Despite continuing labor shortages and supply chain issues, the value of construction starts nationally saw a 17% increase from July of 2021 to this last July, according to a new report released by the construction data collection firm ConstructConnect. An increase of 16%, according to the report, is also seen for the entire 7-month period beginning in January of this year, over January to July of last year. While nonresidential building starts saw a substantive 37% jump in July 2022 over July 2021, nothing compares with the increase in the industrial/manufacturing sector, recording a massive 320% increase for the last 12 months. In this category, road projects were up by 23%, with water and sewage projects seeing a marginally smaller increase at 22%. The value of bridge construction starts, meanwhile, saw a 44% jump, while dam, canal, and marine industry work was up 17%. After compiling a series of increases in recent months, the power infrastructure was down by 27%, but at the same time airport projects from July of last year to this past July were up by 31%. Based in Cincinnati, Construct Connect number crunches the total estimated dollar value as well as square footage of starting projects nationally in a dozen key categories on a monthly basis. By Garry Boulard
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Plans are now near the agreement stage for the construction of a new golf course in Aurora, Colorado. The project will be a part of a massive new master planned residential community seeing the construction of some 1,700 homes on a 900-acre site. The selling point for the Prairie Point community is both its promised luxury, multi-story homes, as well as the advertised green and open spaces. But officials with the community, located at Parker Road and toll road E-470, have long wanted to also build an 18-hole golf course, despite some local opposition. For years the City of Aurora has been trying to put a limitation on courses requiring vast amounts of water usage. But now Mayor Mike Kaufman has reached an interim settlement with the Salt Lake City-based-Oakwood Homes, the developer of the community, that will allow the project to proceed, albeit with a decreased amount of water to be released by the city. City officials and residents are hoping that the agreement will signal the end of an era of golf course development in Aurora. A headline in the Denver Post said the Aurora/Oakwood agreement “Could be the City’s Last.” The agreement will see a reduction in the amount of water that will be released to irrigate the golf course, a reduction that Oakwood has said it can live with. If all goes as planned, home construction in the Prairie Point community could begin this fall, with work on the golf course itself slated to launch sometime in the spring of 2023. By Garry Boulard Funding has been secured for the massive buildout of a semiconductor campus based in Chandler, Arizona. The Intel Corporation has announced that it has reached an agreement with the Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management to substantially expand the technology company’s longstanding Ocotillo campus. Together, the two companies are committed to spending upwards of $30 billion on the project, with Intel responsible for 51% of that investment, and Brookfield, one of the largest alternative investment management companies in the world, kicking in 49%. In 1980, the Santa Clara, California-based Intel established the campus, which today comprises some 700 acres. That campus is located on the southwest side of Chandler at 4500 S. Dobson Road and is Intel’s largest manufacturing site in the US. In a statement, David Zinsner, chief financial officer of Intel, said the agreement with Brookfield is “a first for our industry, and we expect it will allow us to increase flexibility while maintaining capacity on our balance sheet to create a more distributed and resilient supply chain.” A timetable for when construction on the campus expansion will begin has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard Can ground floor space in commercial and retail buildings be used for residential purposes? For decades, according to new study published by the American Planning Association, cities and towns have restricted the use of such space primarily to stores, restaurants, bars, and salons. But because the advent of the Covid 19 pandemic led to the closing of many retail and commercial operations, the APA study is suggesting that zoning officials across the country should re-think how ground level space is used. “Many cities simply have too much zoning requiring ground-floor retail,” notes the study, which appears in the APA’s magazine Zoning Practice. “These types of blanket requirements are not sustainable and lead to a high number of vacant storefronts,” the study asserts. Reviewing more flexible ground floor rules adapted in such cities as Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Los Angeles, the study, authored by Tim Smith, an urban planning lecturer with the University of Chicago, argues that more flexible zoning can solve two problems at one time. Zoning allowing for ground floor residential space in Grand Rapids, for example, has proved a response to both a “sharp rise in vacant storefronts and the need for added housing, especially affordable housing.” In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the city’s planning commission this month approved a developer’s plan to allow for apartments on the ground floor of a project known as The George. That building was opened in 2018, but the advertised first level retail never materialized, leading to a proposal to use the empty space for something else. In an essay published by the APA promoting Smith’s study, it is noted that long-standing zoning policy resistance to ground floor residences have primarily been centered on the argument that “residences generate very little foot traffic.” “But,” continues the APA post, “You’d have to be living on an another planet to miss the fact that we have a major undersupply of housing in the U.S.” “Furthermore,” adds the post, “the shortage is acute in many areas with an oversupply of storefront spaces.” By Garry Boulard Planning is underway to turn a former bus station in downtown Grand Junction into a modern multi-purpose complex. The large facility, located on a less than one-acre site at 230 S. Fifth Street, has been abandoned since early 2021 when the Greyhound company moved its operations to another location in the city. Shortly after Greyhound left the site, the Grand Junction Downtown Development Authority purchased the land for around $700,000. Now, working with the Aspen-based Headwaters Housing Partners, the DDA has announced plans to transform the terminal space into a mixed-use property with both residential units and ground-level community space. To be called “The Terminal,” the new complex will see the construction of a multi-story structure housing up to 72 residential units, with space for art studios, exhibitions, and galleries. In an interview with the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Adam Roy, project engineer with Headwaters Housing, described the terminal building itself as a “cool little bus station with the 1930s architecture, kind of this art deco style,” that he said would be preserved as part of the project. By Garry Boulard Up to $270 million a