Unions and Concord Hotel Developer Reach Agreement

KIAMESHA LAKE, NY-George A. Fuller Co., construction manager for Concord Associates, LP, and the Ulster, Sullivan, Delaware and Greene Counties Building and Construction Trades Council (AFL-CIO) have implemented a Project Labor Agreement.

The accord calls for “close cooperation between the construction manager and the unions for the express purpose of obtaining and completing construction of the project as efficiently, expeditiously and economically as possible with due consideration for the protection of labor standards and working conditions.”

Hank Bunce, president of the Trades Council, comments that the projected construction payroll will be $70 million, which he says, “will provide a tremendous economic boon to our membership and will have a ripple effect throughout the local community.”

He adds that during the peak construction periods, it is anticipated that the Concord project will employ 1,500 union tradesmen.

The first phase of the project by Concord Associates, LP, a joint venture of Cappelli Enterprises of Valhalla and Reckson Strategic Ventures, will involve the demolition of the existing 1,200-room Concord Hotel, which closed in 1999, according to Margaret M. Schneider, executive vice president of Concord Associates.

In its place, a new four-star, world-class 525-room hotel and conference center called the Concord Resorts will be constructed at Kiamesha Lake. Company officials say they are in negotiations with a national hotel franchise operator and expect that an agreement will be reached soon.

Construction on the new hotel is expected to take about 20 months to complete. In March, 2001, construction will begin on the new Concord Hotel & Convention Center, a full-service, internationally “flagged” hotel with 85,000 sf of exhibition, convention and meeting facilities, a 25,000-sf theater, restaurants and entertainment lounges.