The first $10 million of $268 million in grant funding to build broadband at the nation’s minority-serving institutions of higher learning have been officially announced.

Among the initial recipients is the Tsaile, Arizona-based Dine College, which is receiving $2.9 million for classroom technology upgrades; and the Tohono O’odham Community College, which is based in Sells, Arizona, with just over $1.9 million for a community technology hub upgrade.

The funding is coming through the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and is designed to pay for internet access as well as equipment.

In announcing the funding opportunity, Don Graves, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, said the country’s “minority-serving colleges and universities are bedrock learning centers that have too often been left behind when it comes to accessing affordable high-speed internet.”

The newly established Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program, which is also aimed at supporting new broadband projects at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, will “enable these institutions to be a resource for access and digital skills training,” added Graves, while also offering workforce development programs for both students and the larger community.

There have, to date, been applications for grant funding from more than 200 minority-serving institutions of higher learning.

Funding for the program is coming through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which altogether is providing some $65 billion for the development of high-speed internet access across the country.
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According to a Commerce Department press release, additional awards through the program are expected to be announced “on a rolling basis,” as they go through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s review process.

By Garry Boulard

Built in 1965, the Lulu Hotel in Silver City is a hospitality mainstay running along one of the city’s main throughways.

With two floors and 74 rooms, the hotel located at 3420 U.S. Route 180 has always a popular inn for travelers between Arizona and Texas. Recently the structure underwent a renovation restoring it to its mid-1960s original design.

That renovation has allowed the Lulu to advertise itself as a “modernized retro-chic motel,” with a brightly colored lobby and rooms. The hotel was formerly known as the Gia Mountain Inn, and before that, the Rodeway Inn.

Listed by the global consulting firm HVS, the Lulu is scheduled for a two-day auction beginning on September 6, with a starting bid of $750,000.
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Defined as a Class C building, the Lulu measures around 34,200 square feet.

By Garry Boulard

A project to replace a more than 50-year-old bridge in northern New Mexico that is part of U.S. Route 550 is currently in the study and design phase.

The New Mexico Department of Transportation wants to replace the bridge spanning the Rio Puerco at the northern end of the town of Cuba.

The project, which is being done in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, has been long in the talking stage.

Last year the NMDOT completed the rehabilitation of another bridge in Cuba on Route 550, this one spanning the Rito Leche.

A four-phase project, the new Rio Leche bridge, as with the bridge spanning Rio Puerco, was old and in need of replacement for traffic safety reasons. That project had a $2 million price tag.

The Rio Puerco bridge project will include the replacement of the existing bridge superstructure, and reconstruction of the roadway, sidewalk, and curb and gutters leading to the bridge.
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Additional work will see drainage improvements, lighting, striping, and new signage.

By Garry Boulard

All signs are pointing to a U.S. Senate vote sometime this week on a multi-billion bill designed to make the nation’s semiconductor industry more competitive.

The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Act, otherwise known as CHIPS, would provide, if passed, about $52 billion in tax breaks and subsidies to American chip manufacturers.

Those incentives would specifically be applied to the construction of new factories designed to produce semiconductors in a larger effort to remain competitive with China manufacturers.

In a sign of the bill’s likely fortunes, members of the Senate last week approved by a margin of 64 to 34 a procedural measure to advance the legislation.

In a statement, Charles Schumer, Senator Majority Leader, remarked that to “ignore the chip crisis means higher costs, squandered job opportunities, and greater dependance on foreign chip producers.”

Computers chips are used in the auto making, electronics, and energy industries, to name just a few. A chip shortage in the U.S. caused by an ever-tightening supply chain was first reported in late 2020 and early 2021, ultimately resulting in more than $200 billion in global automotive industry losses.

The CHIPS bill will specifically allocate $39 million for the construction of fabrication facilities in the U.S., with another just over $11 billion going for semiconductor research and development.

Earlier this spring, New Mexico Senate Martin Heinrich asserted that by “ramping up the production of the chips that have become key components in so many products, we will substantially lower costs for American families on purchases from smartphones to cars and home appliances.”

The publication Fortune says that while the CHIPS act is important, “the U.S. likely needs hundreds of billions more in funding, and decades to secure its chips supply.” Even so, the US Chamber of Commerce has endorsed the legislation, saying the chip shortage has underlined the “need for increased domestic manufacturing capacity.”
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If the legislation passes the Senate, it is expected to be immediately taken up by the House.

By Garry Boulard

Plans are now underway for the construction of a 350-unit upscale apartment complex in downtown Phoenix.

The project, to be developed by CRG, which is a subsidiary of the development company Clayco and based in Phoenix, will go up on a half-acre property at 14 E. Pierce Street in a part of the city dominated by multi-story apartment complexes and one-story retail structures.

The site is a familiar one to many Phoenix residents as the home to the popular Phoenix Public Market Café. Originally the one-story structure at the site was a store for the Phoenix Shade & Linoleum Company called The Blind Man.

In order to make way for the new development, that building, and two other nearby structures, were recently demolished. Attempts on the part of the City of Phoenix to save the café building, which was built in 1946, proved unsuccessful.
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CRG, with offices across the country, specializes in office and apartment multi-level projects. It has to date built more than 210 million square feet of commercial and residential properties, with a total dollar value of $13 billion.

​By Garry Boulard

A layout for a long-planned veterans cemetery in Carlsbad has been revealed in a public meeting sponsored by the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services.

Local officials have been talking about the project for upwards of two decades, with the City of Carlsbad donating 4.5 acres in the northeast corner of the already existing cemetery, Sunset Gardens Memorial Park, located at 1406 E. Wood Avenue.

