New in Construction Management: Currie & Brown
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox and Kathleen McGinn Spring were
prepared for the February 18,
2004 issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Life in the Fast Lane: RCN
After naming a new president on Thursday, February 12, and missing a
$10.3 million interest payment on Saturday, February 14, RCN
Corporation, reeling under its debt load, is preparing to file for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Barak Ben-Cohen, vice president for public relations, says that the
company has entered into a forbearance agreement with creditors that
extends until March 1. “We anticipate reaching an agreement with bond
holders and banks, and proactively using the Chapter 11 process to
consummate the deal,” he says. And if no agreement can be reached?
“Chapter 11 is a vehicle the company can use to protect itself,” is
his response.
The company went public in 1997, and saw its stock rise to a high of
$75 early in 2000. Its plan was to go head to head with the country’s
largest communications services providers by winning customers for its
bundled cable, phone, and Internet service. Going for some of the
country’s largest markets, RCN built infrastructure in seven markets,
including New York City, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and
Washington, D.C.
In doing so, it incurred a mountain of debt. The company, which has
lost more than $4 billion in seven years, is carrying $1.7 billion in
debt. It spent $56 million on debt service in the last quarter.
With a debt restructure its top priority, the company named John Dubel
president and COO. Dubel is known as the man who restructured
WorldCom.
Dubel is a principal with Michigan-base AlixPartners, which has also
been retained by RCN to help in financially restructuring the company.
Dubel was CFO of WorldCom during its restructuring, and a press
release cites his experience “in both out-of-court and in-court
financial restructurings, operational reorganizations and cost
reductions, strategic repositioning and divestitures.”
In 2002 RCN raised $165 million from the sale of its Princeton-area
cable system, but nine months ago the workforce had been slashed by
almost 50 percent and was down to about 2,700 people. In October, 2003
RCN hired Merrill Lynch to help figure out ways to raise money.
Billionaire Paul Allen, who had invested $1.65 billion in RCN in 1999,
got just three cents on the dollar when he sold 40 percent of that
investment earlier this year. Allen still owns a 14.9 percent stake
and is RCN’s second-largest shareholder.
At his most recent assignment Dubel made a job leap to CEO, bypassing
the CFO’s job. He was CEO of Cable & Wireless USA, the US subsidiary
of the British telecom giant that bought the assets of MCI. In
December, 2003, Dubel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for
Cable & Wireless, announced the sale of its telecommunications and
Internet assets, and said that more layoffs would be added to the
already massive layoff list.
David C. McCourt retains his position as chairman and CEO. The company
has launched a new website, at www.rcntomorrow.com, to address its
situation, and McCourt appears, smiling and confident, on its first
page. He tells customers and investors that, while other telecom
companies with massive debt have gone under, RCN will survive. The
reason, he says, is “vision.”
RCN Corporation (RCNC), 105 Carnegie Center, Princeton08540. David C. McCourt, chairman and CEO. 609-734-3700; fax,609-734-4586. Home page: www.rcn.com– Kathleen McGinn SpringTop Of PageGamma-Tech SettlementPrinceton Gamma-Tech, CN 863, Princeton 08542-0863.Kalevi Onnela, CEO. 609-924-7310; fax, 609-924-1729. Home page:www.pgt.comAfter 12 years of legal negotiations, Princeton Gamma-Tech will pay a$21.5 million settlement, and the money will be used to build a watertreatment plant for removing high levels of the potentially cancerouscompound trichloroethylene from wells in Rocky Hill and Montgomery.In this Superfund case, the insurers – Hartford, North River, andFederal – will likely be the ones to pay. In 1997 Gamma-Techsuccessfully proved that it had insurance protection from the chargesthat it had contaminated the groundwater. The volatile organiccompound was discovered in Rocky Hill in 1978.Founded in 1965 and now a member of the Outokumpu Group of Finland,the 45-employee firm develops and manufactures high-technologyradiation detectors and micro-analyzers.The consent decree does not require PGT to admit guilt in the watercontamination matter. Currently Rocky Hill borough water is beingtreated by an air stripper, and most Montgomery households are nowusing public water.Top Of PageNew in Construction Management: Currie & BrownArchitects do it, and engineers do it, but only dedicated constructionmanagers confine their services to construction management, acombination of skills that include accounting, design, and of courseactual construction knowledge.Currie & Brown has moved to town to join a handful of constructionmanagers that have set up shop here. Like many of its compatriots,including Hanscomb Faithful & Gould, it hails from Britain, which isknown for training people for this niche.The president of the United States business and the director of theinternational division is Iain McWhinney. A native of Glasgow, wherehis father was an engineering designer, he started with the companystraight out of high school and went to college, Caledonia University,part-time. He came to the United States in 1994.Founded in 1885, Currie and Brown has just under 100 technical staffpeople operating from five primary offices in the United States, andglobally it has 1,400 people in 75 countries. The Princeton office has25 technical staffers in just 7,500 square feet, but because of theneeds of the business – getting out there to the job sites – only 8 or10 people are in the office at any one time.Last year McWhinney moved an office from King of Prussia, outside ofPhiladelphia, to Princeton. “Most of the staff from the Princetonoffice supports pharmaceuticals,” says McWhinney, with a stillnoticeable Irish accent. He names eight of the top 12 pharmaceuticalcompanies as clients, including J&J, Merck, Glaxo, Wyeth, Novartis,and Bristol-Myers Squibb.He says the pharmaceutical business seemed to be migrating to NewJersey rather than to Philadelphia and Delaware, a comment that stateboosters of New Jersey’s pharma business will be glad to hear. “Themove was driven by the workload, and the location was far better,” hesays. “We can get down to the Philadelphia clients and up to the NewYork clients easily. We are right in the center.”As for the actual job: “I continually have to explain what we do. Thediscipline that we are in is a service very clearly recognized in theUK and other parts of the world. But elements of what we do done byengineers, project managers, architects, and accountants. We like tofeel we represent the best elements of all of those professions.”Don’t architects resent having some of their job, overseeing theirbeloved project, farmed out to an outside firm? “They do at thebeginning,” says McWhinney. “But we have developed some excellentrelations, with companies like Hillier (the architecture firm) andVanderweil (the engineering firm that actually has an office in thesame building with McWhinney). “We ‘bed’ in with them,” he says,breaking into a Scottish expression.Is it money out of the architects’ pockets? “More often we are engagedby the client,” he says. “Large corporate clients are making theseparation, passing on the construction supervision and the accountingelements to us.”He contrasts his job now with an earlier one, the building of anindustrial gas facility in an old gold mining camp in Wyoming. “Wewere surrounded by cowboys, and the nearby towns were called ‘Hole inthe Wall’ and ‘Dead Man’s Butte.’ But construction the world over isvery similar. There are all these personalities involved. New Jerseyhas these characters like any other part of the world.”Currie & Brown, 731 Alexander Road, Suite 101, Princeton08540. 609-759-7000; fax, 609-759-7001. Home page: www.currieb-usa.comTop Of PageHanscomb FaithfulThis month the CEO of Hanscomb Faithful & Gould moved to Princeton,and this office doubled in space in one year to 10,000 feet and instaff from 25 to 50 people. Until the merger two years ago there wereseparate Princeton offices, one for Hanscomb and one for Faithful &Gould, both companies with roots in the United Kingdom (U.S. 1, July10, 2002).The company acts as owners representatives and independent projectmanagers that do risk management, program management, projectcontrols, and value engineering. “Project services such as costestimating and cost management are our bread and butter,” says SarahMannino, regional marketing manager. “Most of our major competitors donot have certified value specialists on staff.”In 2002 Atkins, which trades on the London stock exchange, bought theprivately-held Hanscomb for $27.5 million. Both companies had beenfounded immediately after World War II to assess bomb damage inLondon. Atkins already owned Faithful & Gould, so it named thecombined firms Atkins Hanscomb Faithful & Gould. But the Atkins namerings no bells in the United States. So to brand the company andshowcase the Hanscomb and F&G names, the Atkins name was dropped, saysMannino.In February Paul Wood moved to Princeton with his family. He graduatedin 1981 from