A city long known for its rodeo events may become even more so with the construction of a new livestock pavilion.

City officials in Clovis, New Mexico have frequently spoken in favor of building a modern rodeo facility. But now, according to published reports, K.C. Messick, the general manager of the Curry County Events Center, has provided some details on a project still in the talking stage.

Those details include demolishing animal barns at the Curry County Fairgrounds on the southeast side of the city at 1900 E. Brady Avenue and replacing them with a new livestock pavilion.

It is thought that the project might cost as much as $10 million to complete. An earlier estimate pegged it at $9 million.

The fairgrounds host several equestrian events, as well as bull riding, bronc riding, and team roping competitions.

A new livestock pavilion could house as many as 300 animal stalls, as well as a show office. Officials have also said that they would like to see the building of a warm-up area for equestrian events, a recreational vehicle park, and renovation of an onsite building that could be used to house a museum.
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It is thought that the fairgrounds’ rodeo, along with other events held at the site, generates up to $10 million in annual revenue for Clovis and Curry County.

​By Garry Boulard

An effort is underway in Congress to significantly increase the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fiscal 2023 budget, with some of that funding going to a distressed properties initiative.

Members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee have given their approval to a $62.7 billion budget for HUD. That figure is up by around $9 billion over the agency’s $53.6 budget.

The new budget includes $31 billion for rental assistance, nearly $12 billion for HUD’s popular Community Planning and Development; and $1.7 billion for a home partnership program.

But for builders and contractors, perhaps the most interesting part of the new budget is the $450 million that will go to revitalizing both low-income housing properties and distressed properties through HUD’s Choice Neighborhood Initiative.

That $450 million is up from the current fiscal year’s $100 million.

The Choice Neighborhoods program is designed to upgrade and modernize public housing facilities across the country. The program also targets improving and bringing back to life abandoned public housing buildings.
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The House Appropriations Subcommittee HUD budget, just over $1.1 billion more than President Biden asked for in his 2023 budget request, is now on its way to the full House for consideration.

​By Garry Boulard

The Simply Amazing Marketplace in central Arizona, has long been a magnet to locals, but especially visitors traveling through, with its eclectic mix of product offerings.

Located at 47 S. Main Street in Cottonwood, the marketplace, dating to 1935, is a site made up of several stores, designed and decorated to look like a combination desert frontier and traditional Mexican village store.

As such it fits in well with its surroundings in what is described as the Old Town Cottonwood tourist area, which is populated with art galleries, cafes, and shops.

A correspondent for the Arizona Daily Sun surveying the marketplace in 2019 made note of the “bronze statues of eagles, hard-carved life-size bears by Cottonwood carvers, Mexican art fabrications like cowboys on horses, a nine-foot stallion horse who is bucking, a huge, welded ball, a Tombstone cowboy titled ‘Ready to Go,’ and more.”

Now the Simply Amazing Marketplace, comprising around 17,000 square retail feet, with a false façade making the buildings appear to have two stories when in reality they are all single-story, is being listed for sale for $1.6 million.

Sitting on a roughly 1.5-acre site, the property and business itself has been owned by the same owner since the early 1970s.
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Listed with the owner Terel Zitco, the site has parking spaces for up to 40 vehicles.

