A move to bring together the perspectives of a developer and preservationists regarding the future of a famous Denver night club structure is confronting a new obstacle.

Located at 1962 Market Street, the club and bar El Chapultepec was for decades a popular regional music venue operating in a two-story brick building in a part of the city that has seen a good deal of recent office and residential building upgrades.

The club closed its doors in December of 2020.

The Momfort Companies of Denver purchased the roughly 130-year-old structure in 2022, announcing plans to build a larger indoor and outdoor entertainment space.

Those plans were initially criticized by local preservationists opposed to seeing the existing structure for the most part demolished to make way for the new space. Momfort subsequently agreed to keep as much of the original structure intact as possible, while also maintaining two front neon signs.

In addition, the new plans detailed a move to incorporate the next-door two-story building at 1320 20th Street, which houses the Giggling Grizzly tavern as part of the new site plan. That vision included a rooftop bar that would span both structures.

When those plans were announced, John Deffenbaugh, chief executive officer of Historic Denver, praised the vision as a “win-win” both the new development as well as the cause of preservation in general.

But now members of the Lower Downtown Design Review Commission, in a 5 to 4 vote, have decided against approving the plans for both properties. Those members said the new design failed to preserve the historic fabric of the two structures.

Some hope, however, was offered by Heather Vasquez Johnson, chairperson of the commission. According to the Denver Business Journal, she remarked: “I would like to remind the applicant this doesn’t mean we’re denying the project, we’re just denying the project in its current submitted form.”
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According to reports, a Momfort spokesperson has vowed to return to the commission with modified plans for the project.

By Garry Boulard

After months of increases, the nation’s consumer inflation rate saw an increase of only 2.5%, making it the lowest such increase in more than three years, according to a new survey.

The Consumer Price Index, which measures the price of an average market basket of goods purchased by a given household, is reporting that 2.5% for August. While that is still on the upside, the figure represents a healthy drop from the 2.9% recorded the month before.

According to a consensus review by the nation’s economists, the 2.5% figure was better than anticipated, and substantially below the inflation explosion recorded in the summer of 2022 when the increase came in at 9.1%.

That 9.1% rattled everyone, representing the highest increase since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008 when the rate peaked at 5.5%.

Issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index saw a 2.1% increase for food items in August, along with a 3.2% increase for all items not classified as either food or energy.

Those energy costs, meanwhile, were actually in the negative territory, with the index showing an overall 4% decline.

On energy, a narrative accompanying the latest index numbers noted gasoline prices “fell 0.6% over the month,” while the “index for fuel oil fell 12.1% over the same period.”

“In contrast,” continues the narrative, “the index for electricity increased 3.9% over the last 12 months.”

Notes the website MarketWatch: “Grocery prices ticked up less than 1% over the past year, continuing a recent trend of cooling prices, although food-at-home prices are still elevated from three years ago.”
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Analysts have been trying to figure what, if any, meaning the new Consumer Price Index numbers might have for the presidential election, with many noting that the next Index reading scheduled for October 10 may prove impactful.

By Garry Boulard
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Unsplash

A solid five-floor structure that was built when Woodrow Wilson was president - and has served a variety of uses through the decades -  is now on the market with an asking price of just over $1 million.

Located at 117 W. Overland Avenue, the Krupp Building encompasses more than 37,500 square feet and is designated as a Class C structure. Two years ago, the group Preservation Texas put it on its list as one of the top ten “Most Endangered Places” in the state.

Purchased in 2018 by the Miami-based Myers Group, the structure was originally thought to be in line for a transformation that would see it turned into residential housing. Initial reports also indicated that Myers would build retail space on the building’s ground floor.

But the company has decided to put it on the market instead, with Alan Losada, Myers chief executive officer, telling the El Paso Times that both current construction costs and high interest rates have combined to make the project less financially feasible.

Built at a cost of around $75,000, the structure was named in honor of Haymond Krupp, an immigrant merchant from Lithuania who moved to El Paso in 1890, eventually becoming the co-founder of the Texan Oil and Land Company.

The Krupp Building was designed in the Chicago Commercial Style. Upon its completion in 1916 it was hailed by the El Paso Herald as the “first slab reinforced concrete building in El Paso.”

The building for years was home to a well-known clothing factory that once employed around five hundred employees. In more recent years it has served as a furniture store and, after that, a boot factory.

For at least the last 15 years, the structure has been vacant.

The Krupp Building is being listed for sale by the El Paso-based Team Juan Uribe Real Estate Services.

By Garry Boulard

Image Credit: Courtesy of Historic Texas

Plans to establish and build a new rail service and infrastructure that would connect the cities of Phoenix and Tucson are incrementally moving forward.

Long in the talking stage, the project received a significant boost late last year when Democrat Arizona Representative Greg Stanton announced that some $500,000 had been secured in federal funding for its planning.

That funding is coming out of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and will help to pay for identifying possible other stations along the 110-mile route, along with a ridership analysis, and capital project inventory.

It is thought that ultimately the project will cost as much as $10 billion to fully build. Should it become reality, the new rail line would reconnect a line that had, until 1996, existed between the two cities.

