The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education has signed off on the design for a new 27,000 square foot building that will replace the aging Mary Ann Binford Elementary School. Located at 1400 Corriz Drive SW on the growing west side of the city, the current school was put up in 1985 and saw an addition for its kindergarten classes built in 2008. But school officials at the 10.4-acre site have long complained that the one-story structure is outdated and not Americans with Disabilities Act compliant. In response, APS has announced plans to build a new nearly 27,000 square, two-story structure that will house classrooms for the K-5 school. As currently planned, a second facility with additional classrooms, a cafeteria, gymnasium and office, is slated to go up on the site at a later date. Designed by the Albuquerque-based PA Architects, the new school will have a construction budget set at $9.2 million. Of that figure, $190,000 will come from a bond passed by voters in 2010, with $2.3 million coming from a 2016 bond. Besides the two new structures, the site will also see the construction of a new courtyard, drop off area, and looped driveway. By Garry Boulard
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A master plan to redevelop the big Cohen Stadium on the northeast side of El Paso is expected to be finalized by members of the El Paso City Council on May 1.
The 9,700-seat stadium, which was opened in the summer of 1990, served as the home to the El Paso Diablos baseball team until 2013. For the last several years, the stadium has hosted any number of concerts, fairs, and sporting events, but is thought by city officials to be largely underused. But now a new master planned called Reimagining Cohen is proposing that the 25-acre site at 9700 Galveston Street could be redeveloped as an entertainment district that would include a hotel, residential, restaurant, and retail space. The plan, which has been the subject of several public input meetings as well as a focus group, is additionally proposing doing away with the stadium itself. Even if the city council approves the plan, funding for the project remains uncertain and could come from a public/private partnership. By Garry Boulard New warehouse construction is expected to increase for the foreseeable future, largely because the country’s current warehouse stock is aging and inadequate for today’s e-commerce needs.
So says a new report issued by the United States Commercial Real Estate Service of Los Angeles, which notes that most of the up and running warehouses built in the U.S. before 2005 have limited use for e-commerce distribution purposes. Such structures are hampered by the fact that they are too small, with ceilings that are too low, uneven flooring, and inadequate docking. In addition, according to the Commercial Real Estate Service analysis, even though some 1 billion square feet of new warehouses have gone up since 2008, just under 90 percent of the nation’s total 9.1 billion square feet of warehouse inventory is more than three decades old. In a statement, David Egan, the head of the Commercial Real Estate Service’s industrial and logistics research department, said that e-commerce has created a demand for a “new type of warehouse with different dimensions, locations, and capabilities than what most of the existing U.S. supply offers.” Egan added that “given that only a small portion of the overall market is truly modernized, there is a strong case for new construction and redevelopment of outdated facilities in many markets.” The report, entitled Old Storage: Warehouse Modernization in Early Stages, pinpoints northern New Jersey and Pittsburgh as having, at nearly 60 years on average, the oldest warehouses in the nation. The average age of the warehouse stock in Denver, by contrast, is 36 years, while in Phoenix it comes in at 26 years. “Warehouses built since 2008 are generally three times larger than older ones,” notes the report, even though those facilities currently make up only “4 percent of the nation’s total number of buildings.” By Garry Boulard A proposal to build a multi-story apartment complex in one of the oldest neighborhoods in downtown Tucson has been given a green light by the Tucson City Council.
The project will go up in the Iron Horse neighborhood, a part of the city dotted with small businesses and 19th century houses, on N. 4th Avenue and Eighth Street, and will feature both retail space as well as market-rate apartments. According to city documents, the complex, under the initial development of the Tucson-based Partners on Fourth, will see the construction of five structures on a 1.6-acre site. Two of those structures will be built to a maximum height of 100 feet, and three others will vary in height from 30 to 80 feet. Altogether, the new complex will feature some 250 residential units. Work on what is being regarded as an infill development will begin after the demolition of both Maloney’s Tavern, a popular club and restaurant at 213 N. 4th Street, and an adjacent brick warehouse to the rear of the tavern. Once construction begins, plans call for the building of ground floor retail space, with apartments and multi-family units on the upper floors of the structures. A façade for a portion of the complex will be designed to duplicate the brick look of the warehouse. An exact construction schedule for the complex has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard A former Santa Fe public school is on its way toward redevelopment as a mixed-use commercial and residential space.
Members of the Santa Fe Planning Commission have given their approval to a plan allowing the property located at 551 Alarid Street to be repurposed. Built in the 1930s, the 31,000 square-foot Alvord Elementary School was closed in the spring of 2010 by the Santa Fe Public Schools system as part of a district-wide consolidation effort. Last November, Santa Fe real estate broker David Barker led a group of investors in purchasing the one-story brick building and 2.9-acre site for $2.5 million with the stated idea of transforming the property into a combination of art studios, offices, residential units, and storage space. The proposal, which has been the subject of overwhelmingly positive public input, now awaits the full approval of the Santa Fe City Council. Located just west of the Santa Fe Railyards, the school has been shuttered for the last several years. An earlier move by the City of Santa Fe to redevelop the building for administrative purposes never gained traction. By Garry Boulard More than thirty bills have been introduced in the legislatures of 17 states in the last two months calling for enhanced school building security.
