![]() A new solar farm with photovoltaic solar arrays capable of producing up to 190 megawatts of solar energy may soon be going up on the north side of Belen. The project will belong to Sky Ranch Solar, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, and is set to be built to the west of Interstate 25 and south of El Cerro de Los Lunas. The specific 1,600-acre site is located within the city’s sprawling 6,000-acre Rancho Cielo master planned community. Members of the Belen City Council have agreed to begin the process of awarding a $273 million Industrial Revenue Bond to get the project going. As planned, the solar farm will also feature a combined 100 megawatts of battery energy storage. The final contours of what the solar farm will look like are expected to be determined in talks between Belen and NextEra officials. Work building the Sky Ranch solar project could begin early next year, with a rough completion date of late 2022. By Garry Boulard
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Expressing a new-found optimism reflecting Covid-19’s decline, the nation’s top bosses are saying that they’re feeling increasingly buoyant about business prospects.
In a new survey conducted by the publication Chief Executive, the vast majority of company leaders said business conditions and prospects heading into the second half of 2021 appear to be largely on the upside. On a scale of 1 to 10, the confidence scale among the nearly 300 chief executive officers interviewed came in at 7.4. The showing, at 7.9, was slightly higher for construction industry leaders. That is the highest overall position the index has recorded since the pre-Covid days of spring 2019. In a news release accompanying the survey results, it was noted that the chief executive officers were feeling particularly good about “increasing demand, continued low interest rates, and a return to normalcy that they expect will curb the talent shortage and further lower the unemployment rate.” The survey also found that 67% of respondents said they expected to hire more employees in the next year. Despite those positive feelings, the same survey indicated some long-range concerns, with 63% of respondents saying they expected current conditions to either remain the same or improve by the spring of 2022, while a sizable 36% indicated that they thought economic conditions may worsen. Those expressing misgivings said they were particularly concerned about a rise in inflation and the Biden Administration’s regulatory policies. The positive index tended to be higher, the larger the company. For businesses with annual revenues under $10 million, the index came in a 6.9; while for those with revenues between $10 million and $999 million, the index stood at 7.4. By Garry Boulard ![]() Plans are in the early stage for the building of a massive industrial development in a designated Opportunity Zone some 20 miles to the southeast of Mesa. The Indianapolis-based company Scannell Properties has purchased nearly 170 acres in the southern Arizona city, at a site located on the southwest corner of E.Warner Road and S. Ellsworth Road. The company purchased the land for $36 million. According to reports, the site is being looked at for its Class A industrial development potential, although specific details have not yet been announced. A privately owned real estate development and investment company, Scannell specializes in speculative development and build-to-suit projects. Its portfolio contains nearly 85 million square feet of development nationally. The company has historically had a focus on the states of the Midwest and East Coast, but has also developed properties in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. Scannell is also currently in the process of developing some 240 acres near the Loop 202 South Mountain freeway in southwest Phoenix. That site, too, will see the building of Class A industrial space. By Garry Boulard Although an exact schedule has not yet been announced, construction of a new high school performing arts center in Carlsbad could begin later this year.
The new center, which is expected to seat up to 1,100 people, will be part of the Carlsbad High School, located at 3000 W. Church Street. As planned, the facility will include space for individual choir, band, dance, and practice rooms, along with a prop dock and spacious main lobby. The project is being funded out of an $80 million facilities bond approved by Carlsbad voters in November of 2019 that is also targeting a number of district school building construction and upgrade projects. District officials have said that the new performing arts center, which is included in phase one of the bond project planning, is needed in order to meeting current performance and school curriculum needs. Design work on the new facility is expected to be completed in a matter of weeks. With more than 1,600 students, Carlsbad High School comprises nine separate buildings situated on a large campus. By Garry Boulard ![]() Depending upon the product mix and market, pricing for aggregates is up anywhere from 3 to 6% in the last month, a new study is reporting. The Nashville-based Thompson Research Group is predicting that additional prices in the field are anticipated before the end of this year. Cement has seen increases ranging between 6% and 9% this spring, with a similar increase expected by the end of this summer. Notes the Thompson report: “Texas cement is on allocation, as is California. Now, even the Mississippi River region has a kink with the Holcim cement plant only producing 50% of capacity.” In its Heavy Materials Survey Take-Aways, Thompson additionally notes that the aggregate, cement and concrete industries are in the process of announcing a variety of pricing actions that will go into effect during the second half of this year. “Overall, given visibility in the key end markets,” continues the document, the nation’s aggregates industry “could be heading into a particularly solid pricing market for an extended period of time.” The most important factor fueling the rise in aggregate, concrete and asphalt pricing, notes the report, is a newly-booming national construction industry. “Residential construction has been on fire for several months,” the report notes, with highway projects on the increase and commercial projects “now developing into more solid volume momentum.” By Garry Boulard ![]() A move is on to build a new rail service for the 113 miles between Tucson and Phoenix. In a joint letter, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego are asking Arizona’s congressional delegation to lend support to starting up the service that would be run by the rail transport company Amtrak. The two leaders have been joined in their communication by the mayors of Avondale, Chandler, Glendale, Goodyear, Marana, Mesa, Oro Valley, South