Common Center Construction Site - Landmark
Common Center Construction Site is an unfinished structure that has sat vacant near Fitzgerald Square, on the edge of Downtown and neighboring Aurora for many years.
Common Street, the area where this structure sits, is something of a blight on the face of Downtown, although not nearly as bad as some of the districts south of the bay. It never really recovered from the 1970’s downturn, and to this day features an embarrassing number of unoccupied or even decaying buildings. The city government has tried several times to revive the neighborhood. Their biggest attempt to-date is the Common Center; it is also their biggest failure. Designed in 2002 as a set of four ultramodern glass-and-steel office buildings, it was supposed to attract financial institutions and law firms from across the entire East Coast. However, all those plans have come to naught, as they just can’t seem to get the structures built in the first place.
It all started with a relatively mundane delay in spring of 2004, when a batch of substandard concrete was discovered in the foundations of the first building. Work was halted for two months amid a small media flurry of finger-pointing by the various suppliers. But during that period, a most undesirable partner crept into the project’s life: the Black Rose.
At first, Not even the Black Rose realized the magnitude of what they were about to do. It was a simple money-laundering operation, involving a minor bribe to an insurance adjuster to make a payment for three times the value of a series of girders that had to be uprooted and replaced. But the Black Rose operative responsible found the normal financial watchdogs assigned to safeguard the Common Center were particularly lax; so much so that he repeated the operation the next month, earning even greater profits. This perked the interest of Lucky Lou, the Black Rose’s Banker. Realizing that he had found a reliable gravy train, Lou moved in full force. First seizing control of the project’s finances, then using that leverage to insert Butcher Shop operatives into management of the site itself, the project has been a steady stream of income ever since.
The Black Rose is in no hurry to end their ride; they fully intend to milk this project for as long as they can, and woe to anyone who gets in their way.
Work is proceeding at the construction site much as it has been for the past decade: Slowly, and in frequent moves of two-steps-forward, three-steps back. Jobs that were successfully completed one day will fall apart the next. Supplies delivered to one location on the site will show up in another. Reliable work groups will suddenly be up-in-arms over seemly nothing; sometimes the workers will seem more terrified of completing a section than of falling off the building (thanks to Black Rose intimidation tactics).
For those who randomly visit the site, around the 25th floor of the building, if your timing is right, you may be able to find a Titan Labor Corporation worker who can share a tip on a "High-Steel Worker" mission.
Who knows if this Common Center Construction Site will ever be finished, but in the meantime, it has many secrets and dealings that are worth exploring for those who aren't afraid of heights!