A long-standing Albuquerque program devoted to helping homeless people transition into healthier lives and situations is planning to build a campus expansion. Saranam LLC has offices and facilities at 1028 Eubank NE but wants to build an expansive campus on the west side of the city that will see the construction of 15 two-bedroom homes, and 10 four-bedroom homes. The two-bedroom homes will measure around 860 square feet, with the four-bedroom homes just under 1,300 square feet. According to the project’s site plans, the homes will be built in small clusters in various sections of the campus. As planned, the 3.5-acre campus will also include a family center, playgrounds, a community garden, and up to 13,000 square feet of open space. To that end, Saranam has received a substantial $1 million gift from ADC Limited, an Albuquerque-based security service, for the project. Saranam, which means “refuge” in Sanskrit, was launched in 2004 and to date has served around 150 families to not only get people out of homelessness, but to provide educational and intensive case management services. Saranam’s central purpose is to provide housing for those who don’t have it, with the idea that once that basic need is satisfied, most people can focus on such things as their educational and professional goals. If additional funding can be secured, the campus will be built next to the Mesa View United Methodist Church, west of the intersection of Montano Road NW and Coors Boulevard NW. By Garry Boulard
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One of the treasures of the Early 20th Century Commercial style of architecture will be the subject of an auction beginning on February 28. Located at 300 E. San Antonio Avenue, the seven-story Caples Building was originally constructed in 1909, with two floors added some 6 years later. During the first decade of the last century, the building played a historic role, with its upper floors serving as an office for future Mexican President Francisco Madero and visited by the famous revolutionary and military leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa. Measuring just under 56,000 square feet, the structure has been lauded by preservationists for being the first reinforced concrete structure built in El Paso. Put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the Caples Building is known for its brown brick exterior and Romanesque style windows. Named after businessman and former El Paso Mayor Richard Caples, the building was a vibrant hub of activity for decades with occupied offices on the upper floors and retail space on the ground level. In recent decades the building has been mostly vacant and suffering from neglect. Because of its condition, it has also been placed on the most endangered properties list by the group Preservation Texas. Currently listed with the real estate firm of KW Commercial of El Paso, the starting auction bid for the Caples Building is set at $700,000. By Garry Boulard A Pasig, Philippines-based fast food restaurant chain that has been all the rage in select markets in the U.S. is making plans for a major facility expansion. That restaurant, Jollibee, specializes in a branded meal called “chickenjoy,” which is its signature friend chicken meal, among other menu items. Founded in 1978, the company, with annual sales in excess of $140 million, is also popular for its Jolly Spaghetti, a Filipino sweet-style spaghetti. While the company, with its distinct happy bee logo, has more than 1,300 locations worldwide, to date it has less than sixty stores in the U.S. New outlets have been built and opened in primarily in California and along the East Coast. Reports have suggested that the Jollibee’s locations have particularly thrived in areas with large Filipino American populations. Now plans have been announced for the construction of up to 300 new locations in both the U.S. and Canada, all to be built over the course of the next two years. The average Jollibee’s location measures around 2,000 to 3,000 square feet, although last year the company opened a flagship store on Broadway in New York with more than 7,000 square feet on two levels. The company has not yet said where its new U.S. outlets will be built. By Garry Boulard Work is expected to begin later this spring on one of the biggest office tower projects in recent Denver history. What is being called 1900 Lawrence, will see the building of a 30-story structure that will include Class A office space on a block bordered by Lawrence Street to the north and Arapahoe Street to the south. The project, done with in conjunction with Riverside Investment & Development, which has offices in Denver, and the Chicago-based Convexity Properties, will feature a glass-walled building with a sleek, modernistic design, and eleven private entrances. Everything about the project is big, with 10- to 12-foot-high finished ceilings in a structure measuring 700,000 square feet. Plans for the structure also suggest the latest in technological wonders, including dual voice-data riser closets, Bluetooth-enabled access control, and a Telco point of entry. The building will also have two retail spaces on both ends of the structure, a spacious lobby and large entry plaza. First proposed in early 2000, plans for the building have slightly changed to now include a