![]() An ambitious plan to repair and replace miles of cracked, damaged, and missing sidewalks in Denver is expected to launch by the spring of next year. The much-discussed program came into being after voters in November 2022 passed a referendum calling upon the City to begin not just repairing sidewalks, but also curbs and even some driveways. According to City figures there are nearly 3,500 miles of sidewalks in the Mile High City, many built more than a century ago, and roughly 40% of them are in poor condition or too narrow. Entire sections of sidewalks have somehow disappeared through the years or were never there in the first place. The language to the 2022 ballot required the city’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to replace, repair, and build sidewalks in what supporters said would be a “timely and affordable manner.” Funding for the project is designed to come through the levying of a fee on property owners. The amount of the fees, however, remains uncertain, prompting the Land Use, Transportation, and Infrastructure Committee to recently ask the Denver City Council to hold off on implementing the program until the spring of 2025. Also set for 2025: a Sidewalk Master Plan that will be sent out for public comment laying out what sidewalks in what part of the city are most likely to first be built anew or repaired. A city that was officially incorporated in 1861, Denver still has in place miles and miles of sidewalks that were built in the late 19th century, some of which were made up of flagstones. By Garry Boulard Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay
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![]() A final decision is expected to be announced next month regarding the big construction of a highway in southern New Mexico that will connect the cities of Santa Teresa and Sunland Park. What is being called the Border Highway Connector has long been promoted by state, regional, and local officials who see the route as an effective way of moving trucks between the busy Santa Teresa Port of Entry and, ultimately, Interstate 10. What is expected to be a nearly $80 million project, built between New Mexico State Roads 136 and 273, has been the subject of a series of public input meetings exploring the benefits of the new highway. Those benefits, according to New Mexico Department of Transportation officials, include providing a more direct access route to U.S./Mexico border crossings, and reducing ongoing traffic volumes on existing nearby routes. Designed as a four-lane highway running some 7.5 miles, the Border Highway Connector, according to the El Paso Times, is now being seen as a preferred route by the New Mexico DOT, noting that it has “received the highest rating among a final list of six route choices.” At least 5.5 miles of the new route will be comprised of vast portions of desert land. The New Mexico DOT has said that it may end up purchasing some of that land. A final official decision on where the Border Highway Connector will be built is expected to be announced in July. Work on what is expected to be a two-year project will most likely begin in early 2026. By Garry Boulard Image Credit: Courtesy of Unsplash ![]() Interest rates will remain exactly where they are for now, the Federal Reserve has just announced, putting an end to speculation that the rates may be on the verge of an immediate downward slope. In a press release, the Fed noted that both general economic activity and employment have remained strong in the spring and early summer, while "inflation has eased over the past year, but remains elevated.” For the last year, the Fed’s fund rate, which is the rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another, has remained in the range of anywhere from 5.2% to 5.5%. That steady rate contrasts dramatically with the historic increase recorded from March of 2022 to last September, when the rate went from well under 1% to 5.3%. Despite this most recent unchanged rate, Federal Reserve officials have signaled that they may well reduce borrowing costs sometime in the next half year. This is a sign, said the New York Times, “that they plan to be patient before turning a corner in their fight against rapid inflation.” The Federal Open Market Committee, in its statement, said that for now “the economic outlook is uncertain,” adding that committee members remain highly concerned about inflation risks. In issuing a policy change in the months to come, the Committee said it will “take into account a wide range of information, including readings on labor market conditions, inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and financial and international developments.” The collective forecast, thinks the publication Barron’s, “implies only a one quarter-point cut at the end of this year,” which nevertheless would be a “significant shift from earlier this year.” Such predictions comport with an economists’ poll conducted in late May by the Financial Times in which half of the 39 responding academics said they thought the Fed would make only a one quarter point cut before the end of the year. “Fed officials believe the continued strength of the jobs market gives them leeway to keep rates at a 23-year high of 5.2 to 5.5%,” said the publication, noting at the same time that central banks in both Canada and Europe have recently reduced rates. By Garry Boulard Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay ![]() One of the oldest existing synagogues in the West is receiving state funding in Colorado for some important structural upgrade work. Located at 407 Maple Street in the city of Trinidad, the Temple Aaron was built in 1889 