Three cities in eastern Colorado will see the building of mobility hubs as a result of new funding secured through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The funding is going to the Colorado Department of Transportation and will be used to build a mobility hub in Glenwood Springs, with plans to transform a current Park-N-Ride facility at the intersection of Interstate 70 and Colorado State Highway 82 into a transit center. Work in Glenwood Springs will also include the building of a grade-separated bicycle and pedestrian underpass. The Grand Junction work will focus on building bicycle, parking and pedestrian improvements to an existing hub, as well as the creation of a pedestrian crossing connecting the Grand Junction Convention Center and the city’s main train station on South 1st Street. An existing Park-N-Ride site in the city of Rifle will see a facility expansion adding up to 120 vehicle spaces. The funding is more specifically coming through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability Equity grant program. Altogether the RAISE program is sending around $1.5 billion to Colorado for a variety of transportation facility projects. The projects in Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction, and Rife are being funded to the tune of $24.2 million. In announcing the RAISE support, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said such funding is part of a larger plan to modernize the nation’s transportation systems “to make them safer, more affordable, and more sustainable.” RAISE grants are for planning and capital investments supporting road, bridge, transit rail and port projects. By design, around 65% of the projects must be located in either historically disadvantaged communities or areas of persistent poverty. By Garry Boulard
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One of the most popular and successful after-school tennis training programs in the state has announced plans to build a new 12-court tennis complex in metro Santa Fe. First Serve New Mexico has been teaching hundreds of children and adolescents for nearly two decades not just the fundamentals of playing tennis, but also the value of self-discipline and good sportsmanship. Based in Santa Fe, the nonprofit program offers training classes several times a week, as well as an 8-week training camp. Now the organization has announced plans to build a facility that will go up on a nearly 9-acre site near the Genoveva Community Center on Rodeo Road on the southwest side of the city. The project, with an estimated $12 million price tag, will also include a facility measuring around 8,500 square feet that will house the program’s classrooms, as well as bathrooms and locker rooms. Plans for the project have been submitted to the County of Santa Fe. If all goes well, work is expected to begin later this year, with a rough completion date of spring 2024. First Serve New Mexico is a nationally recognized program. In 2013 the United States Tennis Association awarded the program a $12,500 grant to help support its training initiatives. By Garry Boulard Both homeowners and real estate investors may prove to be the beneficiaries of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, according to a new report. While the legislation is primarily centered on reducing prescription drug costs and making healthcare costs more affordable, the bill also provides what is called a green tax incentive for homeowners, notes the publication Realty Biz News. That incentive means that homeowners may be able to secure a credit of up to $1,200 for such house upgrades as replacing an aging heating and cooling system; reinsulating houses; and installing rooftop solar panel systems. For real estate investors, the green tax incentives will allow for federal tax deductions upon purchasing an energy-efficient building or upgrading an existing structure with new energy-efficient features. But the publication advises that real estate investors may need tax experts to correctly file for the new deductions, as well as an engineer to “certify the energy-saving amounts.” In a statement, the Sierra Club has lauded the green potential of the Inflation Reduction Act, declaring: “We will build safer, cleaner, and more cost-effective buildings and homes.” While some real estate industry groups have been wary of the legislation, the National Association of Realtors remarked: “When one considers all the real estate tax increase proposals that were recommended over the past couple of years, the final bill is very good for the real estate industry.” By Garry Boulard Work is set to begin on the construction of a multi-housing community on the east side of Flagstaff that will include 224 residential units, as well as up to 6,000 square feet of retail space. What is being called the Flagstaff Elkwood will go up on just under 14 acres at the northeast corner of E. Butler Avenue and N. 4th Street in a part of the city thick with pine trees. The project belongs to the Calgary-based Wexford Developments, which purchased the site last year and has just secured nearly $50 million in construction financing to build the community. As planned, that community will see the construction of four separate 4-story buildings of 56 units each, offering units ranging in size from studios to one- and two-bedrooms. The project will also include a leasing office measuring around 4,000 square feet, as well as a clubhouse, fitness center, amphitheater, and both swimming pool and spa. Designer for the project is the Scottsdale-based Stewart + Reindersma Architecture. A project with appeal for students, the Flagstaff Elkwood will be located some 3 miles from the Flagstaff campus of Northern Arizona University. With work beginning either later this year or in early 2023, the project is expected to see completion in the final quarter of 2024. Wexford Developments specializes in retail, industrial, and commercial projects primarily in Canada and Arizona. By Garry Boulard The main campus of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces may see the construction of a new College of Engineering facility, depending upon the fortunes of a general obligation bond proposal in the November election. Nearly $216 million in capital expenditures is on the line for education facility projects across the state, with $22.5 million of that amount going to both the building of a new engineering building at NMSU as well as the demolition of the Thomas and Brown Hall, located at 1305 Frenger Street. The bond will also provide $13.5 million to renovate both the Health and Social Services Building, as well as the O’Donnell Hall. Another $2 million will go for the expansion and modernization of the Nursing Skills and Simulation Center. The Thomas and Brown Hall Replacement project has been long in the planning and anticipating phase at NMSU. The new facility, according to NMSU, will “expand student-centric and experiential hands-on learning facilities for students from across campus.” The new facility will also include learning community space. By Garry Boulard A combination