greater emphasize on natural daylight, low and/or no-touch wall features, and overall air quality. Additional amenities will see the building of conference room space, a tenant lounge, and fitness center. The project recently received around $242 million in construction financing from the Little Rock, Arkansas-based Bank OZK. If all goes well, work on the building is expected to be completed by early 2024. By Garry Boulard Michelle Lujan Grisham has come out squarely in favor of extensively upgrading an existing veterans’ home in Truth or Consequences that was originally built through the Works Progress Administration in 1936. In announcing her legislative wish list for the winter 2022 session of the state legislature, the New Mexican Governor said she would like to see the building of a “state of the art, independent assisted living facility.” The current one-story veterans’ home, located at 992 S. Broadway Street, has in recent years been plagued with a series of structural issues due to its age and use. Among those issues are poor ventilation, a lack of space, and restrooms that are not Americans with Disabilities Act compliant. Originally serving as the Carrie Tingley Hospital for Crippled Children, the building has belonged to the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services for the last 40 years. Although earlier reports indicated that roughly $59 million in state funds would be needed for the upgrading project, Lujan Grisham is asking for $60 million to build new living quarters and otherwise improve the existing facility. With that funding, said the Governor, “which we will leverage with an additional $60 million from the federal government,” New Mexico will be able to “build the kind of modern facility our veterans and their families deserve.” Lujan Grisham’s proposal is expected to win passage in a 30-day session scheduled to adjourn on February 17. By Garry Boulard Up to $26.5 billion in federal funding is being made available for bridge construction and upgrade projects across the country. The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced the launching of the new Bridge Replacement, Rehabilitation, Preservation, Protection, and Construction Program which will make available funding for the next 5 years. The program also includes $165 million for bridge projects located specifically on Tribal lands. Altogether, the funding is the largest federal investment in bridge construction since the passage of the Federal Highway Act of 1956. In announcing the funding, Stephanie Pollack, deputy administrator with the Federal Highway Administration, noted that “every state has bridges in poor condition and in need of repair, including bridges with weight restrictions that may force lengthy detours for travelers, school buses, first responders, or trucks carrying freight.” Pollack added that the funding, authorized through the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will particularly help to “modernize bridges to withstand the effects of climate change and to make them safer for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians.” The funding program will be managed under the auspices of the Federal Highway Administration, and will require states and localities to come up with 20% of the funding for any given project. It is thought that easily up to 15,000 highway bridge structures, out of a national total of 231,000 bridges, are in need of repair and upgrading. In some cases, say federal transportation officials, the bridges have so declined as to make it imperative to outright replace them. A report issued last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers noted that 42% of all of the nation’s bridges are at least 50 years old. The report additionally noted that more than 5% of all bridges in Colorado and New Mexico are regarded as “structurally deficient.” The worst numbers were reported in Rhode Island, where 22% of all bridges in in bad shape, and West Virginia, with 21.%. Arizona, Nevada, and Texas all scored before 2%. By Garry Boulard Popular and Growing Western Convenience Store to Be Part of New Colorado Springs Apartment Project1/19/2022 Work could begin later this spring on a nearly 350-unit apartment complex in Colorado Springs on a site that could also uniquely see the construction of a new convenience chain store. The project is set to go upon a currently vacant site near the intersection of E. Fountain Boulevard and S. Union Boulevard, and will belong to the company Fountain Valley Holdings, which has offices in Lehi, Utah. The Cheyenne View Apartments will feature 13 buildings, all with three stories, and also a neighborhood park. If all goes as planned, the new complex will be completed by the around mid-2024. The convenience store, meanwhile, will be branded as a Maverik. That brand is owned by FJ Management Incorporated, popularly known as the owner of the Flying J truck stop chain. The Maverik brand, with an expanding business plan, currently has nearly 400 locations throughout the West. Those stores generally measure around 2,500 to 4,000 square feet, with some locations nearing 5,000 square feet. Nearly half of the space in Maverik stores is given over to food offerings and both indoor and outdoor seating. The site selected for both the apartment complex and the Maverik store is on