Plans are once again underway for the construction of a new marijuana dispensary facility in Phoenix. The project will belong to the Tempe-based Harvest Health and Recreation company, and will go up at the northwest intersection of Tatum and Shea boulevards near a border between Phoenix and the town of Paradise Valley. As envisioned, the facility will measure around 15,000 square feet, with roughly a third of that space taken up by the marijuana company and the rest leased out to other tenants. The company had originally applied for a rezoning application in July, but withdrew from the process the following month. With that process now relaunched, the project will once again require a final vote of approval from the Phoenix City Council. The dispensary project comes on the heels of an Arizona ballot question in November which saw voters pass what is called the Smart and Safe Arizona Act. That initiative, which secured 60% of the vote, legalizes the possession and use of marijuana for all persons over the age of 21. In a column for the Arizona Capital Times, William Troutt, medical education director for Harvest Health, noted that while the recreational use of marijuana will obviously increase in the state due to passage of the initiative, the company will continue to focus on its medical aspects. Harvest Health currently operates 38 locations across the country, with 15 up and running in Arizona. The company’s Arizona outlets range in size from a 9,200 square foot indoor cultivation facility in El Mirage, to a 70,000 square foot greenhouse in the city of Wilcox. By Garry Boulard
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A project that will see the building of a regional cancer treatment center in Grand Junction has taken a step in the right direction with the support of a significant private donation. Community Hospital officials have long wanted to build a facility whose services would focus entirely on cancer treatment and care. Now that effort has received a $1 million donation from James Pulsipher, regional manager of the Grand Junction-based Fidelity Mortgage, which has offices throughout the West. That donation more specifically went to the Community Hospital Foundation, which is spearheading the cancer treatment facility construction project. That donation is seen as an impressive launching point for a capital campaign designed to raise as much as $5 million for the both building of the new facility as well as purchase of the expensive medical equipment that will go inside it. As planned, the new $60 million facility will go up on the Community Hospital’s main campus on the west side of Grand Junction at 2351 G Road. That campus in 2016 saw the completion of a new four-story 140,000 square foot main hospital facility. Work is now expected to launch this fall on what will be called the James Pulsipher Regional Cancer Center, with a rough completion date of sometime in 2023. A long-standing presence in western Colorado, the Community Hospital was originally established in the summer of 1946 with space for a dozen beds. By Garry Boulard Congress has now given its final approval to the sweeping Water Resources Development Act, legislation that authorizes the construction of some 46 pending Army Corps of Engineers projects nationally. The bill allows for the appropriation of more than $10 billion in funding through the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Balance, and additionally authorizes nearly 30 project feasibility studies. The authors of the legislation noted that it also essentially unlocks construction funds for any number of inland waterway construction projects. Besides providing funding to port and harbor projects, the legislation also makes it possible to undertake ecosystem restoration and flood mitigation projects in both urban and rural communities. In addition, the legislation allows access to some $500 million in funding from the Maintenance Trust Fund for fiscal year 2021 specifically designed to tackle a growing backlog of navigation maintenance work in the nation’s ports and harbors. In commenting upon the passage of the legislation in the House, Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said the bill will “build more resilient communities.” DeFazio also noted that the legislation will help ensure that the Corps of Engineers “carries out projects in an economically and environmentally responsible manner, keeping equity in mind.” The legislation was ultimately approved, and signed into law by President Trump, as part of the larger $900 coronavirus relief bill. By Garry Boulard Just under $34 million in federal funding has now been secured for the construction of a long-planned, high-tech facility on the Arizona base of Fort Huachuca, located some 15 miles to the north of the Mexican border. That money is coming through the recently approved National Defense Authorization Act, which is providing up to $740 billion in funding for a wide variety of military base construction and infrastructure projects nationally. The Fort Huachuca project will see the construction of a Defense Information Systems Agency Laboratory Building. By design, the new structure will put all in one place a series of Joint Interoperability Test Command operations that have recently been housed in a series of temporary trailers. The new facility will serve as a kind of command center, coordinating global testing capabilities, while combining the services of the Department of Defense and private industry in the gathering of intelligence, among other tasks. Classified as a combat support agency, the Defense Information Systems Agency is headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland. Last year the city of Sierra Vista received just over $1.4 million from the Department of Defense to build an emergency medical services substation to support military families living at Fort Huachuca. A schedule for when work on the systems agency laboratory building will begin has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard Officials in Dona Ana County are seeking around $4.2 million in state funding in order to design and build a diversion channel just to the north of U.S. Highway 70. The project has already received some $1 million in capital outlay funds previously approved by the New Mexico State Legislature to fund property acquisition, as well as both archaeological and environmental studies. The Brahmin Diversion Channel project is located four miles to the north of Highway 70 and its intersection with Holman Road. This latest capital outlay request for the diversion channel comes as the New Mexico State Legislature begins its two-month 2021 session on January 19. Dona Ana is also seeking $2.5 million in capital outlay funding for the design and construction of a series of general flood control projects in the county, which will also include the building of detention ponds, drainage channels, and new culvert pipe replacements. An additional Dona Ana project, if funded in Santa Fe, will see the long-planned construction of the Industrial Road Overpass, set to be built over Union Pacific Railroad tracks at the Santa Teresa Industrial Park. Late last year that project received around $1.3 million in grant support through the Department of Transportation’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement Program. The county is requesting $9.6 million from the state legislature to plan, design, and build Industrial Road overpass. By Garry Boulard While new home construction, along with new homes sales, have been one of the bright spots in the national economy during the last year, continued growth may be hampered by