The first quarter of 2018 has started out promising with a 14.4 percent jump in new multi-family home construction projects nationally.
According to data compiled by the Washington-based National Association of Home Builders and the Wells Fargo Company of San Francisco, home building permits have also seen an increase from January to March of this year, rising by 2.5 percent over the final quarter of 2017. Overall, residential starts, meanwhile, are up by 1.9 percent in the last three months. The only area of decline was seen in single-family home projects which, according to the report, declined nationally from 900,000 to 867,000. Even so, that 867,000 figure is up from just two years ago in March of 2016 when it stood at 748,000. Multi-family starts, at the same time, are at their highest point since the beginning of 2017. Such numbers, said chief NAHB economist Robert Dietz in a statement, are “still in line with our solid building confidence readings and is largely attributable to lingering winter weather that is causing production delays in certain areas of the country.” By Garry Boulard
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As part of a growth model taking it into the West, the fitness company Shred 415 has announced plans to build up to 30 new locations in Colorado. Based in Chicago, Shred 415 already has locations in Indiana and Missouri, and has scheduled the opening of its first Colorado studio for September in Denver. Founded in 2011, Shred 415 offers what is described as high-intensity endurance programs, with an emphasis on treadmill exercise. The “Shred,” part of its name is a combination of the words “strength” and “tread,” while the 415 represents the four 15-minute speed and endurance drills that are offered. The company currently has nine locations, but hopes to build and open in excess of 130 more in the next two years. It has additionally announced that it is launching a new studio in Milwaukee this fall. A typical Shred 415 location varies in size from 2,000 to 3,500 square feet, and houses a studio, office, locker rooms, lobby, storage space, and child care room. The company, enjoying annual revenues in excess of $4.4 million, has not yet announced where its new Colorado outlets will be located. By Garry Boulard Plans for the construction of nearly three dozen so-called “golf estates,” have been announced in Scottsdale.
Desert Mountain was launched in 1987 and is thought to be one of the most exclusive golf communities in the country, with seven Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses, and luxurious homes that sell anywhere from $1 million to upwards of $5 million. Located more than 30 miles north of downtown Scottsdale, Desert Mountain also includes restaurants, a tennis complex, and hiking and biking trails. Now, work is expected to begin later this summer on the construction of up to 190 new homes on a portion of the estate that is being called the Village at Seven Desert Mountain. The name refers to the fact that the homes will be built at the seventh golf course built in the community. Plans call for the construction of homes ranging in size from 2,200 square feet to 6,500 square feet. The new development will also include a clubhouse featuring bocce ball courts and an indoor-outdoor gastropub. If all goes according to plans, the first new homes at the exclusive community will be open by the spring of 2019. By Garry Boulard In a push to improve the transportation infrastructure between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, one of the largest labor unions in the country is advocating for increased road and bridge funding with an updated North American Free Trade Agreement.
In an open letter, the Teamsters’ rail organizations in both the U.S. and Canada, along with the Mexican Railwaymen’s Union, have reaffirmed their support for NAFTA. But the labor groups are also asking for a minimum investment of 2 percent of gross domestic product to be spent annually on “transportation infrastructure construction, repair, and maintenance.” The three unions, in a joint statement, add that “especially along our two borders, the bridges and interchanges should be upgraded as part of NAFTA modernization.” Officially launched in 1994, NAFTA was designed to ease trade barriers between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and is responsible for up to $1.2 trillion in tri-lateral trade annually. In so doing, it has greatly accelerated the use of multi-modal railroad, track and shipping routes between the three countries. Negotiations are currently underway between the countries regarding the shape and substance of an updated NAFTA. By Garry Boulard Denver is in line to see the construction of up to 6,000 new affordable homes between now and 2023.
But those numbers will only be reached, cautions Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, if the city is willing to increase its marijuana sales tax. That tax is currently pegged at 3.5 percent and brings in around $15 million every year for affordable housing construction. But Hancock is proposing upping the tax to 5.5 percent, a figure that he says could generate as much as $30 million annually. “This proposal will deploy more funding quicker to support our residents and families without increasing costs on the very households we are trying to save,” said Hancock in a news release. Colorado voters in 2012 approved a ballot question legalizing the selling of marijuana for recreational purposes. Since that passage, tax revenue from such sales has passed the $200 million mark. Working with the Denver Housing Authority, Mayor Hancock said the upped marijuana tax will allow the DHA to issue up to $105 million in bonds for land acquisition and new housing construction, as well as the preservation of the city’s current affordable housing stock. According to All in Denver, a community advocacy group, prices for housing units in the city rose 43 percent between 2012 and 2016. Additionally, more than 40 percent of the city’s homeless population are working but can’t afford a place to live. Hancock’s proposal must win the final approval of the Denver City Council. By Garry Boulard Built in 1973, the Abraham Chavez Theater in El Paso is currently in need of up to $45 million in upgrading and renovations.