the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom andis HFG’s CEO and COO. Chris J. Taylor remains in this office with anew title, chief business officer, and Duane Roggow is in charge ofhuman resources.Hanscomb Faithful & Gould, 100 Canal Pointe Boulevard,Suite 212, Princeton 08540. Paul Wood, CEO. 609-514-0900; fax,609-514-9888. Www.hanscombfgould.comTop Of PageStart-Up: Medical Device FirmShawn Huxel has opened a medical device company at Princeton PikeCorporate Center, Osseus LLC, joining more than a dozen similar firmsin Princeton. In this closely held private company incorporated inFlorida, Huxel’s partner and co-founder is Dean Cole, a Florida-basedtrauma surgeon, who invents innovative orthopedic implants, a newgeneration of internal fracture fixation devices for use byorthopedic, trauma, and reconstructive surgeons.Huxel oversees the manufacture, packaging, and sales of the patentedsurgical instrumentation and implants. The son of a retired UnitedStates Air Force NCO, Huxel is an engineer from Hofstra, Class of1987, with graduate credits in engineering from Rutgers and a master’sdegree and MBA from NJIT. He worked at Stirn Industries as well as forJohnson & Johnson, and then he consulted in biomaterials and urologybefore opening the business with Cole. He and his wife have twodaughters at Stuart Country Day School.Huxel officially started the business last September, and he hopes togrow his company to 5 or 10 people. Dick Woodbridge of SynnestvedtLechner & Woodbridge on Nassau Street is his intellectual propertyattorney and Feld Creative in Hopewell designs his materials. Contractmanufacturing is done in New Jersey.The company’s first product in the orthopedic trauma market (worthmore than $2 billion worldwide) is a hard tissue fixation device torepair fractured bones. Under the Osse-Lign label, it received FDAapproval in March, 2003. Since then, sales have been through anindependent Florida-based distributor. “We are currently entertainingother distribution interests around the United States and beingevaluated by a multibillion dollar global organization for exclusivemarket and distribution rights,” says Huxel.”The growth of Osseus will come from rounding out the Osse-LignPortfolio, targeting the niche areas of orthopedic trauma, spine, andsports medicine,” he says. A second FDA application has beensubmitted. “We are developing a fair amount of intellectual propertyand intend to partner with more surgeons and organizations to realizemore applications for our products and expertise.”One money-saving strategy that Huxel offers to other entrepreneurs isto use an Internet phone service, voice over IP, for $40 a monthinclusive “which saves a ton of money.” But he warns that the qualitydepends on the Internet Service Provider and sometimes that has beenspotty. So he ends up using his cell phone for most of his outgoingcalls.Osseus LLC, 3131 Princeton Pike, Building 5, Building 5,Suite 200, Lawrenceville 08648. Shawn T. Huxel, 908-997-0127; fax,908-842-0347. E-mail: shawn@osseusllc.com. Home page:www.osseusllc.comTop Of PageNew in TownHewlett-Packard Company, 5 Vaughn Drive, Suite 301,Princeton 08540. Bill Horne PhD, research scientist. 609-514-0682;fax, 609-514-0359.It might seem unlikely that Hewlett Packard would have an office thatis not merely a branch sales office in Princeton. But five people atVaughn Drive do research in cryptography and computer security. Thisoffice opened in Princeton partly because the principals live here,and partly because Princeton University is a center for cryptography.Until 2002 Robert Tarjan and Bill Horne were operating the STAR Labfor Intertrust Technologies on Alexander Road (U.S. 1, June 20, 2001).At that time they focused on protecting digital rights for artists andproducers. Intertrust closed that lab in 2002, and Tarjan and Hornewent elsewhere. But soon they had found positions at Hewlett Packard,and last year they opened on Vaughn Drive.Horne has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from theUniversity of Delaware (Class of 1986) and a Ph.D. in electricalengineering from the University of New Mexico. Tarjan has a bachelor’sdegree in math from the California Institute of Technology (Class of1969) and a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford.Indotronix International Corporation, 666 PlainsboroRoad, Suite 1100, Plainsboro 08536. Venkat S. Mantha, account manager.609-750-0700; fax, 609-750-1212. Www.iic.comAn IT solutions firm with major facilities in Hyderabad, India, andPoughkeepsie, New York, moved to Princeton Meadows Office Center lastfall. IIC was founded as a software development company in 1986 and isnow a full-fledged IT service firm.International Computer Graphics Inc., 18 Van Dyke Avenue,New Brunswick 08901. 