After conducting a search for sites across the country, a growing and trendy electric car company based in the Vancouver, Canada has announced plans to build a new 235,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona. The Electra Meccanica Vehicles Corporation says its new Mesa plant will be a combined assembly facility as well as engineering technical center. The facility will additionally include laboratories for the research and testing of chassis, battery packs, and other vehicle components. The plant is set to be built just to the north of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, at the intersection of Ray Road and Hawes Road. The company, which was founded in 2015, earlier announced plans to launch its single-occupant, 3-wheeled Solo model, capable of reaching a top speed of 100 miles per hour. Notes the publication Motor Trend: “The Solo isn’t technically a car, it’s an electric autocycle.” In a statement Paul Rivera, chief executive officer of the company, said Electra Meccanica decided to locate in Mesa because the city “offered us the best overall comprehensive proposal that includes best site, best land, best option for workforce.” The company additionally said it wants to build in Mesa in order to be closer to a target West Coast market. Work on the new facility is expected to begin by sometime this summer, with the goal of having the first car on the market by the end of 2022. By Garry Boulard
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A Phoenix indoor mall that was first opened in the summer of 1961 may be in line for a significant redevelopment. The project is expected to see the construction of new offices and apartments, as well as entertainment space. Located on a 98-acre site at the intersection of Bethany Home Road and 19th Avenue, roughly 6 miles to the north of downtown Phoenix, the 650,000 square foot Christown Spectrum is the oldest such mall of its kind in the city. It has lost some tenants in recent years, but retained others such as Walgreens and a Walmart outlet. As planned, the redevelopment will include the creation of a paseo and public plaza. Further additions to the facility are expected to bring the mall’s total footprint up to nearly 3.6 million square feet. Additional aspects of the long-range project include the building of more than 2,000 apartment units, and a hotel with up to 300 rooms. Project architect for the Christown Spectrum redevelopment is Streetsense, which is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Still in the early planning stages, it is not yet known when work will actually begin on the project. At the time of the mall’s opening the Arizona Republic lauded the building’s unique refrigerated air system, as well as its “bubbling fountains, complete interior landscaping, benches and a riot of colors, flowers, and birds in three courts.” By Garry Boulard Although many economists predicted that a year of the pandemic economy would spell ruin for many state budgets, a new report indicates that those states have proven to be remarkably resilient. According to the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center, most of the country’s states have seen their budgets increase in recent months and are otherwise in good shape. The report shows Arizona’s budget as being up by 2.4%, with Colorado seeing a 5.7% increase, and New Mexico enjoying a 4.3% increase. The Urban Brookings report found that overall total state revenues from April to December had decreased by only 1.8%, compared with the same period of time in 2019, when the national economy was booming. “As it turns out, new data shows that a year after the pandemic wrought economic devastation around the country, forcing states to revise their revenue forecasts and prepare for the worst, for many the worst didn’t come,” notes the New York Times of the report. That’s not to say that some state budgets haven’t suffered a hit. Alaska’s budget was off by a massive 42.5%, with North Dakota down by 14.8%, and North Carolina seeing an 11.8% decrease. States in the Midwest were also generally on the down side, ranging from minus 0.9% in Ohio to 2.5% in Minnesota. In response to a worsening economic situation, beginning by early last summer, many states laid off workers, cut spending, and relied on both federal aid and rainy day funds. The Urban Brookings report also indicates that most states were considerably helped by the $600 weekly federal supplemental unemployment payments, making it possible for residents to still buy any number of grocery items and consumer goods. That consumption, in turn, produced needed sales tax revenue for the states. The report also claims that things were far worse at the state level during the Great Recession, when average budgets declined by anywhere from 6 to 8%. A separate report, also issued by the Urban Brookings center, says that some 31 states currently have enough in reserve to handle any continuing economic challenges brought on by the pandemic recession. By Garry Boulard Plans are now underway for the construction of a 20-acre whiskey production plant in the central Colorado city of Black Hawk. The facility, which will belong to the Proximo Spirits company, owners of the popular Stranahan’s Whiskey, is expected to cost up to $50 million to build, and will also include resort space. What is being called the Lake Gulch Whiskey Resort will be, upon completion, the largest whiskey distillery in Colorado, with additional features comprising an axe-throwing course and housing facilities. The idea animating the project is establishing a production and bottling facility for Proximo’s increasingly popular Tincup brand: “If you prefer a lower proof and enjoy sweeter whiskeys, this is for you,” the website Breaking Bourbon recently said in one of the many positive Tincup reviews. That brand is currently only distilled in Indiana, but because of customer demand, the company has been looking for facilities elsewhere to produce it. According to preliminary plans, the new Black Hawk facility will also include a visitors’ center, restaurant space, an outdoor amphitheater, and hotel. Blackhawk officials in a place of around 130 people say the project could prove to be one of the most important business developments in the city’s history. A construction time table for the combined distillery and resort has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard Plans are underway for the construction of some 77 apartments in the Uptown section of Denver. The project, slated for less than an acre on 1616 to 1630 N. Pearl Street, will uniquely only include four and five-bedrooms, all to go up in a single 8-story structure. Plans for the project have been submitted to the City of Denver by an executive representing the London-based private limited company Noel & Partners. According to those plans, the project would have space for retail on the ground floor as well as a community room for tenants and parking space for up to 60 vehicles. The building’s second to eighth floors would be entirely given over to apartments. And those apartments would range in size between 949 square feet and 1,141 square feet. Noel & Partners specializes in real estate investment and development and has previously spearheaded the conversion of historic properties in London into higher end housing properties. The N. Pearl Street site is currently a parking lot in a section of the city populated with multi-story apartment and office buildings. By Garry Boulard The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that there were 309,000 job openings in the construction industry in January—the highest such January numbers since the year 2000. New hires in January were over 361,000, a number that is off by around 9.5% over a year ago. The BLS’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, combining residential with