Plans are in the works for the construction of a new condominium project that will go up in Denver’s well-known Clements Historic District, populated with mansion homes from the 1800s. The project is being developed by PSW Real Estate, an Austin-based company specializing in both residential and mixed-use projects, as well as urban infill development. As envisioned, the five-story condominium project will be built on a site that is currently being used as a parking lot. That 0.79-acre site, at 2137 Glenarm Place, was purchased by PSW Real Estate in February for $3.7 million. It could cost anywhere from $16 million to $20 million to build the new property, depending upon its ultimate final size. Speaking with the BisNow Denver, Chris Auxier, the director of acquisitions and development for PSW, said the Glenarm Place project is the first of “several developments we have in the pipeline in the Denver market.” The project is expected to feature two-bedroom units measuring in size from 800 square feet to just over 1,000 square feet. Also included in the project’s plans is underground parking space. Designer is Craine Architecture of Denver, with a practice focus on residential and multifamily communities. The developer is currently in the process of conducting public outreach meetings on the project with Clements District residents. By Garry Boulard
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A Mountain View, California-based company specializing in advanced driverless vehicle technology has announced plans to build a new 85,000 square foot full-service facility in Mesa. Waymo LLC opened an operations center and garage in Chandler three years ago as part of a larger business model seeing driverless cars operating inside what is called a geo-fenced vicinity that also includes the city of Tempe and the village of Ahwatukee. What is being called the Technical Service Center will provide a Mesa facility for Waymo to service and maintain a growing fleet of several hundred vehicles. The company says the new facility will help them more than double their capacity to keep that fleet in condition. The new center is expected to be built near the intersection of Broadway Road and Dobson Road on the west side of Mesa, although the exact site location has not yet been disclosed. Waymo first began research work on self-driving technology in 2009, and launched a self-driving taxi service in greater Phoenix in 2017. The company expanded its Chandler operations last year, adding more than 20,000 square feet to an existing 39,000 square foot facility. Waymo is also currently retrofitting a 200,000 square foot manufacturing space in Novi, Michigan, 30 miles northwest of Detroit. That project comes with a $14 million price tag. The company uses a radar-like technology in its vehicles, along with cameras and internal maps, to navigate streets and roads. According to statistics compiled by Waymo, its cars have to date logged more than 10 million miles on roads in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, and Washington. The company has said that it is invested in the larger metropolitan Phoenix because it comprises a sprawling area with wide city streets and a population that is vehicle-dependent. By Garry Boulard A bill calling for the construction of more than three million new homes across the country has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. The measure, which will also fund the rehabilitation of existing housing properties, is designed to provide more affordable housing options and would put some $50 billion in federal spending annually into two existing federal housing funds. Those funds are the National Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund. Warren’s legislation would also expand the 42 year-old Community Reinvestment Act, while providing increased incentives for local governments to eliminate what are often regarded as burdensome land use restrictions. For its part, the National Housing Trust Fund would be tapped into by the states to build, rehabilitate, or preserve existing housing structures. Warren would raise the federal estate tax to 2009 levels to provide some of the funding for her legislation. That tax applies to only the most expensive properties in the country and has been marginally reduced in the last decade. The proposal has won the support of the Boston-based Housing Advisory Group. David Gasson, executive director of the organization, said Warren’s bill would “create jobs, housing and opportunities that have been so limited for the constituencies it would assist.” In a statement Warren said her legislation would both substantially reduce housing costs nationally and “give families in urban, rural, and suburban communities more economic security.” Warren’s bill is currently under review in the Senate Committee on Finance. By Garry Boulard As just one more indication of its strong growth across the country, the U-Haul company has announced plans to build a new site in Santa Fe. The project will go up on Cerrillos Road near Governor Miles Road and will see the building of a more than 64,000 square foot, three-story indoor storage facility that will feature up to eight hundred individual self-storage units. In what will be both a self-storage facility and truck rental service, U-Haul will also put up a 4,900 square foot warehouse slated to house more than 200 portable storage units. The largest do-it-yourself moving and storage operator in the country, the Phoenix-based U-Haul recorded revenues in excess of $700 million in 2017, with more than 16,000 dealerships nationally. In recent years the company has increasingly focused on building out new locations by re-purposing existing structures in both urban and suburban neighborhoods. Plans for U-Haul’s new Santa Fe location, which will also see the construction of a showroom, are expected to be reviewed by city officials later this spring. By Garry Boulard A project that could see the construction of 76 single-family homes near the banks of the Rio Grande has been approved for development by the City of Albuquerque’s Environmental Planning Commission. The Overlook at Oxbow, as proposed by the Albuquerque-based Gamma Development, would go up on roughly 23 acres at the east end of Namaste Road NW, next to the protected 40-acre Oxbow Major Public Open Space. The project, which has been more than a year in the planning and talking stage, has sparked the opposition of neighbors, including the Taylor Ranch Neighborhood Association, worried about an increase in area traffic as well as potential damage to the ecology of the Bosque that runs alongside the river. Despite the initial green light for the project, it must still win the approval of the city’s Development Review Board. As proposed, the Overlook at Oxbow would see the construction of homes measuring anywhere from 2,100 to 2,700 square feet on lots measuring 50 to 60 feet wide. The project would also require the demolition of several existing structures at the site, including a 6,000 square-foot main house. According to city documents, the Overlook at Oxbow would be a rectangular-shaped development, with some fifty homes, divided by a road, encircling another 26 residences. Defined as a “cluster development,” the Overlook at Oxbow will also include recreational and open space. By Garry Boulard A decrease in the number of new single-family construction projects nationally is being looked at by some analysts as an indicator of a larger overall economic slowdown later this year. According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau, single-family