Depending upon the fate of a $43 million bond in next month’s election, a rural school district based in Manitou Springs hopes to see construction begin soon on a proposed new middle school. The bond for the Manitou Springs School District 14 would also pay for the renovation of the Manitou Springs High School, located at 415 El Monte Place and built in 1956. Uniquely, the bond will also be used to restore the architecture of the 99-year-old Manitou Springs Elementary School’s auditorium, with an emphasis on also updating the auditorium’s dressing rooms and installing both Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant seating and new lighting systems. Additional projects to be funded by the bond include general safety and security upgrades to the Manitou Springs Elementary School, as well as the Ute Pass Elementary School, completed in 1968, along with district-wide playground and athletic field improvements. If passed, the bond will be combined with some $9 million in state funding the district is eligible for through Colorado’s Building Excellent Schools Today program. District 14, with some 1500 students, serves a city whose population has remained remarkably stable in fast-growing Colorado, with a current population of nearly 5,400 people, up from around 5,000 people in 2000. By Garry Boulard
0 Comments
Fed Ex, UPS, and Walmart have announced plans to expand their delivery services to 24 hours a day in a move designed to untangle ongoing supply chain issues.
The move comes as President Biden has announced the federal government’s plans to work with carriers and the nation’s ports in an effort to reduce supply backlogs. That supply issue is marked by a combination of factors including port congestion, a lack of containers and ships, and even a dearth of truck drivers. The President has announced that the Port of Los Angeles is agreeing to transition to 24-hour service, 7 days a week, saying that agreement “has the potential to be a game changer.” Continued Biden: “We need major retailers who ordered the goods and the freight movers who take the goods from the ships to factories and stores to step up as well.” In one more step designed to address the issue, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has just announced a commitment to staffing port facilities on a 24-hour basis. Because of the backlog, more than 60 ships were seen idling offshore at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports last month, waiting to dock and have their cargo unloaded. In a statement, the White House has additionally announced its intention to work with various stakeholders across the supply chain for what is being described as a “90-day sprint” to the end of the year designed to troubleshoot problems along that chain. By Garry Boulard Work could begin soon on a project that could see the construction of up to nearly 11,000 new homes in southern Arizona.
Members of the Apache Junction City Council have given their unanimous approval to the building of a large master planned community proposed by D. H. Horton Incorporated of Arlington, Texas in an area popularly known as the Superstition Vistas. Horton was the successful $245 million bidder for the land in an auction conducted late last year by the Arizona State Land Department. Set to go up in the East Valley, on land bordered by Elliott Avenue and Meridian Drive, and just to the west of the Central Arizona Project Canal, the project will encompass nearly 2,800 acres that could eventually be called home to around 30,000 people. According to city documents, the project will comprise some 443,400 square feet of residential development and land that has now been rezoned from rural low density to master planned community. The project will also include up to 9 million square feet of commercial and industrial space. Long in the planning stage, the Superstition Vistas project has been billed as a “model for the 21st century,” some 35 miles to the east of Phoenix, and will see an emphasis on parks and open space. The project will also be built with an eye to observing Apache Junction’s dark sky requirements designed to limit light pollution in a desert city. A series of public input meetings have been conducted throughout the summer regarding the project. By Garry Boulard Work could begin in early 2023 on a nearly 40-mile highway widening project in southwestern New Mexico. With an estimated cost of nearly $144 million, the project would transform a two-lane throughway into a four-lane one, connecting the cities of Bayard and Deming. Plans to widen U.S. 180 have been explored for more than 30 years, but a new study, along with the New Mexico Department of Transportation, have finally determined the viability of what will likely be a three-phase project. That study was undertaken by the Albuquerque-based engineering firm Parametrix. Widening the route has also been identified as a priority in the transportation department’s Southwest Regional Transportation Plan. The current highway has 8-foot shoulders, with no passing lanes, and few intersections allowing for left-turn lanes. As envisioned, the project will likely include a 6-foot median and 6-foot shoulders. Those shoulders will be designed to accommodate bike traffic. Local officials say the widening will both lessen the likelihood of accidents on a high-volume route heavily used by trucks, while also serving as a catalyst for economic development. Environmental documentation and a preliminary design for the project is expected to be completed by early next year, with a phase 1 design development set to be finished next summer. Funds for the actual construction work have not yet been secured, but are expected to come out of both Santa Fe and Washington. By Garry Boulard Data compiled by the Center for Construction Research and Training continues to show a high resistance among construction workers to getting a covid vaccine. According to statistics compiled by the Silver Spring, Maryland-based group, less than 20% of workers in other industries have indicated that they are hesitant to get a vaccine. But that figure currently stands at 41.8% for construction workers. Even though that number has remained fairly steady throughout the summer, it is somewhat lower than the nearly 48% of construction workers this winter who expressed the same opinion. The center, which is a part of the larger Center to Protect Workers’ Rights, has also crunched numbers on a state-by-state basis showing that currently 53% of all construction workers in Arizona are vaccinated, along with 63% in Colorado. Just under 58% of construction workers in Texas are also now vaccinated. There were no available figures for New Mexico. While more than 50% of construction workers in the states of the East, South, and far West have been vaccinated, the numbers remain generally lower in the Midwest, with only 44.7% of Iowa construction workers thus far vaccinated and 48.3% in Ohio. The latest survey results also indicate that a distrust of the government was cited as the number one reason, with a 60% response rate, why many construction workers continue to resist getting a vaccine. Concerns that the vaccine might prove ineffective was cited by 30.4% of