A three-story building in downtown Loveland that has served for nearly a century as a home to a Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks lodge may soon be extensively repurposed. Located at 103 East 4th Street, the three-story brick structure has been acquired by a private investor who wants to upgrade the property and turn it into a live entertainment venue space. The 25,000 square foot structure was built around 1906 and opened as the Hotel Lovelander before being acquired by the Elks and used as their local headquarters. Listed as a Class C building, the structure on a less than 1-acre site, underwent some renovation in 2015 centered on maintaining it historic architectural integrity. The purchaser, Michael Pelphrey, bought the property for $1.8 million. Press reports indicate that while converting the structure to a new purpose, Pelphrey is also determined to preserve its iconic design, which includes fluted glass around the doors and exterior wall pigmented glass tiles. The building is listed with the Colorado Register of Historic Places. The Elks, founded as a fraternal order in New York in 1868, have lost around 600,000 members in recent decades due to old age and death. While a number of lodges have been sold in recent years, the organization still has more than 2,000 such establishments up and running across the country. By Garry Boulard
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Home sales continue to soar nationally, according to a new study, up some 17% in early April over where the numbers stood three years ago. According to a market study issued by the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, those prices are particularly being bolstered by an unprecedented tight supply as well as the “work from home revolution.” That revolution, since the onset of Covid-19, has witnessed an increasing number of would-be homebuyers regarding a residence as not just as a place to live, but also to set up offices and workplaces. Current Federal Reserve Bank interest rate policies and some $18 trillion in both stock market and home price appreciation gains, says the study, are “making homes increasingly unaffordable for potential low-income homebuyers,” at the very same time that “general inflation is driving up the cost of food, energy, and other necessities.” The study, in fact, notes that the increasing house price appreciation is “evidence of an unhealthy market condition,” and one that may eventually be corrected by an increase in interest rates. As it now stands, lower income homeowners are facing “increasing stress as general inflation, especially gasoline inflation, eats into budgets.” But in situations where owners have more debt than equity in their homes, they may increasingly find themselves in a position where they have to sell their houses. “Ultimately,” says the study, “we would then expect a softening of home prices, especially in areas with high concentrations of highly leveraged Federal Housing Administration loans.” By Garry Boulard Previously approved bond funding will be used for the construction of a new gymnasium belonging to an elementary school in Santa Clara, New Mexico. That facility, the Central Elementary School, is located at 211 Cedar Street and is a part of the Cobre District Consolidated School District, which is based in Bayard. Members of the Cobre Consolidated School Board of Education have now voted in favor of building a gymnasium that will measure anywhere from 1,700 to 1,800 square feet. District officials say the $1.2 million bond will be used to build the gymnasium, foregoing an earlier proposal to use that funding for the construction of a new wrestling gym in the Cobre High School, which is in Bayard. Voters overwhelmingly approved a $7 million general obligation bond in the late summer of 2017 designed to fund several facility construction and upgrade projects across the district. As envisioned, the new Central Elementary School gymnasium project will also see the construction of restrooms, a storage and utility room, and office. Work on the project could begin by summer. The Cobre School District is comprised of four elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school, and has an overall enrollment of around 1,200 students. By Garry Boulard Up to 500 new affordable housing units may soon see construction in Tempe, not far from the main campus of Arizona State University. Members of the Tempe City Council have now given their approval to a plan calling for up to $1.2 million to be spent building the units adjacent to busy Apache Boulevard. What is being called the Apache Boulevard Redevelopment project will see the building of both rental units and commercial space, with some parts of a four-acre parcel being given over to defined open or park space. The land is owned by the City of Tempe, with officials noting from the start that the idea has always been to build more affordable units in a city where the average rent, according to the site Rentcafe.com, is now at just under $1,900. Two of the projects on the designated land will be developed by Artspace, a national group devoted to building affordable housing for artists and art students. An exact schedule for when work will begin on the Apache Boulevard Redevelopment project has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard After a protracted decline during the months of the pandemic, senior housing communities across the country are seeing new absorption rates leading, in turn, to renewed investor confidence. A new survey just issued by the real estate services and investment firm Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis indicates that an overwhelming 82% of responding investors said they expected to see senior communities return to the tenant levels they enjoyed pre-pandemic by mid-2023. That expectation rate was slightly lower for memory care units, with 70% of investors anticipating a robust pre-pandemic level of housing in the next 18 months. In a statement, James Gruber, CRBE seniors housing leader, said the anticipated growth in such senior housing levels “should outstrip the challenges, such as availability and cost of staffing, leading to the expectations of strong performance in 2022.” The Seniors Housing & Care Investor Survey, based on market input from brokers, developers, housing investors, and lenders also indicates that what is known as “active adult” communities are seen, not for the first time, as the top investment opportunity. Active adult communities are typically made up of engaged, still-active Baby Boomers ranging in from 58 to 76 years of age. At the same time, skilled nursing and continuing care retirement communities showed the greatest increase in investor confidence over last year. One possible impediment to future growth, according to the survey: both staffing availability and cost. In a press release accompanying the survey, it was noted that the challenges of staffing “is viewed as the greatest headwind for investors within the seniors housing sector, followed by inflation and interest rates.” By Garry Boulard As proposed in the most recent edition of its 2023 fiscal year budget, the City of Santa Fe is both reaffirming its commitment to developing more affordable housing, while also increasing funding support for those efforts. The recommended budget is calling