The product of a new partnership, plans have been announced for the construction of a 73,000 square foot building that will house continuing behavioral health care patients on the growing east side of Scottsdale. The new facility comes as the Scottsdale-based HonorHealth, a non-profit health care system with five hospitals in Arizona, announces that it has entered into a partnership with Universal Health Services. Based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Universal Health Services is one of the largest providers of healthcare in the country. As planned, the two-story center, which will include up to 120 beds, will be built on currently vacant space at 9160 E. Horseshoe Road. Upon opening, the center will be designed to offer behavioral treatment care for everyone from adolescents to adults and seniors, with services available on a round-the-clock basis. “We see the importance of making significant investment to provide treatment for patients with behavioral health needs and substance use disorders in our community,” Todd LaPorte, the chief executive officer of HonorHealth, said in a statement explaining the mission of the new center. Work is expected to begin on the $39 million facility early next year, with a completion date of around mid-2021. The growing HonorHealth company, which was founded in 1962, began work late last year on what will be its sixth hospital, a 210,000 square foot facility in north Phoenix that is expected to open next fall. By Garry Boulard
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What will be the largest solar-charged battery facility in Arizona - and one of the largest in the entire nation - is set for construction just south of the city of Buckeye. The Salt River Project utility company intends to build the Sonoran Energy Center as part of a plan announced late last year to add 1,000 megawatts of solar to its energy supply by the year 2025. The project will consist of two new solar energy and battery storage plants set for the rural Rainbow Valley. Upon completion, the plants will be capable of providing the energy needs for up to 100,000 homes. The idea behind the venture is for the Salt River Project to be able to provide a source of solar power when it is most needed. The utility company, based in Tempe, serves nearly all of the Phoenix metropolitan area. In a statement, Mike Hummel, chief executive officer with SRP, said that the new solar and storage facilities will allow the utility company to “meet its summer peak demand, reduce carbon emissions, and provide clean energy to our customers while optimizing energy output using state of the art battery technology.” Work on the new facilities is expected to begin by at least next year, with the facilities becoming fully operational in the summer of 2023. By Garry Boulard Contractors building new apartment complexes of all sizes may increasingly be expected to also build dog parks and on-site business centers, according to a just-released industry survey. That survey, conducted jointly by the Washington-based National Multifamily Housing Council and Kingsley Associates of Atlanta, notes that more renters are telecommuting and working in their own apartments, a factor that may be driving the desire for on-site business centers. Kingsley Associates is a real estate research and consulting firm. Surveying more than 372,000 renters, the 2020 Apartment Residents Preference Report also indicated some support for their complexes offering voice-operated technology, with more than a third saying they were already using such technology. More than one third of the responding renters said they were pet owners, with over half of that number having a dog. Of this group, which is willing to pay a renter’s fee of just over $30 a month to have a pet, more than half said they want their apartment complexes to offer not just a defined park for their dogs, but also dog-washing stations. While respondents were generally enthusiastic about new technology apartment offerings, they will only go so far. But on the question of would-be renters touring a property only online, “We found that the majority of renters still prefer an in-person touch with a community representative,” said Rick Haughey, technology initiatives vice-president with the National Multifamily Housing Council. By Garry Boulard An educational center that is a part of the Dona Ana Community College system in the city of Anthony may soon see the construction of a new classroom and lab facility. The Gadsden Center is located at 1700 E. Ohara Road, roughly 27 miles to the south of DACC’s main Las Cruces campus. The center offers courses for freshmen and sophomores in technical, development, and general education, and works in conjunction with the Gadsden Independent School District. Now, because Dona Ana County voters approved by 71 percent a new facilities bond, plans are in the works for the construction of a $3 million addition to the Gadsden Center. That addition will measure around 15,800 square feet, housing two classrooms and two labs. The voter-approved $16 million bond will also pay for the $3.9 million construction of a new building for DACC’s creative media technology program inside the Arrowhead Research Park in Las Cruces. That new 15,300 square foot facility will house programs centered on computer animation, film, and digital video, among other disciplines. Additional bond-funded projects include a $4 million IT upgrading at all of DACC’s campuses, as well as $1.4 million in facility security and safety enhancements on those same campuses. Thanking voters for their overwhelming support of the new bond, Dona Ana Community College President Monica Torres said the planned projects will make it possible for the school to “continue to offer a wide range of educational opportunities for citizens of our county.” By Garry Boulard A move to build a modern $100 million soccer stadium in Albuquerque is gaining traction. The Albuquerque-based New Mexico United soccer team, which became a part of the United Soccer League in the summer of 2018, has proven wildly popular in the metro area, attracting on average around 12,600 spectators. Although the team has for the most part played at the city’s Isotopes Park, team officials and fans have for months been advancing the idea of building a new stadium that could house as many as 18,000 seats. Now, members of the New Mexico State Legislature’s Economic and Rural Development Committee have heard a presentation by New Mexico United chief executive officer Peter Trevisani, who argued that the simple fact of the Albuquerque soccer games being so well attended is argument enough for building a stadium. Noting the 12,600 average turnout, Trevisani said, “That’s better than the hockey teams in New York and Canada.” Trevisani also noted that a stadium partly built with state funds would guarantee not only an annual season of 30 soccer games, but also “maybe other teams like a women’s professional team, other events, and as a cultural center it could be something that’s open every day with restaurants and bars.” Hopes are currently resting on the Legislature approving a $30 million capital outlay in the coming winter session for the stadium project. By Garry Boulard The recently-concluded fiscal year 2019 continues to show a widening shortfall between federal government outlays and revenues, notes a new report issued by the Congressional Budget Office. In its Summary for Fiscal Year 2019, the CBO notes that the deficit for the fiscal year ending on September 30 amounted to $984 billion. That figure is up by $205 billion over fiscal year 2018. In fact, according to the CBO, the national deficit has steadfastly increased every year since fiscal year 2014, when it stood at $442 billion. During that same period of time, outlays have jumped from $3.5 trillion to more than $4.4 trillion for the most recent fiscal year. Despite the increased shortfall, notes the report, income taxes withheld from employee paychecks increased by more than $3 billion, with receipts from payroll social insurance taxes up by $72 billion, and corporate income taxes increased by $26 billion. At the same time, spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, identified in the report as the “three largest entitlement programs,” rose respectively by $56 billion, $39 billion, and $20 billion. “Combined outlays for the three programs exceeded $2 trillion for the first time,” notes the report, “equal to 47 percent of federal spending and 9.