We
Make
Time.

After building numerous multi-residential buildings, retirement communities, institutional facilities, industrial and commercial holdings, KOLER is once again in the pre-construction stage, having won the contract to serve as Lev Living’s official development arm and oversee the construction of their coming projects, Aberdeen Condominium in Hamilton and Papermill Condominium in Georgetown.

Entering an entirely new development can present with problems, given the fact that it is a multi-faceted process that requires both financial and technical nous. But at KOLER, our management and construction experts have decades of experience delivering exceptional projects, from pre-development through to project completion. Our specialists have not just faced the three most felt issues of the pre-construction stage—they have overcome them. Here’s how.

Environmental pitfalls: KOLER overcomes by conducting assessments of the site early and proactively, leveraging our relationships with consultants, trades and suppliers in the industry.
Coordination: KOLER contributes vast knowledge to each project, from design collaobation to insight into the latest technologies, availability of supply chain, trades and cost estimates of different assemblies. We use clash detection software through our BIM collaboration tool to assess any coordination items from the different disciplines and create plans and risk registers accordingly.
Risk management: KOLER contains by with a variety of construction solutions. From hiring and managing each subcontract and taking on all the responsibility, to engaging with subtrades who are directly contracted with the owner, KOLER has the ability to tailor a comprehensive list of services to meet our clients’ each and every need.

The KOLER suite of services and depth of experience is how we continue to exceed expectations for innovative buildings in prime locations. Whether Construction Management or Construction Manager at Risk, Design-Build or Design-Bid-Build, our clients receive the full depth of our resources, imagination, and influence.

KOLER’s Building Information Modeling capabilities generate digital representations of physical and functional design elements, including those envisioned by owners. We combine different drawings for each discipline and create one that’s called the “federated model” to increase a project’s probability of success and minimizes errors and costly re-works.

Can you imagine:

• Not having to estimate from 2D drawings?
• Eliminating all clashes between disciplines before moving on to
construction phase?
• Having precise measurements without having to compare drawing elevations,
cross sections, and details?
• Walking through the construction site and seeing the assemblies and
services through our Mixed Reality goggles before they are installed?
• Doing a mock-up on a 3D model rather than doing the work on site?
• Managing the project through a cloud-based software and every stakeholder
seeing the project updates and progress in real time?
• Being able to strategize project execution by 4D simulation and minimizing
flaws on construction schedules?
• Not having to do as-built drawings from scratch?
• Having a complete set of federated models that can be useful for the facilities
managers in the future?

That’s what KOLER can offer. We are equipped with end-to-end solutions from the leading software and hardware provider of construction technology.

We have built a strong team; we select employees who are tech savvy and spend time to improve their skills that will benefit KOLER in the long run, as well as our clients. We partner with Trades and Suppliers who offer the level of service and quality that enables us to deliver the final product our clients deserve.

KOLER in a category all its own in the construction industry because we remain mobilised, our stakeholders stay involved, and move projects with a predictability never before seen in the industry. How? By remaining at the forefront of construction technology. We harness its full potential, and actively seek to get major trades involved. This is a full, final solution that we call
Mixed Reality.

To catalyse productivity and eliminate dilatory procedures, BIM’s five-step process enables us to share work with all organizations involved, manage documents on a unified cloud data platform, collaborate design, create 3D models and 4D simulations, and bring it to the field.

First, we establish parameters for the design team and set up controlled cloud dynamics, sharing project data among the architectural, structural, Mechanical and Electrical teams along with iterative design and reviews. Next, we organize document management on a centralised desk, documents which include everything from clash detection, construction simulation, coordination, data and analytics, safety and quality management, to constructability, coordination RFIs, Site Issues and submittals. Third, we initialize and manage design between firms—with reports, insights, bidding and tenders, quality inspection and interface management. The fourth step is we deploy systems on the field that our team and stakeholders can visualize through our MR eyewear, addressing any ussues remotely and virtually with our design team. The fifth and final step is to provide an as-built model for the client which contains all conditions, materials and equipment on the model. The client’s operations team can easily access all records, maintenance and operations manuals directly from the model.