Those bills have all been in response to the February killing of 17 students at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Altogether, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there have been upwards of 200 bills in 27 states addressing a wide variety of school safety issues, including proposals for arming school personnel ad requiring schools to have in place emergency response plans. The bills dealing with the facility side of the question are calling for funding for such things as reinforced doors, school-wide alarm systems, metal detectors, and even classroom armored shelters. In Michigan, legislators are expected to vote soon on a proposal by Governor Rick Snyder to spend $20 million upgrading school facility security at some 400 schools. Lawmakers in New Jersey have passed a bill calling for a November election on a state-wide bond that would fund up to $1 billion on facility security measures. In Minnesota, the state legislature is considering a proposal to create a $50 million dedicated fund to pay for such school building enhancements as bullet proof glass and single, secured entrance and exit points. By Garry Boulard A master planning process is expected to begin several weeks from now on an innovative project that will transform more than 50 acres of parking space in Denver into a mixed-use residential neighborhood. The parking spaces belong to the Denver Broncos football team and are located on the south side of the team’s Mile High Stadium at 1701 Bryant Street. Officials with the Metropolitan Football Stadium District are hoping to come up with a workable plan that would turn the acreage of cement into a combination neighborhood and entertainment district populated with one and two-story buildings housing restaurant and retail space. The project would also see the creation of public seating and walking space. As envisioned, the project includes the construction of a new garage with enough room to make up for the lost parking lot spaces. Once that structure is completed, work would begin on building the neighborhood and entertainment district. The project would most likely be built in phases over a 7 to 10-year period and will more than likely require a zoning change approval from the City of Denver. The master planning process itself, coordinated by the Denver Community Planning and Development Department, will put an emphasis on public input and is expected to take a year to complete. In a statement, Brad Buchanan, the executive director of the Denver County Planning and Development Department, described the project as one that will turn “surface parking lots into a neighborhood asset.” “We want to work with the community to guide that transformation and ensure it conforms to Denver’s values,” he added. By Garry Boulard Work could begin later this summer on an ambitious plan to update the home of the Miners football team on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso.
The facility, built in 1963, could see up to $15 million in work that will include renovating the stadium’s concessions, and building both a new press box and additional spectator seating. The 52,000-seat facility will also get two new elevators on its west side, and bathroom upgrades. The renovation and upgrade work will be particularly designed to make the stadium more Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant. Hosting the annual late December Sun Bowl, the stadium was originally built for 30,000 people. An expansion in 1982 upped that number by 22,000 seats. A joint project between UTEP and the Government Employees Credit Union, the renovation of the stadium will also see the updating of the stadium’s drop off and lobby areas, additional walkways, and a new mezzanine level. Funding for the Sun Bowl Stadium’s renovation will come from a variety of sources, including, primarily, private donations. Work on the stadium is expected to be completed by the fall of 2019. By Garry Boulard A bill currently before the U.S. House Agricultural Committee will help to support the construction and maintenance of water drainage systems on American farms.
The massive $800 billion 2018 Farm Bill, which has won the praise of the American Water Works Association, will fund, in particular, incentives for farmers implementing practices that benefit downstream water quality. The measure will additionally provide funding for what is regarded as a more collaborative focus to protecting water resources through community water systems. Such efforts are typically overseen through the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is slated to receive up to $874 million in the bill. Among the other features of this year’s Farm Bill, which is expected to be voted on by the full Senate next month, is continued funding for food business entrepreneurs, organic farm operations, and the planning and development of renewable energy production. By Garry Boulard After years of effort, advocates for an expansion of veterans’ health care services in Arizona will soon see the construction of two new 80-bed facilities. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that, through its State Home Construction Grant program, it is funding the construction of an 80-bed veterans home that will go up at the southeast corner of Gemini Drive and Cedar Avenue in north Flagstaff. The land for the project was earlier donated by the City of Flagstaff. Similarly, an 80-bed veterans facility is slated for construction on city-donated land at S. Avenue 6E near 34th Street in central Yuma. Both projects secured State of Arizona funding in 2015, with the Flagstaff facility receiving $10 million, and the Yuma project getting $9.2 million. Although there are currently two up and running veterans homes and health care centers in both Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has pointed out that veterans in the northern and far southern parts of the state have to travel more than 200 miles to visit either of those facilities. As currently planned, both of the new facilities will provide live-in medical care and rehabilitative services, as well as memory care units. The two projects will also house barber and beauty shops, meditation rooms, offices, and gift shops. A delay in receiving a final word on the federal funding had earlier frustrated Arizona officials. Last November, Ducey penned an open letter to the Veterans Affairs Department noting, “The longer it takes to break ground on these projects, the more expensive they become.” Work on the two facilities is expected to begin in the spring of 2019 with an 18-month construction schedule. By Garry Boulard |
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