A project that will see the construction of a unique combination of a health care facility, child care center, and express car wash, has been given a green light to proceed in San Tan Valley, Arizona.
Developer LDR-SWC Hunt Highway of Phoenix wants to build the project on a currently vacant 20-acre site at the southwest corner of W. Golf Club Drive and E. Hunt Highway. That intersection has in recent years seen the development and construction of new commercial space on the other corners, and is just several blocks away from new and growing suburban housing. As approved by both the San Tan Valley Planning and Zoning Commission, and now the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, the project will see the construction of a 6,500 square foot car wash, and two separate fast food outlets, one measuring 2,800 square feet, and the other 4,950 square feet. Two retail spaces will measure 7,200 square feet and 10,700 square feet; while space for a fitness center will come in at 34,000 square feet. Four other structures will be built at the site measuring between 15,000 and 16,000 square feet. A construction schedule for the project remains to be announced.
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A popular California hamburger chain is making plans to build a production facility and distribution center in Colorado.
That simple fact, in turn, may lead to the construction of up to 50 new hamburger outlets for the Irvine, California-based In-N-Out Burger company. With nearly 330 locations in the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, and Texas, In-N-Out is known for its “double-double” burger, made up of two hamburger patties and two slices of cheese. But because the company, which was founded in 1948, has always insisted on using only fresh food, it has required the existence of a production and distribution center no more than 300 miles away from any given restaurant. Now In-N-Out is in the planning stages for building just such a facility in Colorado Springs, inside the 153-acre Victory Ridge commercial complex on the north side of the city. That location will make it possible for In-N-Out to build new restaurant outlets in such cities as Aurora, Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins, and Grand Junction. The chain has recently been on an expansion spree. After building a distribution center in Dallas in 2011, it opened 36 new locations in Texas over a span of the next 5 years. In-N-Out restaurants typically measure around 3,800 square feet on 45,000 square-foot lots. The outlets have indoor dining spaces for up to 75 people. A date for when work will begin on the Colorado Springs production and distribution center, as well as the new In-n-Out locations in Colorado, remains to be announced. Plans remain underway for the $255 million transformation of El Paso Community College’s five existing campuses.
The two-year school, with administrative offices located at 9050 Viscount Boulevard on the east side of the city, officially launched its first classes in leased space at Fort Bliss in 1972. Not until the late 1970s did EPCC build its first two campuses: Valle Verde in southeast El Paso, and Transmountain on the northeast side. The school has since added three more campuses. In July, EPCC’s Board of Trustees voted to proceed with the design of the Rio Grande campus upgrade in central El Paso as part of a larger two-phase master plan to build new facilities at all of the school’s campuses. But a start date for work on that particular campus may be delayed due to the fact that a portion of the school’s property is made up of an historic overlay populated by one Queen Anne style house built more than a century ago, and a brick wall that fronted a similar since-demolished structure. Members of the El Paso Historic Landmark Commission have now voted in favor of delaying approval of the Rio Grande campus work in the hope that what remains of the historic property can be incorporated into the facility design. It is thought that EPCC will come up with a new or amended design for the campus that will satisfy the commission’s recommendations. Work could begin early next year on the construction of a boutique self-storage facility on the northwest side of Scottsdale.
The project will go up at the intersection of E. Shea Boulevard and N. 116th Street on a currently vacant 3.7-acre site. A rezoning for the site, in order to make the project possible, has been approved by both the city’s planning commission as well as the Scottsdale City Council. According to city documents, the two-story facility, which will be owned by the Scottsdale-based Bell Group Self-Storage, will be designed to blend in with the surrounding Arizona terrain. “Shapes, colors, textures, and materials selected for the project are both consistent and aesthetically compatible with neighboring architecture and landscape design,” the document says. According to industry statistics, 8 percent of the country’s population currently uses a storage facility, up from 3 percent more than three decades ago. Altogether, there are more than 54,000 such facilities nationally. Plans are in the works for the construction of a 60,000 square-foot behavioral health facility that will go up on the southwest side of the town of Gilbert, Arizona.
