< PreviousDEC 2019 - JAN 202010Written by Paul HutchingsIn 2018, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) released several of the worst examples of so-called “Red Tape” that businesses and developers need to complete before getting projects off the ground. The list reads almost as a cautionary tale for anyone hoping to get a devel-opment, whether a condominium or a warehouse, completed quickly and on time.If this list is accurate, getting things done on time may largely be a thing of the past.To be sure, some of the items listed could be considered eye-rolling. The list ranges from brutal customer service in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan to businesses in one local area affected by water main replacement. Quebec’s Liquor, Racing and Gaming Authority has stringent amusement regulations that require businesses to obtain separate, expen-sive and time-consuming licenses for every bowling lane, pinball machine and pool table – and they all have to be renewed annually.The BC Government’s Community Benefits Agreement, mean-while, requires construction companies working on provincial infrastructure projects to join specific unions. Businesses must comply with nearly 350 pages of rules which specify esoteric things like warming plates before serving food to employ-ees. Still in BC, the Town of Smithers requires businesses that perform renovations valued at over $100,000 to conduct unre-lated offsite work, like sidewalk construction.In Canada’s largest city, Toronto businesses that need licens-ing can only get it done at one location, and the process must be completed on paper and in person. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the word “Cannabis” is prohibited in any business that is not a licensed cannabis retailer. And out here in Nova Scotia, our Occupational Health and Safety Division demands employers apply strict hazardous materials handling guidelines to simple hand soaps and common household cleaners found in the workplace. But we might not have it as bad out here for development as some other provinces when it comes to process. Currently, Halifax is in the midst of a building renaissance, with more cranes appearing in tourist pictures than buildings, as one tourist joked as he took a picture of the city from the famed Citadel Hill national park. That’s obviously an exaggeration, but it’s not exactly a secret that the Halifax Regional Municipality’s council has become very pro-development. Concrete skeletons are climbing toward the sky as old parking lots and buildings dating back to the early 20th century are demolished. Queen’s Marque, a condo and office space building, is currently being built directly on the water-front, and a high-rise at the corner of Barrington and Sackville Streets is going up on the site of the old Zellers building, one of many across the HRM.Across the harbour in Dartmouth, on the site of old govern-ment lands, Shannon Park is being looked at for the newest entry into the Canadian Football League. The option is still being explored, with council waiting for the results of the latest study (there have been five) to figure out how much, if any, public funding will go toward all those touchdowns.All those studies can be a major hindrance to development. The city centre plan was announced earlier last year and will include destroying the Cogswell Exchange, or the area around Barrington Street into the downtown core, and rebuilding it to include more bike lanes and pedways in an attempt to make the city more environmentally friendly. It’s a noble goal, but one that comes with decades of studies.“I know of a few developers who say the same thing: when you get an idea and you present it, it takes [the municipality] a really long time to approve it.”11CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS At a recent council meeting, one councillor, Matt Whitman, a potential mayoral candidate, complained that there were too many studies over the years – especially useless, he said, given that each study says essentially the same thing. The cost of each of those studies is upwards of $2 million.Out in the suburbs, treed lots are being transformed into condos and houses seemingly in the blink of an eye, and devel-opers out there seem to have only one complaint with the municipal process: approval time.Yanni Kivotos, a Greek immigrant, bought a half-acre lot six years ago to eventually turn it into a four-story townhome develop-ment, which borders directly on newly constructed single lots. Kivotos, a trained dentist in his country of origin, decided that construction would be a great second career upon his arrival in Canada a few years back. But getting something approved only after six years was something he didn’t count on.Kivotos had to satisfy the munici-pality’s environmental concerns. He had to put everything he wanted to do in writing for several different departments, including the number of eventual tenants, parking spaces, building type and number of floors his rental unit would contain. He also had to wait to see what the parent company of the building, West Bedford Holdings Ltd., a joint venture between Clayton Developments Ltd. and Cresco Ltd., would approve.Then he waited. And waited. And waited. Six years later, he cleared the trees and broke ground.