It is this expertise that we bring to our official partnership with Lev Living, and their upcoming multi-phase projects, Aberdeen Condominium in Hamilton and Papermill Condominium in Georgetown.

Modular construction has been gaining more traction in the development industry as each day passes, with a greater number of companies choosing to leverage the benefits of a greener, factory-controlled process, a faster project lifecycle that sees construction occur simultaneously alongside site work, and the smarter, safer method that reduces risk of accidents and liabilities—as modular buildings are built to the same codes, specifications and standards as their site-built counterparts.

KOLER, as the official construction arm of Lev Living, has inherited rich expertise and deep ties within the industry that enables us to provide modular construction services as part of our full suite of solutions. Whether Construction Management Services or Construction Manager at Risk, Design-Build or Design-Bid-Build, we use innovate design and project management systems to collaborate, manage, schedule and monitor progress on an as-built, real-time basis.

When required, KOLER can transition seamlessly from site-built to modular—being well-versed in both. Lev Living’s upcoming communities, Aberdeen Condominium in Hamilton and Papermill Condominium in Georgetown are the next showcase of KOLER’s capabilities: each project is a unique community of multi-family condominiums.

As a second-generation company, KOLER understands the importance of time. When you have it, projects are planned, completed and delivered on schedule. When you give it, relationships are strengthened, there is a clear understanding of expectations, and construction as a process evolves into a partnership between people who implicitly trust each other. Modular construction is just one of the many ways that we make time, for our clients and for their residents.

Winning the contract to partner exclusively with LEV Living gives us the opportunity to further integrate geothermal technology across Canadian cityscapes. Aberdeen Condominium in Hamilton and Papermill Condominium in Georgetown will be the latest master-planned communities to benefit from the renewable, sustainable source of energy, while setting the benchmark of ecological and human responsibility for the world.

Closed Loop Geothermal energy involves tapping into the sub-surface of the earth and transferring the heat latent underground into the building in the winter months and drawing heat from the building into the ground in the summer months. The heat is transferred using liquid filled closed loop system drilled deep into the earth and circulated into the building. Since the Earth’s temperature stays relatively constant, a Closed Loop Geothermal HVAC system utilizes energy extracted from the Earth and is able to consistently distribute the heating and cooling regardless of the climate above the Earth’s surface throughout the year.

The technology needed to leverage geothermal energy is advanced and requires a permanent place at the forefront of modern innovation. For Aberdeen Condominium in Hamilton, a community of multi-family residences, KOLER, in addition to rooftop humidifiers, is going to incorporate in-suite heat pumps.

These projects will not only have lower utility costs for the hundreds of residents who are to call them home, they will also spread a higher, healthier ideal—both for people and the environment.

It’s been over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the way the construction industry has to carry on its business.

Even as Canada moves past the pandemic and protocols ease, COVID-spurred trends will continue to shape the sector.

Yaniv Geler, president of Koler Builders, an Ontario-based construction firm with decades of experience, and Koler’s vice-president of operations John Miolla see challenges and opportunities ahead. Here are some of the key trends they have seen emerge due to COVID and how they will influence the industry going forward.

Escalating costs
A shortage of materials in 2020 continues for everything from concrete to lumber to electrical panels, according to Geler. Pricing in 2020 was volatile, not just due to the pandemic but in reaction to former U.S. president Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs on steel and aluminum.

“There was been an extraordinary price increase in terms of materials,” says Miolla. “Before, most proposals requested prices be held for 30 to 60 days, but that’s gone by the wayside. We can’t get structural steel suppliers to hold a price even for week.”

While production slowed due to COVID, demand remained strong, leading to supply issues.

Geler predicts prices may not be as volatile as in the last three years, but won’t go down. With President Joe Biden now in the White House, it’s too early to see what effect his policies may have on Canada, but he does not believe there will be much price relief in 2021.

Miolla says fluctuating costs have put contractors in an awkward position as developers and clients want prices held long enough for them to reflect and compare, but that’s no longer possible.

