By Michael Gutwig, Editor

With hundreds of billions of dollars being borrowed and spent to stimulate jobs in the U.S., it’s surprising that the Housing Authority of Portland plans to replace windows at the Hollywood East Apartments with new ones imported from Canada.

Hollywood East is a 15-story, 286-unit, concrete apartment building located at 4400 NE Broadway in the Hollywood District. Built in 1969, residents there are low-income seniors and people with disabilities.

A Portland company, Medallion Industries, made a presentation to supply windows manufactured in the United States, but was rebuffed by the Housing Authority for what it said was a lack of a track record producing windows for buildings over five stories.

Instead, the windows will be supplied by Cascadia, which is located in Langley, British Columbia.

Medallion intended to use windows manufactured at the former Republic Windows & Doors in Chicago. If you recall, 275 unionized Republic Window employees held a six-day sit-in just before Christmas 2008 after the plant abruptly shut down. Workers demanded that they be paid what was owed them. The sit-in drew national attention and was lauded by then-President-elect Barack Obama.

That national attention led to a California company, Serious Materials, stepping up to buy the plant. Serious — a highly successful company in the green, heating-efficient window market — agreed to the same contract Republic Windows had with members of United Electrical Workers Local 1110 at the time of its closure. Unfortunately, to date, only 35 employees have gone back to work, according to United Electrical Workers Western Regional President Carl Rosen.

Medallion Industries sells Serious Materials windows.

When the Northwest Labor Press was initially contacted about the imported windows, it was because the money for the Hollywood East weatherization project was to come from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds. ARRA is the $787 billion economic stimulus package enacted by Congress to spur job creation in the U.S. in the wake of the Great Recession of 2008-09. Roughly $8 billion is earmarked for weatherization and energy-efficiency projects nationwide. ARRA has “Buy American” language that requires manufactured products be produced in the United States.

“It was explained to us that this project was being funded with an ARRA grant,” a spokeswoman for Medallion Industries told the Labor Press. “We had to submit an affidavit proving that the windows were made in the U.S.”

On Dec. 17, Medallion was notified by e-mail that the replacement windows at Hollywood East would be supplied by Cascadia. The Medallion spokeswoman said she was told Cascadia’s product was selected because it had a track record with buildings similar to Hollywood East, and that they were able to “overcome” the Made in USA requirement by having the windows assembled locally.

Contacted by the Labor Press, Housing Authority of Portland public affairs director Shelly Marchesi confirmed the windows were to be imported, but said funding for that portion of the weatherization project was a “pass through” from Multnomah County. “You really should talk to Multnomah County,” Marchesi said.

Mary Li, Community Services manager at Multnomah County’s Department of Community and Family Services, said the county initially considered using ARRA funds, but later decided not to. She cited the imported windows as a reason why.

“We have 30 projects in the pipeline. We cobble from a variety of funding sources to make them happen,” Li said, noting that the $600,000 for windows at Hollywood East will come from various federal- and state-funded weatherization programs.

“You have to remember, we (Multnomah County) didn’t call for these windows,” Li said. “It’s a HAP project. HAP and their architects determined this.”

Housing Authority of Portland architect Leslie Crehan said Cascadia was selected because it uses a different technology in its glazing process and that the “heat mirror technology” is new for Serious Materials.

“We asked (Medallion) for other projects of more than five stories to use as examples,” Crehan aid. “They couldn’t provide any examples. That made us nervous.”

The Medallion spokeswoman said the replacement windows it offered were 525 series windows (formerly sold under the brand name Alpen). Alpen, of Boulder, Colorado, also was acquired by Serious last year. Production for that particular brand of window recently moved from Boulder to Chicago.

Brad Begin, vice president of sales for Serious Materials, in an e-mail to the Labor Press wrote: “Alpen is the oldest and longest continuous fabricator of insulated glass units using heat mirror and has been producing heat mirror products for almost three decades, and has more large project experience than any company in the world.”

Begin said Serious Materials is about to close a multi-million-dollar deal to provide suspended coated film glass units for the 6,500 windows in the Empire State Building.

Crehan said drawings and specs for the Hollywood East apartment weatherization project aren’t completed yet, but at this point, “we will choose the window that we feel best about, a window with a track record.”

Crehan told the Labor Press that Multnomah County “switched funding last week (the week of Jan. 18).”

Marchesi said HAP has received nearly $14 million in direct ARRA grants, and that the agency adheres to all the rules and regulations that come with it. She pointed to 16 other HAP projects that have received ARRA funding and the jobs they have created or maintained. Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, ECHO,

You should talk to M.C. about this.

No stimulus money at all in this project.

MC switched funding last week.

But at this point, without ARRA money (and Buy USA requirements), we will choose the window that we feel best about, a window with a track record.

Multnomah County public affairs director Dave Austin confirmed the pass through, but emphasized that the project was “split-funded” with other state and federal agencies. Those agencies, he said, also provide money for low-income weatherization projects, but don’t come with Buy America requirements.

© Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc.