On January 1, 2020, the granddaughter of the company’s founder, Sarah Cronican-Motsinger, and her husband, Steve Adams, purchased Construction Reporter, returning it after a 12-year hiatus to the founder’s family. Founder Frank Cronican, a general contractor and P-51 pilot, was looking for a way to help contractors find and organize bid information when he returned to New Mexico after his WWII service. He created the company with a first listing of jobs out for bid at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo in June of 1949. Frank grew and ran the company from its founding until he retired in 1986, selling to his son, Peter, who ran it until his retirement in 2008. Sarah literally grew up in the company—there are photos of her as an infant at company events—and always dreamed of owning it. After a hiatus of 12 years, during which Sid Hamilton and Rochelle Williams and their son, Alan Hamilton have run the company, with Sarah moving up the management ladder from Reporter, to News Manager, to General Manager, we’re happy to announce that Sarah is now firmly in the driver’s seat!
The idea Frank Cronican had way back in 1949 turned out to be a good one, and Construction Reporter has been faithfully serving the construction community throughout our region for 70 years as the premiere source of timely, accurate construction news and unparalleled customer service. Now we are about to take it up another notch! Sarah and Steve are preparing to propel the company to the forefront of this constantly-changing industry by adding more industry news, deeper prebid, commercial real estate transaction news, statistical analysis, easily accessible data and industry leading IT platforms for general contractors, sub-contractors, architects, engineers, materials suppliers, and now developers and owners. The future is here and information is the key to unlocking the success it holds for construction and construction-related companies. We plan to deliver not only new data segments, but new ways of looking at the data we’ve always published to give our subscribers a competitive edge. Our representatives will be reaching out in the next few months to industry professionals in all areas to ask for your feedback in the design and implementation of new products rolling out in late 2020. These products will help our subscribers organize and analyze industry and bid data, save time on bid preparation, make informed decisions and keep their companies sharply competitive and prepared for the future. We are excited to work with our customers to meet their changing needs. We work hard every day to remain the top news and data source in the Southwest for the construction community. We look forward to serving you and to the new and exciting ways we will be accomplishing that. We wish you all the best for the new year and hope “2020” proves to be a fantastic year both personally and professionally for all our longtime friends, partners and customers throughout the construction community. Predecessor - Rochelle Williams
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![]() Work could begin later this spring repurposing a 15,000 square foot building in west Las Cruces into a pipe manufacturing facility. The Houston-based Big Tuna USA, which specializes in the production of a high-density pipe used for water management systems, is planning to spend up to $7.5 million transforming a one-story industrial building located at 1846 W. Amador Avenue that was built in 1990. The structure sits on a 7.5-acre site. Announcement of the project, which is receiving around $200,000 in New Mexico Local Economic Development Act funding, comes months after months of discussions between Big Tuna USA, Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, and State of New Mexico officials. In a statement, Mike Waters, director of operations for Big Tuna USA, said the company had reviewed potential sites in Arizona, Colorado, and Texas before deciding to locate to Las Cruces. “We’re starting a business from the ground up and the incentives really make this feasible,” said Waters. The piping that Big Tuna USA will build is patented by Long Pipes, Limited, a company based in Yangebup, Australia. That company has earned a market niche for its development of a seamless and continuous pipeline capable of moving water over great distances. Big Tuna USA has said that it will initially market the glass-reinforced epoxy piping to the growing southwest oil and gas production industry for its water management systems. Work on the Las Cruces facility is expected to launch later this spring. By Garry Boulard ![]() Despite current partisan rancor in Congress, the chances are improving for passage of a comprehensive infrastructure bill, says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Appearing before the annual National Governors Association meeting in Washington, Pelosi said of a successful infrastructure bill: “I think it is really honestly within range.” “This is an issue that is not just about bricks and mortar and paving roads and the rest,” the Speaker continued. “It’s about growth, it’s about quality of life. It’s about public health in terms of clean air [and] clean water.” Pelosi said a sweeping infrastructure will would also include funding for broadband construction in rural America, as well as some urban areas. The Speaker’s comments come less than a week after President Trump in his State of the Union address urged lawmakers to “invest in new roads, bridges, and tunnels all across our land.” For its part, the National Governors Association has been pushing an initiative calling for increased infrastructure