respondents, down from nearly 37% in early August. The numbers come as President Biden has issued an executive order mandating that all federal employees must be vaccinated, an order expected to impact at least 100 million people. By Garry Boulard Plans have been announced to bring back to life the first major shopping center in northeast El Paso. Located at 8500 Dyer Street, the Sunrise Shopping Center, built at a cost of $1 million, was familiar to residents from miles around due to the modernistic 12-story blue pylon decorating the front of the property. The center, once the home to an F.W. Woolworths store, as well as a Western Auto outlet and Gunning-Casteel drug store, fell on hard times more than a decade ago, and today has a just over 50% lease rate. Now a Houston-based developer has announced plans to revitalize the 187,000 square foot center, which is comprised of three buildings. Jerome Karam, chief executive officer of JMK5 Holdings LLC, has purchased the center, which sits on 72 acres, with the goal of extensively upgrading and modernizing the property. According to its website, JMK5 specializes in “developing, revitalizing, and giving new life” to properties and buildings “once deemed beyond repair.” The company earlier this year announced plans to update the Commodore on the Beach Hotel in Galveston, which was built in 1966, as well as the 30-year-old Mainland Crossing shopping center in Texas City. Karam has said that the Sunrise Shopping center epitomizes the kind of project his firm most likes to take on, calling it an added value shopping center that “needs a lot of tender loving care.” By Garry Boulard Facilities and sites comprising the Farmington Municipal Schools district may see a series of upgrades and renovations, depending upon the fate of an $8 million bond in the November election. Among the planned projects: some $135,000 in updated playground work, as well as the building of a shed for bikes, among other projects, for the Preschool East, located at 5840 Fortuna Drive. The Preschool West, at 301 N. Court Avenue, is in line for $17,000 in playground updates; with $250,000 for updated playground equipment and a possible new kindergarten space at the Animas Elementary School at 1612 N. Hutton Avenue. The Bluffview Elementary School at 1204 Camino Real will see a playground structure update, as well as renovated adult restrooms, at a bond cost of $630,000. New basketball courts and an updated bus loop at the Country Club Elementary School, located at 5300 Foothills Drive, will carry a $250,000 price tag. The largest individual bond project at $860,000 will see updated playground equipment, new fencing, a gutter upgrade, and the reconfiguring of cafeteria space at the Mesa Verde Elementary School, located at 3801 College Boulevard. By Garry Boulard Part of a months-long trend, roofing materials remain in short supply nationally, according to a survey just released by the National Roofing Contractors Association. Writing in its Industry Issue Update, the association notes that “manufacturers are reporting anticipated lead times for fulfilling newly placed orders for some materials and products of four months or more.” The publication adds that for large orders the lead times may be as long as 12 months. Contractors have been additionally hit by detrimental pricing, with some manufacturers basing their pricing at the time of shipping, rather than when an order is placed. “This puts roofing contractors in the position of not having actual material and product pricing at the time of offering a proposal or bid.” Also in shortage: glass mats used for asphalt shingles and the steel rods vital for the manufacture of fasteners. While the roofing shortage challenge is expected to continue well into 2022, notes the NRCA, so is the increase in prices first seen earlier this year. In a letter to Jennifer Granholm, Department of Energy Secretary, Reid Ribble, NRCA chief executive officer, said the roofing material supply chain challenge is “unparalleled in modern times and shows no indication of easing soon.” Ribble goes on to ask for federal help designed to increase both speed and capacity at the nation’s ports. “Providing urgently needed repairs to many homes, schools, hospitals, and other vital buildings in many parts of the nation depend on swift action of both the private and public sectors working together to address this emergency,” Ribble adds. By Garry Boulard Responding to a shifting Phoenix metro area population growth, a well-known Arizona developer is making plans to build two new shopping centers in Queen Creek, and a third in Peoria. Queen Creek is 37 miles to the southeast of Phoenix, while Peoria is 13 miles to the northeast of Phoenix. Both cities have seen a double-digit increases in their populations in the last decade. Tracking that growth, the Phoenix-based retail space developer Vestar has announced plans to build a 75,000 square foot shopping center in Queen Creek, to be called the Vineyard Towne Center, as well as a 300,000 retail space called Queen Creek Crossing. The Peoria project will be called the Shops at Lake Pleasant and will measure around 90,000 square feet. Work on the two Queen Creek projects is slated to begin by next spring, with the Peoria project set for construction sometime in the first quarter of 2022. The total building cost for all three shopping centers combined is an estimated $90 million. Specializing in the acquisition, management, and development of retail real estate, Vestar currently has a portfolio comprised of more than 30 million square feet in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Utah, and Washington. While California has seen the largest number of Vestar projects, the company currently has nearly two dozen up and running properties in Arizona and Colorado. All three of the company’s new projects in Queen Creek and Peoria are expected to be completed between late 2022 and early 2023. By Garry Boulard Significant new park, fire station, police station, and street construction will be in the offing if voters in Chandler, Arizona pass a series of bonds in November. Five bonds totaling nearly $273 million will appear on the ballot, with one of the largest, at just under $73 million, targeting the construction and upgrading of city parks and recreation facilities. Question number two will authorize $25.1 million to build and upgrade several fire stations; with a separate $55.1 million bond to go for the building and renovation of police stations across the city. Question number 4 calls for $85.7 million for a variety of street construction projects; while the final question will see $33.5 million used to build both city office buildings as well as performing arts facilities. The bond questions are the result of a citizens committee that met earlier this year to evaluate Chandler’s most pressing infrastructure needs before deciding on the 52 individual projects that will be funded by the bonds. The bond questions have won the backing of most of Chandler’s city leaders, including Mayor Kevin Hartke, who has said that passage of the bonds will “help shape the future of Chandler.” By Garry Boulard |
Get stories like these right to your inbox.
|