“It’s a radical change in thinking and no one is going to be able to guarantee anything. It will likely be a cost-plus scenario,” says Miolla.

Building sectors faring the best
The residential marketplace remains robust and has been one of the industries least affected by the pandemic, says Miolla, but construction of towers and office building construction has suffered and the trend of people working from home is expected to continue, resulting in a high vacancy rate for large office buildings.

Miolla predicts an increase in building of warehouses, distribution centres and cold storage facilities for food.

“Everyone’s jumped on the e-commerce bandwagon and even grocery stores are delivering products. E-commerce is not going away.”

Labour crunch
The labour shortage that existed prior to the pandemic has been exacerbated by COVID. Immigration to Canada is at record low levels, creating a dearth of talent from overseas. The other issue is most young Canadians are not interested in careers in the trades.
“We’re years away from seeing robotics on jobsites,” says Geler. “There has been some experimentation with robotics for brick laying and drywall but it will be some time before we see that happen.”

Scheduling issues
Scheduling has become a key challenge.

For example, Miolla says recently a building inspector required that a five-storey building Koler was constructing be vacated for at least four hours prior to the inspection for the official to feel comfortable. Fifty workers had to be sent home at noon to comply.

“How do you program that into a schedule or if there’s an outbreak and no one wants to come back to work for weeks?”

Miolla says innovative solutions are needed, such as staggered work hours or shifts, but most construction workers are reluctant to embrace that.

“You have to educate people and adapt and see what can be done to maintain a schedule,” he says. “If you tell an owner it’s going to take twice as long to build a project, that is a huge impact on cost.”

Geler believes the pandemic may drive more prefabricated and modular construction with components that can be factory-built then assembled onsite, creating more efficiency and requiring fewer workers.

The hospitality industry has taken a beating during the COVID-19 pandemic and there’s sure to be a slew of hotels hitting the market either immediately or in the immediate aftermath of the global health crisis. However, in a city like Toronto, where available land is scarce, it could create unique opportunities to retrofit buildings that don’t survive the pandemic.

“Speculation is that these hotels are nowhere near a viable proposition and they’ll have to look at repurposing,” said John Miolla, vice president of operations at Koler Builders. “I’ve caught wind of a few of them. Owners/operators are sitting on assets that aren’t generating revenue. Repurposing them is one way to change that.”

Demolitions are expensive, but it’s entirely possible to salvage a building’s structure and gut the interior. In fact, The Britt by Lanterra Developments, a 41-storey, 727-unit luxury condo in Yorkville, used to be Sutton Place, one of Toronto’s most storied hotels that opened in 1967. Before that, the old Four Seasons on Avenue Rd., also in Yorkville, was successfully retrofitted.

“They took 35 storeys-worth of hotel and flipped it,” said Miolla. “They gutted the entire building and stripped the old electrical and mechanical systems, old drywall and partitions, so all that was left were vertical structural elements and horizontal floor plates, and they turned it into a viable alternative to a hotel. Obviously it’s been done and has merit.”

Miolla added that converting hotels into condos isn’t especially difficult considering that both are residential in nature. Demolitions are costly, but by retrofitting, the interior of the remaining structure can be tweaked.

“It’s like renovating a house—you have a box in which you can add on a few extra square feet to units if you want,” he said, “and include modern standards, like a new AC and heating systems.”

Hotels aren’t the only buildings suffering economically that could benefit from repurposing. Toronto’s office towers are largely barren again now that the city is in the third wave of the pandemic, and while most workers are expected to return to those offices permanently one day, not all of them will. Moreover, Toronto has over 27.5 million sq ft of office space in the development pipeline, and surplus space will doubtless reduce valuations, rents and general economic viability.

“Office space may have more significant impact because COVID has forced us into a situation we didn’t experience before, which is working remotely. Now people don’t need to go to offices, so there will be a glut of offices. The Bank of Nova Scotia dumped a bunch of floors because they don’t need the space,” said Miolla.

