Almost a decade after its passage, Quality of Life bonds in El Paso will be used for the construction of a new downtown Mexican-American Cultural Center. Members of the El Paso City Council have approved applying $1.6 million in those bonds to a structure that will go up adjacent to the main branch of the El Paso City Library at 501 N. Oregon Street. Additional funding is coming from the city’s 2019 Capital Plan, as well as through the reallocation of some $7.3 million in other capital projects. As designed, the new center will house a theater, exhibit gallery, acting and dancing studio, art studio, and both bar service and dining area, among other amenities. One of the planned exhibits will be a tribute to the soldiers of Company E, the only Mexican-American Infantry unit to fight in World War II. That unit was made up of around 250 soldiers from Texas. A plan four years ago to build the center within the nearly 50-year-old Abraham Chavez Theater at 1 Civic Center Plaza was ultimately rejected by the city council. Work on the center is expected to begin later this year, with a general summer 2023 completion date. By Garry Boulard
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Rising prices for a variety of goods are having a widespread impact on consumer attitudes, according to a new survey released by the Federal Reserve of New York.
In its latest Survey of Consumer Expectations, the Fed found that a majority of respondents expect to see the inflation rate increase by a significant 5.2% in the months to come. While that may not seem like a lot, the number represents a concern that did not importantly exist in the last several years, when the expectations were for a less than 3% increase. Inflation uncertainty, says the Fed in a press release, is currently “well above the levels observed before the Covid 19 pandemic.” With input from some 1,300 household heads, the latest survey also indicates concerns about food prices with expectations for a 7.9% increase; and rents, expected to go up by 10% in the next 12 months. Analysts say that while such responses are entirely attitudinal, they can lead to a reduction in spending among consumers concerned about rising prices. Ironically, the Fed survey comes as the actual rate of inflation has marginally decreased from 5.4% in July to 5.3% last month. The drop, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, has been most noticeable in the price of used cars and trucks, while increases were recorded in food, energy, and medical services prices. Inflation concerns have particularly challenged the construction industry, with price hikes in everything from plywood to steel to polyvinyl chloride pipe. According to the publication Construction Dive, such price hikes currently have the “potential to put many small and mid-sized construction companies out of business.” By Garry Boulard One of the largest healthcare systems in Arizona wants to build a new ambulatory care center and hospital in Flagstaff.
Northern Arizona Healthcare, headquartered at 1200 North Beaver Street in the downtown Flagstaff Medical Center, hopes to see construction of the facilities on a 188-acre campus near Fort Tuthill, nearly 7 miles to the south. As planned, the ambulatory care center would measure up to 175,000 square feet, with the hospital coming in at around 700,000 square feet. Additional plans call for the building of a hotel with nearly 200 rooms and both restaurant and retail space. It is expected that it will cost at least $750 million for the project, which NAH itself will fund. NAH has conducted a series of public input meetings on the project and has also submitted plans for approval to the City of Flagstaff. If all goes well, work could begin on the new campus next summer with a 2024 completion date for the ambulatory care center. Work on the hospital would most likely be finished two years later. Plans additionally call for the eventual closing of the Flagstaff Medical Center, which is nearly 50 years old. NAH serves well over half a million people in the northern half of Arizona and is classified by the Ann Arbor-based Truven Health Analytics as one of the top small healthcare systems in the country. By Garry Boulard Work could begin neat year on the first 4 miles of a planned 32-mile walking trail in a section of Colorado famous for its stunning forest and canyon views.
Town officials in Fruita are hoping to secure a grant from the nonprofit Great Outdoors Colorado for the initial work, which will take place off 18 Road on the east side of Fruita. The building of the walking trail was laid out two years ago as part of the North Fruita Desert Master Plan and is intended to respond to a growing demand that sees nearly “nearly 80,000 trail users per year,” according to the Bureau of Land Management. The planned trail will be the latest version of an initial singletrack trail first built in 1994. To be done in conjunction with the Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Association, as well as the Mesa County Public Health department, the trail project is set to be the subject this fall of an environmental assessment conducted by BLM. Funding for the construction of the rest of the trail project has not yet been identified. By Garry Boulard In a new report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is projecting that overall construction employment will be up by more than 315,000 jobs by the end of the decade. In its projection of 10-year employment trends, the BLA is additionally forecasting an annual construction job increase of 0.4% between now and the year 2030, with laborers expected to account for the most growth, adding more than 103,000 to construction company payrolls. Solar photovoltaic installers, currently comprising a rather small sector in construction employment, will see their ranks increased by around 6,100 new workers. The BLS is additionally predicting that there will be openings for around 51,400 construction managers annually by 2030. Combining all industries, the BLS is projecting that the nation’s current 153.5 million workforce will be up to 165.4 million in 2030, an increase of just under 12 million new jobs. That growth, says the BLS report, “reflects an annual growth rate of 0.7%, which is higher than recent projections cycles, and accounts for recovery from low base-year employment for 2020 due to the Covid 19 pandemic and its associated recession.” The report further sees the greatest employment growth in the healthcare, personal care, and food preparation industries. Although not in the raw numbers, but just in percentage growth, wind turbine service technicians are expected to see the greatest job growth in the next decade, with a 68.2% labor force increase; followed by nurse practitioners with a 52.2% increase; and solar photovoltaic installers, up 52.1%. At the other end of the spectrum, the greatest employment losses are expected to be seen in the word processing profession; and among parking enforcement workers and nuclear power reactor operators. In jobs that to many seem like a throwback to another era, telephone operators are charted for a 25.4% decline; followed by clock and watch repairers, off by 24.9%. By Garry Boulard A unique park that will see the construction of a large stage, concession stands, and retail space has been proposed for downtown Gilbert. The Outrageous Homebrewer’s Social Outpost, otherwise known as O.H.S.O., wants to build the park on a currently vacant site at 33 E. Hearne Way, behind its existing and popular brewery in a part of town populated with apartments and restaurant space. Plans call for the park, which is being designed by Sixty First Place Architects of Scottsdale, to be connected to the brewery via a patio. The park site, which measures just under 0.3 acres, will see the planting of Hybrid Bermuda grass, with the retail space measuring some 480 square feet to be housed in repurposed steel shipping containers. Winning the approval of the Town of Gilbert’s Redevelopment Commission last month, the project, simply called “The Park,” has since also secured a conditional use permit from the Gilbert Planning Commission. Based in Phoenix, the O.H.S.O Brewer & Distillery is a combined dog-friendly restaurant and nano-brewery featuring a wide variety of brewed beers. The company last year opened a smaller version of its brewery model, which is also located in Arcadia, Scottsdale, and Paradise Valley, with a bar and restaurant called Little O’s near McDowell Road and 7th Avenue. By Garry Boulard A prototype of a hyperloop may soon see construction in Pueblo, Colorado. The company Swisspod Technologies, which is based in Monthey, Switzerland, has entered into an agreement with the Transportation Technology Center of Pueblo to build a version of the high-speed transportation system. Designed to carry both passengers and freight, hyperloops feature pods inside low-pressure tubes running on their own track systems that can reach speeds of up to 900 miles per hour. For years transportation experts have been touting the advantages of hyperloops, noting that they could reduce normal highway traffic, while getting people from one place to another at a breakneck speed: a journey from Denver to Albuquerque, for example, would take around an hour. The new hyperloop operational test track will be built inside the nearly 23,000-acre PuebloPlex campus in Pueblo, site of a former U.S. Army Depot. The Transportation Technology Center is a part of the Association of American Railroads, providing industry testing and research. In a press release, Swisspod said construction of the new Pueblo prototype will advance a “unique propulsion system and build a full-scale capsule and operational infrastructure for cargo transportation” in collaboration with the Transportation Technology Center. Earlier this summer Swisspod unveiled a circular hyperloop testing track in Lausanne, Switzerland, measuring around 400 feet in length and said to be the first such testing track of its kind in Europe. By Garry Boulard The unprecedented $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed by the Senate last month may be at risk of failing in the House. That word comes from several insiders who say an effort is underway to secure passage first of a much larger $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package that funds an array of social and climate initiatives. Failure of the Senate to pass the $3.5 trillion legislation could peel away the votes needed to pass the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a strong advocate of the reconciliation package, has said that falling short of an agreement on how to fund that legislation, many members of the House will walk away from the infrastructure bill. “There is a real danger that this bill will lose,” Sanders said in an interview, referencing the $3.5 billion bill now before the Senate. And if that happens, Sanders added, “the infrastructure bill will lose in the House.” A small group of lawmakers, including West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, have said that they will not support the reconciliation bill given its current price tag. Manchin further criticized the idea that the fate of both bills should be intertwined: “I’ve never seen this in legislation. I never thought the purposes of the progress we make in legislation was basically to hold one hostage over the other.” In a column for the Wall Street Journal, Manchin said he would not support funding at “anywhere near that level of additional spending without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effect inflation and debt have on existing government programs.” A new House proposal designed to secure funding for the larger legislation calls for a new tax rate of 25.5% on corporations. In a just-released summary released by the House Ways and Means Committee, that proposal would also include a 3% surcharge on individual incomes above the $5 million mark. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that she wants the House to take a vote on both bills by no later than October 1. By Garry Boulard A one-time popular movie theater site on the north side of Phoenix may see new life as an apartment complex. The Hawkins Theatres company announced earlier this summer plans to close by the end of the year its long-running North Valley 16 theater, located near the intersection of Bell Road and 34th Way. A statement from the company in July said it would cost too much to update the facility, which has been open for more than 20 years. At the same time, Hawkins has said that it plans to build a new theater in the Phoenix urban village of Laveen and is exploring the possibility of opening another facility somewhere near the soon-to-be retired North Valley 16. Now the Scottsdale-based Wolff Company says it would like to redevelop the Hawkins site, which would include the construction of an upscale 278-room apartment complex. The redevelopment will require the demolition of the 80,000 square foot theater, with a rezoning plan for the nearly 2-acre site expected to be reviewed next month by the Phoenix City Council. If all goes well in securing city approval, actual work on the project could begin next summer. The Wolff Company is an integrated real estate firm specializing in the development of multifamily properties. By Garry Boulard A proposal to build a mixed-use development in Tucson that will include a large television production studio has won the approval of a committee serving the Arizona Board of Regents.
That committee is the Finance, Capital and Resources Committee, which has said that the project could be built at the site of The Bridges, a mixed-use development some 3 miles to the south of the University of Arizona’s main Tucson campus. The project will provide a broadcasting home for the station Arizona Public Media, which is affiliated with both the National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. Expected to cost at least $45 million to build, the facility will also house a high-tech conference space, with the broadcasting space including theater-style seating. Most of the funding for the project has already been secured through private donations, although a public fundraising campaign may later be launched. The proposal must now go before the full Regents Board for a vote, which is expected to take place later this month. Reports indicate that planning for the new station facility will take around 18 months, with construction expected to begin by the spring of 2023. By Garry Boulard |
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