current president of the local chapter of Associated General Contractors, says Lainee had three strikes against her when his company sent her to work in the field: She has a college degree; she’s a woman; she’s the boss’ daughter.

But instead of striking out, the elder Perala said Lainee has found a natural home away from the office, where she can prove herself away from father.

“I can’t imagine the pressure,” he said.

Moving out

This month, Mikaya Berge, 21, is moving out of the family home she shares with her parents and three younger sisters. She’ll be getting the first place of her own since graduating college and starting her first real job – as a project coordinator at INLINE Commercial Construction, where her dad, Trygve (pronounced Trig) is a senior vice president.

In the past year and a half, the two have carried on long, work-related conversations, long after quitting time.

“You know it’s really kind of fun,” Trygve Berge said. “One thing you always hear is: Don’t take the office home. But it actually is kind of nice.”

Others interviewed said they prefer to keep work and family separate. This issue can present itself around the office in other ways, like labels.

“She usually calls me ‘Dad,’ and I look at her funny,” Trygve said. “I’m not used to somebody in the office calling me that.”

Strongheaded

Around the office, Bremik Construction marketing director Alexi Meuwissen calls her dad, Bremik President Brent Parry, “Brent.” They admit it can get a little awkward.

“I like to keep our relationship very professional while we’re here,” she said. “I make sure that I’m not talking about personal things. But he is a busy man and sometimes when we’re out of work, I want to tell him, ‘If I could just sit you down for 10 minutes, I have all these things we can go over.’ ”

Parry admits he can be “rather opinionated.” That fact was on his mind when he decided to hire Meuwissen to be Bremik’s first dedicated marketing director.

He was reluctant at first. When he and Mike Greenslade founded Bremik in 2006, they had in mind eventually transitioning ownership to key employees.

But Meuwissen said she could see they needed help catching up to competitors where marketing was concerned. And with two years of marketing experience at Ankrom Moisan Architects, and degrees in marketing and advertising, she knew she was qualified – though her father had to be convinced.

“She told me, ‘I’m probably the only one who will be able to call your bluff,” Parry said. “She said, ‘I can come in and say, I hear what you’re saying and you’re wrong.’ ”

This point, Parry said, “really stuck.”

“In a lot of ways she is a lot like me,” he said. “She is very analytical, a bit of a perfectionist. She’s strongheaded enough that she was able to sell herself to me as to why she should come here.”

That was four years ago. In the time since, Meuwissen, 28, has worked to establish – and tie all things back to – Bremik’s “brand,” which they see as being adaptive reuse specialists with a diverse portfolio. She’s spearheaded events and taught the management team interviewing techniques. Parry said that with his daughter on board, Bremik’s proposals have improved “dramatically,” helping the firm procure work. He calls the company’s new website one of the best he’s seen in the industry.

He said Meuwissen works hard, in part to avoid the charge of nepotism.

“There’s definitely pressure,” she said. “I’ve always known that I have to show why I’m here, and show why I’m valuable.”

Taking over

Another example of a daughter building her position is at Baldwin General Contracting, where two years ago owner Yohn Baldwin brought on his daughter, Danielle Summers, 23, to take over the books.

He got the idea after accompanying her on several career conferences shortly before she was to graduate with a finance degree from Oregon State University. He heard representatives of various banks describe career pathways to her, and even make serious offers. He started to view his daughter through the eyes of a recruiter and thought, “I can do better than that,” and made her an offer of his own.

Today, she controls most accounts and hopes to soon get a CPA license so she can perform formal closings.

“She’s come in and taken over, and has vastly rebuilt that position,” he said.

Perlo Construction’s Elissa Looney has also built her own position, and in her case, her department.

She worked two summers during college as an intern at Perlo performing administrative tasks. But before coming back for a third, she made an ultimatum.

“I told them, ‘Ok, if I’m going to come back, I want to do something more challenging,” she said.

Elissa, 30, started full-time at the company after graduating eight years ago. About that time leaders at the company were noticing clients were using other firms for smaller patch-up jobs on their original work. This was the genesis of the company’s Special Projects Group, which now does everything from repairing molding to high-end tenant improvements, and which Elissa now oversees.

“She’s basically created and developed the entire thing,” said Elissa’s father, Gayland, co-founder of Perlo.

Gayland Looney says his daughter has earned her place, just like she’s been earning the company money. He expects the division to pull in between $10 million and $15 million next year, up from $300,000 its first year.

He says he’s probably harder on Elissa than his other employees.

“I expect more from her,” he said.

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