projects declined by just over 4.2 percent in February, marking the third month in a row that construction has been off in this sector. Overall, notes the site BuildFax, which specializes in property data collection, single-family construction dropped by more than 5.7 percent from 2017 to 2018. Predictions of a national economic decline have already been aired by a Reuters poll of economists in January forecasting a 25 percent chance for a recession between early 2019 and early 2020. The poll also revealed that the same group of economists calculated the likelihood of a recession between now and 2021 at 40 percent. The drop in single-family projects, says the Austin-based BuildFax, also comes as builders are noticing a 10 percent decline in remodeling projects, along with a 5.5 percent drop in home housing maintenance work. Despite such troubling statistics, a new report just released by the Washington-based National Association of Homebuilders indicates that builder confidence in the single-family market is holding steady. A survey conducted by the group showed respondents feeling bullish about the imminent spring home buying market, compiling an overall 62 index, with scores over 50 indicating that builders regard conditions as more positive than negative. The highest industry scores were recorded in the West at 69, followed by the South at 66, the Midwest with 51, and the Northeast at 48. By Garry Boulard Responding to a continued demand for new industrial space in suburban Denver, a local developer has announced plans to build two industrial buildings totaling more than 157,000 square feet combined. The project belongs to the Denver-based United Properties, which recently purchased the 43 acres needed for the project in Centennial at the intersection of East Easter Avenue and South Lima Street. To be called Inova Aero, the project may eventually see the construction of up to 480,000 square feet of new industrial space. All of the industrial structures at the site will feature space for drive-in loading, among other amenities. Future construction on the site may also include 300,000 square feet of build-to-suit office space, as well as another 225,000 square feet of additional industrial space. The project follows on the heels of another United Properties development called Inova Office I and II. The earlier project also placed an emphasis on drive-in loading space, as well as bike commuter facilities. Specializing in property management, United Properties has developed more than 3.2 million square feet of industrial, retail, and senior housing space in metropolitan Denver for nearly 15 years. The demand for new industrial space is national in scope. According to a report published by the Chicago-based commercial real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield, industrial space construction across the country saw a 22 percent gain in the fall of 2018 over the same period of time in 2017. By Garry Boulard A project that could see the construction of a series of buildings making up a resort for bike-riders is being reviewed by planning officials in Pima County. The bike resort, as developed by the Tucson-based El Cortijo LLC, would include a series of paths for bike riders over a 45-acre site off of South Old Spanish Trail. The project, which the developer hopes would create both a national and international cycling destination, would include a hotel to be built to Platinum LEED standards, as well as a bike barn building that will house a café, bike rental and repair space, and meeting rooms. Another structure at the site, called the Ranch House, will also include meeting rooms, as well as a restaurant and laundry room. Three other structures have been proposed for the site: a reception building, a management building, and a maintenance building. The developer of the project describes the project as an “eco-friendly resort.” But some area residents have announced their opposite to the resort noting its proximity to the nearby Saguaro National Park. A memo written last month by Leah McGinnis, superintendent of that park, noted that “understandably there is concern regarding the additional traffic that the Bike Ranch could generate on Old Spanish Trail near the entrance of the park.” But she added that the current concept plan for the ranch would limit traffic through the use of shuttles and bicycles as the primary mode of transportation. A public hearing on the project is scheduled to be heard in early April by the Pima County Planning Department. By Garry Boulard A bill that will make it easier for laborers from other countries to work in the U.S. has been introduced in Congress. Proposed by Pennsylvania Representative Lloyd Smucker, the Workforce for an Expanding Economy Act will create a temporary federal visa program designed to specifically make up for the lack of available U.S. workers in the construction industry. According to Florida Representative Francis Rooney, co-sponsor of the bill, the measure would require that employers first document that they were “unable to find American workers for vacant positions, pay them fair wages based on local wage data, and would use E-Verify to make sure only legal immigrants are hired.” Continues Rooney, in a statement: “This would greatly benefit the construction and hospitality industries, which are facing severe worker shortages.” The measure has won the backing of the Associated General Contractors. Stephen Sandherr, chief executive officer of that group, said the current shortage of “available, qualified workers in many parts of the country threatens to undermine continued economic growth.” Noting that some 80 percent of reporting construction firms nationally last year said they were having a difficult time finding qualified workers, Sandherr added: “Creating a temporary, flexible worker visa system will allow all types of economic development to proceed without cost delays caused by workforce shortages.” The Workforce for an Expanding Economy Act is currently under review in both the House Judiciary and House Ways and Means Committees. By Garry Boulard A bill providing funding for hundreds of individual capital projects has passed the New Mexico House of Representatives on a 68 to 0 vote. The measure had been earlier overwhelmingly approved in the Senate. Providing money for projects specifically designed by state agencies, Senate Bill 280 will fund everything from water system upgrades to the renovation of both state and local government buildings, as well as new public safety equipment. Appropriations in the newest legislation include $33 million for the completion of the Department of Public Safety’s evidence and crime lab facility in Santa Fe, and $29 million for renovations to the Children, Youth, and Families Department’s Child Wellness Center in Albuquerque. Also included is $16 million for improvements and repairs to correctional facilities across the state; $9.9 million for upgrading Department of Health buildings; and a hefty $20 million for an array of energy efficiency and renewable energy infrastructure improvements to state government buildings throughout New Mexico. According to an analysis of the measure by the Legislative Finance Committee, the bill reflects a current unprecedented level of revenue received by New Mexico due to “historically high oil and gas production.” That production, continues the analysis, has presented the state with an “opportunity to cash-finance capital projects rather than relying on bonding.” By Garry Boulard |
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