![]() A move to build a new multi-use structure at the site of the annual San Juan County Fair may get a significant boost later this spring, depending upon the generosity of state lawmakers. For some time now, San Juan County officials have wanted to build a modern multi-use structure at McGee Park, located at 41 Road 5568. As proposed, the new structure would come after demolition of a nearly 4,500 square foot poultry barn at the site that was built in 1977 and a rabbit barn, built 5 years later, that measures just over 3,100 square feet. Both of those structures, built below grade, have been subject to repeated flooding and are thought to not be up to the standards of the rest of the park. The multipurpose replacement building is expected to measure around 10,600 square feet and would provide barn and other space. County officials say it will cost at least $1.5 million to level the two existing structures and build a new replacement building and are now asking for a capital outlay request via the New Mexico State Legislature for the project. The winter 2023 session of the legislature is scheduled to begin on January 17. The always-popular San Juan County Fair is traditionally held during the late summer and features everything from livestock shows to duck races and gospel music. By Garry Boulard
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![]() Up to $40 billion in funding is expected to be made available through the Federal Highway Administration for the repair and rebuilding of some of the nation’s largest bridges. “Safe, modern bridges ensure that first responders can get to calls more quickly, shipments reach businesses on time, and drivers can get to where they need to go,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in announcing the funding. Early efforts are seeing $1.3 billion going to the rehabilitation of the Brent Space Bridge in Kentucky, which crosses the Ohio River; $400 million for structural elements work on the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; $158 million to rehabilitate the Gold Star Memorial Bridge that crosses the Thames River in Connecticut; and $144 million for the upgrading of four separate bridges on the southside of Chicago. The funding is more specifically coming through the Department of Transportation’s Large Bridge Project Grants program. That program is available for any bridge project with a total price tag of $100 million or more, with minimum grant awards set at $50 million. A separate program provided funding for bridge planning projects has seen $421,000 awarded to Maricopa County in Arizona for the planning of a new bridge over the Gila River; and $750,000 to the City of Colorado Springs for planning and environmental studies related to a bridge over Monument Creek and the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail bridge. Regarding the funding of the larger bridge projects, Buttigieg added that such structures are “not only pillars of our economy, but also iconic symbols of their states’ past and future.” By Garry Boulard ![]() Plans are now underway for the construction of a build-to-rent project on the north side of Phoenix that may cost as much as $250 million to complete. The project, a tree-lined community, is being spearheaded by the Mack Real Estate Group, which is based in New York and will ultimately see the construction of some 438 units. The company paid around $22 million to purchase the 21-acre site for the project at 20620 North 19th Avenue. As envisioned, the project will include both build-to-rent units as well as garden-style apartments. The project will go up near the big under-development $12 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing plant. Mack is additionally currently in the process of building a massive industrial center in north Phoenix, as well as a 297-unit rental community at N. 23rd Avenue and W. Pinnacle Peak Road, also in Phoenix. Founded in 2013, the Mack Real Estate Group is defined as an “integrated real estate investor, developer, operator, and lender.” By Garry Boulard ![]() A motel in Gallup that once served a thriving Route 66 trade is on the market for $299,000. Built in 1950, the one-story rectangular-shaped Hacienda Hotel is located at 2510 Highway 66 and sits on a 1.3-acre site. It was originally called La Hacienda Court, with “Where the Summer Nights Are Always Cool” used as the motel’s slogan. The 32-room Hacienda, still in business as of 2021, was closed early the following year by the City of Gallup, along with a handful of other Route 66 motels in the area, for several building code violations. According to the Gallup Sun, it was determined that “all six of the motels had violations that posed a threat to the public’s health, safety, and welfare.” Listed by the Cedar & Ivey Real Estate firm of Gallup, the Hacienda Motel is regarded as a Class C building. A Loopnet advertisement for the property suggests that whoever ends up buying the structure and surrounding site may well end up demolishing the building in order to use the property “for a different purpose.” Connecting Chicago with Los Angeles, Route 66 was launched in the fall of 1926, with a New Mexico hub running east to west across the central part of the state. The route slices through Gallup, where it was first paved in 1934, becoming a two-way road by the early 1940s. By Garry Boulard ![]() For the first time since the Covid-19 spring of 2020, average asking rents towards the end of last year saw a decline, according to a new report just released by the real estate market information service Yardi Matrix. Between May of 2020 and November of last year asking rents climbed an average of 21.7%, which the report describes as “the fastest growth on record,” largely fueled by a demand for “more space to accommodate working from home” and accelerated rates of home formations. However, notes the Yardi Matrix document, Special Report: Multifamily Rent Forecast Update, lower rents towards the end of any given year are not unusual, with the “magnitude of the decrease this year (two-tenths of a percent), also not out of the ordinary.” The report additionally predicts that with a possible recession and consequent unemployment in the offing for late this year, “we will likely start to see broad declines or stagnation in average asking rents,” although those declines may not offset what are expected to be spring 2023 increases. Overall, the report is forecasting a 3.1% growth rate in rents for 2023—a figure revised downward from an earlier forecast of 3.5%. Yardi Matrix is based in Santa Barbara, California, but has offices throughout the country and across