What was once called the Sunset Limited initially ran between New Orleans and Los Angeles, with a stop at Phoenix Union Station. That Phoenix stop ended when the rail service was rerouted to the city of Maricopa.

The ending of that service, which Amtrak officials said was part of a larger effort on the part of the company to save upwards of $173 million, made Phoenix the largest city in the U.S. without direct rail service.

The idea of at last re-establishing the service and building the infrastructure for it has enticed planners for years. Looking at the prospect of a new line between Phoenix straight through to Los Angeles, the publication Steel Wheels has remarked: "The economies and trade corridors of Arizona and Southern California have long been intertwined."

"Every year, Southern Californians move to Arizona, yet regularly come back for visits," continues the publication. "Conversely, many Arizonans have moved to Southern California. The growing family and friend connections between the two regions will only grow in the years ahead."

As earlier proposed, a Phoenix to Tucson route would see the operation of three trips daily. Besides the Phoenix and Tucson stops, Amtrak has also suggested building stations in Queen Creek, Tempe, and Buckeye.

By Garry Boulard

Image Credit: Courtesy of Unsplash

Members of Congress are wondering what will happen next after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson unexpectedly withdrew a measure designed to avoid a general government shutdown just a little over two weeks from now.

Johnson admitted to reporters that the measure as presently written did not have enough votes to pass the lower chamber. "No vote today because we are in the consensus-building business here in Congress," he remarked. "With small majorities, that's what you do."

The current party breakdown gives Johnson little room for maneuver, with Republicans holding 220 seats and Democrats at 211. That leaves a handful of Republicans with enough leveraging power to torpedo major legislation.

"We're having thoughtful conversations, family conversations within the Republican conference, and I believe we'll get there," the Speaker added in addressing doubts that he will have enough votes to pass a stopgap spending bill.

The legislation, by law, must be approved before October 1 in order to avoid a partial government shutdown. In passing a bill, Congress will be keeping a series of federal agencies open and running for the next half year.

Johnson's task is made more difficult by the fact that the 211-member Democrat caucus has indicated a unified opposition to his earlier moves to prevent a shutdown.

Some members of the Republican caucus, meanwhile, have said that they oppose the most recent funding bill because it leaves intact spending they regard as excessive. They are pushing instead for a chance to vote up or down on a dozen separate spending bills specific to various agencies, rather than having to decide on one continuing resolution.

In pulling the legislation, Johnson told The Hill publication: "Sometimes you have to do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may."

The fact that the shutdown date is smack in the middle of the campaign season is seen by some analysts as a good thing, with lawmakers wary of a government shutdown just weeks before the election.

​By Garry Boulard

Image Credit: Courtesy of the White House

An effort is under way to expand the gas tank storage facilities in a terminal situated in north central Colorado.

The Magellan Pipeline-Dupont Terminal is located in a neighborhood of modest one-story homes at 8160 Krameria Street in Commerce City, some 7 miles to the northeast of Denver.

The site is currently the home to nearly two dozen storage tanks and is run by a company that specializes in the transportation, storage, and distribution of petroleum products.

Earlier this summer the company announced that it wanted to build more tanks in order to store reformulated gasoline, a special blend designed to reduce ozone pollution.

Altogether, the Tulsa-based Magellan Midstream Partners LLC, which saw revenues in excess of $2 billion in 2022, has said that it wants to build five new storage tanks on its Krameria Street site.

The company has filed an application for the expansion project with the state's Air Pollution Control Division.

Residents living near the tank storage site have expressed concerns about the potential for the facilities to create air pollution, especially given the site's close proximity to an elementary school.

"The contamination is going to be elevated and more dangerous for our communities," Laura Martinez, an official with the non-profit community group Cultivano, said in remarks made during a recent community meeting, according to the Colorado Sun.
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Public comment on the project is being accepted by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment until September 17.
 
By Garry Boulard

After months of negotiations with the City of Phoenix, the owners of a long-time industrial laundry structure have received permission to level it.

The building housing the Milum Textile Services at 333 North Seventh Street in downtown Phoenix was built in 1935 and comprises nearly 40,000 square feet sitting on a just over 1-acre site.

The building has been deemed historically significant by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, noting in particular its intricate cross-pattern ceiling and Streamline Moderne-style design.

After unsuccessfully listing the property for sale, the Milum family owners, looking at upgrading costs in the millions, decided to demolish it instead.

And that’s when things got complicated: in January the city’s Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously to stop that demolition. That vote was followed by the actions of the Phoenix Planning Commission which moved to impose a historic preservation overlay on the property.

Craig and Marilyn Milum, meanwhile, contended that the historic preservation controversy had scared away at least one potential buyer for the property, while also noting that it would take at least $10 million to bring the building up to date.

The controversy has generated plenty of coverage, with the national magazine Reason in March noting that the “Milums’ appeals of their rejected demolition permits are now exhausted.”