“That’s probably my biggest issue with red tape around here, I don’t believe it ever should have taken so long,” he said from the little shack on the property. He had the time to talk because of a rainstorm hampering his crew’s efforts at a speedy comple-tion. “I’m not the only one; I know of a few developers who say the same thing: when you get an idea and you present it, it takes [the municipality] a really long time to approve it, and that really doesn’t make sense to me.”Kivotos said it’s a contradiction in terms that developers have to wait so long when they’re expected to add to the develop-ment of the area. “We’re making places for people to live, we’re adding to the tax base, but they put all these restrictions on us and make us wait,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong; it’s better than doing business back in Greece, but it still seems unnecessary,” alluding to the fact that in Greece he’d have a corrupt govern-ment to deal with, and government officials with their hands out before moving a project along in the process. All levels of government are easier to deal with in Canada, he said, adding that developments in the downtown core tend to approved faster than in the suburbs.At the other end of the spectrum, developer Mori Salehi is constructing Brookline Plaza, a commercial site that has yet to get a shovel into the ground. But in stark opposition to Kivotos, Salehi said the process has actually been fairly quick. Within a year, Salehi said, he was able to get a sign into the ground notifying pass-ersby in Bedford of his intentions.“Maybe it depends on what you’re doing but the process for us was smooth and we’re on time so far,” he said. “We got permission from the parent company fairly quickly and I have no complaints.”That’s probably because all the work for the area was already done before Salehi came along. In the initial plan at the city’s website, Salehi’s lot was chosen for commercial development six years ago.Local councillor Tim Outhit says this is one area where he can sympathize with developers. The time it takes, he said, really isn’t conducive to healthy development.Outhit has become a fairly outspoken opponent against over-development, stating that residents don’t seem to feel that they have a say in any kind of new construction. But he understands the frustration of those doing the building. Sometimes, he said, it’s a matter of a developer sticking to what they’re planning instead of changing it after approval is granted.“If you come forward and ask if you can build 40 storeys on a residential street where there are only houses, the answer should be a yes or no instead of taking years to decide.”DEC 2019 - JAN 202012“Sometimes the land of no-decision goes on too long,” he said. “If you come forward and ask if you can build 40 storeys on a res-idential street where there are only houses, the answer should be a yes or no instead of taking years to decide. Especially if we already have a sense of what the answer will be.”Like most towns and cities across Canada, public consultations will take place if a development is to be constructed in areas where it could have a major impact, which in itself, Outhit rec-ognized, takes a lot of time. But, he said, this is what a democ-racy is about. He’d just like it to go a little faster.To that end, the city actually is trying to make it easier, by bringing in more staff and looking at changes to the system. Council will discuss that in the new year.Designed by Gavin Billings“In just over a decade, the company has emerged as the world’s foremost detention and security contractor, manufacturer, and supplier, serving over one thousand facilities.”DEC 2019 - JAN 202014Written by Robert HoshowskyAcross America, over 2.3 million men and women are held in thou-sands of prisons and jails. Like small cities, these facilities require all the amenities and products for day-to-day life, from electro-mechanical locks to institutional bedding, and many of these facilities count on Cornerstone Detention Products to provide them.Cornerstone works with clients on everything from planning and jail design to renovation of existing facilities, security requirements, supplies, and more. The company offers innovative pre-construction services, which help lower overall construc-tion expenses on projects of all sizes. It can help with budgeting, design-build services, total lifecycle costs, security consulting, and even security consultation and in-house fabrication of metal fixtures. Cornerstone Founder and Chief Executive Officer Charles ‘Mitch’ Claborn has been involved in correction-related businesses for forty years. Back in 1979, Claborn took college classes in the evenings and ran the blueprint machine by day as a co-op student for a company called Willo Products. He remained at Willo until a split in ownership in 1982 when he joined the prison division of a new company called Roanoke Iron and Bridge, which opened an office in Decatur, Alabama. Here, he was as a drafting supervi-sor until 1984 when he joined Norment Industries in Montgomery, Alabama, where he served for five years as a project manager.“This really opened my eyes to the industry and required a lot of travel for a southern boy,” he says. The travel made him realize just how big the market had become. After Norment was sold in 1989, he moved back to Alabama because of his mother’s terminal cancer and took a local sales job.Claborn soon left to work with his friend Daryl Slate whom he knew from his Willo days. Slate had started a company that made detention equipment products in its steel manufactur-ing shop, and Claborn went to work with him in 1990. Growth was tremendous, but Slate decided to sell the business in 1997, and the two parted ways.After unsuccessfully attempting to purchase Slate Security Systems, Claborn started Cornerstone Detention Products, Inc. in 1998 and has never looked back. Cornerstone was created in a room above his garage along with sister company Claborn Manufacturing, which manufactures and sells metal security doors, door systems, frames, windows, and detention furniture. In just over a decade, the company has emerged as the world’s foremost detention and security contractor, manufacturer, and supplier, serving over one thousand facilities and employing three hundred people. It operates primarily in the United States with some international clients.The company grew organically, and then in 2013, it purchased Security Design Incorporated and E.O. Integrated Systems, Inc. The next year, Cornerstone bought Norment Industries, started a mattress plant in Highpoint, North Carolina to make correctional mattresses, and named the company C3. M2H2 Holdings was formed in 2017. It then acquired Slate Security and rebranded it as the Claborn Manufacturing Company to diversify its sheet metal manufacturing portfolio. Further acquisitions followed.