planning and funding at the state level. That initiative, called Infrastructure: Foundation for Success, has asked for a shortening of the review process for proposed infrastructure projects, while also touting a greater role for private investment in those same projects. By Garry Boulard ![]() The one-time Warren United Methodist Church at 1630 E. 14th Avenue in downtown Denver served worshippers for more than a century before closing its doors in the summer of 2014. Now a non-profit known as the St. Francis Center, which focuses on providing shelter and services for the homeless, wants to turn the facility into an affordable income dormitory. The St. Francis Center purchased the property for more than $1 million last year, announcing plans to build 48 residential units at the site with an overall footprint of around 6,000 square feet. Each unit will measure around 125 square feet. The Center already uses some 15,000 square feet at the site for an employment services program. What is estimated to be a roughly $7 million project will additionally see the construction of common space bathrooms and a large dining room. Area residents, while not saying they are entirely opposed to the project, have nevertheless expressed concerns about parking space and who exactly will be living at the complex. Because the church is classified as a historic structure, any alterations to the building will have to first win the approval of the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission, which is scheduled to review the project in early March. St. Francis Center officials have said that they would like to see work on the church and related site buildings begin later this spring, with a completion date of late this year or sometime in early 2021. By Garry Boulard ![]() New Mexico is one of seventeen states in the running for the construction of a hyperloop certification site. The facility would belong to the Los Angeles-based Virgin Hyperloop One, which several months ago issued a Request for Proposals for the site location and construction of what will officially be called the Hyperloop Certification Center. Founded in 2014, Virgin Hyperloop One is in the process of commercializing its hyperloop, a high-speed technology system moving passengers on an electromagnetically levitated pod via a low-pressure tube that could reach speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. The certification center will be designed to house what will be the first hyperloop passenger product in the country. According to a statement released by the company late last year, the center will also be used to establish “regulatory and safety standards, research frameworks, and testing infrastructure.” In issuing the RFP, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson said the company was specifically looking for states “that believe our technology is the giant leap forward we need.” Of the states responding to the RFP, only four are located in the West: New Mexico, North and South Dakota, and Texas. The other states are primarily in the South. Although a price tag to build the new facility has not been revealed, Virgin Hyperloop One officials have said they think funding for the project will ultimately come from a mix of both private and public funding. The company has not yet said where the certification center will be built, but it has indicated that it would like to have construction of that facility underway sometime in 2021, with a 2025 completion date. By Garry Boulard ![]() In one of the few lines in his State of the Union address that won applause from both sides of the partisan aisle, President Trump urged Congress to pass legislation to “invest in new roads, bridges, and tunnels all across our land.” The President also said he was committed to “ensuring that every citizen can have access to high-speed internet, including and especially in rural America.” Trump specifically pointed to legislation sponsored by Wyoming Senator John Barrasso. That measure, regarded as the largest such highway bill in the nation’s history, includes $1.6 billion in new transportation project grant money over a 5-year period for rural areas. Some $250 million, according to the legislation, would be taken out of the Highway Trust Fund, along with $1.5 billion from the general fund, for the construction, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of transportation projects on tribal lands. The legislation also includes $250 million for a national program to reduce wildlife/vehicles collisions, with an emphasis on the construction of wildlife crossing structures. Barrasso’s legislation has so far been approved in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Barrasso himself urged passage of his bill in the wake of the State of the Union Address, claiming that the legislation will also reduce red tape, “so that we can build better, smarter, faster, and cheaper.” The bill, officially called America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act, is now being reviewed by members of the Senate Finance Committee. By Garry Boulard ![]() A new airtanker base, designed to support aerial firefighting, is currently in the planning stage at the Colorado Springs Airport. The project, a joint effort between the City of Colorado Springs and the US Forest Service, as well as the airport itself, will be capable upon completion of supporting active firefighting in a 600-mile radius, taking in nearly all of the states of the West, including Arizona and New Mexico. Work is expected to begin on the $20 million facility later this spring, with a rough completion date of sometime next