The future look and use for a nearly 90 year-old 8.8-acre campus in downtown Boulder has beguiled area residents for the last two years. In late 2015, the City of Boulder purchased for $40 million what is known as the Broadway campus of Boulder Community Health, after the healthcare organization announced plans to move to another location in the city. Since then, both city officials and area residents have been thinking and talking about how the property, which also includes two smaller lots on adjacent North Street, could be redeveloped. With at least 2 acres of the campus already set aside for city government offices, the rest of the site may well see the construction of new housing, additional offices, and both retail and community gathering space. An effort officially known as the Alpine-Balsam Vision Plan, in honor of the two streets, Balsam and Alpine Avenues that border the north and south ends of the campus, is currently exploring all of the ideas for the space. Increased public input on the future of the campus, which today features 355,000 square feet of existing buildings as well as a four-story garage, is expected to serve as a prelude to a final master plan for the site, perhaps as early as late this year. City officials have said that once Boulder Community Health has moved out of its last offices on the site in the spring of 2019, construction work on the new vision for the campus could begin in earnest. by Garry Boulard
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Members of the El Paso City Council are expected to review a proposal that could provide the city with enough land to build just over two dozen new sports fields.
Those fields have long been planned as part of the successful 2012 passage of the city’s landmark Quality of Life bond initiative. That election provided up to $5 million for the creation of the new fields in the central part of the city. But late last year, the El Paso City Council held off giving its approval to a plan for building the new fields when it was learned that not all of the land to be used for the project was strictly within the boundaries of central El Paso. Now, the El Paso Independent School District has indicated that it may be interested in leasing land at 5508 Delta Drive and 4400 Elm Street to build several of the new fields. Those sites are the homes of the Clardy Elementary School and the Bassett Middle School. Both El Paso city officials and EPISD officials still have to work out whether some structures on these two sites will be demolished to make way for the fields. The Scattered Flat Fields Project Priority Plan, noting that central El Paso is the home to more than 18,000 children under the age of 18, has suggested that area residents would be well served by a combination of both flat field space as well as futsal courts. by Garry Boulard A new sports stadium to be built in a downtown public park is being reviewed by city officials in Colorado Springs.
Perry Sanders, the owner of the famous Antlers Hotel at 4 South Cascade Avenue, has proposed building the facility inside the 3-acre Antlers Park, which is to the rear of his hotel. If approved, the project would be mostly supported by state funds designed for the creation of Colorado Springs’ ambitious City of Champions project. That effort is seeing the construction of an Olympic Museum, with plans set for a University of Colorado sports medicine center, as well as a visitors center for the nearby Air Force Academy. Altogether, Colorado has appropriated more than $120 million through the state’s Economic Development Commission for those projects, with the fourth component, a sports stadium, still in the talking stage. In presenting his idea to the Colorado Springs City Council, Sanders noted that the new facility would be used for the Colorado Springs Switchbacks soccer team. Council members said that that land, because it is public, could not be given to Sanders. But Sanders said he only wants to build on the site, not own it. The project would include an indoor sports and multi-use center, as well as a large stadium field with nearly 10,000 seats surrounding that space on three sides. by Garry Boulard The Albuquerque campus of the Raymond G. Murphy Veterans Administration center at 1501 San Pedro Drive SE may see construction, beginning later this year or in early 2019, on a facility specifically designed to house veterans and their families. The Fisher House - one of 75 such facilities nationally, as well as in Great Britain and Germany - provides bedrooms and bathrooms for veterans who are receiving medical treatment, as well as their families who frequently accompany them. Such homes are the product of the Fisher House Foundation, which was formed in 1990 by philanthropist Zachary Fisher and his wife Elizabeth. Typically measuring anywhere from 5,000 to 16,800 square feet, with 8 to 21 suites, Fisher Homes also feature a common living room, dining room, laundry facilities, and kitchen. There are Fisher Homes today in nearly 30 states, including Arizona and Colorado. The Albuquerque facility will be the first of its kind in New Mexico. According to the Fisher House Foundation, such facilities through the years have saved the families of veterans a cumulative $200 million in expenses that would otherwise have gone to securing lodging and transportation. The Fisher House in Albuquerque will have 16 suites and is expected to cost $6 million to build. It will be two stories in height, topped with the same kind of pitched roof that distinguishes other Fisher Houses across the country. Organizers are currently in the process of trying to raise $3 million for the house. The other $3 million will come as a match from the Fisher House Foundation itself. by Garry Boulard A modern facility dedicated to dementia care and education may soon see construction in Phoenix.
