Construction employment is significantly up across the country, with gains over the last twelve months in 47 states. So says a new survey just published by the Associated General Contractors of America showing that firms of all sizes have increased their payrolls in recent months, including both open shop as well as union craft labor companies. While the new survey, done in a partnership with the company Autodesk, clearly reveals boom times for construction employment, it also shows a growing industry need for yet more workers. In a statement, Ken Simonson, chief economist with the AGC, said, “Construction workforce shortages are severe and having a significant impact on construction firms of all types, all sizes, and all labor arrangements.” Simonson added that the ongoing shortages are “compounding the challenge firms are having with supply chain disruptions that are inflating the cost of construction materials and making delivery schedules and product availability uncertain.” The year-over-year job gains seemed particularly robust in the West, with Arizona seeing an increase of 4,600 workers since last fall, while Colorado’s numbers were up by 7,400. New Mexico recorded an increase of 6,000 workers, with Texas, reflecting a significantly larger population base, up by 43,200. Nevada and Utah, meanwhile, saw gains of 5,500 and 11,600 respectively. While the ever-present need for more construction workers is great, the situation will probably worsen due to a slow Baby Boom exit from the nation’s workforce, noted Allison Scott. In charge of customer experience and industry advocacy at Autodesk, Scott predicts the current shortly “is only going to intensify as more workers retire.” But in a positive note, Scott added that many of the nation’s construction firms have been taking a “proactive approach to preparing future workers for careers in construction.” Continued Scott: “The renewed investment in career development and training, as well as a focus on digital skills, demonstrates that the industry is committed to taking action to build the next generation of the workforce.” By Garry Boulard
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A unique project in Aurora, Colorado is set to see the development of a wide array of industrial and office space across a swath of 6,500 acres. What is being called Port Colorado is being advertised as a “rail-served industrial and commercial park” just to the southeast of the always-growing Denver International Airport. In the talking stage for several years, Port Colorado, adjacent to the Interstate 70 Corridor, is zoned for both light and heavy industrial development. According to a new website advertising the park, Port Colorado is envisioned as a “global enterprise center for commerce, innovation, and culture,” which may eventually include the creation of a 100-megawatt solar farm stretched over a 700-acre site. The solar farm is being done in conjunction with both the City of Aurora as well as the Xcel Energy company and is part of a larger effort not only promoting renewable energy sources throughout the park, but also emphasizing waste-to-feed processes and cogeneration offerings. In an interview with the Denver Business Journal, Wendy Mitchell, chief executive office of the Aurora Economic Development Council, described Port Colorado as “the next big thing for Aurora and for all of Colorado.” The Port Colorado project is only the latest business park project for Aurora, located around 15 miles to the east of Denver. With a population that has jumped from 158,000 in the 1980s to nearly 400,000 today, Aurora is the home to around a dozen business parks ranging in size from around 100 acres to more than 1,600 acres. By Garry Boulard Opposition to a $17 million project in Vail, Colorado that would see the construction of affordable housing for the employees of the Vail Resorts company has taken a new turn. For months the ski resorts company has said that it wants to build up to at least 165 residential units in one of the most expensive markets in Colorado, where the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is now well over the $1,800 mark. A host of city officials have previously expressed opposition to the project, set to go up on a 5-acre site off the Interstate 70 Frontage Road, noting, among other things, that it might have a destructive impact on the area’s bighorn sheep population. Now the city has announced plans to invoke its eminent domain powers for the site in question, filing a petition in the Eagle County District Court to that effect. The move, if successful, would preserve the 5 acres as open space. What has been popularly called the Booth Heights project has been the subject of any number of often heated planning and public input meetings, with the City of Vail unsuccessfully attempting to purchase the land for $12 million earlier this month. City officials have said that while they recognize the need to build new affordable housing in Vail, the Frontage Road project is the wrong project in the wrong place. Vail Resorts has previously maintained that it is committed to paying up to $100,000 for habitat restoration and will surround the project with barriers designed to keep the bighorn sheep and other wildlife separated from the new development. It is not known when the Eagle County District court will make a ruling regarding the eminent domain request. By Garry Boulard Diesel prices nationally are continuing to rise, according to a new report issued by the federal Energy Information Administration. That