By Garry Boulard

A number of existing and planned homeless facilities are in line for funding in Albuquerque, as the city applies some $49.1 million in federal funding it has received owing to Covid 19.
The funding is coming through the American Rescue Plan, a nearly $2 trillion economic stimulus bill passed early last year by Congress and signed into law by President Biden.
The purpose of the plan has been to provide funding support for communities impacted by the pandemic.
Member of the Albuquerque City Council have now approved using ARP for a variety of projects, with $4 million supporting the continued use of motels being used for both homeless families and those, because of Covid 19, in isolation.
At least three such motels were set up by the city in 2020, providing room space in existing commercial motels.
Around $1.6 million in ARP funding will go for improvements to the city’s West Side Emergency Housing Shelter, located at 7440 Jim McDowell NW, a 24/7 operation with around 300 beds.
An additional $9.3 million is slated for first and second-phase improvements to the Gibson Health Hub, which is housed in the former Lovelace Hospital at 5400 Gibson Boulevard SE.
That facility is also receiving some $3.5 million for the building out of a medical respite center designed to serve people who are both ill and homeless.
An additional $7 million is slated for the construction of a youth shelter, which is still in the talking stage.
In a statement, Mayor Tim Keller said that since the onset of Covid 19, cities across the country have seen a “tragic and rapid rise in homelessness.”
Keller added: “We can’t just wring our hands over this challenge, we have to press forward and build the spaces that will provide the shelter and support people need to find stable housing and get off the street.”
According to the National League of Cities, well over 300 cities and towns have so far received just over $25 billion in ARP funding. That funding, in turn has supported around 4,600 housing, infrastructure, public health, and public safety projects.

By Garry Boulard

This fall the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in a dispute that positions property owners against federal environmental laws.
The case, Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, involves Chantell and Michael Sackett who were attempting to build a house on land they owned near Priest Lake, Idaho.
Before construction of the structure began, the Sacketts received a notice from the Environmental Protection Agency informing them that the land was subject to the federal Clean Water Act. Because of that designation, the EPA charged the couple with illegally placing fill materials into what was described as “jurisdictional wetlands.”
The Sacketts eventually took their case to the Supreme Court, after both a district court and circuit court of appeals ruled in favor of the EPA. The higher court never made a clear ruling in the matter, leaving in place a district court ruling declaring that the land in question was a wetland, and the Sacketts had failed to file for the required permits before they began their project.
Now the Supreme Court is poised to revisit the issue, trying to determine whether the Sacketts’ land falls under the umbrella of “waters of the United States,” making it thus subject to regulation under the Clean Water Act.
Delaware Senator Tom Carper and Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio have filed an amicus brief in the case, contending that “the resolution of this matter could have a profound impact” on wetlands protection efforts.
The outcome of the case may prove particularly significant to developers and contractors contemplating projects in wetlands areas.
What the Supreme Court ultimately decides in the matter, says the National Law Review, will be important, as will how the “Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency interpret and implement that decision.”

By Garry Boulard

A modern Denver office complex, distinguished by its two glass towers, has been sold with a bid of $88.2 million in a foreclosure auction.

Located at 1625 and 1675 Broadway, the Denver Energy Center was seen as the symbol the city’s late 1970s high-rise building boom, with the first tower, at 28 floors, inaugurated in 1979.

The second 29-floor tower was completed the following year.
Once known as the Denver World Trade Center, the complex, with around 785,500 square feet of office space, became the Denver Energy Center after the WTC moved to another downtown location.

While the structure has always been a popular location for any number of businesses, in recent years it has seen a significant loss of tenants, especially since the Covid 19 outbreak.

Los Angeles-based Gemini Rosemont Realty, a commercial real estate investment company which purchased the complex in 2013 for $176 million, allowed it to go into foreclosure this spring after failing to find a buyer to pay a portion of the existing mortgage.
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The JPMorgan Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust was the sole bidder on the property. Plans for the complex, which in 2013 was 91% leased, only to see that figure drop to 59% last fall, have not been announced.

​By Garry Boulard

A new nearly 2,000 square foot retail structure in Scottsdale that was completed earlier this spring is being listed for sale for $2.7 million.

Located at 7000 E. Shea Boulevard, the one-story building is currently the home to the Black Rock Coffee Bar and features a drive-through service.

Sitting on a less than 1-acre site, the structure is in the city’s growing suburban Paradise Valley neighborhood.

Listed with the realtors Blue West Capital, which is based in Denver, the building features a minimalistic exterior modern design.

Black Rock Coffee is based in Portland, Oregon and currently has more than 100 outlets in some seven states. The company is most known for its roasted coffees, teas, smoothies, and blended energy drinks.

The new Shea Boulevard location marks Black Rock’s 25th location in Arizona and fifth store in metro Scottsdale.

​By Garry Boulard