Last Friday, Kiska relocated the site office from an 8′ by 30′ trailer on Third Street to the spacious living room of a future two-bedroom condo. While the new office was still a jumble of cords, pieces of coffee makers, and piles of paperwork, it was already preferable to having six or seven people squeezed into a meeting space meant for two.

Having more room has made getting up to procure your own coffee feasible (not that anyone does) but more importantly, there is more room on the sidewalk and street for construction equipment. The development site is pretty tight since we’re building right up to the front lot line and cannot get into the rear yards unless we go through or over the project. Third Street is a wide street and we’re on a corner, both of which help us maneuver equipment and materials in and out of the site. We have Bond Street partially blocked as well as Third Street and DOT permits do not come cheap.

Getting rid of the trailer also means saving money…

The trailer costs about $1,500 a month to rent. We still have the same electricity usage and source, and the phone and internet connections are the same. Is it worth saving the $15,000 – $18,000 at this point? Sure.

There are a few downsides as well. For one thing, the building doesn’t have much in the way of climate control, aside from operable Energy Star windows. The trailer had air conditioning and heat, which the building does not yet have although neither is desperately needed right now. By the time heat is needed, it should be installed and running. As for air conditioners, well, Kiska might break down and get a portable unit air conditioner or they might just grin and bear it. Construction isn’t for wusses.

Another issue is the interference of site noise with office work. Being inside a tin box on the other side of a plywood fence is meditative compared to sitting one thin sheet of drywall away from someone slicing through steel. On multiple occasions during our meeting, we had to send a scout out into the hall to ask workers to relocate temporarily. It started to feel a little like we were being driven out. But again, construction isn’t for wusses.

Then there are the bathrooms. The trailer had its own flushing toilet and running water sink. It stayed a level above the typical port-o-john in cleanliness. Fewer concrete caked shoes tracking through and such. Now we all use the non-flushing portable toilets—though the facilities are still not quite equal. The lone woman in Kiska’s construction office procured a separate port-o-john with a foot pump sink and she manages the key to its padlock. If you are nice to her, then she’ll lead you out to this toilet and open it up. Just make sure you take the padlock inside with you to avoid any not-so-funny locked-in-the-loo jokes.

Overall, the conditions in the old and new offices are similar. Nothing like a Lexington Avenue law firm’s hermetically sealed, mahogany gilded meeting rooms and marble bathrooms. Distant, too, from the experience of the workers who toil with few complaints about the weather, noise, or sanitary facilities. As they know, construction isn’t for wusses.

Inside Third & Bond: Weeks 1-85 [Brownstoner]
The complete offering terms are in an Offering Plan available from Sponsor. File No. CD080490. Sponsor: Hudson Third LLC, 826 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.