The Louisville, Kentucky-based Springstone Incorporated has said that the facility, to be called Copper Springs, will have enough space for 72 beds. The facility will additionally provide both inpatient and outpatient services. It will be built on a site near the intersection of S. Rome Street and E. Melrose Street, and will also include a basketball court, outdoor activity space, and several outdoor pavilions. Springstone had previously proposed two different sites for the facility, both of which were withdrawn in the face of opposition due to their being either too close to a school or a neighborhood. Despite that withdrawal, Gilbert officials have said that the need for a modern behavioral health center remains, especially as the town’s population has jumped from just over 106,000 in the year 2000 to around 237,000 today. Springstone, which has more than a dozen behavioral health centers nationally, opened up an additional facility in Avondale, Arizona in the spring of 2016. That one-story, 53,000 square-foot structure houses 72 beds. Additional plans for the Gilbert project are expected to be revealed before the town’s planning commission later this month. A large swath of land, some 12 miles to the southwest of downtown Santa Fe, may soon be redeveloped for possible housing and retail space.
The Santa Fe Downs race track was opened at a cost of $5.5 million in the early summer of 1971 and operated with varying degrees of success under two different owners before being sold to the Pueblo of Pojoaque. The site since then, with its 1-mile oval track now sprouting weeds, has been largely underused, occasionally hosting car shows, concerts, sporting events, and even a flea market. Pueblo of Pojoaque officials say they would like to redevelop the property at 27475 W. Frontage Road, although specific plans for the 320-acre site have not been announced. On the day of its opening, more than 11,700 people attended the track, which was hailed for its 10,000-seat grandstand, large number of betting windows, and sunken paddock where quarter horses and thoroughbreds were regularly paraded. Current structures at the site, including the horse barns and grandstand, will be demolished as part of the redevelopment plan. When that plan will be announced is not yet known. In a move to accommodate a double-digit growth in passengers, as well as the addition of several new flight routes, work could begin next year on a long-planned upgrading and expansion of the Denver International Airport.
The estimated $1.5 billion project will see the addition of 39 gates to be built over a period of three years. According to plans approved last month by members of the Denver City Council, twelve new gates are set for construction at the airport’s Concourse A; four at Concourse B; and ten at Concourse C. Those gates, in keeping with DIA’s original expansion plans, will be built to the east and west side of the airport. The airport, which is the sixth largest of its kind in the nation in terms of passengers, currently has 107 operating gates. Opened in 1995 at a cost of $3.2 billion, the Denver airport was designed to serve, at the most, 50 million passengers. That number, according to City of Denver statistics, is now up to 58 million, and is expected to surpass the 80 million mark in the next decade. That future growth will not only be due to the airport’s centralized location in the West, but also its addition of new routes: it has, this year, announced flights direct to both London and Paris. The $1.5 billion work will also include $300 million to improve taxiways and other airside facilities and $100 million to upgrade the extensive real estate around the airport. A one-story, 30,000 square-foot structure on the new Oro Valley campus of the University of Arizona may soon be renovated and upgraded to make way for classrooms, veterinary operating suites, and offices.
Members of the Arizona Board of Regents have voted to give their approval to an $8 million renovation of the structure at 1580 E. Hanley Boulevard. That building, which was put up in 1987, sits on a 4.6-acre site that school officials have earlier said may be used to accommodate an expansion of the veterinary program. The program marks UA’s first foray into the Oro Valley area, which is 10 miles to the north of the school’s main campus in Tucson. What is being described as a veterinary medicine program will be designed in part to supply a shortage in large animal veterinary care in Arizona. Work on the building is expected to start next summer with a July 2019 completion date. A 1930s Art Deco landmark, whose penthouse green Spanish tile roof still stands out in the El Paso skyline, could see an extensive renovation beginning in early 2018.
