Skyscraper restarted after material, labor prices drop

Project labor agreements and falling material prices have allowed work to restart on Frank Gehry’s first Manhattan skyscraper. The 76 floor Beekman Tower was to be the city’s tallest residential building but work stopped two months ago as costs soared out of control.

The project labor agreements are basically concessions the city’s construction unions have made with the developers to pare back labor costs up to 20 percent. The unions are starting to see PLAs as the only way to alleviate high unemployment rates among their members in the construction trades.