![]() A new shopping center may see construction later this year in east El Paso. The project, at the intersection of McRae Boulevard and Montwood Drive, will go up across from the sprawling Eastwood High School, which opened two years ago. The site for the new center is the long-time home of the Mount Hope Lutheran Church, which had been operational for more than 50 years but closed due to a declining membership last March. The sale of the property was finalized several months later, with demolition of the church beginning towards the end of last year. To be called the Shoppes in Eastridge, the new one-story shopping center will be made up of half a dozen buildings ranging in size from 3,600 to 5,000 square feet, with rear parking space. The project is currently being reviewed by the El Paso Planning Commission. It is thought that work on the new shopping center will launch by spring, with a rough completion date of the end of this year. The Mount Hope Lutheran Church, sitting on a 3-acre site, was built in 1970. By Garry Boulard
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![]() The green construction market worldwide is expected to have a dollar worth of $610.6 billion in the next 5 years. So says a new report issued by the Emergen Research of Vancouver, which contrasts the predicted 2027 numbers with where the industry was in 2019 when it had a market value of $264 billion. With a projected 11% increase globally, some 37% of the industry’s anticipated compound annual growth rate will be due to projects in North America, says Emergen’s Global Green Construction Market report, contributing to predicted annual growth rate of 11.4%. The market will also see greater increases in the nonresidential versus residential sector, although growth will more than double in both segments. Green construction means many things to many people but is generally projects that are built to be resource efficient and environmentally responsible, encompassing specific kinds of materials used in roofing, flooring, and insulation, among other things. The Emergen Research reports comes while the publication Green Building Elements is highlighting the top green building trends in the country, a list led by net zero energy buildings, prefabricated modular buildings, and climate-change ready buildings. That last category, according to the publication, entails contracting out climate experts brought in to assess the climate particulars of both an existing building as well as the site where new construction will take place. “The construction of climate-change-ready buildings will vary depending on what part of the country or world the building is in,” notes Green Building Elements. One long-standing trend that is additionally expected to see growth: green roofs. That segment alone, according to a new report issued by the New York-based company Reports and Data, is slated to expand by just under $3.8 billion by 2027. In 2017 voters in Denver approved an initiative requiring the creation of green roofs, or roofs with growing grass, bushes, and trees, on all new buildings in excess of 25,000 square feet. Other localities, such as San Francisco and Toronto, have passed laws mandating green roof installations on new buildings, while the District of Columbia has approved tax credits for those same installations. By Garry Boulard ![]() Plans have been proposed for the construction of a mixed-use project in downtown Colorado Springs that will include 131 residential units. The 7-story building will go up on a 27,700 square foot site at the northwest corner of S. Nevada Avenue and E. Cimarron Street, in a part of the city dominated by multi-story apartment complexes and one-story commercial structures. As planned, retail and restaurant space will make up around 6,300 square feet of the new structure’s glass-walled ground floor. The project is being developed by the Denver-based Narrate Companies, which specializes in the development of new and existing mixed-use and multi-family projects, primarily in Colorado and Oklahoma, with an emphasis on infill development. Typical Narrate projects range in size from 75 to 100 residential units. Colorado Springs has seen an explosion in new apartment construction in the last several years, with more than 600 new units built since 2016. Industry experts say the building of yet more units is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. The average rent in the city for a one-bedroom unit is currently around $1,500. That figure is above the state average, but well below the $1,900 being asked for similar-sized apartments in Denver. By Garry Boulard |
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