year. In a statement, Representative Doug Lamborn, one of the promoters of the project who helped secure federal funding for it, said the new facility would serve as the home for “one of the nation’s largest, most state-of-the-art Airtanker Base units.” Some of that funding is coming through a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill approved by Congress and signed into law by President Trump in the spring of 2018. As part of the preliminary process to construct the base, the Forest Service has signed a lease with the Colorado Springs Airport. As planned, the 1.5-acre base, which will be built near the airport’s main 13,500-foot runway, will include six fire retardant reload pits for airtankers. The project will also see the construction of offices, seven stations for loading the retardant onto aircraft, and a storage building for the retardant. By Garry Boulard ![]() A three year-old real estate investment company specializing in multifamily projects has announced plans to build a series of active adult communities in the metro Phoenix area. Austin-based Sparrow Partners hopes to see construction begin later this spring on a 188-unit complex in Goodyear, roughly 18 miles to the west of downtown Phoenix. A second project will see the building early this summer of a similar-size complex in Glendale, 9 miles northwest of Phoenix; with a third complex set to launch next fall in Mesa, 19 miles southeast of Phoenix. All of the complexes will feature a swimming pool, fitness center, two-story clubhouse, enclosed dog park, and both bocce and pickleball courts, among other amenities. The apartments themselves are expected to range in size from just under 700 square feet to 1,450 square feet. Adult active communities are becoming increasingly popular across the country, particularly in Sunbelt states, catering to the more than 75 million strong Baby Boom generation. “Some communities are budget-oriented and others are high-end,” notes the financial website Kiplinger’s, adding that such communities are also typically built near a large city. Sparrow Partners has developed similar properties in Austin, Fort Worth, and Houston. By Garry Boulard ![]() An act that will insert new language into the National Labor Relations Act may substantially increase the picketing rights of labor unions, according to analysts. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, otherwise known simply as the PRO Act, is designed to make it easier for unions to picket as part of a jurisdictional dispute, while also weakening state right to work laws. The measure will also require workers to pay union dues, even if they opt out of union representation. A new study by the Associated General Contractors of America asserts that the measure will undermine “area-wide collective bargaining.” That study, The PRO ACT: What Union Contractors Need to Know, says the legislation will additionally allow for “picketing against neutral contractors to gain leverage in a dispute with another employer.” But a separate study called The PRO Act conducted by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute contends that it is “still too difficult for working people to form a union at their workplace if they want to.” The EPI study says that current laws “give employers too much power and put too many roadblocks in the way of workers trying to organize with their co-workers.” While the House is expected to pass the PRO Act, its fate in the Senate appears uncertain. By Garry Boulard ![]() Despite a recent decision of the Texas Supreme Court denying their petition for review, opponents of a proposed $180 million multi-purpose arena in downtown El Paso have vowed to return to the state’s highest court for a rehearing. Last month the court declined to take up the case launched by preservationists and community activists who have said that the original ballot language for the Quality of Life Bonds needed to fund the project did not specify that the arena would be used for sporting events. The challenge has been spurred by the site selected by the City of El Paso to build the arena: the Duranguito neighborhood, a small collection of houses and shops dating to the 19th century that opponents have said is historic and should be preserved. In 2019 the Third Court of Appeals in Austin affirmed that El Paso was within its rights to build the arena, even if it is to be used for sporting events. In making its January ruling, the Texas Supreme Court was essentially denying a rehearing to the plaintiffs. Now opponents of the project say they will once again ask for a rehearing before the state’s highest court. That petition for that new hearing is expected to be submitted before March 4. In an interview with the El Paso Times, Veronica Carbajal, an attorney with the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid representing arena opponents, said the issue goes beyond what will happen in Duranguito and concerns the veracity of ballot language in bond elections. Carbajal said that when the Third Court of Appeals ruled in favor of El Paso, they were saying that the city “has a discretion to build a sports arena, because sports are entertaining, therefore a form of entertainment, [and] that’s a very dangerous outcome.” In response to the quest for a rehearing, the City of El Paso has issued a statement saying in part: “We are not surprised by the opposition’s continued efforts to prolong the litigation which unfortunately continues to delay the project, increase the cost to taxpayers, and impacts our community’s economic development.” By Garry Boulard |
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