the southeast side of the city near the Valley Hi Golf Course and an upscale residential neighborhood. By Garry Boulard An unusual redevelopment offering is on the market in downtown Boulder with a three-building listing set at $11.1 million. The buildings are located between 1725 and 1743 Walnut Street, with the largest structure, at 1743 Walnut, measuring just over 10,000 square feet. That one-story office building was built in 1979. The second largest building, at 1725 Walnut, is also an office building, measuring around 7,200 square feet and built in 1979. The third structure at 1741 Walnut is categorized as a lodge and meeting hall, and comes in at around 3,360 square feet. What is described as a “portfolio opportunity” is being listed the real estate brokerage firm Colorado Group, also in Boulder. All three structures, on a less than one-acre site, are located several blocks to the north of the Boulder campus of the University of Colorado, in a part of the city that has seen a good deal of multi-story office construction in recent years. By Garry Boulard Anticipating that the demand for most construction projects will be on the upside in the months to come, contractors across the nation are feeling bullish about business prospects in 2022. So says a new report just issued by the Associated General Contractors of America noting that much of the current industry optimism “stems in part from the fact that the federal government has committed to increase investments in a broad range of infrastructure.” The report, Expecting Growth While Coping with the Lingering Impacts of the Pandemic, additionally notes that the new-found optimism “reflect the fact that demand for many types of private-sector projects, including health care and warehousing facilities, have grown as a result of the pandemic.” Done in conjunction with the payment systems company Sage, the report reveals that contractors are generally upbeat regarding the “available dollar value of projects to bid on in 2022,” feeling particularly hopeful when it comes to highway and bridge projects; as well as transit, rail, and airport work. The highest expectations are related to generally private-sector categories such as warehouses, clinics, testing facilities, and medical labs; followed by the multifamily residential sector. “The construction industry is in much better shape overall than a year ago,” says the report, “but there is wide variation among companies.” That means that while 52% of responding firms report that their current volume of business is up over early 2021, around 33% says things are pretty much the same compared to 12 months ago. Smaller contracting firms, experiencing a slower pace of recovery, are “generally less optimistic about the 2022 outlook.” Meanwhile, looking at matters regionally, 57% of firms in the South and 54% in the West said business as of late 2021 was up over late 2020. Those numbers were noticeably lower in the Midwest, with 50% of firms saying their volume of business was up, and only 40% in the Northeast. Despite the generally upbeat views, the issues of materials costs, supply chain challenges, and finding qualified workers continues to plague even the most optimistic contractor. The report notes that a huge 86% of respondents pointed to material costs as their top concern in 2022, followed by 79% who expressed worries about the supply chain; and 73% pointing to worker shortages. By Garry Boulard Work upgrading and enhancing the historic railroad district in Las Vegas, New Mexico is expected to begin this summer, partly due to a newly-announced grant from a state-level effort to revitalize downtown areas throughout New Mexico. The New Mexico Main Street program has announced that it is awarding $352,000 in grant funding for the project. The Las Vegas district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and includes any number of structures, whether they be hotels, banks, or office buildings, that were in some way a part of the vital Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that was in operation in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Las Vegas project is one of some thirteen revitalization projects receiving a total of $2.5 million in support from the Main Street program, in conjunction with the New Mexico Department of Economic Development. The largest award, at $473,600, is going for the Delores Huerta Gateway Park project in Bernalillo County’s South Valley. That funding will be used to redevelop a community gathering space, while also enhancing the La Familia Growers Market. Other large recipients include the $400,000 phase one and two completion of a Great Blocks program in Tucumcari; $320,000 for the Foch Street Great Blocks project in Truth or Consequence, a project beautifying the city’s historic hot springs district; and $270,900 for the first phase renovation of the Raton Train Depot in Raton. In announcing the latest round of awards, Daniel Gutierrez, director of the New Mexico Main Street program, said the funding, earlier approved by the state legislature, is designed to support “construction-ready projects from our pipeline and directly support economic growth, property renovation, business development and job creation in downtown districts.” By Garry Boulard |
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