732-247-9401; fax, 732-249-0401. Home page:www.icg.comThe computer monitor firm recently signed a 23,040-square-foot leaseat 18 Van Dyke Avenue in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Newmark’s WilliamJ. Cariste and Douglas Bansbach represented the tenant in thistransaction. The company declines to provide more information.RK Design, 141 Burholme Drive, Hamilton 08691. Ray Kern.609-587-4725.Ray Kern moved his industrial design practice to Hamilton when hemoved from Berkeley Heights last fall. A graduate of the PhiladelphiaCollege of Art, Class of 1960, he worked in Short Hills atSchnur-Appel Design Consultants before opening his own industrialdesign practice – graphics, architecture, and packaging.A retail expert, he designs stores for malls and chains that sellmen’s and women’s clothing, shoes, jewelry, and luggage. “My work isthroughout the country,” he says, “as well as in Caracas, Montreal,and Toronto.”Top Of PageExpansionsPrimesyn Lab Inc., 11 Deer Park Drive, PrincetonCorporate Plaza, Suite 205, Monmouth Junction 08852. SurendraChaturvedi, owner. 877-774-6303; fax, 732-274-0907. Home page:www.primesyn.comPrimesyn Lab has taken more space at Princeton Corporate Plaza, movingfrom 550 to 1,200 square feet. It has two full-time and two part-timeemployees. This specialized lab makes difficult and unusual DNA fordiagnostics and pharmaceutical companies (U.S. 1, September 17, 2003).Top Of PageContracts AwardedKSS Architects LLP, 337 Witherspoon Street, Princeton08542. Michael Shatken AIA, partner. 609-921-1131; fax, 609-921-9414.Home page: www.kssarch.comClive Samuels & Associates Inc., 105 College Road East,Princeton 08540. Clive Samuels, president. 609-520-1600; fax,609-520-0974.KSS Architects has been named architect of record for Gale Company’snew positioning of Princeton Forrestal Village. Also, CollegeRoad-based Clive Samuels Associates will be engineer of record. Theyare charged with creating a “more pedestrian friendly environment andto attract new world-class tenants.”Founded in 1983, KSS Architects has such clients as NJ EconomicDevelopment Authority, Princeton University, Kean University,Princeton Township, Mercedes Benz USA, and L’Oreal USA.The 24-year-old engineering company has such clients as ChaseManhattan, Lockheed Martin, the University Medical Center atPrinceton, Kings Supermarkets, American Home Products, Hilton GardenInn, Rutgers University, and Seton Hall University.Reid Plumbing Products LLC, 371 Route 31 North, Hopewell08525. Andy Reid. 609-466-1785. Home page: www.wellmanager.comAndy Reid has received a patent for his PumpChamberT, which converts astandard submersible well pump to an end-suction pump, so that it cancollect from bodies of water as shallow as two inches. One of themodels can be used in atmospheric water tanks, cisterns, dug wells, orstreams.”Submersible well pumps are used around the world in all sorts ofapplications, in ways the designer never imagined. Many of thesecreative applications fall just outside the design limits of thepump’s motor. That’s why PumpChamberT is so important,” says Reid. Hesays that when contractors lay submersible pumps on their side incisterns and storage tanks, this drastically reduces life expectancy,and vessels can be emptied to only about seven inches.The wall-mounted version of PumpChamberT, for pressurized pipingsystems, can be used as a booster to correct low-pressure problems orto draw water from a tank or open body of water up to 15 feet belowthe pump.MISTRAS Holdings Group/Physical Acoustics Corp., 195Clarksville Road, Princeton Junction 08550. Sotirios Vahaviolos CEO.609-716-4000; fax, 609-716-0706. Home page: www.pacndt.comTubeScan testing devices from a Mistras Holdings company passedperformance tests at a facility in Charlotte, North Carolina. Using anautomated rotating-mirror device, the TubeScan ultrasonic inspectionsystem can identify inner or outer wall corrosion in bridges and otherstructures.Mistras Holdings Group includes Physical Acoustics and four othercompanies that secure the environmental safety of gas and oilpipelines, petrochemical storage tanks, components of nuclear andfossil fuel plants, metal and concrete bridges, aerospace vehicles,and other structures.Sarnoff Corporation, 201 Washington Road, CN 5300,Princeton 08543. Satyam Cherukuri, president & CEO. 609-734-2000; fax,609-734-2040. Www.sarnoff.comEmploying technology that came from Sarnoff, Locus Pharmaceuticals hasobtained a patent for computerized drug design, licensed to Locus touse in developing new therapies for such diseases as AIDS, cancer, andrheumatoid arthritis. Frank Guarnieri, principal founding scientist ofLocus, developed the technology when he was at Sarnoff. It uses asupercomputer