In an effort to put to good use a grant it received late last year, the City of Roswell is looking for qualified professional architects to help lay out and design a soon-to-be revitalized part of its downtown. The $100,000 grant more specifically came from the New Mexico MainStreet Capital Outlay Program for the purpose of bringing back to life a three-block section that is part of the defined Roswell MainStreet area. To that end, Roswell has issued a Request for Proposals for one or more landscape architects to lay out a new design for that section with the ultimate goal of attracting “specialty retailers and service providers.” The section in question is made up of three fenced lots, two of which are subject to redevelopment. The largest of the lots measures around 60,000 square feet and could, according to the RFP, see the future construction of everything from a rock water feature to a courtyard with paved walkways, permanent stage with power, and a variety of designated seating areas. A second available lot is around 200 feet by 100 feet and could most likely be used as a new parking lot. The larger focus area runs north from Walnut Street to 3rd Street, between the BNSF Railroad corridor and Virginia Avenue. Roswell and eleven other MainStreet communities throughout New Mexico were awarded a total of $4 million for a variety of downtown revitalization programs. The larger New Mexico MainStreet program operates under the auspices of the New Mexico Economic Development Department. Roswell’s RFP has a submission deadline of August 4. By Garry Boulard
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Plans are underway for the construction of a new bridge in a residential section of southeast El Paso that will span the more than century-old Franklin Canal. The County of El Paso has issued a Request for Proposals for a general engineering contractor to replace the Davis Drive Bridge, which was built in 1965 and accommodates traffic going in both directions. That 1.1-meter length structure is one of several small bridges crossing the Franklin Canal, which was originally completed in 1891 and flows for just over 30 miles along the Rio Grande. The canal was the first large irrigation project built near the river in metro El Paso and is designated as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The Davis Drive Bridge project will additionally include the building of new approaching roadways, as well as concrete curbs and gutters, sidewalks, and landscape rock ground cover. Also included: an aesthetic pedestrian railing attached to the bridge on both sides of the structure. The utility work aspect of the project will see the moving of an existing water main to the underside of the bridge. The RFP has a submission deadline of August 12. By Garry Boulard The national construction industry is the leading industry in securing loans through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. According to just-released figures, construction companies secured more than 85,700 individual loans under the program - more than the professional, scientific and technical services sector with just over 83,800 loans of greater than $150,000 each. The healthcare and social assistance sector, reports the Small Business Administration, was next up with 83,745 loans. Altogether, the Payroll Protection Program has ladled out some $521 billion in loans to nearly 659,000 borrowers. The total dollar value for loans to construction companies stands at nearly $182 million. Significantly lower on the list is the manufacturing and retail sectors, which secured around $80 million each. Those loans to the construction industry are thought to be responsible not for just keeping hundreds of companies open, but also for saving nearly 17,000 jobs. Interestingly, well over 31,000 jobs were salvaged in the restaurant industry through the PPP loans, even though that sector’s total loan value through the program was smaller at just over $150 million. In a statement, Jovita Carranza, administrator of the Small Business Administration, characterized the Payroll Protection Program as an “indisputable success for small businesses, especially to the communities in which these employers serve as the main job creators.” Two weeks ago, the Paycheck Protection Program announced that it was accepting new applications for loans, reflecting legislation extending the program’s schedule. The new PPP submission deadline is now August 8. By Garry Boulard Perhaps the most important aspect of any public construction project is where exactly it is going to be built. States, cities, and counties across the country, particularly in the wake of ongoing road construction and broadband installation, are always looking for new space upon which to build, which sometimes can even mean private property. Now, in anticipating future infrastructure projects, the County of Santa Fe has issued a Request for Proposals for land acquisition services. The RFP, issued more specifically by the county’s Public Works Department, is looking for “land acquisition consultants with real estate experience” to work on projects that may need more land space in order to be completed. The county, says the RFP, will use such services on an “as needed-basis for a variety of projects throughout the County as funding becomes available and as specific needs are identified.” Such services require coordination with Santa Fe County staff, as well as the county engineer and landowners, in order to “determine and obtain the most efficient and cost-effective project area.” The services will additionally entail determining easement area ownership through title research and reports, as well as the ability to “coordinate and host virtual community meetings for public involvement.” The RFP has a submission deadline of August 21. By Garry Boulard Work could begin this fall on the building of a new kindergarten through 6th grade school in Arizona’s southwestern Somerton School District. The nearly $10 million project will be built several blocks to the south of the district’s headquarters at 1201 W Main Street, and will measure around 22,500 square feet. The project will be partly paid for by the district itself, as well as through funds provided by the Arizona Department of Education’s School Facilities Board. That board particularly funds projects for districts with schools that are either at capacity, or expected to reach that level in the next two years. As planned, the new Somerton school will have enough space for nearly 300 students. Officials have said that an increasing enrollment and city population are driving the need for new facilities in the Somerton district. The city’s population has jumped from 7,200 in the year 2000 to nearly 17,000 today. The Somerton district currently has over 3,000 students taking classes in three elementary schools, one middle school, and a learning center. By Garry Boulard federal reserve bank leader in charge of southern new mexico and texas district sees slower growth7/21/2020 Hopes for a double-digit economic upturn in the fall of this year have most likely been tamped down, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has remarked during a video conference. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas comprises the nation’s Eleventh Federal Reserve District, which takes in all of Texas, southern New Mexico, and the northern half of Louisiana. Because of the large presence of drilling in those areas, the district is popularly known as the Oil Patch. Fred Kaplan, president of the Fed’s Dallas Bank, said the mid-summer COVID-19 resurgence has dampened earlier expectations for a more significant third and fourth quarter growth for this year. “The issue is how fast are we going to grow out of this big decline we had in the second quarter,” remarked Kaplan, “and unfortunately with this resurgence in disease, it’s muting that rebound.” That is not to say that the picture is entirely gloomy: while Kaplan is predicting a 4.5 to 5 percent decline in the national economy for the rest of this year, he also sees “above trend” growth for 2021. Kaplan is additionally marginally upbeat when it comes to the unemployment picture. Noting that the U.S. started out this year with an historically low 3.6 percent jobless rate that ballooned to around 14 percent in the wake of the virus outbreak, Kaplan thinks that rate by the end of this year will be down to 9 or 10 percent. The unemployment rate, he added, could well drop to as low as 7 percent by the end of 2021. The latest Federal Reserve statistics for El Paso show an employment rate that marginally improved in late spring, although the rate was still high at 13.5 percent. Similarly, unemployment in southern New Mexico has spiked upward from around 4 percent earlier this year, to more than 11 percent as of early summer. By Garry Boulard The City of Las Cruces has issued a Request for Proposals for a project that will see the building replacement of the city fire department’s Station Number 3. The current station was completed in the fall of 1968 and has long been regarded as too small and outdated to handle the needs of the growing west side of Las Cruces, an area of the city populated with new residential and commercial development. The new Station Number 3 will go up adjacent to the existing station, located at 390 N. Valley Drive, and will measure around 12,250 square feet. The facility will include three apparatus bays, office space, a fitness room, and residential quarters large enough to accommodate up to ten firefighters per shift. The one-story station, as designed by the Albuquerque-based architecture firm of Dekker Perich Sabatini, will additionally include an exterior training yard and training tower. The Las Cruces Fire Department currently has seven substations located strategically in all sections of the city. As planned, Station Number 3 will be built to achieve LEED certification. The $6.2 million project is being paid for out of general obligation bonds approved by a 70 to 30 percent margin by Las Cruces voters in the summer of 2018. Work is expected to begin on the new station in October, with an estimated completion date of the fall of next year. The RFP has a submission deadline of August 11. By Garry Boulard A major mining and metals industry company has announced plans to build a 600-acre industrial rail park in Watkins, Colorado, some 24 miles to the east of Denver. Rocky Mountain Industrials, headquartered in the Mile High City, says it wants to build the facility next to the Colorado Air and Space Port, which is located at 5200 Front Range Parkway, with an eye to also constructing up to 7 miles of rail track. That rail track, on land that is adjacent to existing Union Pacific Railroad tracks, would be used for the transportation of any number of raw materials and goods. What could ultimately be a $100 million project will also include the laying out of individual lots and building of infrastructure at the site. Rocky Mountains Industrials produces limestone from a quarry it owns near Glenwood Springs. Plans call for transporting the limestone 180 miles from the quarry to the industrial rail park once it becomes operational for distribution to other locations. The project, which has been in the planning stage for more than a year, would be built on an inland port principle that could be used by any number of distribution and manufacturing companies. Work could begin on the park, pending the final approval of Adams County officials, in the fall of this year. By Garry Boulard Just over $15.4 million in grants have been awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a variety of new transitional and rental housing projects on American Indian tribal lands. In announcing the funding, which is just a part of a larger $100 million expected to be released for the same purposes, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said the grants will specifically “help families throughout Indian Country to access essential resources amid the coronavirus outbreak.” The funding, coming through the agency’s Indian Community Development Block Grant Imminent Threat program, can be used to build transitional housing for quarantined families and individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19. The funding will also go for COVID-19 emergency operation center construction, as well as the building of rental housing needed for homelessness and overcrowding. The largest block grant, at $3 million, is heading to the White Mountain Apache Housing Authority in Whiteriver, Arizona, for housing construction. Tribes in five other states are also among the program’s initial recipients, including the Santa Clara Pueblo Housing Authority in Espanola, New Mexico, which is getting $900,000, also for housing work. The funding was established through the passage in March of this year of the landmark Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act legislation. In a statement, R. Hunter Kurtz, Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing with HUD, said, “From helping Tribes build more affordable housing to building a place where families can go to quarantine, this funding will help Native Americans persevere during this unprecedented time.” Additional Indian Community Development Grant Block Grant Imminent Threat funding is expected to be announced later this year. By Garry Boulard A large one-story structure that has been vacant for the last decade will soon undergo a substantial transformation designed to attract a new tenant. Located at 4595 San Mateo Boulevard NE, the 53,000 square foot space, with 20-foot high ceilings, was the former home to the iT’Z family fun center, a facility offering everything from amusement rides to bowling to video games. For business reasons, the Dallas-based iT’Z closed the San Mateo outlet in the spring of 2016. Since then, owner Goodman Realty Group has considered such new uses for the building as turning it into a call center or school site. Now Goodman has announced plans to repurpose the space entirely, with the hope of attracting an industrial tenant. The move comes as large building owners across the country are seeing such structures used less for retail purposes and more for warehousing and distribution. Sitting on a 9.9-acre site, the San Mateo building will be substantially upgraded, with the addition of a new exterior and rear roll-up doors for trucks. The upgrading project will be designed by Aria Architecture of Cedar Crest, New Mexico, and is expected to cost up to $3 million to complete, with work expected to begin later this year. In the 1990s, the structure was the home to a combined restaurant and bar business called Block Party. By Garry Boulard |
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