“Currently, the company has ten locations and plans to add at least two new offices a year.”DEC 2019 - JAN 202016 “We are expecting heavy growth for the next three years, and the expansion of Claborn Manufacturing will be double-digit growth due to the technology and the equipment,” says Claborn. The company’s other investments include a 300,000-square-foot Saginaw Steering Gear Plant this year. Additionally, the business is in the middle of a $40,000,000 renovation and robotic equipment purchase to create the first smart factory for detention equipment products. The new facility is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2020 and will have over 300,000 square feet of space under roof, on a lot of thirty-five acres.Cornerstone is planning to move to South Limestone Industrial Park in Tanner, Alabama. Staying in Alabama is essential to the company, as is being in the metropolitan area of Huntsville, which is growing rapidly and is predicted to be the largest city in Alabama in the next decade. “With this kind of growth, we feel that this is a great location to attract a technologically advanced workforce,” states Claborn.The company has worked on many projects, including California’s San Quentin State Prison, Kansas’ Lansing Correctional Facility, and even the Toronto South Detention Centre in Canada. The Lansing Correctional Facility was formerly known as the Kansas State Penitentiary and was built by prison labor and opened in 1868. Reconstruction and expansion were much needed. Cornerstone Detention Products worked with the construction team by providing design assistance and value engineering. “As the detention equipment and security electronics contractor, Cornerstone provided purchasing and installation of security hollow metal doors/frames, detention furniture, security ceiling, security hardware, security glazing, PLC (programmable logic controllers) locking controls, intercom systems, and video system integration,” according to the company. The project, in conjunction with architect TreanorHL and con-sulting firm DL Group, was fast-tracked so that it could be com-pleted in twenty-four months.In just a decade, Cornerstone has received many awards, certifi-cations, and other recognition for its outstanding projects and service. These include the award of merit from the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) in 2018 for the East County Detention Center in Indio, California and the award of merit from ABC’s North Alabama chapter in 2017 for the St. Clair Correctional Facility security improvements in the category for general contractor institutional projects of less than $5 million.Cornerstone has also been ranked in 2017 and 2016 as one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies and recog-nized by the likes of the American Subcontractors Association, Content Developed by Brad Mike | Designed by Yoana IlchevaEngineering News-Record, Business Alabama, and others for its outstanding work.Currently, the company has ten locations and plans to add at least two new offices a year. Cornerstone also continues to intro-duce additional services and new products to the marketplace, such as ‘The Defender,’ a high-security, surface-mounted lock with visual indication and a patent-pending security feature. This product is primarily used in the renovation market, but the company is developing an application for new construction.Claborn Manufacturing is operated by Mitch’s brothers – with Cornerstone being its largest customer – and is investigat-ing other industries. “Claborn Manufacturing will have excess capacity with our new equipment, and we are actively pursuing other business, especially in the automotive sector, since Huntsville, Alabama and Alabama, in general, has been so active in the sector.” With Cornerstone being a service provider and contractor and Claborn a manufacturer, combining the two into one company is a distinct possibility in the future. “We are progressive thinkers, and we value our customers, and we operate with integrity!”17CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS GRANVILLE COUNTY DETENTION, LAW ENFORCEMENT & ANIMAL CONTROL CENTERPhoto provided by Bordeaux ConstructionDEC 2019 - JAN 202018Granville County, on the northern border of North Carolina with a population of 60,000, is building a new County Detention, Law Enforcement & Animal Control Center, in a bold effort to address the needs of the whole community.Granville County’s existing detention facility, located in Oxford, was built in the late 1960s and early 1970s and has had only one remodel since, in the 1990s. The building was initially designed to hold 80 inmates and is just under 10,000 square feet. However, over the past nine years, it has regularly housed between 120 and 125 inmates. The facility is now outdated, both in the overall design and for modern programming needs.“Our existing detention facility is designed as a gang domicile, meaning that they are large, open-room domiciles rather than two-man cells, so it’s large populations in large, open areas,” said Michael Felts, Granville County Manager. “The facilities are limited in managing populations as you need to.”The project kicked off with a ‘Space Needs Study’ that was conducted in 2015 to determine if a renovation, remodel or complete new construction was needed. What the study determined was that it would not be cost-effective to renovate or remodel, and that the county needed to build a new facility that would offer efficiencies for the whole County in being a one-stop site for all law enforcement and safety needs.Written by Stacey McCarthyPhoto provided by Bordeaux ConstructionNext >