report indicates that the Producer Price Index shows diesel prices in September climbing to $4.99 per gallon. But the real change comes when compared with where things were exactly a year ago, when the price stood at $1.66 per gallon. The price increase was seen across the country, with the East reporting prices just below $4.80 per gallon, and the Middle West just over that figure. The highest prices were recorded in the Rocky Mountain states at slightly less than $4.90 per gallon, and the West coast, coming in at $5.50 per gallon. The price of diesel has been steadily increasing throughout this year but took its most significant jump in March when it went from $4.00 per gallon to $5.10 and has generally stayed near the $5 range ever since. The price rise is accompanied by a decline in product, with diesel stockpiles now at their lowest point in nearly 15 years. Notes the publication The Drive: “Part of the reason for the diesel supply shortage is maintenance season, but the bigger issue is Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has hurt global fuel supplies.” According to a recent survey issued by the American Transportation Research Institute, fuel prices are now the number one truck driver concern, supplanting earlier worries centering on a shortage of drivers. By Garry Boulard A former computer superstore in southern Tempe may be repurposed as a new Costco Wholesale Corporation retail site. Located on a less than two-acre site at 2300 W. Baseline Road, the property was the home of the massive Fry’s Electronics, which ceased all its operations in the city last spring. The San Jose, California-based Fry’s, with stores in nine states, rather abruptly announced it was closing the Tempe store as well as all its other locations due in part to the Covid 19 outbreak and subsequent national economic shutdown. Costco has now submitted plans to the City of Tempe for the site, which include updating the 149,000 square foot structure, which was originally built in 1994. Costco’s new Tempe presence will be added to a footprint in Arizona that already includes some two dozen retail outlets. Those Costco locations range in size from 80,000 square feet to 230,000 square feet, with the average site coming in at 146,000 square feet. Launched in the fall of 1983, the company, specializing in everything from groceries to clothes to electronics, has more than 830 locations worldwide. Last year it saw revenues of nearly $226 billion. An exact timetable for when the Baseline Road building will be repurposed has not been announced. But published reports have indicated that Costco would like to be operating at the new site by the end of 2023. By Garry Boulard An auction is scheduled for November 2 for a two-story solid cement building that was formerly a bank in Farmington, New Mexico. Located one mile to the east of downtown Farmington at the corner of E. Broadway Avenue and South Orchard Avenue, the more than 46,400 square foot structure was built in 1979 and includes office space, vaults, restrooms, and both a break room and storage room. Additional features: a mechanical room and small maintenance space. The structure formerly served as a location for the First National Bank of Farmington, before that operation merged with the Wells Fargo Bank in early 2000. Last summer, Wells Fargo closed its offices in the building. Listed with the real estate auction firm Williams & Williams with a minimum bid of $400,000, the structure is located in a neighborhood populated with smaller retail shops and offices. By Garry Boulard “We’re going to try and convert commercial office space into housing,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller declared, as he announced a multi-level approach to creating new housing in the city, adding: “We’re proposing a $5 million fund to do that.” The idea may strike many as unconventional, but increasingly across the country, empty office space is being used for housing, with repurposing particularly seen in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, and Los Angeles. Late last year, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., said she was reaching out to the owners of vacant office buildings in order to find out “what they would need to consider transforming office structures into residences.” City officials in Washington have said such adaptive re-use could also bring with it the additional benefit of having more people in downtown areas, particularly in evening hours when many of those areas are largely empty. The San Francisco Chronicle, recently noting that city’s urban core had been gutted by hundreds of office workers now working remotely, has argued that an influx of people living in downtown office buildings could “foster a walkable community with a more sustainable economic ecosystem of new grocery stores, pharmacies, and other retail stores.” According to the site RentCafe, a combined 6,000 apartment units nationally were created as a result of either hotel or factory space conversions in 2021. But the largest number, at roughly 7,400 apartment units, were created as a result of office project conversions, a number that has grown by double-digits in the last decade. But such transformations are not without challenges: A report published last year by the National Association of Realtors noted that office-to-housing repurposing projects may require zoning variances and regulation changes. The report also pointed out that the shape, size, and location of a building can drastically impact conversion project costs. “Wedge-shaped