“Post-COVID, we have to look at ways to stagger business hours, do more remote work, or if you have an office, you have to provide larger, not smaller, spaces because we have to respect social distancing.”

According to Sunny Sharma, who uses his Certified Commercial Investment Member designation to determine best uses for properties, says building conversions are economically sound strategies for both hotels and disused office buildings.

After building numerous multi-residential buildings, retirement communities, institutional facilities, industrial and commercial holdings, KOLER is once again in the pre-construction stage, having won the contract to serve as Lev Living’s official development arm and oversee the construction of their coming projects, Aberdeen Condominium in Hamilton and Papermill Condominium in Georgetown.

Entering an entirely new development can present with problems, given the fact that it is a multi-faceted process that requires both financial and technical nous. But at KOLER, our management and construction experts have decades of experience delivering exceptional projects, from pre-development through to project completion. Our specialists have not just faced the three most felt issues of the pre-construction stage—they have overcome them. Here’s how.

Environmental pitfalls: KOLER overcomes by conducting assessments of the site early and proactively, leveraging our relationships with consultants, trades and suppliers in the industry.
Coordination: KOLER contributes vast knowledge to each project, from design collaobation to insight into the latest technologies, availability of supply chain, trades and cost estimates of different assemblies. We use clash detection software through our BIM collaboration tool to assess any coordination items from the different disciplines and create plans and risk registers accordingly.
Risk management: KOLER contains by with a variety of construction solutions. From hiring and managing each subcontract and taking on all the responsibility, to engaging with subtrades who are directly contracted with the owner, KOLER has the ability to tailor a comprehensive list of services to meet our clients’ each and every need.

The KOLER suite of services and depth of experience is how we continue to exceed expectations for innovative buildings in prime locations. Whether Construction Management or Construction Manager at Risk, Design-Build or Design-Bid-Build, our clients receive the full depth of our resources, imagination, and influence.

Lumber prices have fallen and a prominent Toronto-based real estate developer believes it can spur housing construction, albeit modestly.

However, in a city struggling with year-long supply and demand shortages, additional housing units, however meager, are welcome.

“As soon as we start to stabilize our costs, we then make a decision to release the next 30 or 40 homes of a phase,” said Scott McLellan, senior vice president of Plaza Corp. paragraph. , then you will see more supplies from the developers as they are comfortable. The way to stabilize costs is, with more sawmills reopening, construction inventories will go up and prices will go down.”

The cost of most building materials skyrocketed shortly after the pandemic broke out in March 2020 because, in addition to the halted production, there were complications in transportation. Steel mills are also temporarily offline, resulting in higher construction costs, but higher lumber costs.

“The lumber was $40,000 for a 3,000-square-foot house, and then it more than doubled to $90-100,000,” says McLellan. “The builders have fixed the quantity, which is passed on to the buyer. I don’t think home prices will go down — you can’t lower the price because no one can get a proper appraisal or mortgage. “

The continuous closing of wood and steel mills caused prices to rise, although nothing as high as before, however, prices have been gradually decreasing since the economy started to reopen. John Miolla, vice president of operations for Koler Builders, noted that the surge in home renovations, which began shortly after the pandemic hit, could contribute to exorbitant lumber prices, but he predicts prices will normal next year. In fact, prices fell 45% in June from a month earlier.

“Production is picking up and demand is falling a little bit,” he said. “I predict a return to pre-pandemic prices by the end of the year or possibly in 2022.”

Housing prices will certainly not fall just because the cost of raw materials is gradually decreasing. First of all, tightening market conditions are responsible for the significant increase in home prices, and beyond market fundamentals, namely population growth, prices will continue to climb, although expected There will be a lull this summer as people start to travel again and enjoy summer activities. But considering how lumber prices then rise, and then fall, McLellan believes the volatility will manifest in relatively static house prices.

“Lower lumber costs will keep house prices moderate; they are not going to increase that sharply,” he said. “Remember, other costs, such as labor, transportation and steel remain high.”

https://www.canadianrealestatemagazine.ca/news/how-lumber-costs-affect-home-prices-334759.aspx | How lumber costs affect home prices