A growing school district in western Colorado is thinking about putting on this November’s ballot a bond proposal to fund the construction of a new high school and the upgrading of several other facilities. Based in Grand Junction, the Mesa County Valley School District 51 is the tenth largest district in Colorado with 25 elementary schools, eight middle schools, and five high schools. In 2017 the district saw the successful passage of a $118 million bond designed to pay for both the construction of a new middle school and repairs and upgrades to nearly thirty other facilities. Now district officials will soon be pouring over the results of an online survey gauging resident responses to a proposed new $175 million bond that would fund the construction replacement of the Grand Junction High School. That facility was built in 1956 and, according to several reports, has a number of structural issues including a sagging floor, outdated heating system, and classrooms with no windows. District officials, noting that there have been in excess of six hundred work orders related to the building in the last year, have determined that it would be more cost effective to simply build a new structure. But the $175 million bond will also be used to fund the construction of additional classrooms at the Fruita Monument High School in the city of Fruita, as well as upgrades to the district’s Palisade High School. By Garry Boulard
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The federal Department of Transportation has announced funding for facility and infrastructure projects at nearly 130 airports nationally, including a combined eight in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. In announcing what is called Airport Improvement Program funding, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said the new funding “allows us to invest in important infrastructure needs at the nation’s airports, especially those serving smaller and rural communities.” For Arizona, the newly-announced grants means $9.8 million for new and rehabilitated runway work at the Coolidge Municipal Airport in the city of Coolidge; as well as $9.5 million for a similar project at the Holbrook Municipal Airport in Navajo County. The San Luis Valley Regional Airport in Alamosa, Colorado is receiving $7.4 million for a taxiway reconstruction project; while the Eagle County Regional Airport in the city of Eagle will get $9 million for a new deicing facility. A third Colorado project will see work launching on a runway and taxiway project at the Wray Municipal Airport in the city of Wray, with $5.7 million in funding from the Department of Transportation. New Mexico is receiving just over $4.8 million in federal funds for three projects. The construction of a new runway safety area at the Lea County Airport in Hobbs is getting $2.1 million in funding, with the Las Cruces International Airport slated to receive $837,000 for the construction of perimeter fencing. A long-planned taxiway rehabilitation project at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport is receiving some $1.9 million in money from Washington. This latest round of Department of Transportation funding comes on the heels of more than $3.3 billion in grants awarded last year through the agency’s Airport Improvement Program, as well as $205 million in supplemental AIP funding. By Garry Boulard Launched in 1978, La Clinica de Familia serves thousands of residents yearly and is regarded as the single largest safety net provider in Las Cruces. Specializing in a variety of services including dental care, school-based clinics, and help for those with mental illnesses, the nonprofit two years ago rehabilitated an existing 48,000 square foot structure at 575 S. Alameda Boulevard in Las Cruces, turning the building into a new medical clinic. That project came after La Clinica de Familia built and opened a new school-based clinic in Santa Teresa, a project that was partly funded with a $500,000 Affordable Care Act grant. Now the organization has received $953,000 in New Mexico funding for the construction of yet another facility that will be devoted to behavioral health care. That money is part of the overall $68 million in funding for Dona Ana County projects approved this spring by the New Mexico State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Where exactly the new La Clinica de Familia facility will be built has not yet been announced. To date, the organization, with additional facilities in Anthony, Chaparral, Mesilla, San Miguel and Sunland Park, has a total of seven medical clinics, seven dental clinics, and five school-based clinics. By Garry Boulard
The opening of new Chick-Fil-A locations earlier this year in both Colorado Springs and Phoenix underlines a larger strategy that is positioning the company to become the third largest fast food chain in the country. And as a sign of its increased product popularity and revenue stream, say industry analysts, the Atlanta-based company is continuing with plans to build new stores in all regions of the country. The chain, reporting revenues of more than $9 billion last year, has doubled the number of outlets it owns, from just over 1,000 a decade ago to over 2,300 today. At the same time, Chick-Fil-A’s market share has increased from 18 percent in 2009 to more than 33 percent last year. According to the magazine Restaurant Business, Chick-Fil-A is now on the verge of becoming the most serious competitor to fast food king McDonald’s. In so doing, says the publication, the company is expected this year to “leapfrog sales at Wendy’s and Burger King.” The restaurant company currently has around 40 outlets in Arizona, more than 50 in Colorado, and just over two dozen in New Mexico. The company has also, in the last two years, been expanding its presence in New England, the Midwest, and northern California. Building roughly one hundred new locations yearly, Chick-Fil-A this month is opening one new store in New York, three in Texas, two in Tennessee, and one each in Georgia and California. Such locations, sometimes built as stand-alone facilities, or in existing retail centers, average around 4,800 square feet, although the company opened a 12,000 square foot outlet in Manhattan last year and a 6,000 square food restaurant in Burbank, California several months ago. By Garry Boulard As an indication of a growing ridership, the transportation agency running Flagstaff’s bus lines is thinking of building a new connecting hub. The current facility at the intersection of W. Phoenix Avenue and S. Mikes Peak serves just over 350 individual bus stops yearly, more than double the number from a decade ago. But officials with the Northern Arizona Intergovernmental Public Transportation Authority say that central connecting facility for what is called the Mountain Line network is out of date and too small for current needs. Among the problems associated with the facility is