Noting that the owners are both in their seventies, two attorneys with the Phoenix-based Institute for Justice signed a column that appeared in the Arizona Republic remarking: “If the government thinks that protecting old ceilings is important and desirable, the cost of doing so must be borne by the public as a whole.”

Now, members of the Phoenix City Council have voted against imposing the historic preservation overlay of the property, an overlay that would have prevented the Milums from demolishing the property.

​By Garry Boulard

Image Credit: Courtesy of Google Image

A new funding model proposed for early next year by the National Architectural Accrediting Board is meeting with stiff industry resistance, making it uncertain that the model will actually become reality.

Two years ago, the Alexandria, Virginia-based group announced that it wanted to increase its funding support by around 47%, noting increased operational costs and the ongoing expense of implementing credentialing assessments.

In proposing a new funding structure, the NAAB said the increased fees would “allow a financially sustainable future for the accreditation of architecture programs.”

The new funding structure, said the organization in a statement issued earlier this year, would allow for a focus on a “quality assurance process that is responsive to the needs of the changing landscape of higher education and the architectural profession.”

The new structure would additionally align with “accreditation industry standards,” while providing “comprehensive quality services.”

The proposal has been criticized by the American Institute of Architects, the American Institute of Architecture Students, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

A breakdown of the new fee schedule increase would, if imposed, see the American Institute of Architects paying in around $538,000 in the next fiscal year, with the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards also kicking in the same amount.

A subsequent proposal by NAAB to charge the various architectural schools it reviews directly has also met with resistance. In July, the Association of Collegiate Schools of America announced that it strongly opposed any move to impose fees directly on those institutions, adding that it had expressed concerns about NAAB’s “justification for additional funding and about their management of funds.”

In an interview with the Architect’s Newspaper, Michael Modi, executive director of the Association of Collegiate Schools of America, noted that “over the years, we’ve made sure to increase NAAB’s funding by the rate of inflation.”

The NAAB move, added Modi, has been accompanied by a dearth of discussions on the fee increase: “NAAB has refused to have those kinds of discussions with us.”

In an effort to solicit more industry response to its controversial proposal, the NAAB has established a public comment feedback process on its website that is scheduled to expire on September 30.
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Launched in 1940, the NAAB currently accredits just over 150 architecture programs offered by nearly 125 individual architecture schools.

​By Garry Boulard

A Colorado Congressman is asking the Biden Administration to step up enforcement efforts against migrant criminal gangs after one such group is reported to have taken over an Aurora apartment complex.

The property in question, the four-story Aspen Grove Apartments at 1568 Nome Street, appeared for several months to be under the control of a Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua.

In the wake of a battle between the City of Aurora and the Aspen Grove's owner to correct the situation, Republican Representative Greg Lopez is asking the Department of Homeland Security to "aggressively apprehend, detain, or deport any members of Tren de Aragua, or other known foreign criminal gangs, located in the state of Colorado."

Lopez added that due to lax enforcement efforts in the state, "criminal networks including Tren De Aragua have taken advantage of the situation and are wreaking havoc on our communities."

He specifically accused Tren De Aragua of taking over the Aspen Grove complex, "collecting rent, and encouraging their members to attack law enforcement officers."

The complex in question has undergone several name changes and owners in the last two decades, with residents complaining about several issues in the structure including leaks, foundation damage, cracked ceilings, and rodents.

Recently described by the Denver Gazette as a "trash-ridden, gang-infested hellhole," the property's owner, Nome Partners LLC, has just recently come to an agreement with Aurora to sell the property and spend $60,000 to both clean up and secure the complex.

According to the agreement, the building must also be brought up to code if it is to be re-sold.
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Tren de Aragua gang is said to be the largest gang of its kind in Venezuela, with some members in recent years moving to Colorado, Illinois, and New York. Tren de Aragua members at the Aspen Grove Apartments have since been arrested.

​By Garry Boulard

Western New Mexico University may see the construction of a new home for the New Mexico Center for Excellence for Early Childhood Education, depending upon the fortunes of a proposed bond in the November election.

If approved, General Obligation Bond 3 would provide upwards of $230 million in funding for a wide variety of higher education facility projects across the state.

The Silver City-based WNMU is in line to receive $9 million for what would be the first phase construction of the Early Childhood Education facility.

In a recent talk before the Rotary Club of Silver City, WNMU President Joseph Shepard said construction of the new facility will allow the early childhood education program to increase its space capacity by some 45%.

The project would also see the building of offices and learning spaces. Additional features will include a reception area and kitchen. Exterior work will include both a toddler and school-age playground, as well as an amphitheater.

The current Early Childhood Education Center is located at 513 12th Street.  According to sources, a new center would be built off North Alabama Street, to the north of the main WNMU campus, just to the rear of the historic St. Mary Magdalene’s Academy building.

In a press release, Cindy Martinez, dean of the university’s College of Education, said the ongoing operations of the center are important for the simple reason that “there are many families out there that do not have access to dependable childcare.”
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In keeping with WNMU’s goal to be entirely carbon-neutral at the end of the decade, the new two-story center will be powered by rooftop photovoltaic cells.

​By Garry Boulard