Tucson, and Sahuarita. The mayors are specifically supporting Amtrak’s Corridor Development Program, which is designed to foster the planning, development, and building of new passenger routes throughout the country. In their letter, the mayors contend: “Frequent and reliable passenger rail service will expand economic opportunities and provide important regional connections between our cities and towns.” Amtrak has suggested providing a service that would see three trips a day between the two Arizona cities, with stops along the way. The service could also eventually link Tucson to Los Angeles. If ultimately approved by the federal government, the service would see the construction of not only new rail infrastructure, but new stations of varying sizes in Avondale, Buckeye, Coolidge, and Marana, among other locations. Amtrak has issued an initiative called its “2035 Vision” suggesting new rail service routes throughout the Midwest, the growing states of Georgia and Florida, as well as Colorado’s Front Range. Funding to expand Amtrak’s service corridor is folded into President Biden’s infrastructure bill and has a price tag of around $66 billion. An earlier study conducted by the Arizona Department of Transportation estimated that it would cost around $5 billion to build the Phoenix-Tucson link. By Garry Boulard ![]() Even as work is continuing on the construction of a new Amazon fulfillment center in El Paso, it is possible that the online retail giant is thinking of building a second massive facility in the city. Amazon began construction last year on a 625,000 square foot fulfillment center between Rojas Drive and Interstate 10. That facility, strategically located between the company’s warehouses in San Antonio and Phoenix, is slated for completion later this year. Now, according to state documents, Amazon may be planning to build yet another facility in El Paso, this one on the northwest side of the city. According to the publication El Paso, Inc., the project, for now, is being called AMZ El Paso, and includes a 181,500 square feet facility. Papers filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Registration indicate that the new Amazon structure, to be built at 7850 Paseo Del Norte, would be used for both shipping and receiving packages. That location, on currently vacant land, is some 12 miles to the northwest of downtown El Paso. Papers for the project were filed with the Licensing and Regulation department on July 5. Those documents also show a September 1 start date for the project, with a completion date of June 2022, noting: “This project is privately funded, on private land for private use.” The Seattle-based Amazon has made no public comment so far regarding any additional plans for El Paso. By Garry Boulard As Congress begins the final stretch of debating an infrastructure bill that includes more than $65 billion in funding for the building of broadband infrastructure, a new survey is showing that the country’s digital divide still exists.
According to the Pew Research Center, some 43% of lower income adults say they do not have access to broadband services. A nearly equal large number, at 41%, say they lack either a desktop or laptop computer. Says a press release accompanying the survey: “By comparison, each of these technologies is nearly ubiquitous among adults in households earning $100,000 or more a year.” In fact, the survey shows that some 63% of respondents earning $100,000 annually or more said they have everything from broadband services, a desktop or laptop computer, and smartphone. Despite the income variables, an earlier study conducted by Pew this spring showed that well over 90% of respondents nationally use the internet, whether they own a computer or not. In the 1950s the number of people owning a television climbed from less than 10% the first year of that decade, to nearly 86% in 1959. Similarly, according to Pew, the number of people with at least one computer in their home has gone up every year since 2000, when the figure stood at 52%. Now, combining all income levels, its stands at 93%. The figures have been less dramatic in the area of actual home broadband connections, with 1% of respondents in the year 2000 saying they had such services, a number that climbed to 60% a decade later and has now leveled out at 77%. By Garry Boulard ![]() A one-story former fire station in Phoenix may see new life as a full-service, upscale restaurant. City officials are looking at the possibility of keeping intact, but transforming, the 4,700 square foot brick building, which is located at 1130 North First Street on the south side of the Margaret T. Hance Park. The repurposing is part of a larger effort to revitalize the Hance Park area and includes a Request for Proposals recently issued by the city for ideas on how to reuse the structure. The fire station was opened in the summer of 1951, but has not been used by the Phoenix Fire Department for several years now. The City of Phoenix has additionally made plans to host a public event inviting any number of businesses to present suggestions on redeveloping the fire station. That event, officially called the Firehouse Fastptich, will be held on August 12. Formerly known as Fire Station Number 4, the facility sits on a 26,500 square foot site. The greater Margaret T. Hance Park Revitalization Project, a public/private partnership, is seeing large segments of the popular park rebuilt and newly landscaped. By Garry Boulard ![]() As only the latest evidence of the continuing popularity of Denver’s River North Art District neighborhood, plans have been announced for the construction of a 12-story structure that will house nearly 100 apartment units. The project belongs to the Denver-based Katz Development, and will go up on a less than one-acre site at 3495 Wynkoop Street, several blocks away from the banks of the South Platte River. The area is dotted with some industrial development as well as newer multi-floor apartment buildings. Plans call for the building of about 1,000 square feet of retail space on the building’s ground floor, as well as decks on the fourth and sixth floor of the structure. The site, currently the home to a one-story aluminum warehouse and next-door brick building, was purchased by Katz in the summer of 2017 for $1.8 million, with plans calling for the construction of a seven-story hotel. The company says those plans were changed due to the negative impact that the Covid 19 pandemic has had on hospitality projects. The River North Art District in the past two decades has gone through a gradual transformation from an industrial section to a modish neighborhood populated with coffeeshops, restaurants, and art galleries. Rents for one-room apartments in the district vary between $1,500 and $2,000 a month. By Garry Boulard |
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