cluster to find the ideal binding site for a smallmolecule on a protein that is typical of a particular disease, thusmaking it easier to design a drug to attack the disease.”We are gratified that the patent office has recognized the uniquenessof our approach in helping make drug discovery faster and moreaccurate,” says Carmen Catanese, executive vice president at Sarnoff.”This and future Sarnoff innovations promise to play a major role indrug design and development, and in shortening pharmaceutical researchand development cycle times.”Joseph Reiser, who until two years ago was CEO of Cytogen on CollegeRoad, is now president and CEO of Locus Pharmaceuticals, located inBlue Bell, Pennsylvania.Top Of PageName ChangesCarstar Pennington, 65 Route 31, Pennington 08534. Robertand Cynthia Joyce. 609-737-1200; fax, 609-737-3805.Robert and Cynthia Joyce have bought the Bridge Auto Body businessfrom Lucy Robson, wife of the late Russell Robson. Under the nameCarstar the Joyces also own auto shops in Hamilton and Bridgeport,Pennsylvania. Carstar is a franchise but the shops are individuallyowned.Phase IV LLC, Box 193, Rocky Hill 08553. Josh Raymond,president. 609-683-8118; fax, 609-683-8812.Josh Raymond has changed the name of his practice to Phase IV LLC toindicate a broader scope. A management consultant who went to WilliamsCollege, Class of 1975, he does executive coaching, change management,communications, training, and conflict mediation.He had worked for International Paper, and he numbers Liberty Mutual,New England Life, and AT&T among his clients.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesJoseph R. Ridolfi & Associates LLC, 1245Whitehorse-Mercerville Road, Suite A-402, Box 3314, Hamilton 08619.Joseph Ridolfi, president and CEO. 609-581-4848; fax, 609-581-5511.Home page: www.ridolfi-associates.comRealtor Joseph Ridolfi moved from Nottingham Way toWhitehorse-Mercerville Road and has a new phone and fax. His12-year-old firm offers corporate real estate services, office,industrial, commercial and investment properties.Nassau Communications Inc., 115 North Gold Drive,Robbinsville 08691. Kenneth M. Fisher Jr., president. 609-208-9099;fax, 609-208-9855.Nassau Communications moved from 55 Route 31 South in PenningtonBusiness Park. Founded in 1984, the 12-person company does commercialprinting and desktop publishing.Noble Limousine, 521 Route 130, East Windsor 08520. DavidS. Beans, owner. 609-490-1122; fax, 609-490-0993. Home page:www.noblelimousine.comA 40-person limousine firm moved to a new address in East Windsor.Top Of PageMoving to Trenton?Clarke Caton Hintz is considering moving its architecture practicefrom Ewing, where it has offices in the West Trenton Train Station, tothe third floor of the Masonic Temple on Barrack Street, just a coupleof blocks from the Statehouse. If these plans go through, Clarke CatonHintz would follow Hill Wallack, a 138-worker private law firm now atthe Carnegie Center, into the center of downtown Trenton.Built in 1928, the Masonic Temple is a majestic beaux arts buildingwith an unfinished third floor. The architectural firm would need tochip in $1 million of the $1.4 million needed to finish the thirdfloor of the temple, and the city would obtain an Urban EnterpriseZone grant for the remainder.Clarke Caton Hintz focuses on urban planning and affordable housing,architecture, landscape architecture, historical preservation, andenvironmental studies. Current contracts include designing schools forthe state’s Abbott program, designs for a minor-league baseballstadium in Camden, and renovations to Morven, formerly the governor’smansion. In the regime of the late mayor Arthur Holland, one of thefirm’s founders, John Clarke, was the lead planning official forTrenton.Clarke Caton Hintz, 400 Sullivan Way, Station Plaza, WestTrenton 08628. Philip B. Caton, president. 609-883-8383; fax,609-883-4044. Home page: www.ccharchitects.comTop Of PageDown-SizingAAA Midatlantic, 2 South Gold Avenue, Hamilton 08691.Janice Foster, general manager. 800-374-9806; fax, 609-890-1596.Www.aaamidatlantic.comThe auto association just went through a merger and a move, but somejobs are likely to move again next year to a new headquarters thatwill be built in Wilmington, Delaware. The headquarters had been inPhiladelphia. Delaware offered a $7 million incentive package.South Gold Drive has the call-center, retail and insurance servicesoperations, and those workers are likely to stay put.Meanwhile, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority has approved$7.85 million in incentives based on AAA’s plans to spend $10.5million on an information technology facility in Mount Laurel and moveas many as 90 jobs there.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