for $4.9 million in funding for the city’s Affordable Housing Department, an increase of $1.6 million from just five years ago. The budget also includes $3 million in funding that will go to the Santa Fe Affordable Housing Trust Fund, as well as additional funding for affordable housing subsidies. The housing funding comes on the heels of a report just released by the Santa Fe Association of Realtors showing that the median sales price of a single-family home in the city increased last year by just under $64,000. The average price for a townhome or condo was also up, from just under $240,000 in the spring of 2020, to around $400,000 at the end of last year. The city’s housing initiatives spending make up a relatively small part of what is an overall fiscal year budget of $382.8 million, some of which will go to department-wide salary increases. In introducing the latest budget, Mayor Alan Webber remarked that Santa Fe has the “rare opportunity to make big, forward-looking investments that will directly address the City’s needs.” Webber noted in particular that gross receipts tax revenues are currently at a record level, with the City also slated to receive additional American Rescue Plan Act funding. The budget proposal is on its way to the Santa Fe City Council’s finance committee, before being voted on by the entire council at the end of this month. By Garry Boulard A fuel mixing and storage facility in an industrial section roughly 5 miles to the south of downtown Albuquerque is up for sale for around $675,000. Located at 4100 Broadway Boulevard SE, the one-story structure measures just over 65,400 square feet and is on a 1.5-acre site in a defined Opportunity Zone. The origins of the larger site date back more than a century ago to 1900, with the site itself populated with three 110,000-gallon storage tanks, and ten 24,000-gallon storage tanks, among other features. Offered by ReMax Commercial of Albuquerque, the site also contains any number of temperature volume compensator meters, vapor recovery systems, and one tank monitor system. The site, at the intersection of El Rey Road, is across the street from the busy recycling center Southwest Auto Recyclers. By Garry Boulard A Department of Justice case against a New York lender for Payroll Protection Program fraud is being seen as the first wave of new federal indictments against both bank and non-bank PPP lenders. Established in early 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the PPP program was designed to help small businesses meet their monthly payroll costs as they weathered the economic impact of the pandemic. Administered by the Small Business Administration, the program initially helped more than 4.5 million businesses with nearly $800 billion in support. But from the start, the PPP was plagued by fraudulent claims eventually totaling more than $100 billion, according to government records. Both investigations and prosecution have for the most part focused on businesses and individuals receiving PPP support who ended being not qualified for such funds. But the federal case against a company called MBE Capital of New York is being seen as the beginning of a different attack on PPP fraud via the prosecution of a lender. The Department of Justice indictment of MBE Capital, notes the publication National Law Review, “likely presages increased government scrutiny of bank and non-bank PPP lenders.” The Department of Justice action specifically charges MBE Capital with earning nearly $71 million in lender fees as a result of obtaining $300,000 in PPP loan funding. In announcing the Justice Department’s action, Internal Revenue Service agent Thomas Fattorusso said MBE Capital is “alleged to have fraudulently obtained funds through this program as both a recipient and lender.” Legal experts believe that future DOJ actions regarding the fraudulent use of PPP loans will likely see more attention paid to financial institutions that have originated both many fraudulent loans as well as high-risk loans. It is clear, asserts the publication Consumer Finance Monitor, that the federal government is now “aggressively examining lender behavior in the PPP,” adding that Justice Department is likely to ramp up its efforts to “determine whether those lenders fully met all applicable obligations.” By Garry Boulard Apartment Complex To Be Latest Addition to Ever-Expanding Residential Community South of Denver4/13/2022 Just over 330 apartment units are slated for construction as part of an already existing master planned community in the town of Littleton, Colorado. The project will belong to Alliance Residential Realty of Scottsdale, Arizona, which to date has built more than 100,000 residential units nationally. The apartment complex will go up inside the Sterling Ranch’s Prospect Village community. According to reports, the larger Sterling Ranch, at 3,400 acres, is expected to eventually see the construction of more than 12,000 residential units. Plans calls for the new apartments, comprising ten 3-story buildings, to be built on currently vacant land at the intersection of North Rampart Range Road and West Waterton Road on a nearly 12.5-acre site. With an estimated $100.6 million price tag, the project, to be called the Broadstone Sterling Ranch, will additionally include a single 4-story structure housing a rooftop deck and clubhouse. Project designer is the Denver-based Santulan Architecture, which specializes in modern, multi-story apartment complexes and has a strong presence in the metro Denver market. Altogether, Prospect Village is made up of around 160 acres, with up to 40% of that site dedicated to an open space park. Littleton, with a current population of nearly 46,000, is just over 11 miles to the south of Denver and has enjoyed double digit growth in the last several decades, largely from people moving out of the Mile High City. By Garry Boulard A former 32,000 square foot bank building in downtown Montrose, Colorado may be on its way to serving a new purpose as a City Hall. Located at 400 E. Main Street, the structure until very recently served as a Wells Fargo outlet. But the banking chain last May announced it was permanently discontinuing operations at the location, several months after the outlet had been closed due to the Covid 19 outbreak. At the time of that announcement, the bank also let it be known that two other banks it operates in Montrose would remain open. Now the City of Montrose has purchased the structure, as well as an adjacent parking lot, for $1.5 million with plans to house the offices of the city clerk, city manager, and the financial and planning divisions, among other agencies, in the building. The one-story structure was built in 1948 and saw renovations in 1962 and 1984. The current City Hall is located roughly two blocks away at 433 1st Street. According to city officials that building has a number of structural issues, the repairs of which would require City Hall staffers to be find another place to work for up to 2 years. Plans call for making the building at Main Street building Americans with Disabilities Act compliant, while also taking on roof repairs and what has been described as “minor asbestos abatement.” It is expected that the renovation work will be completed by early next year. By Garry Boulard |
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