Walton Construction St. Louis has three Wal-Mart Supercenter projects under construction in Missouri and Illinois. The firm began work on a 180,954-square-foot Wal-Mart in Harrisburg, Ill., in November 2007, and is expecting completion by August. Walton also is building a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Jacksonville, Ill., scheduled for completion in February, and is expanding an existing Wal-Mart in Chesterfield, Mo., into a Supercenter. That project began this past fall and is scheduled to be completed in October.

Wichita, Kan.-based Law/Kingdom is providing design services for the Chesterfield and Harrisburg projects, and The Benham Group is designing the Jacksonville project.

Source: REBusiness Online

The US Green Building Council - St. Louis Regional Chapter is accepting abstracts for presentations at their fifth annual “Greening the Heartland Conference,” which will be held in St. Louis June 22 to 24. They’re looking for submissions from the architecture, building and planning fields, corporate policy makers and facility/real estate managers, green innovators on school campuses, public officials, planners, lawmakers and others involved in sustainable programs and processes.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is this Friday, January 11, 2008. For details, visit www.greeningtheheartland2008.org or call 1-866-933-4GRN.

Walton Investors, LLC has appointed Dan Frisbee of St. Louis as chief operation officer of Walton Construction Company, LLC. As CEO, Frisbee will provide overall direction and vision for the company, whose corporate offices are in Kansas City, Missouri. He also will continue to oversee and support the operations of Walton’s five divisions nationwide.

Frisbee told me “The past year was a very active and positive year for our company. In addition to our leadership transition, we’ve built the largest backlog of work ever in our history, thanks to the hard work of our division and corporate staff.”

Frisbee has more than 35 years experience in the construction industry and previously was chief operating office of Walton Construction. Prior to that, he was executive vice president of the Walton St. Louis Division, which he opened in 2002. In its first year, the Walton St. Louis Division had seven employees and revenues of $30 million. That division has grown to more than 100 employees with revenues of $175 million in 2007.

Frisbee became an owner when he joined Walton Investors in September 2006. He was the first executive outside of Kansas City to join the company’s ownership group.

Steve Biederman has succeeded Frisbee as president of the Walton St. Louis office.

A jury in St. Louis County today ruled in favor of the Cross County Collaborative (CCC) on all counts in a lawsuit that was brought by St. Louis Metro over the eight-mile Metrolink extension from Forest Park to Shrewsbury.

Cross County Collaborative was a joint venture of four companies hired to design and manage the project. The companies which include Parsons Brinckerhoff, STV Inc., Jacobs Engineering Group and Kwame Building Group of St. Louis were fired by Metro in 2004.

Metro alleged mismanagement and fraud, and sought $81 million in damages. The jury rejected the claims and awarded nothing.

In a counterclaim, the CCC accused Metro of making them a scapegoat and damaging their professional reputations, and sued for $6 million for work it performed. The jury awarded the team $2.56 million.

After Metro terminated the CCC and took over management of the project, the light rail opened in August 2006, 15 months late and more than $126 million over budget.

Richard Hardcastle, attorney for the CCC, said in a statement “For more than three years we have maintained that Metro wrongfully terminated the CCC and that its claims were baseless. We are pleased that the jury has agreed with us on all counts.

“It was a long process but one with great significance to the citizens of St. Louis. With this issue behind us, each of the firms looks forward to continuing to serve the St. Louis community in future assignments.”

Walton Construction St. Louis has completed an $18.5 million expansion of St. Peters Rec-Plex, an indoor recreation facility located in St. Peters, Missouri.

The project included a new 106,000-square-foot recreation building with two National Hockey League regulation-sized ice rinks with seating for 1,200 and 300. The expansion tripled the size of the fitness training area with adult locker rooms, dry and wet saunas, an exercise and weight training area, a cardio theater, and a lobby. St. Paul, Minn.-based Ankeny-Kell Architects, which provided design services for the project, has worked with Walton on three other sports facilities, including the training facility for the NHL’s St. Louis Blues.

Source: RE Business Online

Wellspring Development Company and Belcher Homes LLC, will break ground this month on Rock Hill Trails, billed as “the area’s first totally ‘green’ new home community.”

Located in Woodriver, Illinois, the development will feature about 290 single family homes, multi–family units, and neighborhood commercial properties. Rock Hill Trails will offer high-performance homes, open spaces with trails and nature corridors, and neighborhood amenities to support social interaction.

According to Wellspring, all homes in the development will conform to National Association of Home Builders Green Building Guidelines and will be eligible for LEED certification. Homeowners will be able to “up-green” with other energy savings and conservation features. The landscape plan will provide natural habitat for wildlife and native plant species.

Wellspring plans to begin home construction on Phase I by first quarter 2008.