One of the most popular big box tech-chains of the 1980s and 90s has announced plans to return to the retail world with a series of in-line outlets.
Launched in 1984, Circuit City evolved into a huge electronics-oriented department store network with nearly 600 stores nationally. Those stores were primarily clustered in the Midwest and along the West coast, but were also up and running in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. A series of business decisions, including the shedding of its appliance offerings beginning in 2002, led to Circuit City’s decline. In 2008 the chain, with $2.3 billion in debts, declared bankruptcy. Now the Richmond, Virginia-based company says it will soon announce its blueprint for bringing the Circuit City brand back, with an emphasis on a variety of computer and wireless phone offerings. How many new stores the company will build, and what size the stores will be, remains to be seen. Previous Circuit City outlets measured around 30,000 square feet, with some large as 40,000 square feet. By Garry Boulard
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![]() In the wake of a successful $50 million bond election, an oversight committee is being formed in Las Cruces to prioritize upcoming school facility construction and renovation projects. Passed with a sweeping 89 percent of the vote, the bond was promoted by Las Cruces Public Schools officials as a way for the district to keep up with facility needs in response to a growing enrollment. That enrollment has seen the number of students in the district increase from around 16,000 in the early 1990s to nearly 25,000 today, reflecting a larger Las Cruces population jump of 101,000 from around 57,000 in 1990. The largest items to be funded by the bond include the $7 million building of a new classroom wing and multi-purpose room at Fairacres Elementary School; and $6 million for the remodeling of classroom space and the building of a new multi-purpose room at Hillrise Elementary. Up to $2.2 million is targeted for the remodeling of offices and the construction of a new front security entrance at MacArthur Elementary School; while $2 million will go for the construction of one multi-purpose room and the remodeling of another at Desert Hills Elementary School. The Lynn Middle School is expected to see $2 million in new heating and cooling system installation, with Americans with Disabilities compliance work taking place where needed across the district. LCPS officials say the various work projects will be phased in over the next 4 years. An LCPS statement after the election paid tribute to voter support, which, it said, ensures that “students, teachers, and staff have safe and modern facilities, so their primary focus can remain on teaching and learning.” By Garry Boulard ![]() John Freisinger describes it as the “first half of the first phase.” “The idea is that we are introducing students with ideas and helping them pursue those ideas,” Freisinger says of the new Lobo Rainforest student residence hall on Innovate ABQ’s site which is seeing more than 100 Navajo students moving into the 159,000 square foot structure. “I think the most significant thing about all of this, and maybe this is sort of a New Mexico point of view, is the intentionality toward diversity on our campus,” says Freisinger, who last September was named as the new president and executive director of Innovate ABQ. “This represents a real reaching out to what I would call the overlooked or traditionally underserved communities,” Freisinger continues, of the Navajo presence at Innovate ABQ. “And this is what we want to see,” he adds, “access for everyone, and attention paid to those populations which might be referred to as ‘at risk.’” The completion of the six-story Lobo Rainforest structure was realized just as Freisinger was signing on with Innovate ABQ itself. “I think my background alights with the project’s goals,” says Freisinger of the downtown Albuquerque space that has been several years in the making and is the result of an unprecedented partnership between the City of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, the University of New Mexico, and the Nusenda Credit Union. In fact, the Navajo student move-in is the result of yet another partnership, this one between UNM and the Navajo Nation providing residence space in 59 two-bedroom apartment-style units. The former president of Lockheed Martin’s Technology Ventures Corporation, Freisinger brings to Innovate ABQ a defined entrepreneurial spirit that he says goes well beyond simply managing a valuable and highly visible chunk of Albuquerque land. “This project has to be imagined as more than just real estate,” says Freisinger. “It really has to be a place where entrepreneurs and small businesses and people with the entrepreneurial mindset come together and grow and thrive and attract companies that want to be around those types of people.” “And that is really my background,” continues Freisinger, “trying to grow companies that have high growth potential and can attract capital and inspire imagination.” “I think I bring a non-traditional viewpoint to the project, and that’s what Innovate ABQ is supposed to be about anyway,” says Freisinger. Undoubtedly the most iconic structure on the Innovate ABQ site at the corner of Broadway Boulevard and Central Avenue is the Old First Baptist Church, which was built in the early 1930s and whose congregation moved to another location in Albuquerque in 2009. “The building itself is actually three buildings,” says Freisinger, who notes that the sanctuary portion of the complex is “exactly what you would think it would be, with a raised platform and immersion space, plus rows and rows of seating and a mezzanine.” “It’s a big open space,” he says. What to do with that space, and the building itself, has challenged Innovate ABQ officials almost from the start. “There are some plans for the structure that haven’t been formalized yet,” says Freisinger, also noting that to the rear of the famous church