of rising mortgage rates and continually increasing home prices are making it significantly more difficult for African American families to buy their own home, according to statistics compiled by the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies. In the last year, the number of Black renters able to purchase a median-priced home dropped by some 44%. During those same months, interest rates jumped by nearly 2% from 3.0% to 4.9%. Put another way, 14.2% of all African American renter households in April 2021 could afford to buy a median-priced home. By this spring, the number was down to 6.9%. According to the Center, mortgage payments increased by 35%, from $2,100 in the spring of 2021 to exactly $2,800 as of this year. Says the Center report: “In April 2021, a household had to earn at least $79,570 a year to afford payments on the median-priced home of $340,700. One year later the income requirement stood at $107,500 for the median-priced him of $401,700.” Altogether, the change means a loss of 4 million potential home buyers in the median-priced market. Continues the report: “While Black renter households were not the only group to face declining affordability, the share of Black renter households who could afford the median-priced home declined most by race/ethnicity.” For all of that, the report also notes the impact interest rates in general can have on homebuying: low interest rates in 2020 and more than half of 2021 “helped many first-time homebuyers qualify for mortgages while also providing current owners a chance to reduce their monthly mortgage payments through refinancing.” By Garry Boulard A 151-acre solar farm may soon be built just to just to the north of the Interstate in Grand Junction, Colorado that will be capable of generating up to 48 megawatts of power, enough to supply the needs of nearly 15,000 homes. The solar panel project will belong to the energy company Solar Gen, which is based in Denver. As planned, the solar farm will be built on desert property owned by the Colorado State Land Board. Earlier this month members of the Mesa County Board of Commissioners gave their approval to Solar Gen for a conditional use permit for the property. In making a presentation to the commissioners, Carmine Iadarola, chief executive officer of Solar Gen, remarked that the land in its current condition “doesn’t impact economically a community,” whereas the proposed solar farm would be good for both energy production and employment. Revenue from leasing the land would go to a State Land Board initiative providing funding for public school needs. In endorsing the project, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel said the solar farm will “add renewable energy to the grid, add revenue to education, clean up the land it is on and won’t take land away from agriculture.” Solar Gen has developed similar solar projects across the country, with a focus on Arizona and California, producing a combined more than 282 megawatts of photovoltaic power. By Garry Boulard Work could begin early next year on the construction of a large high school in southeast Arizona. As planned, the new Pima High School will go up on a 40-acre site off U.S. Route 70 and will measure around 60,000 square feet. Although an exact construction schedule for the project has not yet been announced, members of the Pima Unified School District board have given their approval to selecting SPS+ Architects, which has offices in Tucson and Scottsdale, to design the facility. The new school, which will be built to house at least 500 students, will replace the current more than 80-year-old Pima High School located at 38 E. 200. District officials have said that the existing building is not up to current code standards and has had some wiring issues. It is expected that it will cost just over $22 million to build the school, which will also include new baseball, football, soccer, and softball fields. If all goes as planned, the new school will be completed and ready for students in time for the fall 2025 semester. By Garry Boulard The big General Services Administration is now the recipient of just under $3.4 billion in federal funding to be used for low-carbon materials in construction projects. That funding is folded into the just-approved Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and centers on incentives in the construction of both government-owned structures, as well as public infrastructure projects. Altogether, the legislation comes with a $485 billion price tag, and is primarily concerned with both reducing inflation and countering climate change challenges. Through Congressional negotiations, the legislation, signed into law by President Biden, was reduced from the $550 billion originally proposed in early 2021. The bill, additionally mandating lower drug prices among other goals, aims to decrease the country’s carbon footprint by the end of the decade by some 40%. The General Services Administration currently owns more than 1,500 buildings across the country. In a statement, Robin Carnahan, administrator of the agency, said the GSA “looks forward to working with our partners in government and industry to seize this once-in-a generation opportunity to move the federal government forward to a cleaner, greener future that will provide better value for taxpayers and a healthier planet for the next generation.” Low-carbon materials can include everything from green ceramic tiles to low carbon bricks and any variety of recycled metals for building purposes. GSA facilities, located across the country, include court houses, office buildings, data processing centers and post offices. The GSA is also receiving $250 million in an effort to convert more of its structures into High Performance Buildings. Such buildings have at least a 23% lower energy use and 28% lower water use than the average GSA structure. Tying in with projects funded by the recent Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the legislation also promotes utilizing low-carbon materials for Federal Highway Administration projects in the form of Low-Carbon Transportation Grants with a total value of $2 billion. By Garry Boulard A historic four-story brick structure known as the Sweeny Feed Mill building is up for sale in downtown Pueblo, Colorado, with an asking price of $800,000. Located at 403 E. 4th Street, the structure was built in 1915 and comprises nearly 11,400 square feet. Listed in 2008 with the nonprofit Historic Pueblo as a place of historic significance, the building sits on a half-acre site and features large open warehouse space with massive wooden support beams, a freight elevator, and heavy masonry construction. The Sweeny Feed Mill company operated in the structure from the late 1950s to 2018, selling pet and livestock feed. and is representative of what was once a dominant grain processing industry in south central Colorado. The property, located less than a block to the west of the Fountain Creek, is being listed with the Pueblo-based Rocky Mountain Realty. By Garry Boulard |
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