![]() Plans are now fully underway for the development of a two-story life sciences and technology building in Boulder that will provide working space for biotech companies. The project, as envisioned by the Conscience Bay Company, a real estate investment and development firm, will replace a one-story existing structure at 3825 Walnut Street in an area of mostly office and warehouse facilities. Sitting on a just over 5-acre site, what is being called the Ridgeway Science & Tech will be built to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification and will uniquely include a solar canopy shading a parking lot, as well as a rain and pollinator garden. Project designer is Stantec, a global design firm based in Edmonton, Canada. According to Conscience Bay officials, the new Boulder project is intended to respond to a fast-growing need for more life sciences research and development and laboratory space, particularly in the booming north central part of Colorado. Conscience Bay, based in Boulder, specializes in both office and industrial projects, as well as farm and ranch development. A site review plan for the Walnut Street project is scheduled to be submitted to the City of Boulder by next spring, with actual construction starting by the summer of 2024. By Garry Boulard
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![]() Up to $700 million has now been allocated for a wide variety of tribal land water wells and on-site wastewater disposal systems work. The funding, to be spent between now and 2026, is going to the Indian Health Service Sanitation Facilities Construction Program and is part of a larger $3.5 billion to be spent on such projects secured through last year’s Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act. By design, the funding will pay for the construction and upgrading of wells and disposal systems serving up to 71,000 Native American homes. Some $581 million will go for Tier 1 projects where the design and engineering work has been completed. In a statement, Xavier Becerra, the secretary of Health and Human Services, noted that the investment “is in response to the longstanding recommendations of tribal leaders shared in consultation with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Indian Health Service.” The funding will include nearly $12 million for wastewater improvements at the Acoma Pueblo’s McCarty’s Village in New Mexico; $48 million for a cast iron water pipe replacement project with the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Indian tribes in Colorado; and $23 million for a booster extension in Arizona’s Coalmine Canyon, on the border of the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe, among dozens of other projects. Arizona Senate Mark Kelly, also in a statement, noted that he had seen “firsthand the incredible impact of improved water and wastewater systems on tribal communities, and now, thanks to our bipartisan infrastructure law, even more families and businesses can benefit from investments in these shovel-ready projects.” By Garry Boulard ![]() A just over 78,300 square-foot industrial building that has been the home to the well-known Royal White Cement company on the southeast side of Glendale, Arizona is on the market for $10.2 million. Built in 1952, the barn-like structure is located at 5855 North 51st Avenue and sits on a 3.3-acre site in an industrial neighborhood. The building, which includes dock loading facilities, a warehouse height of 24 feet, two bathrooms, and office space, was for more than 40 years home to the Big Tin Shed, a company providing a wide variety of furniture. The Royal White Cement company moved into the building in the late summer of 2020. Based in Houston, the Royal White Cement company was launched in 1999 and specializes in a product called White Portland Cement, which is used for sidewalks, pavements, and bridges. The North 51st Avenue property is listed with Phoenix Commercial Brokers. By Garry Boulard ![]() Work could begin next spring on the construction of a new medical office building in Santa Fe. The project would go up some 8 miles to the southwest of downtown Santa Fe at 4000 Buckner Road on currently vacant land. As proposed by the developer, the Walnut Creek, California-based Meridian Property Company, the building would be three stories in height and measure around 95,000 square feet. Although Meridian is acquiring just over 18 acres on Buckner to build the facility, the office building is expected to only comprise around 9 acres, with the rest of the site possibly being given over to commercial development in the distant future. Details regarding the project are expected to be presented to the Santa Fe Planning Commission sometime this fall. If that body signals its approval and work launches early next year, the first phase of the building could be completed by the end of 2024. Meridian is a full-service real estate developer with an emphasis on healthcare and office projects primarily in California, but also Arizona and Nevada. In April, it sold for just under $18 million the Grunow Memorial Medical Center it had earlier renovated in Phoenix. By Garry Boulard ![]() Despite supply chain challengers and other complications, a solid 40% of small businesses in a new survey say they are regularly exporting goods and services. Published by the National Small Business Association, the 2022 Small Business Exporting Survey reveals that for most respondents, exporting remains only a segment of their business, although a significant 11% said it comprised more than half of their sales. An additional 14% said such sales make up anywhere from 21 to 50% of their sales. Not only did 40% of the respondents indicate they are selling to a customer outside the U.S., but 53% said they would be interested in doing so. In a summation accompanying the survey results, which was done in conjunction with the Export-Import Bank of the United States, it was noted that “small businesses today are thinking more globally and are seeking more international business opportunities.” The survey also notes that small business exporting is a relatively recent thing, with 39% of respondents saying they have sold goods and services overseas only in the last five years. A smaller group, at 14%, said they had done so in the last 6 to 10 years. Overwhelmingly, most respondents were exporting goods and serves to Canada, followed by the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Mexico. Respondents revealed that they were doing less exporting with Asian countries most frequently associated in the public mind with trade. Japan, for example, represented only 26% of the countries receiving small business goods, followed by China at 23% and Korea at 18%. The report added that while small businesses are interested in increasing the export side of their portfolios, they don’t know how, indicating a need for the