is an office tower, and adjacent to that is what is known as the education wing of the complex. “We want to develop each of those three entities, each of which will have a specific purpose,” Freisinger says. The sanctuary itself could end up being a combination of community and retail space, while the education wing may serve as a “materials science, bioscience incubator space.” “We want to keep the character of the sanctuary, and that is probably our most difficult part,” says Freisinger. “The church itself does not have a historical designation, but it is our intent to keep the integrity of that building, primarily because it is so iconic for Albuquerque.” Contemplating the larger Innovate ABQ space, which was once, behind the church, an empty parking lot stretching to Tijeras Avenue NE, Freisinger says “As a community we have always held out the hope that we could imagine that space as something that is both reflective of our past, but also helps us create a vibrant future.” While the work on the site has been visible to anyone driving by, Freisinger cautions that much remains to be done. “There are four planned phases for this project,” he says. “We refer to where we are right now as Phase 1 B.” By Garry Boulard By any measure, the vote was close: by a less than 1 percent margin, voters in the northeast Colorado town of Yuma defeated a $17 million bond in 2016 designed to fund school construction and upgrading projects.
Now members of the Yuma School District-1 school board are contemplating presenting a new ballot question this November that would call for a smaller bond of around $12 million for similar building and upkeep work. The bond would specifically pay for an expansion to the district’s 30 year-old Yuma High School, an expansion that would allow for new office space and classrooms for a career technical education center. The district is expected to conduct a series of public input meetings in upcoming months to discuss the bond proposal. Members of the school board will most likely decide by early summer whether to place the proposal on this November’s ballot. With a population of almost 3,600 people, Yuma has an economy largely dominated by the agricultural industry and oil and gas extraction. By Garry Boulard State budgets across the country are showing some of their most stable numbers since the last years of the Great Recession in 2010 and 2011.
That, according to a report issued by the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures, means that states in fiscal year 2018 will have more money to spend in such areas as education and corrections, both of which could include facility construction projects. According to the report, State Budget Actions: FY 2018, most states in recent years have experienced a “slow and steady rebound in state revenue.” For 2018, says the report, “States anticipate that trend to continue with average projected general fund growth of 3.9 percent.” In Arizona, the growth rate from fiscal year 2017 was 3.2 percent. Colorado saw a 7.5 percent increase, while New Mexico’s revenues decreased by 2.8 percent, due to a decline in oil revenues. But the report also categorizes New Mexico as one of a small handful of states that in 2018 will see increased oil and gas severance tax revenue. The report forecasts a 3.4 percent increase this year in education spending in Arizona, an 8.9 percent jump in Colorado, and 0.5 percent increase in New Mexico. Spending on corrections in Arizona is slated to go up by 2.0 percent this fiscal year. The increase in Colorado is forecast at 2.6 percent, with New Mexico seeing a 1.2 percent increase. The NCSL forecast specifically notes that while Arizona’s budget is balanced, it has “comparatively little margin for error if revenues come in significantly below forecasts or if supplemental appropriations are required.” In Colorado, the report says “the general fund is expected to have enough resources to fully fund the enacted budget,” while revenue in New Mexico “appears to be tracking up as the oil and gas industry recovers from its recent downturn with positive, albeit slow, economic growth.” The National Conference of State Legislatures is a non-governmental group dedicated to serving members and staffs of state legislatures across the country. By Garry Boulard ![]() Voters in Santa Fe have overwhelmingly approved a $17 million general obligation bond that will fund construction of a new building for a popular automotive maintenance and repair program at Santa Fe Community College. The bond will also fund upgrading and renovation work to the school’s William C. Witter Fitness Center. The community college bond passed with 77 percent of the vote. In the same election, voters by a 73 to 27 percent margin approved a two-mill levy for the Santa Fe Public Schools that will raise $11.5 million every year for the next six years to pay for a variety of upkeep and renovation projects in the district’s thirty schools. The community college bond will result in the construction of a 17,000 square foot structure designed to replace an existing 2,000 square foot garage that SFCC officials said was not up to National Automotive Technician’s Education Foundation standards. The new automotive center will house classrooms and a customized training center. Plans for the new facility also include the building of thick concrete slabs needed to support heavy equipment, and an EPA-approved building exhaust system. Work on the Witter Fitness Center will include an exterior and interior facelift, an upgrade of the building’s utility equipment, new gym seating and flooring, and repairs to two swimming pools. In a post-election victory statement Cecilia Cervantes, SFCC interim president, said the school was “inspired to move forward with our bond projects, which will bolster the education of tens of thousands of local community college students annually.” By Garry Boulard Work could begin late this spring on a new multi-use $15 million indoor sports center on the Tucson campus of the University of Arizona.