and late last year was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The building was designed by the well-known architect Isaac Hamilton Rapp, who is known as the originator of the "Santa Fe style" that would come to be seen in dozens of other public and private structures in the West between the 1880s and 1920s. The nearly $238,000 funding for the Temple Aaron work is coming from the History Colorado's State Historical Fund, and will specifically be used for replacement of the temple's pressed metal roof and rehabilitation of masonry earlier damaged by water infiltration. Previous reports have indicated that the building is also in need of an electrical system upgrade and a restoration of the structure's wooden window frames. The History Colorado funding for the Temple Aaron work is part of a larger nearly $5.5 million in grants the organization is giving this year to some 37 historic property upgrades and restorations across the state. In a statement, Marcia Moore Gantz, director of the State Historical Fund, said that the grants "not only preserve physical structures but also safeguard the cultural narratives and identities that define Colorado." In the 2000 book Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West, Temple Aaron was described as an "unusually handsome, two-story brick and sandstone temple, graced by stained glass windows vividly illustrating Biblical scenes." By Garry Boulard Image Credit: Courtesy of History Colorado ![]() One of the largest light rail systems in the West is on the verge of becoming yet a little bit larger. Members of the Phoenix City Council have now given a green light to a plan that will push the region’s Valley Metro system further west. Variations of that plan have been in the works for at least 5 years. With a current ridership in excess of 10.7 million people, the Valley Metro transit system was launched in late 2008 and has in the years since steadily expanded, building both new tracks as well as more than forty stations. The most recent expansion saw the completion of the Northwest Phase II project in January of this year, a project attracting more than $370 million in federal and regional funds. Now work will see the building of transit infrastructure along Indian School Road, all the way to the Desert Sky Mall Transit Center at 7887 W. Thomas Road. Matters that still remain to be determined include the locations of any new stations connected to the expansion, funding, and an implementation timeline. The project will also need the approval of Valley Metro's board of directors, as well as the Maricopa Association of Governments. Once the project moves to the immediate pre-development stage, both Valley Metro and the City By Garry Boulard ![]() New office construction is falling to an all-time low, according to a respected real estate analysis firm, with numbers that are only the latest in a four-year decline. The report from Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated is showing that nearly 266,000 square feet of new office building construction had launched during the first quarter of this year. That may seem like a healthy number, until compared with where the industry was in the first three months of 2020, just as the Covid 19 pandemic broke. Then more than 10.5 million square feet of new office construction was underway. To put it another way, while there’s some 55 million square feet of new office construction currently in the pipeline, that figure is an incredible 60% below where things stood four years ago. At the same time, the first quarter of this year saw some 7.7 million square feet of new office space completed, a figure that JLL sees as most likely the “highest level of completions” to be expected for the foreseeable future. The dearth of new office construction has occurred hand-in-hand with a trend seeing the emptying of existing office space across the country. “The repercussions could extend far beyond the owners of these buildings and their lenders,” the New York Times reported last week. Noting that a drop in the value of office real estate has the potential of obliterating property tax revenue for cities, the paper added: “Empty and nearly empty office buildings also hurt restaurants and other businesses that served companies and workers who occupied those spaces.” While the numbers are in every way daunting, the site FastCompany.com points out that concurrently there is a “growing trend of converting existing office space into condos and apartments, which is gradually gaining momentum.” In fact, the overall rate of office space being used for other purposes jumped in the first quarter of this year by around 50%. In a move designed to accelerate this latest trend, notes the publication The Hill, state lawmakers across the country are “proposing tax incentives to help make office to residential building conversions more affordable.” By Garry Boulard Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay ![]() Park and public facility upgrades in El Paso County, Texas, may be in the offing depending upon the fate of a proposed $350 million bond in this November’s election. Currently the subject of a series of public input meetings, the bond could well include funding for upgrades to the county’s Ascarate Park, located at 6900 Delta Drive, which includes an 18-hole golf course. Other likely projects: improvements to the historic El Paso County Coliseum at 4100 E. Paisano Drive, and facility upgrades to the Sun Bowl on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso. The proposal is being referenced as a Quality of Life Bond, similar to the massive $470 million City of El Paso Quality of Life Bond proposals