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May 14, 2009

INDUSTRY ACCESS*

Wolseley Plc Selling a Majority Stake in Stock Building Supply

Wolseley Plc agreed to sell a majority stake of its Stock Building Supply unit. Los Angeles-based private-equity firm Gores Group LLC will buy a 51% stake for a “nominal” price, with Wolseley retaining the rest, the U.K. company said. Stock, based in Raleigh, NC, supplies lumber, roofing and doors to house builders and contractors. The business, which runs 200 branches in 27 states, had a $129 million loss in the six months through January on sales of $1.34 billion, reported Bloomberg.com. Full Story

Click here for more Industry Access news including recent new hires, merger & acquisition activity and who's offering new products.

* DHI Members may submit news releases to be considered for inclusion in DHI's IndustryWatch. Send to: jmadden@dhi.org.

BUSINESS UPDATE

Construction companies nationwide are reporting that the stimulus bill passed last February is making it possible to hire new workers, according to information gathered by the Associated General Contractors of America. The early information provides the first glimpse into how federally funded infrastructure and construction projects can help improve overall economic conditions, the association added. Full Story

To understand how companies survived - or even thrived in - previous harsh times, The Wall Street Journal talked to Nancy F. Koehn, a business historian, author and professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Here are excerpts of that conversation. Full Story

U.S. construction spending rose in March for the first time in six months, edging up 0.3%. The gain contrasted with analysts' forecasts of a 1.5% drop in spending, according to a Reuters report. Full Story

Commercial property owners continue to invest in retrofitting their buildings today in order to achieve great savings tomorrow, and it seems the trend is only going to grow. According to a new report by Pike Research, comprehensive efficiency retrofits will increase in annual revenue three-fold to $6.6 billion by 2013. As noted in the report, entitled Energy Efficiency Retrofits for Commercial and Public Buildings, approximately 20 billion square feet of the country's existing 70 billion square feet of public and private commercial building space is in need of major renovations, presenting a $400 billion opportunity for significant green upgrades over the next few years, reported Commercial Property News. Full Story

Together with representatives from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized 75 new commercial building design projects for their energy efficiency, representing a 60% increase in the number of qualifying projects over the last year, and a record number of Energy Star certifications, reported Building Design & Construction. Full Story

CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN

The World Trade Center project will be cut back from five iconic skyscrapers to just two signature towers under a new Port Authority plan, the Daily News has learned. Bludgeoned by recession and a war with developer Larry Silverstein, the Port Authority is proposing halving the office space it will build at Ground Zero - from 10 million square feet to 5 million, sources familiar with the plan say. Full Story

All 16 residential buildings in Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics Athlete's Village will meet the USGBC's Gold-level sustainability standards, according to Ian Smith, manager of the development office for Southeast False Creek, the district where the complex is located. Additionally, a 30,000-square-foot community center will be certified LEED Platinum, reported Architectural Record. Full Story

SECURITY & SAFETY

A recent article in American School & University magazine looks at the benefits and challenges of keyless access at schools and universities. Full Story

A recent SecurityInfoWatch.com article offer help for understanding card-connected access control systems. Full Story

The Security Industry Association has released a draft set of revised standards for security system control panels and their associated arming and disarming devices that are intended to reduce the incidence of false alarms. The "Control Panel Standard – Features for False Alarm Reduction" is meant for use by manufacturers in the design of control panels and alarm signal receivers. It can also serve as a reference for security system installers, specifiers and users; central stations; manufacturers of central station products, such as receivers and automation software; and others. The draft revisions are open for public comment through May 29. Full Story

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the launch of the Hospital Energy Alliance (HEA), an industry-led partnership between the DOE and national healthcare sector leaders to promote the integration of advanced energy efficiency and renewable technologies in hospital design, construction, retrofit, operations, and maintenance. Full Story

Coming in at the top of some legislators' agendas, "safety" is legislation du jour. There's talk that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) may tighten the belt a bit when it comes to cracking down on violations. Representative Lynn Woolsey of California introduced a bill in the House aimed to "amend existing federal law to increase civil and criminal penalties for violations of workplace safety regulations," reports the Wall Street Journal. "It has been more than 30 years since the passage of the [Occupational Safety and Health Act], and it is badly in need of reform," Woolsey said in a prepared statement. The legislation also seeks to further protect whistleblowers and stiffen penalties for companies that have track records of being repeat offenders in violating OSHA standards, reported The Las Vegas Sun. Full Story For specifics on this legislation and other OSHA information, go to: www.osha.gov

A U.S. House of Representatives' rules committee has passed H.R. 2187 (21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act), legislation that aims to authorize $6.4 billion in 2010 for school construction projects that meet certain environmental standards, reported Security Sales & Integration. Through its lobbying efforts the National Burglar Fire Alarm Association (NBFAA) was able to insert language into the bill that allows grants for modernization, renovation or repair of public K-12 facilities to bring "public schools into compliance with fire, health, seismic, and safety codes, including professional installation of fire/life safety alarms ." Full Story

The federal government's E-Verify program, which seeks to reduce the hiring of illegal immigrants, is becoming increasingly popular, with 1,000 new businesses signing up each week despite concerns about its reliability. Recently, the Obama administration announced that it wanted Congress to allocate $12 million more to the program in the next fiscal year, bringing its budget to $112 million, reported The Los Angeles Times. Full Story

SMALL BUSINESS NEWS

Form 1099 Initiative

The Department of Treasury released the details of tax relief and tax increases included in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget that the President proposed a month ago. It will include the Form 1099 initiative. For those of you unfamiliar with this initiative, it essentially requires every business in America that purchases services from another business to issue a Form 1099 at the end of the year to the service business – and it will not matter whether the service business is a corporation, sole proprietorship, or partnership. Think about it, even the smallest business probably has a half dozen businesses it relies on for services – advertising, financial, technical, accounting, payroll, overnight delivery.

Add the law of unintended consequences to that fact and you have a recipe for heartburn. There are modest penalties that go along with the failure to issue Form 1099s. How easy is it going to be to mess up with this new responsibility? Who provides service? What if there are goods and services? How about getting the tax identification number from those service providers. And dealing with back up withholding if you do not.

Before you know it, we will fund the government not from the additional tax revenues gained by all those service businesses reporting their income more accurately, but on the backs of the nearly 100% of businesses that will be responsible for issuing Form 1099s through all the penalties that will be assessed. For more details, visit www.taxcompliancefairness.org.

DHI NEWS

Don't Miss DHI's FREE ONLINE Program
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 2:00 PM EST
"Understanding the Green Product Marketplace - Eliminating Greenwash and the Importance of Third Party Validation"

Presented by Joshua Saunders
UL Environment, Inc. (ULEI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.

Sustainability is en vogue, and many who are engineering new products are under pressure to make them more "green." Energy efficiency and recycled content are certainly sustainable features, but in a market growing saturated with eco-friendly technologies, manufacturers, retailers and consumers alike are growing increasingly skeptical of technologies that label themselves "sustainable." Does there come a point when purchasers and consumers no longer believe the self-declarations that companies are making? Does third-party certification offer any value to buyers? How do you navigate the various eco-labels?

Join us online as Joshua Saunders, Global Service Line Manager for UL Environment, discusses important green product attributes, product standards, certification programs, and where all these things are heading in the future.

Please note that you must load the VCE program onto your computer prior to the event. Click here and follow the prompts. If you have any questions please contact DHI directly at 703-222-2010.