Members of El Paso’s Historic Landmarks Commission, following a similar decision made in mid-November by the Texas Historical Commission, have given their approval to the $78 million renovation of the 19-story Plaza Hotel at the corner of E. Mills Road and S. Oregon Street. Paul Foster, chairman of the board of the El Paso-based Western Refining, purchased the 87 year-old steel framed building nearly a decade ago with plans to turn it into a four-star boutique hotel. Foster has committed himself to maintaining the integrity of a structure that was designed by well-known architect Henry C. Trost and opened as a Hilton Hotel in the fall of 1930. Plans call for an updating of all of the structure’s electrical and plumbing systems, windows and window frames above the third floor, and restoration of the three rooftop terraces located on the Plaza Hotel’s penthouse level. The project will include the building of some 7,600 square feet of function space and 6,500 square feet of bar and restaurant space. According to reports, the restoration project may be eligible for just under $28 million in both city and state tax incentives. Built for $4.9 million, the hotel, visited by more than 10,000 people on the day it was officially opened, was described by hotelier Conrad Hilton as the “zenith of our aspirations.” Hilton’s first high-rise was also seen as a very visible vote of confidence in El Paso’s future during the depths of the Great Depression. Work is slated to begin on the renovation of one of the most well-used and popular libraries in El Paso.
The staff has moved out of the Richard Burges Library at 9600 Dyer Street, on the north side of the city, in preparation for what will be a $1.4 million project. “We are just packing things up and getting moved out,” says Jack Galindo, marketing and customer relations coordinator with the El Paso Public Library. “And once we are completely out of the building, then we will turn it over to the contractors,” he adds. The renovation, which will see the construction of a new study room and expansion of a specified teen area, is being paid for through El Paso’s 2012 Quality of Life Bonds. It also represents the second largest city library project funded so far by those bonds. The largest was the $2.1 million renovation of the Irving Schwartz Branch at 1865 Dean Martin Drive, which ultimately added 5,000 square feet to a facility built in 1991. That project saw an updating of the building’s technology, along with the construction of a 25-station computer classroom, and new dedicated children and teen space. Also included in the Irving Schwartz project was the creation of collaborative space, a building trend that is being seen in both new and existing libraries across the country, and a meeting room that essentially doubled the previous capacity size. “The Irving Schwartz project was our biggest and took about a year altogether to complete,” reports Mark Pumphrey, interim director of the El Paso Public Library system. “Because the Schwartz and Burges projects are the biggest bond projects, the plan was always to do them first,” says Pumphrey. Both libraries are located on the growing northeast side of El Paso, and are among the busiest in a larger system that today encompasses a dozen individual libraries serving anywhere from 1.8 to 2 million visitors annually. Smaller projects will see the circulation areas expanded at both the Judge S. Marquez Library at 610 N. Yarbrough Drive on the east side of the city; and the Sergio Troncoso Library at 9321 Alameda Avenue, in southeast El Paso. The Troncoso Library will also include the addition of a new parking lot. “Each one of our twelve branches over the course of the Quality of Life bond is going to see some kind of renovation,” continues Pumphrey. The work at the Richard Burges Library, in a structure that was originally completed in 1966 as a 70,000 square foot Sears department store, will also include building out more space for a technology lab, quiet areas, meeting rooms, and a Friends of the Library bookstore. “There will be a major overhaul inside, but the exterior of the building is not going to change,” says Galindo, who adds “We’ll be putting in a new dedicated children’s space with a new entry area where the children can walk in.” The project will also include a horseshoe-shaped glass public art piece by noted El Paso artist Hal Marcus. “It’s children looking at computers, children looking through periscopes and microscopes, kind of scientific,” says Marcus of the subject matter of a work he has already completed. That work will not be publicly unveiled until the library renovation is completed. “It also has a solar system in it, and children playing, children reading,” continues Marcus. “Also because of the locale, it has some of the mountains and wildlife—it’s really looking at the world from a child’s perspective.” In fact, the new children’s space, says Galindo, is being designed so that it is “inviting for both the children and their families. It’s going to look like an outdoor setting, with even the constructed design of a tree inside the building.” Pumphrey says the work on the Burges Library will take about a year. “That’s according to what the engineers have told us,” he remarks. “But they have also said that it could be completed in as little as eight to ten months.” With a rapidly expanding metro base, the El Paso library system, founded in 1894, is one of the oldest in the West, and additionally provides services to the residents of nearby Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and Chaparral, New Mexico. |
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