So say City of El Paso officials who are contemplating bringing the 2,500-seat facility up to date. Known for its unique sombrero-shaped building and 5,000 square-foot circular lobby, the theater was actively under consideration to be the home for the proposed Mexican American Cultural Center, a project estimated to cost around $36 million. That money, according to a plan announced in 2015, would have come from a combination of City of El Paso funds and the support of the Mexican American Cultural Institution. But by last year the project had fallen through when fund-raising on the part of the institution lagged. Now, although El Paso remains committed to the building of a Mexican American Cultural Center, the question of whether or not to update the Chavez Theater remains unanswered. It has been suggested that the City could organize a re-vote of the pivotal 2012 Quality of Life bonds election, delegating funding for the theater’s upgrading. City officials say that whether the theater is upgraded as a live performance venue, or used for other suggested purposes - such as providing banquet space for the nearby El Paso Convention Space - the structure itself will remain as it is. That’s because in 2012 the El Paso City Council approved a resolution to keep the building intact and to prohibit its demolition. One of the most popular theaters in the southwest, the Abraham Chavez Theater last year, according to the industry publication Pollster, hosted events that attracted more than 35,000 people. By Garry Boulard Architects nationally have been seeing an increasing customer demand for modern kitchen technology projects in residential homes, according to a new survey just released by the Washington-based American Institute of Architects.
That survey, crunching the numbers for the final quarter of 2017, show that design work for such residential features as integrated kitchen and family spaces, computer recharging stations, and under-counter kitchen appliances have all increased over the same period of time in late 2016. In a statement, Kermit Baker, the chief economist with the AIA, said, “Demand has remained solid for smart home features in the kitchen, which isn’t a surprise as more new systems and products are being introduced at a dizzying pace.” What is called the Home Design Trends Survey also showed that customer billings for architectural services have increased the most in the Midwest and Northeast in late 2017, with billings in the Western states following closely behind. The survey additionally notes that customer inquiries saw an industry-wide increase in late 2017, along with project backlogs, which were at their highest levels since 2011. The AIA Home Design Trend Survey is done every three months and records consumer trends observed by more than five hundred architectural firms nationally. By Garry Boulard There are currently more than 325 freestanding medical clinics that are being operated by major hospitals nationally. Add to that number two new 12,500-square foot clinics that will soon be a part of Presbyterian Healthcare Services’ expanding facility footprint in New Mexico. The clinics, designed by the Albuquerque-based architectural firm of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, will be specifically geared for both emergency medical as well as urgent care services. Plans call for one of the clinics to go up at Coors Boulevard at Learning Road NW on the west side of Albuquerque, while the other facility will be built at San Pedro Drive and Paseo Del Norte on the northeast side of the city. An exact construction schedule for the two projects has not yet been announced, but work is expected to begin most likely this summer, with an early 2019 completion date. The private, not-for-profit Presbyterian Healthcare Services, with eight hospitals in New Mexico, is currently in the process of building a 342,000 square foot hospital in Santa Fe at a cost of $145 million. By Garry Boulard A company known worldwide for its high-tech weather and environment monitoring equipment has announced plans to build a new 30,000 square foot facility in Louisville, Colorado.
The new structure for the Vaisala Corporation will go up inside the Colorado Technology Center technology park on the southeast side of Louisville, and will be adjacent to Vaisala’s current facility at 194 S. Taylor Avenue. Altogether, the company, which is based in Vantaas, Finland, is expected to spend nearly $15 million on the new Louisville project. With annual revenues in excess of $300 million, the company, founded in the 1930s by physicist and meteorologist Vilho Vaisala, has facilities in more than a dozen countries. Its product offerings include a wide range of humidity, barometric pressure, and wind measurement instruments. Vaisala built a $4.7 million manufacturing facility measuring 40,000 square feet in Boulder in 2002. An exact construction schedule for the new Louisville location has not been announced, but it is expected that it will take at least two years for the completion of the facility. By Garry Boulard Concerns regarding the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund have increased in the wake of President Trump’s proposal for using a different formula to pay for highway upgrading projects across the country.
In his 2019 fiscal year budget, the President called for $122 billion to go into the trust fund, but also proposed allocating $200 billion for infrastructure spending with an emphasis on shared state and local transportation spending. The Highway Trust Fund, established in the late 1950s, receives money from a federal gasoline and diesel fuel tax that is, in turn, used to pay for work on the country’s massive Interstate Highway System. But Senator Susan Collins, who heads up the Senate’s Appropriations Committee, has said in a statement that the President’s approach to investing in transportation projects “fails to address the greatest threat to our nation’s infrastructure, which is the ever-growing insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund.” Collins said the administration’s infrastructure proposals will “slash the federal cost share of the highway projects from the current 80 percent down to 20 percent, and require state and local governments to raise their own revenue to make up for the shortfall.” The Maine Senator added that unless Washington can identify new funding for the Highway Trust Fund, the “Administration’s proposal would simply lead to an abdication of the federal role in transportation,” and a devolution to the states that she said is “simply not feasible.” More than 25 percent of the Trust Fund, according to the Congressional Budget Office, comes from the country’s gasoline and diesel taxes. Those taxes are set at 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel fuel. Analysts have suggested that a one-cent increase in such taxes could raise new revenue for the Trust Fund by anywhere from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion annually. By Garry Boulard |
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