or cube buildings lend themselves more easily to conversion than rectangular buildings where much office space is far from exterior walls with no natural light.” The report, Office to Housing Conversions, added that in such cases repurposing projects “may require modifying the basic building structure of the building roof to allow light in the inner space.” By Garry Boulard In an effort to increase its affordable housing stock, the City of Grand Junction has put on this November’s ballot two proposals designed to raise building and construction funds. One proposal calls for increasing the city’s lodging tax by 1%. The second question asks voters to approve a measure imposing an 8% short-term rental tax. According to city officials, the lodging tax increase is expected to generate just over $1 million a year, with the short-term rental tax bringing in at least $325,000. Studies have shown that increasing rents in the southwest Colorado city, now at more than $850 for a one-bedroom apartment, and the median listing home price at $415,000, is making it increasingly difficult for those earning a working wage to live in Grand Junction. Mayor Anna Stout has given her support to the two proposals, remarking to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that every day the city fails to put more affordable units on the market, are “days that people are sleeping in our parks or crashing on people’s couches or foregoing medicine or food to be able to pay for housing.” The measures have sparked the opposition of several business groups, including the Horizon Drive Business District. That district comprises more than two thirds of the city’s hotels, with some hotel owners saying the proposals will hurt tourism. Although voters in 2019 approved a measure doubling the lodging tax to its current 6%, a poll recently conducted by the Sentinel indicated that 32% were in favor of both the new lodging tax and short-term rental tax, while a little over 50% signaled their opposition. By Garry Boulard Extensive renovations to Gurley Hall on the University of New Mexico’s Gallup campus will see the construction of new stairs and a pedestrian bridge inside the popular facility, as well as overall floor, ceiling, and wall renovations. The work, however, will only begin if voters next month approve a $215 million statewide general obligation bond, with an estimated $3 million going to the Gurley Hall upgrades. Additional Gurley Hall work is set to include the installation of new windows at the main entry façade of the structure, the creation of new student breakout spaces in two locations in the building, not to mention renovations to and the expansion of the current kitchen space. Another $3 million in bond funding will target upgrades to the Fred Peralta Hall on UNM’s Taos campus. That 11,600 square foot structure, housing the school’s woodworking, ceramics, and drawing classes, will see an upgrade of the heating, ventilation, and cooling system as well as exterior improvements to campus safety lighting and signage. The Learning Center Resource Center at UNM’s Valencia campus, meanwhile, is in line for a roof replacement and solar panel installation project, which will be funded by up to $900,000 in general obligation bonds. General obligation bond questions in New Mexico have met with voter approval in the last five election cycles dating to 2012. A $155 million bond during the Great Recession year of 2010 was defeated by a narrow 50.1% to 49.9% margin. By Garry Boulard Relief to the tune of $800 million has now been awarded to farmers and ranchers across the country, according to a new report just released by the federal Department of Agriculture. In a statement, Tom Vilsack, Agriculture Department Secretary, said the funding has helped to “keep our farmers farming,” while providing a “fresh start for producers in challenging positions.” The funding is coming out of a larger $3.1 billion pool that is part of the Inflation Reduction Act approved by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in August. As of mid-October, more than 13,000 individual farm loans have been approved by the agency, targeting assistance specifically to borrowers who had received loans via the Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency. Of those 13,000 loans, roughly 11,000 resulted in formerly delinquent borrowers being able to bring their accounts up to date. At the same time, according to a press released issued by the Agriculture Department, roughly 2,000 borrowers who have had their farms foreclosed on while remaining in debt, “have had this debt resolved in order to cease debt collections and garnishment, relieving that burden.” Plans currently call for the Department of Agriculture to administer up to $66 million in separate automatic payments, using existing pandemic relief funds. That funding will target up to 7,000 borrowers who had earlier received Farm Service Agency assistance. The Agriculture Department’s moves have proven popular with various segments of the nation’s agricultural industry. Billy Hackett, policy specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, characterized the agency’s assistance efforts as “historic in scale and scope,” establishing a “foundational precedent to aid underserved farmers who have long trod an uncertain path.” In August, Vilsack also announced that the Agriculture Department was releasing some $300 million for farmers to purchase land and take on capital projects. By Garry Boulard |
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