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 2019.” Department of Defense spending additionally rose by $48 billion, “increasing for the third consecutive year.” In this category, operation and maintenance, research and development, procurement, and military personnel spending were all up. Continues the report: “As was true in both 2017 and 2018, growth in spending by the Air Force was the fastest (10 percent), with growth for the Navy (7 percent) and the Army (6 percent) somewhat slower.” In looking at the latest numbers, Bloomberg reports new concerns that “President Donald Trump’s budget plans will lead to an acceleration in the national debt.” Notes the Washington Examiner: “The federal budget deficit is big by historical standards, and federal debt is expected to rise significantly in the years ahead, to the largest size relative to the economy since World War II.” By Garry Boulard In a section of Colorado that has long supported live theater, plans are underway for the construction of a new theater that will house up to 800 seats.
The two-story project will go up on an empty lot in midtown Fort Collins in the 400 block of S. Mason Street, and will include a massive glass-walled lobby, and two upper floor outdoor decks. The project will belong to the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, which is currently located in nearby Johnstown. Design plans for what is being called the Boardwalk by Candlelight have already been submitted to the City of Fort Collins, with hopes that work on the new theater could launch sometime next spring. As proposed, the new theater will also be the home to an acting, dancing, and singing school called The Academy by Diva Bee Productions. If all goes according to plans, the new $10 million theater will be completed and open for business in the summer of 2021. The long-standing Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown, which houses up to 350 seats, was built in 2008 at a cost of $6.2 million and every year stages up to half a dozen Broadway-caliber musical plays. By Garry Boulard An upgrading and possible renovation of a modernistic downtown El Paso structure built in 1965 is on the verge of receiving significant city backing. The multi-story building is located at 300 E. Main Street, and is attached via a garage to Hotel Indigo, which itself underwent an extensive renovation four years ago. The Irving, Texas-based Summit Investment Group, which specializes in hotel acquisition and development projects, is signing an economic development program agreement with the City of El Paso designed to repurpose the structure. According to city documents, the 220,000 square foot structure, which for decades served primarily as office space for lawyers, businesses, and government agencies, will be redeveloped as a mixed-use structure, with ground floor retail, offices, co-working spaces, and event space. The project will also see the building on its second to thirteenth floors of eighty multi-family residential units. Altogether, the building’s redevelopment, called “Project Trinity,” is expected to cost at least $12 million. Classified as a Transit Oriented Development, the project is in line to receive around $3.2 million in city economic incentives. By Garry Boulard Up to $900 million in federal funds are coming out of Washington for a large variety of new transportation infrastructure projects in the states. In a statement, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said her department was awarding Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development grants in order to “repair, rebuild, and revitalize significant infrastructure projects across the country.” Arizona is receiving $15.3 million for an infrastructure improvement project at the Inland Port Arizona, a large industrial park located on the south side of the city of Coolidge. The state is also getting $24 million in BUILD funding for the north side rail expansion at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Colorado has secured $25 million for the building of an exchange between Interstate 70 and Picadilly Road in Aurora, a project that will see the widening and lengthening of the already-busy Picadilly Road. New Mexico, meanwhile, is slated to receive $12.5 million for a safety and resiliency project along US Route 285 in Santa Fe. That route between the city of Loving, New Mexico and the Texas border in the Permian Basin is used heavily by oil and gas transport vehicles. Because of that usage, sections of the route have been subject to sinkholes, while the general infrastructure of the road has declined. In a statement upon the awarding of the BUILD grants, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich said, “We need to ensure the highway is safe for heavy work vehicles and for local residents who rely on the road to access employment, education, and emergency services.” BUILD grants not only particularly target transportation infrastructure projects, they also place an emphasis on projects with a high degree of innovative and sustainable elements. By Garry Boulard Proposals for the redevelopment of the former home of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design are soon expected to be made public by the City of Santa Fe. That 64-acre downtown site has been the subject of great interest on the part of developers and investors interested in how the property may be transformed, ever since the school closed its doors in the spring of 2018. A series of public input meetings have been held regarding the future of the property, as well as smaller and more intense sessions with stakeholders studying the site’s potential for providing at least 1,000 affordable housing units. Last year, the city’s Economic Development Department released its Midtown Campus Project Final Report, a document emphasizing environmental and sustainable priorities at the site and calling for green building features and the creation of biking and walking paths that would connect with the surrounding neighborhood. While there has been talk of several structures on the campus eventually being torn down, two structures will most likely remain intact: the Fogelson Library and the Greer Garson Theater Center. Other proposals have presented the creation of both new office and retail space on the campus, with perhaps the construction at some point of a hotel. By Garry Boulard |
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