year in tax revenue will be delegated to an affordable housing fund in Colorado, depending upon the results of this November’s election. The ballot proposal will set aside 0.01% of the state’s income tax revenue for the fund to greatly increase Colorado’s affordable housing stock. The effort is being pushed by a group called Make Colorado Affordable, which proved successful in securing nearly 231,000 signatures to get the initiative on the state ballot. Just under 125,000 signatures, by law, were needed. On the state ballot, the proposal will read as the Dedicated State Income Tax Revenue for Affordable Housing Programs. If passed, proponents say the initiative could fund the construction of a combination of 170,000 homes and rental units across Colorado over a span of two decades. During that period, the initiative could bring in more than $5 billion in revenue. The housing would be geared for those making incomes at or below 60% of the area’s median income. Earlier this year the US Census estimated that Colorado has an immediate shortage of some 225,000 affordable housing units. By Garry Boulard Although quarterly economic growth has been strong since the fall of 2020, a panel of economic analysts are suggesting that the good times may be soon over. The New York-based Conference Board, a research group made up of more than 1,000 corporations, is anticipating a flat economic performance for the final quarter of this year, and an outright recession in early 2023. In a just-released forecast, the board noted that its Leading Economic Index is off by 1.6% in its appraisals of the nation’s economy from now until the end of the year when compared to the numbers from the first six months of 2022. A variety of trend lines are impacting the Conference Board’s forecasts including the highest inflation rates since the late 1970s, reduced manufacturing, and ongoing supply chain challenges. In a statement, Ataman Ozyildirim, senior director of economics at the Conference Board, said, “Consumer pessimism and equity market volatility as well as slowing labor markets, housing construction, and manufacturing new orders, suggest that economic weakness will intensify and spread more broadly throughout the US economy.” According to the publication CFO Dive, the actions of the Federal Reserve could also be playing a part as it “tries to curb price pressures by raising the federal funds rate at the fastest pace since the 1980s.” Although the Conference Board’s forecast represents one of the strongest recession predictions to date, the good news is that it is also anticipating that should a recession occur, it will be a “short, but mild” one. By Garry Boulard Up to $20 million in federal funding is being awarded to the building of a high-tech facility in El Paso that will transform treated wastewater into safe and fresh drinking water. The Advanced Water Purification Facility belongs to the El Paso Water company and is expected to see construction launch early next year. As planned, the facility, which is also designed to conserve available water resources, will be capable of treating up to 10 million gallons per day of secondary effluent as part of a process producing purified water. That water will then be introduced into the company’s larger potable water distribution system. The new facility will be located on an existing campus that will also include a surface water treatment plant and wastewater treatment plant. The funding, authorized by the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is coming through the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which altogether is receiving more than $8.3 billion to support water delivery systems and dam upgrades nationally. In the just-announced round of funding, just under $310 million will be going to 25 individual water projects regionally. In a statement, Tanya Trujillo, Assistant Secretary for Water and Science with the Department of the Interior, said the Bureau of Reclamation funding for a variety of projects throughout the West represents the “largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history.” By Garry Boulard Plans may soon be underway soon for the construction of a new fire station in Las Cruces, depending upon the results of the upcoming November election. Voters in the city are being asked to approve a series of general obligation bonds, the largest of which, at $10 million, will help pay for the construction of that station. The facility will serve the residents of City Council District 5 in the East Mesa section of the city. According to Las Cruces Fire Department officials, the existence of a new station will make it possible to greatly reduce response times in the sprawling district. The Las Cruces Fire Department currently has eight operating stations in various parts of the city. The most recent station, Number 8, was built in 2018. Las Cruces voters will also decide on three other bond issues in the November election: one is asking for $6 million for the creation of an affordable housing fund; while a $2 million bond will go for general improvements to the city’s parks. A final bond, set at $5 million, will be used to tackle the phase two work on the East Mesa Recreational Complex at 550 N. Sonoma Ranch Boulevard. Las Cruces voters in the past have been generally supportive of general obligation bond proposals, approving nearly $36 million in bonds for recreational facility work in 2018. Those four bond proposals that year passed with anywhere from 57% to 70% of the vote. By Garry Boulard Nearly $1.7 billion in federal funds has been awarded to various localities for the construction of facilities and stations for low emission buses as well as the purchase of the buses themselves. The Federal Transit Administration has announced a series of awards to dozens of cities and transportation districts through its Low and No Emission Bus and Facilities program. The program is specifically supporting projects, according to an FTA release, that “will use zero emissions technology, which reduces air pollution.” Those same projects, continues the FTA announcement, must de dedicated to meeting President Biden’s “goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.” In one of the larger grants, the Colorado Department of Transportation is receiving $34.7 million for the building of a new charging and operations bus facility serving the commuters of Lake, Park, and Summit counties. The new facility will replace an existing, but aging, facility belonging to the Summit Stage rural transit agency. Just over $2.8 million will go for the construction of a new bus maintenance facility belonging to the Grand Valley Transit in Mesa County. The new facility will provide more space for mechanics to maintain the transit’s low emissions fleet. The City of Las Cruces is receiving just under $2.2 million for the construction completion of a new transit and operations facility. The facility is designed to expand the city’s Roadrunner Transit fleet, while providing more space for maintenance work. The most recent round for the FTA’s Low and No Emission program is seeing funding support for some 150 projects in 48 states. The final grant awards came after applications were submitted for around 530 projects in response to the agency’s earlier Notice of Funding Opportunity. By Garry Boulard |
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