rising prices. Those prices, according to a study issued by the National Association of Home Builders, reflect many market trends, but in particular the rising cost of construction due to a lack of immediate building materials. Notes Robert Dietz, chief economist with NAHB, just lumber prices alone have seen a 60% increase since November, “adding thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home.” Despite all that, asserts Dietz, “the overall macroeconomic outlook is expected to improve this year,” predicting an increase in the Gross Domestic Product as well as a lowering of the nation’s unemployment rate. But, adds Dietz, “these forecasted improvements are dependent on the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.” The economist admits that his generally positive forecast for the upcoming months, “assumes mass deployment of the vaccine between March and September, which should allow for more normalization of the overall economy and continued strength for housing demand.” The NAHB report comes as home builder confidence has soared, even throughout the most dormant months of the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020, with single family construction in second-home communities up by a significant 24% on a yearly basis. Even so, new home sales have continued to outpace actual new home construction. “While strong demand suggests continued gains for home construction in 2021,” adds Dietz, “affordability declines and supply-side limitations will generate lower housing growth rates than those recorded last year.” By Garry Boulard A new high-rise apartment in Denver’s increasingly popular Golden Triangle neighbor could, if all goes well, see construction later this year. The Charleston, South Carolina-based Greystone Real Estate Partners wants to build the 17-story structure at the intersection of Bannock Street and West 10th avenue. That site, made up of several parcels, measures around 1.5 acres. According to concept plans submitted to the City of Denver, what is being called Parq II would house up to 324 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartment units, and is set to include 7,000 square feet of retail space on the building’s street level. Also planned: spaces for up to 437 vehicles. Greystar has previously developed the 16-story upscale Parq on Speer, which contains 302 units, at 909 Bannock Street and was opened nearly two years ago. That project was designed by the Houston-based Ziegler Cooper Architects which, according to reports, may be the lead designer for the new Parq II project. An exact construction timetable for the Parq II project, which awaits city approval, has not been announced. Located on the immediate northern side of Denver, the Golden Triangle neighborhood has seen a boom in both residential and commercial construction in the last two decades. The neighborhood comprises one of the oldest sections of the city and is distinguished for the larger number of stately Victorian homes along its tree-lined residential streets. By Garry Boulard A plan to redevelop a 2.5-acre site in Tempe, well known for a popular Mexican restaurant and historic train depot, has received an important green light. Members of the Tempe City Council have given their unanimous approval to a project that will see the construction of two high-rise structures going up near the intersection of Third Street and Ash Avenue. Altogether, the project will total some 319,000 square feet, with one tower at 18 stories, and the other topping out at 10 stories. The 18-story structure will feature a 280-room hotel, along with some 9,400 square feet of conference space, and another 15,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. There will also be a 22,600 square foot street-level public gathering and plaza space. The project, which belongs to the Phoenix-based Red Development, has attracted considerable attention due to the developer’s plan to secure a new space for the Tempe Macayo’s Depot Cantina, which closed two years ago. In addition, according to city documents, the project will “preserve and rehabilitate the train depot as part of the proposed redevelopment of the site.” More specifically, the one-story brick structure will be repurposed as retail, restaurant, and bar space. By Garry Boulard Construction project backlogs in both the commercial and institutional sectors, as well as in infrastructure, saw an increase towards the end of last year, says a new industry report. Published by the Associated Builders and Contractors, the report indicates that while the project backlog for the heavy industry sector was markedly down from November, the overall national backlog average had marginally increased from 7.2 months to 7.3 months. Those numbers were aligned with the commercial and institutional backlog, increase from 7.2 months in November to 7.3 months in December. Infrastructure project backlogs increased from 8.7 months in November to 8.9, while only in the heavy industry sector was the backlog on the downside, from 4.5 months in November to 4.2 months in December. The largest regional increases were in the Midwest, with a 6.0 backlog growing to 6.2 months, and a 7.1 backlog in the Northeast growing to 7.9 months. The South saw a marginal decrease from a backlog of 8.4 months in November to 8.3; while the West saw the most significant change, from 7.8 months to 6.7 months. The ABC study also showed that both sales and profits margins were on the upside for responding construction companies in December, with roughly 30% of those firms saying they expected their profit margins to increase in the near future; up from less than 25% who said that in November. “Thee baseline expectation is that by the spring, the U.S. economy will blossom,” Anirban Basu, chief economist with the ABC, said in a statement. “With many households sitting on mounds of savings and sustaining pent-up demand for many goods and services, the U.S. economy is set for rapid growth as it reopens more fully during mid to late 2021,” continued Basu. While Basu cautioned that a resurging economy may not happen overnight, projects that were earlier cancelled due to the pandemic and economic shutdown, “are likely to come back to life over the next several months.” Although the latest project backlog numbers in the infrastructure and commercial and institution sectors have increased, they are still substantially lower than where those sectors stood in December of 2019, three months before the Covid-19 outbreak. By Garry Boulard A vacant lot that was once the site of a popular neighborhood shopping mall in Albuquerque could become the new home to an emergency services center. Located at the intersection of Kathryn Avenue SE and San Mateo Boulevard, roughly 7 miles to the east of downtown Albuquerque, the facility would be used for first responders serving calls specific to behavioral health and homeless issues. Mayor Tim Keller has proposed the center, which would cost around $7 million to build, as part of a significantly larger $140 million infrastructure spending plan. That plan, to be reviewed by members of the Albuquerque City Council, will eventually be presented to voters in November as a general obligation bond. Located in an area of mostly small commercial structures and some apartment housing, the Kathryn/San Mateo site was formerly the home of the Parkland Hills Shopping Center. That mall, dating to the 1960s, was closed in 2005 and subsequently demolished some 5 years ago. If built, the new emergency response service could be a part of a larger multi-use public safety complex. By Garry Boulard |
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