nonresidential construction, also indicate a decrease in hiring, although employment in the residential sector has for the most part been generally more robust in recent months. According to the BLS, residential construction employment saw a 1.1% increase in January of this year over January of the preceding year; while nonresidential employment in that same time period was off by a significant 5.3%. The number of job openings in all industries, meanwhile, stood at 6.9 million, says the BLS survey, as of the end of January. “Job openings decreased in a number of industries over the year,” notes a release from BLS, noting that the largest decreases were in accommodation and food services, state and local government, and the entertainment industry. Keeping track of the number of new hires, along with those separated from their jobs, the BLS notes that from January 2020 to January of this year, “hires totaled 72.4 million and separations totaled 82.2 million, yielding a net employment loss of 8.8 million.” The number of people voluntarily leaving their jobs in 2020 actually decreased last year by some 5.8 million, the first such decrease in this category in the last 11 years. According to a separate report recently issued by the Congressional Research Service, the unemployment rate topped out at 14.8% in April of last year, the highest level recorded in more than 70 years. Although the unemployment rate in such industries as leisure and hospitality and both wholesale and retail trade have moved consistently downward since the pandemic outbreak, the construction industry saw a jobless rate of around 20% last spring, gradually declining to less than half that number by the end of the year. By Garry Boulard An effort is underway to change the zoning to allow for the construction of taller buildings on a stretch of Tucson’s famous Sunshine Mile. The initiative, which has already secured the approval of the city’s Zoning Examiner’s Office, would allow for buildings topping out at 16 stories, and will include affordable-living options. The proposal still awaits the final approval of the Tucson City Council. If approved, the new zoning classification would apply to a roughly 2-mile section of the Sunshine Mile neighborhood, along Broadway Boulevard. That classification would stretch from Country Club Road on the east to Euclid Avenue on the west, and would, in some sections, include several blocks on either side of Broadway Boulevard. The new classification essentially means the creation of an urban overlay district which allows for more leeway in design and height requirements. That district, in turn, is seen as a means to both incentivize affordable housing by allowing developers to build taller buildings while also addressing public infill needs. As proposed, at least 15% of any of the units built within the new overlay district would have to be set aside for affordable housing, while ground floors in any of the buildings will be required to have retail and walk-through space opening out to the front sidewalk. The Sunshine Mile, known for its collection of handsome and modern 1930s to 1960s-era buildings, is listed on the National Register of History Places. On the website for the tax increment finance district known as Rio Nuevo, the overlay zone concept is described as one providing “more opportunities for future development and historic preservation,” while also creating more community space. By Garry Boulard Members of the New Mexico House of Representatives have unanimously approved, on a 70 to 0 vote, a bill providing for just under $520 million in capital outlay spending. The package, with individual projects submitted to lawmakers by various state agencies, includes $25 million for a variety of school facility projects; and $12.5 million for local economic development projects. Other items include $5 million for a combined soccer stadium and multi-purpose center to go up in Albuquerque; and nearly $4 million for the building of health crisis centers for homeless people. The list of approved capital outlay projects is now under consideration in the Senate. Upon passage it will be sent to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham who has the authority to veto any of the individual projects. The original capital outlay list submitted to lawmakers contained more than 1,000 individual projects covering everything from new senior center facilities to museum upgrades and park improvements. At the same time that the capital outlay list is under consideration, the New Mexico State Senate has voted to approve legislation requiring lawmakers to reveal how funding is spent on projects they advanced. That legislation, which is expected to add transparency to the process, will also be sent to the Governor for her final approval. By Garry Boulard Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are airing a proposal authorizing in excess of $109 billion to expand the country’s broadband infrastructure. While an overall Biden Administration infrastructure bill remains to be introduced, the Energy and Commerce proposal would apportion some $80 billion for the deployment of new broadband networks. In areas of the country where networks are already in existence, the legislation would provide funding to enhance those networks, creating access points for persons who are currently lacking any internet connection in their homes. Under the proposal, the vast majority of the $80 million would be spent via a national bidding process overseen by the Federal Communications Commission. The remaining $29 billion would be available to the states as they go about trying to bridge the digital divide. During hearings, Frank Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, noted that the lack of broadband access has been most critical in the nation’s tribal lands during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Many tribal students, who were sent home from college and schools for their own safety, returned to homes without sufficient internet connections for video conferencing or uploading assignments,” he remarked. An advocacy group based in Washington called Free Press recently estimated that some 77 million people in the U.S. currently lack an adequate home internet connection. By Garry Boulard An existing office building in Denver is set to be repurposed as an affordable housing for seniors. The 10-story structure is a part of the Denver Health & Hospital Authority’s campus located at 655 N. Broadway. The project is receiving important backing from Enterprise Housing Credit Investments program, which is putting up $18 million to help reconvert the structure. That funding, in turn, is being made available through the federal government’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. As planned, the project will result in a combination of both one-bedroom and studio apartments. Exactly 96 of those units will be geared for low-income seniors aged 62 or older. Another 14 will be slated for patients recently discharged from the DHHA hospital who are in need of additional care. The repurposed building will also feature a business center, therapy facilities, and activity and community rooms. The reconversion will be designed by the Denver-based Davis Partnership Architects. The structure was purchased by last spring by the Denver Housing Authority from the DHHA. According to the Denver Business Journal, DHHA has “retained the title to the land,” entering into a 99-year ground lease with the housing authority. The structure is in a busy part of the city, across from a Towne Place Suites by Marriott hotel and one block from the Denver Health Adult Urgent Care Center. Originally built in 1954, the building, which has a total square footage of around 75,000, last underwent a renovation in 2000. By Garry Boulard |
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