Construction Industry

A&K Painting Company’s JobNet™

iPadJobNetScreen

A&K Painting Co. JobNet™ = Better Service, Better Property Security & Safety for CRE Personnel

At A&K Painting Company, we constantly work to provide our customers with the best service available.  We accomplish our goal in part by keeping our technology current and our project managers, foreman and all employees properly trained and educated in technology, security and safety.  To that end, we’ve created JobNet™, a state of the art Quality Control, cloud based Project Management system.

Our customers have the advantage of receiving better project information that includes relevant updates on where and when we will be in properties for the duration of any project.

JobNet™ keeps all of our CRE professionals’ information current and provides in-depth details about every project.  Our PMs utilize JobNet™ to keep detailed records on each project, which allows for better planning, communication and execution.  Project and customer information include customer preferences, hourly reports of progress for each project, and a detailed schedule for the duration of the project.  The system also keeps a record of each employee that works on a project, including the duration of their time on the site, so that there is complete accountability for each person that comes in contact with a property; this allows for better property security and personnel safety.  The JobNet™ system also keeps details about each product ordered for every project, so there is never any confusion about what is needed.

A&K’s JobNet™ = Industry Leadership, Better Service, Better Property Security and Safety.

Raleigh and Charlotte Near Top of ‘American Boomtowns’ List

Raleigh and Charlotte Rankings Good for CRE and Construction Industry

According to Bloomberg, people are migrating to find better opportunities within the United States and North Carolina as well, so they have compiled a list of “Boomtowns” that are ranked according to growth in population and gross domestic product to show the effect of the opportunities migration.

Both the Raleigh and Charlotte metro areas made the cut, with the Raleigh-Cary metro area ranked 3rd and the Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord metro area ranked 10thth.  The Raleigh area’s population grew by 11.06 percent with GDP growth of 1.49 percent- a result of the Research Triangle Park’s strength, which attracts technology professionals from across the globe.  Charlotte’s population growth of 8.7 percent and GDP growth of 0.14 percent stems from the city’s financial-services center status.

Historic South End, Silos and Rail Trail

Historic South End Silos During Restoration

On October 21, 1852, the first railroad train arrived in Charlotte, which may have been the most important event in the city’s history.  Innovative funding by the business community and townsfolk made the line possible and the railroad train’s arrival spawned an imaginative leadership and innovative movement that contributed to making South End what it is today.
The city is dedicated to maintaining South End’s history, and A&K Painting Company is honored to be a part of that dedication.  We are proud to have completed the restoration project on the Silos that are such a famous landmark in the revitalized South End area. And while the landmarks of the South End are important to maintain and restore, the community also believes it’s imperative to beautify and transform the community into a welcoming place that intertwines nature with design.
The community is trying to accomplish this nature and design collaboration by transforming the existing rail trail, which runs parallel to Lynx Blue Line, into a vibrant public park that allows people to explore all that South End has to offer. There was a meeting held on April 23rd to share this rail trail vision with the community and it had a terrific turnout.  This vision is easy to see, because South End is filled with galleries, restaurants, bars and cafés that will be easily accessible by the rail trail, and if something is a little too far for you to walk, you can check out a wider range of exciting places via the Blue Line.  If you’re more interested in the design aspect of the community, you’re in luck; South End is a hot spot for design.  It is home to 200 design businesses, including showrooms and offices for architects, builders, interior and landscape designers, and graphic and web designers.  So matter what you’re interested in, there’s something for everyone in South End.

AIA’s Architecture Billings Show Uptick

AIA Billing Index Uptick
In a recent press release, the American Institute of Architects reported that there is positive momentum for architecture billings, and that all sectors continue to show positive business conditions.  These changes are measured by the Architecture Billings Index (ABI), which is a leading economic indicator of nonresidential construction spending activity.  This index is obtained by surveying AIA member-owned firms directly; they are asked whether their billings increased, decreased or stayed the same in the prior month.  Then the results are compiled into the ABI and changes can be measured and analyzed.

According to the AIA, “the March ABI score was 51.9, down from a mark of 54.9 in February.  This score reflects an increase in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings).  The ABI has been reflecting a steady upturn in design activity, but perhaps most importantly, according to AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, “business conditions in the construction industry have generally improving over the last several months

The Greenest Building and Building Reuse

Reusing Building Is Greener

Since there has been an increase in environmental awareness across the country, it’s fascinating to see how many varying viewpoints there are on how to improve the environment and reduce energy usage. One study, by Preservation Green Lab, funded in part by National Trust for Historic Preservation, focused on reductions in climate change by reusing and retrofitting existing buildings rather than demolishing and replacing them with new construction. The organization utilized a Life Cycle Analysis methodology to compare the relative environmental impacts of the two different approaches over the course of a 75-year life span. The study examined many indicators, including climate change, human health, ecosystem quality, and resource depletion, and evaluated six different building types within each climate zone across the U.S. According to the report, “this research provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the potential environmental impact reductions associated with building reuse”.

Interestingly, the study found that “building reuse almost always yields fewer environmental impacts than new construction when comparing buildings of similar size and functionality”. Even more astonishing, the study concluded that “savings from reuse are between 4 and 46 percent over new construction when comparing buildings with the same energy performance level and it can take between 10 and 80 years for a new, energy-efficient building to overcome, through more efficient operations, the negative climate change impacts that were created during the construction process”.