The nonprofit Hospice of the Valley, which is also based in Phoenix, says the project will go up near the intersection of E. Indian School Road and N. 44th Street on the northeast side of the city. The site formerly belonged to the Scottsdale Unified School District. Ten beds in the center will be dedicated for people needing hospice care, while a dozen beds will be reserved for those with mild or advanced dementia. Plans also call for the creation of a café for visitors to the center, as well as a conference room capable of accommodating up to 100 people. Work is expected to begin on the facility later this winter, with a summer completion date. Founded in 1977, Hospice of the Valley has facilities up and running in Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Surprise, and Tempe. Last year it provided care for up to 18,000 people. by Garry Boulard Plans have been announced for the construction of a 24-kilovolt electric power substation in a rural section of Dona Ana County at the base of the Organ Mountains. The El Paso Electric Company is proposing to build the $5.5 million facility on a 3.7-acre site in the subdivision of Talavera. Upon completion, the substation could serve up to 30,000 homes in the area. The project would also include the upgrading of 10.5 miles of existing power lines as well as another 2.2 miles of new lines. But the project has received criticism from residents and community activists who maintained that the substation that El Paso Electric wants to replace with the new facility is still in working order. That gas-fired station, officially called Rio Grande Unit Number 6, was built in 1957 and has a generating capacity of 45 megawatts. In response, members of the Dona Ana County Commission have voted in favor of asking the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to review the project, with an emphasis on whether it can be economically justified. In voting for the resolution, commission member Billy Garrett said he wanted to make sure “that the way that our power supply is generated will be at minimal expense to the businesses and residents of Dona Ana County.” It is not known when the PRC will review the project. by Garry Boulard Plans are in the works for the construction of Topgolf’s first Albuquerque location.
The popular and fast-growing national recreational entertainment venue is looking at building a 3-story facility that will include 1,500 square feet of event space and some 73 hitting bays at the intersection of I-25 and Montano Road. The project will go up on a 144-acre site that is the former home of The Beach Waterpark, which closed in 2005. Officials with the Dallas-based company say they would like the new Albuquerque location to be operational by the spring of 2019, pending city approval. Topgolf, which has been rapidly expanding its locations in recent years, has been looking at opening up an outlet in Albuquerque for at least the last two years. The company currently has locations in 24 states. It is building a new site in Glendale, Arizona, on top of the three it already has in that state. In Colorado, the company has one site up and running in the city of Centennial, and is getting ready to start on a second location in Thornton. Topgolf facilities typically measure around 65,000 square feet and include a full-service restaurant and bar space, patio, and rooftop terrace. The company, which also has locations in Great Britain and Australia, enjoys revenues in excess of $756 million. According to a 2016 industry report, each Topgolf location generates upwards of $24 million in annual revenues. by Garry Boulard The nation’s second largest automobile insurance company has announced plans to build a new 200,000 square foot facility in Tucson that will serve as its regional headquarters. The new offices for GEICO, under development by the Tucson-based Bourn Companies, will go up on a currently vacant sprawling 20-acre site near the intersection of ML King Jr Way and 36th Street on the southeast side of the city. The building will be multi-layered with indoor and outdoor amenities and will be part of a larger 350-acre master plan development known as The Bridges. That development has been geared for both new office and residential construction. The Chevy Chase, Maryland-based GEICO, whose acronym stands for the Government Employees Insurance Company, posted revenues last year of more than $25 billion, and has nine regional offices around the country. The only two GEICO regional offices in the West are located in Tucson and San Diego. Although an exact construction schedule for the new building has not been announced, it is expected that work on the project will begin this summer with a general mid-2019 completion date. by Garry Boulard More than 400 new housing units at two different sites will be built on the southeast side of Denver, with a large percentage set aside for seniors and mixed-income tenants. The ambitious project is the result of the City of Denver’s move to acquire the two properties that belong to the Colorado Department of Transportation. When that department announced plans to move their facilities elsewhere, Denver jump-started a complicated and protracted process of purchasing the properties for a combined $19 million. In turn, the city has agreed to sell those lands to the Kentro Group, a Denver real estate development firm, which will turn the sites into primarily residential properties. According to a City of Denver Department of Finance report, the two projects will ensure that “future use and development is contextual and compatible” with the neighborhoods surrounding the site. The 11-acre site at 2000 S. Holly Street will see the construction of around 225 units, with 80 units geared for seniors. The 12-acre site at 4201 E. Arkansas Avenue will be the home to at least 150 units, with rents calibrated at 60 percent of the area median income. An exact timetable for work on the two properties has not yet been announced. Work may begin sometime this summer on a senior care center that has been years in the talking stage.
The South Valley Adult Daycare and Respite Center will go up adjacent to the already-existing South Valley Multipurpose Senior Center at 2008 Larrazola Road in the city’s South Valley. The facility will be designed especially for those who need supervised care, and will include 3,500 square feet of interior space, offices, and a lobby with a design that will emphasize natural lighting. A joint project between the City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, the project was first proposed to State Representative Miguel Garcia in 1997 by a group of area seniors. Although the work on the multipurpose center launched in 2010, funding for the respite center proved elusive. In a press conference announcing the project, Garcia noted that a number of the seniors who first suggested the idea to him have since passed away. “They would have qualified to be a part of this center because they were in that kind of a health situation where they were in need of respite care,” he said. Although the project is ready to become a reality, both city and county officials say they are seeking addition funding for the respite center in this year’s regular session of the New Mexico State Legislature. |
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