Upon completion, the Carlsbad project will be the final of four new veterans’ cemeteries in the state. The other three are in Angel Fire, Fort Stanton, and Gallup.

According to the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services, the cemeteries are in areas with “large, underserved veteran populations who live too far from the two national veterans’ cemeteries in the state.”

Those national cemeteries are the Santa Fe National Cemetery and the Fort Bayard National Cemetery.

Construction of the new cemeteries was earlier bolstered by $600,000 in state funds approved by the New Mexico State Legislature. Additional funding has also been secured through the VA Veterans Cemetery Grants Program.
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Work on the Carlsbad cemetery is expected to begin sometime in 2023.

​By Garry Boulard

While much attention has been given to the continuing pace of rent increases nationally, a new report by a real estate analytics company says that on average most “market-rate apartment renters” are spending less than a quarter of their income on their apartments.

The report, 2022 Market-Rate Apartment Affordability Report, issued by the Richardson, Texas-based RealPage, which provides both data analytics and software to the real estate industry, say that thus far in 2022 renters are spending an average of 23.2% of their incomes on where they live.

That figure, RealPage notes in a press release, is “up modestly from pre-pandemic norms, but still well below the traditional affordability ceiling of 33%.”

That more manageable rent-to-income ratio is partly attributable to an increase in median household income thus far this year. According to the report, that figure now stands at $75,000, a 15.4% increase in the last two years.

At the same time, the median monthly rent on new leases increased by 21.9% for a national average of $1,510. Those figures, says the report, “reversed a pattern of eight straight years of rent-to-income ratios inching downward.”

In a statement, Carl Whitaker, RealPage’s director of research and analysis, said, “Apartment renters are spending slightly more on rent than they did prior to the pandemic, but many could still get stretched as other expenses, particularly food and gas, climb at much faster rates.”

Despite the generally positive view on current market apartment rents, the report notes: “There’s a separate challenge that existed long before the pandemic and has only been exacerbated since then. That’s the lack of housing options for low-income households.”
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“America’s housing shortage remains most severe at the lowest price points,” the report continues, adding: “Simply put: affordable housing supply has not kept pace with affordable housing demand in recent decades.”

By Garry Boulard

A nearly 25,000 square foot commercial space currently housing a Whole Foods store in Flagstaff is being listed for sale for just under $20 million.

Located at 320 S. Cambridge Lane, less than a mile to the southeast of downtown Flagstaff, the one-story structure was built in 2007 and was formerly the home to the New Frontiers Natural Marketplace.

Whole Foods moved into the location, which is part of the larger Aspen Place at the Sawmill retail village, in 2014.

Listed by the Newport Beach, California-based CRBE realtors, the building underwent an expansion in 2019, giving it an additional 685 square feet.

Purchased for nearly $14 billion in 2017 by the Amazon company, Whole Foods, specializing in natural foodstuffs, has roughly 500 locations across the country.
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The grocery chain has renewed its lease for the S. Cambridge Lane site, taking it into 2034.

​By Garry Boulard

An important step is being taken in an ongoing plan to build some 7 miles of multi-use trails in downtown Albuquerque.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has just announced the awarding of $10 million in state funding to build what will be a loop of trails connecting various parts of the downtown and adjacent areas.

In making the announcement, the Governor said the project will “build new and safer recreation options for residents and visitors.”

What is being officially called the Albuquerque Rail Trail will extend along the traditional rail spur line from the downtown core to the Sawmill District and Market, the historic Albuquerque Old Town, and the Bosque Trail near the banks of the Rio Grande.

The trail project is seen as the lynchpin to a larger mixed-use development that will include multifamily housing and business space in what is known as the Downtown Rail Corridor.

The Albuquerque Rail Trail project is expected to be completed in three phases, at an estimated cost of $39.5 million. Thus far, the City of Albuquerque has committed some $15 million for the portion of the trail running from Central Avenue to Lomas Boulevard.

Additional funding is being sought out of Washington.

According to city documents, aspects of the trail will include both separate pedestrian and bicycle paths, as well as, at another point, a two-way cycle track. The downtown portion will be “within the rail alignment, showcasing the historic buildings and activating adject properties.”
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A primary goal of the rail project, besides its economic development potential, is to “connect the diverse communities it travels through and build bridges across those that have been disconnected.”

​By Garry Boulard

Legislation advancing the construction of more truck parking facilities across the country has been approved by members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Introduced by Illinois Representative Mike Bost, the bill will provide funding of up to $755 million between now and 2027 to build both safety rest areas as well as commercial motor vehicle parking facilities.

The funding will come in the form of a competitive grant program that will be administered by the federal Department of Transportation and used for the construction of new parking spaces on federal highways, or at a facility located near such highways.

Funding will also be used to pay for an analysis to be conducted by the DOT looking at the nation’s truck parking needs and capacity.

In introducing what is an amendment to the existing Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, Bost remarked that “we’ve seen the need for more trucks and drivers increase significantly, especially during the Covid 19 pandemic, when trucking helped to keep our economy going.”

The Congressman continued: “However, the number of truck parking spaces hasn’t kept pace. That means that drivers are forced to park in unsafe locations, which puts both them and other motorists at risk.”

The measure has won the support of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, whose president, Todd Spencer, remarked in a statement: “The continued growth of the parking shortage shows the status quo is not sustainable. Congress must provide dedicated federal investment to expand capacity if it is serious about addressing the problem.”
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The legislation is now on its way to the full House.

​By Garry Boulard