kind of “export-related assistance and education” that can be provided through such agencies as the Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration, and the Export-Import Bank. By Garry Boulard ![]() A proposal to implement a series of facility upgrades and improvements to the big University Medical Center of El Paso is currently under review. If ultimately approved by members of the El Paso County Commission, the healthcare facility located at 4815 Alameda Avenue could see up to $400 million in work. That $400 million would come in the form of certificates of obligation and would pay for such things as expanding the hospital’s emergency room and cancer center. Additional work is expected to include upgrades to the center’s ambulatory surgery services space and burn operating rooms. The proposal, as presented by the El Paso County Hospital District, also calls for the expansion of clinic services targeting residents in El Paso’s Central and Mission Valley areas, with an emphasis on geriatrics. The certificates of obligation, if ultimately given the green light by the county commission, do not by law have to go to voters for a final approval. Launched in 1915 as the El Paso General Hospital, the University Medical Center with nearly 500 licensed beds, annually sees more than 19,000 admissions. The main UMC hospital was completed in 1961, with subsequent additions providing more emergency room space undertaken in the last decade. The El Paso County Commission is expected to review hospital district’s certificates of obligation request next week. By Garry Boulard ![]() Around 25 miles of new walking and biking trails may be developed on the west side of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, according to a proposal being discussed by city officials. Officially called the West Mesa Trails Plan, the proposal is designed to connect trails already in existence spanning the West Mesa, creating a single network. By design, the current and future trails slice through up to 3,800 acres of desert landscape, terrain that includes everything from parks to arroyos to ancient volcanic features. Once completed, a cohesive trail network could be used by not just by walkers and casual bikers, but also horseback riders and mountain bikers. The city has already conducted one public input meeting on the proposal in April, with plans for the next meeting scheduled for June 23 at the Don Newton-Taylor Ranch Community Center. Besides the health benefits to be gained by the use of a comprehensive trail, city officials have also noted that such a trail could provide connectivity not only between existing subdivisions, but also future ones in a part of the city that has seen its population more than double in the last two decades to its current more than 200,000. The proposal is being done in conjunction with Bernalillo County as well as the National Park Service. By Garry Boulard ![]() In a move to make buildings more carbon neutral, the federal Department of Energy has announced that it is awarding grants to the tune of $39 million for some 18 projects advancing that effort. The grants are primarily going to research work at the university level and includes just under $3.2 million in funding for the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus for a program designed to reduce the carbon footprint of cement. As planned, UC will manufacture and commercialize a cement using biogenic limestone. A second Colorado project is seeing $1.6 million in funding for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the city of Golden. That laboratory is developing high performance carbon negative concrete using low value by-products from biofuel production. The Energy Department funding is coming through the agency’s Harnessing Emissions Into Structures Taking Inputs from the Atmosphere program. In a statement, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm remarked that there is a “huge, untapped potential in reimagining building materials and construction techniques.” Granholm added that the funded awards present “a unique opportunity for researchers to advance clean energy materials to tackle one of the hardest to decarbonize sectors that is responsible for roughly 10% of total emissions in the United States.” By Garry Boulard ![]() Officials in Prescott, Arizona are trying to find a new purpose for a one-story building that formerly served as the City Hall. The structure is part of a two-building campus located at 201 to 222 S. Cortez Street in the city’s Downtown Business District. In April of 2021, members of the Prescott City Council voted in favor of acquiring for $7.5 million a new building in which to house all the city’s administrative offices, freeing up space at the now-former City Hall as well as a second one-story structure down the block. Now that those offices have nearly all been moved into the new three-story location at 201 N. Montezuma Street, a block to the north, the City is seeking proposals for the sale and redevelopment of the former City Hall building, as well as the second public building on Cortez. Sitting on a combined site measuring just over one acre, the two structures are both solidly built and have a modern design. The former City Hall structure was completed in 1963 and measures around 20,000 square feet. The second structure was put up in 1977 and has just over 2,100 square feet. The original City Hall, built at a cost of under $300,000, is a steel frame structure made up of exterior concrete masonry and precast stone panels. The structure was designed by the firm that is today called Olson Kundig Architects. By Garry Boulard ![]() Work is expected to begin soon on a unique 25-story project that has been in the planning and development phase in Phoenix for well over a year. The company Thunderbird Legacy Development, based in Phoenix, is putting up a structure adjacent to, and over, a historic two-story building at 39 E. Jackson Street. Earlier approved by the Phoenix City Council, the project which will be called Fairmont Phoenix and will see the building of 225 hotel rooms, 34 suites, and another 151 condominium units, as well as restaurant and bar space, a café, and rooftop pool. To be branded as a Fairmont hotel and called the Fairmont Hotel and Residences Phoenix, the ambitious project is expected to cost up to $150 million to build. In combining an older, historic space with one that is entirely new, the project will have the roof as well as one outer wall of the original structure removed to become a part of the larger building. That older structure for decades has been the home to the job training group called the Arizona Opportunities Industrialization Center, which will remain in operation at the site. If all goes as expected, work will be completed on the project in early 2025. By Garry Boulard |
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