The 65 foot-tall structure will be built primarily to provide a cool practice environment for the Arizona Wildcats football team and other athletic squads. UA officials have noted that in a part of the country where the temperatures in the summer reach an average of 98 degrees, with highs of around 110, the climate-controlled facility will prove to be both a welcome relief to the school’s athletes and an attractive recruiting tool. Approved by the Arizona Board of Regents last fall, the new facility, will also include space for tailgate functions, as well as a beer garden. The center is being designed by the Tucson-based BWS Architects, which has extensive experience in school facility projects. A final design plan for the center, the construction of which is expected to be completed in early 2019, has not yet been decided on. By Garry Boulard New residential construction, even in the face of continued labor shortages, is expected to see a healthy 4 percent increase lasting until early 2019.
That is the conclusion of a report just released by the American Institute of Architects, which also notes that the industry remains additionally challenged by the increased costs of materials. According to the AIA’s Consensus Construction Forecast, the strongest non-residential building sector in 2018 will be in office space, which is slated to see a 4.6 percent increase. Retail and hotel constriction will follow, with a 4.4 percent and 4.1 percent increase respectively. Within the institutional sector, the AIA report predicts a 4 percent increase in both education and healthcare facility construction nationally, followed by a public safety facility construction increase of 3.6 percent. The only forecast decrease in this sector comes with religious facility construction, which is expected to be down this year by 1.1 percent. The report, compiled by AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, adds: “Even eight and a half years into this current national economic cycle, the U.S. economy remains on solid footings.” But, it adds that in 2019 “the major commercial sectors will likely see slower growth, while industrial, healthcare, and educational facilities are expected to see spending gains of 4 percent or more.” By Garry Boulard ![]() A new hangar designed especially for assembling and testing payloads may be going up at the 18,000-acre Spaceport America site 55 miles north of Las Cruces. Members of the New Mexico House of Representatives, following the lead of the House Appropriations Committee, have given their approval to a $6.3 billion state budget that includes $10 million especially to build the new hangar. The budget still needs to win the approval of the full Senate. According to the bill passed by the House, the $10 million will go for the “planning and construction of an aerospace satellite testing and development hangar” at the Spaceport. But the appropriation is contingent upon the New Mexico Spaceport Authority “contracting with a vendor specializing in advanced aerospace products and technologies to use the hangar.” Construction of the larger Spaceport America site started in the spring of 2006 and was completed 6 years later at a cost of around $209 million. The site today includes the offices for both the Spaceport Authority as well as the spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, in addition to a 47,000 square foot hangar for storing spaceplanes. By Garry Boulard Millions of dollars in annual subsidies for rural Colorado telephone lines would be phased out, with that money instead being used for building rural broadband, if a bill in the Colorado State Legislature wins final approval.
According to a report issued by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s Office of Information Technology, some 23 percent of Colorado residents currently lack access to broadband technology. That lack is particularly great in large rural swaths of Colorado in both the southeast and northwest corners of the state. Now, a bill being sponsored by Senators Don Coram and Johnny Sonnenberg would move dollars from what is called the High Cost Support Mechanism fund, which is designed to support utilities such as telephones in rural areas, to support the creation of broadband infrastructure. Senate Bill 2, which has won the unanimous approval of the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee, would create a series of grants providing funding for telecomm providers to build networks in rural areas. As proposed, 20 percent of the revenue in the High Cost Support Mechanism fund would be allocated to broadband projects over a period of 5 years, beginning next January 1. The legislation is on its way to a full Senate vote. By Garry Boulard |
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