the globe. By Garry Boulard ![]() In a move to provide affordable housing in a state that has one of the highest costs of living in the West, a Colorado lawmaker is proposing $13 million in state funding for such projects. Introduced in the new 2023 regular session of the Colorado State Legislature, Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senator Dylan Roberts, would provide that funding as a public-private initiative focusing on workforce housing. By design, the development of such projects would all go up on land owned by the State of Colorado. According to the language of the bill, officially called the Authority of Public-Private Collaboration Unit for Housing, the partnerships would include “state public entities such as departments, agencies, or subdivisions of the executive branch of state government, and private partners as a tool for time- and cost-efficient completion of public projects.” Roberts, who formerly served in the House as the chairman of the Affordable Housing Task Force, last year remarked that “nearly every community in our state is facing an affordable housing crisis.” The lawmaker was instrumental in the passage last April of a bill providing $178 million in grants to local governments and non-profits to build affordable housing facilities. Senate Bill 1 is currently under review in the Senate’s Local Government & Housing Committee. The Colorado legislature is scheduled to conclude its 2023 session on May 9. By Garry Boulard ![]() Federal funding has been secured for the construction of a fire station that will go up in a village of around 300 people in southwestern New Mexico. In a press release, New Mexico Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan have announced that exactly $750,000 will go for the building of a fire station in the Village of Reserve. That funding will be added to the roughly $1 million that has already been allotted to the project from other sources. Reserve, in Catron County, has a fire department manned by around a dozen volunteers and located at 15 Jake Scott Avenue in a residential section of the village. Work on the project could begin later this year. Once a new fire facility is completed, the building on Jake Scott Avenue will be used for other purposes. The funding is coming out of the recently passed $1.7 trillion Omnibus Appropriations Agreement for fiscal year 2023. Of that amount, some $273 million has been appropriated for a variety of community projects across New Mexico. In a statement, Heinrich said the funding “gives us the opportunity to take community-based approaches to solving local issues.” Funding is also going to a wide variety of mental and behavioral health care facilities, housing for homeless veterans, and Tribal infrastructure projects. Bunched under the heading of “agriculture, rural development, food and drug administration, and related agencies,” the omnibus agreement is also providing funding ranging from $165,000 to $413,000 for new fire engines for half a dozen New Mexico cities and towns. By Garry Boulard ![]() New numbers just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics continue to provide evidence of a post-pandemic construction industry recovery, with more than 231,000 jobs created last year. For just the month of December alone, notes the report, new construction jobs were up by 28,000. As always, some segments of the industry did better than others: nonresidential construction employment was up by 17,900; while nonresidential specialty trade contractors posted 10,200 new jobs. Smaller gains were noted in the heavy and civil engineering sector, up by 1,900 jobs. In a statement, Anirban Basu, chief economist with the Associated Builders and Contractors, said the overall numbers indicate that “contractors collectively remain in expansion mode despite rising costs of capital and fears of recession.” Basu added that “though the labor market remains strong and job creation persists, there are indications that wage pressures are easing.” Overall, according to the BLS, some 4.5 million new jobs were created in all industries in 2022, with a December bump of 223,000. Upon the release of the new numbers, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh noted that more than 10.7 million new jobs have been created nationally since January 2021, comprising “the most jobs added in any two-year period on record.” By Garry Boulard ![]() A new hotel is being planned for construction in Gilbert, Arizona at the site of a busy shopping center. The SanTan Development Group, based in Mesa, Arizona, wants to build a four-story hotel with 134 rooms at the San Tan Village. According to City of Gilbert records, the hotel, to be branded as a Springhill Suites, features “elevation design, color/material selection and landscaping materials and layout” designed to integrate it with the larger SanTan Village Mall. At the same time, according to a letter sent to the Gilbert Planning Department by project designer PK Architects of Tempe, the hotel “will retain characteristics” associating it with “brand standards to help retain identity.” SanTan Village, described as an “urban village,” was officially opened in 2004, serving as a regional commercial destination for Gilbert as well as the East Valley. Located at 2218 E. Williams Field Road, SanTan Village currently encompasses more than 1.2 million square feet, but is expected to grow to 3 million square feet upon full build out. The new hotel project comes during a time when the hotel industry in general in the Phoenix metro market, which includes Gilbert, is booming. According to the Phoenix Business Journal, the industry experienced a growth rate of just under 34% last year. By Garry Boulard ![]() A three-day auction is scheduled to begin on January 30 for a modern four-story El Paso hotel with 103 rooms. Branded as a SpringHill Suites Marriott, the hotel was built in 2008 and sits on a 2.3-acre site at 7518 Remcon Circle, some 10 miles to the northwest of downtown El Paso. Built in 2008 and extensively renovated in 2016, the extended stay hotel is steps away from an array of retail and restaurant options off Interstate 10. The SpringHill Suites line is one of the more popular Marriott International brands, catering to what is regarded as the upper-moderate segment of the industry. The hotels typically feature separate living and sleeping areas. Launched in 1997, the brand today has around 500 hotels across the country. The El Paso SpringHills Suites auction is being handled by the Irvine, California-based Paramount Lodging Advisors. By Garry Boulard |
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