A new upscale retail chain developed by the Dollar General Corporation could see up to 30 outlets opening across country in the next year. Whether those outlets, expected to measure around 9,000 square feet each, will be built as new buildings or carved out of existing structures has not yet been announced. Dollar General officials say the new line will be called Popshelf. According to a Dollar General press release Popshelf’s “initial targeted customers are primarily female and are located in diverse suburban communities with a total household income ranging from $50,000 to $125,000.” In a statement, Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s chief executive officer, said the new chain will be designed to build on the company’s “proven track record of store format innovation.” Unlike the Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based Dollar General, which sells such necessary items as food products and cleaning supplies, Popshelf will offer higher-priced party supplies, home décor, beauty products, and seasonal items. One of the first Popshelf locations is scheduled to open in Clarksville, Tennessee, in a converted former Pier 1 store. Dollar General currently has more than 16,700 stores in 46 states. Those stores are primarily located in small towns and other rural areas. Last year the chain recorded revenues of more than $31.3 billion. During the first months of the Covild-19 outbreak and subsequent national shutdown, the company recorded a 31% increase in sales. By Garry Boulard
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Plans for the construction of a project that would see new apartments and maybe a hotel and restaurant are expected to be submitted either later this year or early in 2021 to the Colorado Springs City Council. The project would go up inside a business park which currently includes offices for Re/Max Integrity and Verizon, on the northwest side of the city at 2424 Garden of the Gods Road. According to a rendering produced by the Colorado Springs-based NES Landscape Architects, the complex will be built on nearly 100 acres, with 55 of those acres devoted to open space. Some 26 acres will see the construction of multi-family housing, set to be priced at a market rate level. Residents living in the nearby Mountain Shadows neighborhood, to the north and east of the project site, have expressed concerns regarding the potential increased noise and traffic generated by the new development. The project is additionally located just 1.5 miles to the south of the popular Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center at 1803 N. 30th Street. The project developer may soon be submitting a rezoning request for the site which would allow for the construction of a building 45 feet in height. The U-shaped business park comprises some 123 acres and is known for its views of the Rocky Mountains and access to walking and biking trails. By Garry Boulard The City of Lafayette, Colorado is vying for the construction of a campus that would be centered by the medical device manufacturing giant Medtronic Incorporated. The project, which will include the construction of a $133 million, 500,000 square foot complex, will most likely go up on a 42-acre site to the east of U.S. Highway 36, and just to the north of the Northwest Parkway. The company had earlier considered building on a more than 400-acre site in Louisville, some 3 miles to the southeast of Lafayette. That site was formerly the home to the StorageTek company. But Medtronic decided on Lafayette in the face of local opposition to its development plan in Louisville. In 2019 Medtronic was approved for an incentive package valued at just under $25 million by the Colorado Economic Development Commission for the Louisville project. The Dublin, Ireland-based company, which specializes in everything from electrosurgical hardware to cardiac monitors and insulin pump systems, has annual revenues in the U.S. in excess of $30 billion. Medtronic officials are currently involved in a due diligence process regarding the Lafayette site that will most likely be completed by spring. By Garry Boulard Planned rural broadband infrastructure construction projects in New Mexico may soon be eligible for grant support through a new initiative. As part of the funding provided through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the New Mexico Department of Information Technology has secured $1.5 million to help support such projects. The grant is being matched with up to $375,000 in local funds. The funding is primarily intended to target local and tribal government projects, as well as utility cooperatives, expanding their broadband infrastructure. In a statement, John Salazar, Secretary of the state’s Information Technology Department, said, “Where there is broadband, there is opportunity; a chance for better education, online work, access to healthcare, and improved economic prospects.” The funding is coming directly from the federal Economic Development Administration, which is an arm of the Department of Commerce. The funding will additionally help bring together interested parties in New Mexico to lay out a blueprint for building new broadband infrastructure. In an interview with the Albuquerque Journal, Dana Gartzke, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, stated that the Covid-19 outbreak “has highlighted how important it is to connect to the outside world.” The CARES Act, which was approved by Congress earlier this year, provided some $1.5 billion in funding specifically for economic development assistance programs addressing pandemic challenges. By Garry Boulard construction industry pandemic job losses pale compared to other industries, says new report10/12/2020 Job losses as a result of the pandemic economic shutdown have been overwhelmingly confined to the nation’s service industries, according to a new report released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The report, Latest Job Market Data Shows the Uneven Impacts of a K-Shaped Recovery on US Industries, reveals that in terms of the number of jobs lost this year, just 3.7% were in the construction industry. That number compares favorably with the 10.8% lost in the goods-producing industry, 11.9% in the trade, transportation, and utilities sector, and a gigantic 35.8% within the leisure and hospitality industry. Increasingly, economists are looking at the late 2020 recovery as one that it K-shaped, in the sense that some industries, on the top part of the K, are doing better, while those on the bottom part of the K continue to struggle. According to Curtis Dubay, a senior economist with the Chamber, goods-producing industries have overall lost “about 6% of their workforce since February, mining and logging is down almost 14%.” Much deeper job losses have seen in the motion picture and sound recording industry, which is now down by a massive 50%, the performing arts and spectator sports sector, off by 46%, and the scenic sightseeing transportation field, with a 43% job loss. Within the construction industry, the job losses have been the greatest, at 8.1%, in the heavy and civil engineering sector; followed by nonresidential specialty trade contractors, with a 7.1% decline; and the nonresidential building sector at 6.7%. Construction job losses were the most minimal in the residential specialty trade contractors sector at 3.1%; and residential building, at 2.5%. Dubay posits that the ongoing presence of the K-shaped recovery is going to require Congress to “craft a targeted relief package in its phase four bill.” That legislation, continued Dubay, “will need to aid those industries at the bottom of the K, because these industries are likely to lag behind as long as the pandemic persists.” By Garry Boulard Plans have been announced for the building of a massive new distribution center in El Paso that will serve the sister department store chains of TJ Maxx and Marshalls. The 1.7 million square foot center will cost $150 million to build and is set to go up on some 200 acres of unoccupied land zoned industrial at Global Reach Drive and George Perry Boulevard on the east side of the city. That land is owned by the El Paso International Airport. The center, designed to serve around 240 trucks a day, will serve as a distribution point for Marshalls clothing store offerings. The result of talks between the airport, the city, and Marmaxx Operating Corporation, the Fortune 500 entity that owns both TJ Maxx and Marshalls, the project is coming about after the airport agreed to lease the 200 acres for nearly $596,000. The agreement will also give Marmaxx enough space at the site to later build another additional nearly 350,000 square feet of facility space. Based in Framingham, Massachusetts, Marmaxx has annual revenues in the $3 billion range. The TJ Maxx brand currently has more than 1,200 locations, while Marshalls outlets number around 1100. An exact timetable as to when work on the new distribution center will begin has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard While the decline has not been as sharp as anticipated, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting a national unemployment rate of 7.9%, with total nonfarm payroll employment now up by 661,000. “These improvements in the labor market reflect the continued resumption of economy activity that had been curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to contain it,” reports the BLS in its newest survey, Employment Situation Summary. The summary continues: “In September, notable gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, in retail trade, in health care and social assistance, and in professional and business services.” A subsequent statement issued by the Council of Economic Advisers noted that job gains have primarily been concentrated in low-earning industries, “which employ a large portion of minorities as well as those without college degrees, such as retail trade and leisure and hospitality.” Altogether, the unemployment rate has declined by 6.8% since May. Despite those good numbers, the country has still been challenged by a total historic loss of 11 million jobs since the onset of the pandemic. Moreover, notes the New York Times, “Nearly 700,000 people left the labor force, meaning they are no longer counted as unemployed.” In addition, said the paper, “A rising share of the unemployed report that their job losses are permanent, rather than furloughs.” The construction industry saw an increase of 22,100 new jobs in residential work. Of that number, 6,600 were in residential building and 1,500 were related to residential specialty contractors. The nonresidential sector saw an increase of 4,000 jobs, with 2,000 additional jobs in the specialty trades. In a statement, Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors of America, said the industry is largely becoming a “tale of two sectors, as homebuilding and nonresidential thrives, but most other private, as well as public, construction shrinks.” Simonson added that the latest numbers are in line with AGC’s earlier survey of construction company owners which revealed a plurality saying that it will take at least six months for business volumes to return to their pre-pandemic levels. By Garry Boulard A small town in Navajo County in east central Arizona is making plans for the upgrade of an existing water tank. The Town of Snowflake has issued a Request for Proposals for work on the facility, located off of Snowflakes Heights Boulevard. That work will include the installation of an 8-inch and 2-inch drain at the bottom of the existing tank, as well as the removal and replacement of a 2-inch sampling port, and installation of a 36-inch in diameter main on the south side of the facility. Additional work will see the removal of 6 inches on one side of an existing overflow weir box, along with the welding connection of an existing ladder leading to the top of the tank. Interior tank work is expected to include both sandblasting and painting. Snowflake is a town of around 5,900 residents, situated around 25 miles south of Interstate 40. The RFP has a submission deadline of October 20. By Garry Boulard Voters in Aurora and Englewood, Colorado will decide this November on a ballot question asking for funding to build a modern new elementary school. The project would go up within the Cherry Creek school district, and more specifically, the upscale southeast neighborhood of Blackstone. Ballot question 4B is asking voters to approve $150 million in funding for the project, money that would also be used to address the development of a mental health treatment center, and various deferred facility maintenance issues in some of the older facilities across the district. The bond proposal, which has won the backing of the Cherry Creek Board of Education, comes as the district has seen a decline in state support this year of $25 million. Although the district itself has seen its overall enrollment numbers drop in recent years, studies are projecting a growth in the elementary school population large enough to justify the construction of a new building. Currently the district, with just under 70 schools, serve around 54,000 children. In 2012 a $125 million bond for the funding of a school addition and technology upgrades was approved by district residents with 59 percent of the vote. By Garry Boulard Always a reliable segment of the business, new office construction projects are increasingly being held off or delayed as a result of the pandemic economy. According to the publication Data Digest, which is published by the Associated General Contractors of America, the “demand for office construction is likely to shrink as layoffs increase and employees are allowed to work remotely for longer.” To date, only around 25 % of staffers have returned to their former offices nationally, a figure dropping to 10% for parts of New York, but somewhat higher in Los Angeles at 32% and Dallas at 40%. Last year more than 110 million square feet of new office space was built nationally. That number has decreased by more than 10% this year, say experts, at the same time that overall office leasing numbers continue a downward trend. According to the Chicago-based real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle, leasing volume nationally was off by a significant 43% as of early this summer, with 29.8 million square feet of office space leased, down from 65.9 million square feet during the same time period last year. Many of the country’s largest corporations have additionally announced that they most likely won’t be fully re-opening their offices until next summer. But a trend moving in the opposite direction, according to the Harvard Business Review, is likely to make itself known in the number of “younger workers at the earliest stages of their careers,” still moving to cities in the years to come, desiring jobs that are office-based. Such countervailing patterns are seen in the recent decision on the part of Facebook to lease out 730,000 square feet of office space in New York. By Garry Boulard |
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