a lack of sitting space and shelters for passengers, as well as adequate room to maneuver all of the buses that drive in and out of the site. A new facility, those officials say, might also house administrative offices for the authority. Exactly where the new facility would be built remains to be determined, although there is some thought that it could go up at the site of the current connecting center, which is owned by the City of Flagstaff. Another question mark concerns the cost of the project. The Federal Transit Administration has awarded the authority a nearly $7 million grant for the express purpose of putting up such a facility. But it is expected that the new center would cost more than that to build, requiring the need for additional funding from other sources. Last November, a proposition calling for an increase in local sales taxes, which it was thought could generate as much as $41 million in revenue for the authority, was defeated by Flagstaff voters. If funding can be secured elsewhere, it is expected that work on the center could begin sometime in 2021. By Garry Boulard A new ripple in an ongoing quest to build a multi-purpose arena in downtown El Paso is seeing the city exploring the possibilities of doing the project as a public-private partnership. As envisioned, the partnership would be involved in the design and operation of the center. A Request for Proposals has now been issued asking for a consulting service to oversee applications from would-be partners on the project. To be paid for out of the city’s 2012 Quality of Life bonds, the ultimate cost to build the new arena could go as high as $250 million. Where exactly the arena will be built remains an open question. City officials had initially designated a section of downtown El Paso known as Duranguito as the site for the project. But residents and community activists, arguing in favor of preserving the historic character of the neighborhood, have filed suit against it being built there. The matter is expected to be soon decided by the Texas Supreme Court. By Garry Boulard The booming metropolis of Mesa, Phoenix, and Scottsdale, Arizona continues to add construction jobs, according to a new report just released by the Associated General Contractors. The report, Metro Area Construction Employment Data, shows a gain of nearly 14,000 new construction jobs in the Mesa-Phoenix-Scottsdale market, leading the nation for the most new industry jobs in the country. That works out to an 11 percent job gain in the 12-month period between March of 2018 and March of this year, with the overall number of jobs jumping from 121,000 to 134,000. Of the top ten metro areas for job growth charted by the AGC report, six were in the West, two were in New York State, and the remaining two were in the Midwest and South. The other big Western gainers were the Dallas-Plano-Irving area, which saw a 5 percent job growth increase, with the number of jobs increasing by 7,400 for a total of nearly 149,000; and the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise area, where more than 6,600 new construction jobs were created for an 11 percent yearly gain. The areas that saw the biggest construction job losses during that same time period include the Chicago metro area, which shed more than 3,000 jobs; metro Kansas City, off by 2,000 jobs; and the Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine area, also down by 2,000 jobs. Overall, construction employment was up nationally in 218 out of 358 metro areas. In a statement analyzing those numbers, Ken Simonson, the AGC’s chief economist, said “Fewer metros than in recent months recorded construction employment gains over the past year.” But Simonson added that the “ongoing increase in spending on most categories of construction suggests that the lack of job growth is more likely due to a scarcity of qualified workers rather than a slowing of demand.” By Garry Boulard In a move to provide more healthcare options and services across the city, Presbyterian Healthcare Services has announced plans to build four new emergency room facilities in various locations across Albuquerque. The largest not-for-profit health care system in New Mexico, Presbyterian currently has up and running eight hospitals statewide, and last year reported revenues in excess of $3.1 billion. One of the reasons for building the new medical facilities is to take pressure off of the main 453-bed Presbyterian hospital at 1100 Central Avenue SE. In a statement, Presbyterian Medical Director Darren Schaefer said the new clinics will go a long way towards making it easier for patients who frequently confront long wait times at the main hospital. With plans set for the opening of the first facility this summer at the intersection of San Pedro and Paseo Del Norte, the other clinics are expected to go up in the South Valley, the Uptown area, and at the Western Trails NW and Coors Boulevard. The building of the four new facilities is only the latest evidence of Presbyterian’s continually growing presence in both metro Albuquerque as well as across the state. Late last fall, Presbyterian announced it was opening a new community health resource center on the campus of its Kaseman Hospital at 8300 Constitution Avenue NE. That project includes the renovation of an existing nearly 5,000 square foot structure, designed to house a teaching kitchen and meeting space, with an adjacent community garden. By Garry Boulard A sturdy two-story building in a commercially vibrant section of Denver is on the verge of gaining two new floors as part of a plan to turn it into a mixed retail and office space. Located at 2100 Larimer Street, the structure has through the decades housed a number of commercial enterprises, including a hotel, and more recently a comedy club and bar. But now a new development team wants to build two new floors to the top of the 11,600 square-foot building, creating only the latest mixed-use project in what is known as the Lo Do District. That district is comprised of some of the oldest and most historic commercial structures in Denver. The team is made up of the Denver-based development firms of Magnetic Capital and the Monfort Companies. As announced, the project is being presented as a development that will have a positive impact on the surrounding neighborhood. In a statement, Daniel Huml, managing principal with Magnetic Capital, said, “by creating new opportunities for retail and office space at 2100 Larimer Street, we’re confident we can further define the character and influence of the future of one of Denver’s most important entertainment districts.” Design work for the project is being handled by 4240 Architecture and Chord Design Studio, both based in Denver. If all goes as planned, work could begin on the redevelopment of the structure later this year, with a general completion date of late 2020. By Garry Boulard |
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