that were overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2012. That City bond has since been used to fund a wide array of park, library, museum, and cultural center projects. Earlier reports have indicated that up to 100 individual projects are being considered for the El Paso County Quality of Life bond, with talk of additionally funding a new animal shelter, expanding the county’s office complex, and improving the Juvenile Justice Center at 6400 Delta Drive. There are expected to be at least half a dozen more public input meetings on the bond question in the weeks to come. Earlier this year the County hired the firm Barracuda Public Relations of El Paso to spread word of the proposed bond through press releases, social media, radio ads, and direct mail. By Garry Boulard Image Credit: Courtesy of Unsplash ![]() A long-time wish in the Town of Peralta is a step closer to reality with the announcement that up to $1 million in federal funds have been secured for the construction of a new fire station. That funding is more specifically coming through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Community Facilities loan and grant program. The project will most likely be built on the west side of New Mexico State Road 47 as that route intersects with Molina Road. As planned, the project will include five equipment bays with an 11,000-square-foot facility housing two offices, a training room, kitchen, locker room, sleeping area, and decontamination room complete with restrooms and showers. Announcement of the $1 million grant was made by New Mexico Democrat Representative Melanie Stansbery, who submitted a request to fund the new fire station more than a year ago. In making that request, Stansbery had originally asked for $8 million. The current fire station, serving a population of around 3,300 residents, is located at 3 James Road and was built nearly a half century ago. According to local officials, the facility is no longer up to modern standards. In an interview last year with the Valencia County News-Bulletin, Peralta Fire Chief Jeremy Fiedler remarked: "We have to double up locker space. Right now, we don't even have room for a washing machine to wash our gear." Early design work for the facility has been conducted by the Albuquerque-based Molzen Corbin architectural firm. Town officials are hoping to secure additional funding from other sources before an exact construction schedule is announced. By Garry Boulard New Labor Report Reveals Unexpected Late Spring Payroll Expansion - Construction Jobs Up Once Again6/10/2024 ![]() Confounding earlier predictions forecasting modest growth, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported a robust job increase of some 272,000 in May, up from the 165,000 reported the month before. “Employment continued to trend up in several industries,” the Employment Situation Summary reports, “led by health care; government; leisure and hospitality; and professional, scientific, and technical services.” The 272,000-job gain was, on average, the strongest report seen for most of this year, with the exception of March, which posted 310,000 new jobs. The latest figures are up over the 232,000 job average for the last twelve months, “scrambling the picture of an economy that’s relaxing into a more sustainable pace,” remarked the New York Times. The strong numbers, suggested the Washington Times, should be taken as a sign that “companies are still confident enough in the economy to keep hiring despite persistently high interest rates.” In the construction sector, 17,100 new jobs were recorded for May, with nonresidential building seeing a 5.2% gain over where things stood at this same time exactly a year ago and the nonresidential specialty trade contractors up by 3.3% over May of 2023. “Despite perpetual fears of recession and the dislocating impacts of high borrowing costs, the U.S. nonresidential construction is adding jobs rapidly and will continue to do so,” Anirban Basu, chief economist with the Associated Builders and Contractors, remarked of the new numbers in a statement. Basu added that the rapid increase in construction projects continues to "more than offset the negative impacts of elevated project financing costs.” The continued construction job gain was equally celebrated by Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors, who remarked: “Construction firms have been adding workers at a faster clip than most sectors.” Simonson added, however, that “contractors say they are still having trouble finding enough skilled workers to meet the demand for data centers, manufacturing plants, renewable energy, and infrastructure projects.” By Garry Boulard Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay ![]() Plans are moving forward in central Colorado for the construction of a new housing complex that could include as many as 350 housing units. The project in El Paso County would go up on a 59-acre site near Palmer Divide and Interstate 25 in the town of Monument. As proposed, the Monument Ridge East project will include both duplexes and single-family homes with units priced between $300,000 and $500,000. El Paso County has seen significant population growth in the last two decades, taking it from 516,000 residents in the year 2000 to around 744,000 today. The town of Monument, meanwhile, has gone from less than 2,000 people in that same time period, to some 11,000 as of 2023. An independent study released late last year forecast that the county would have around one million residents in the next two decades. Because of that growth, residents living near to the proposed project have expressed concerns about increased traffic in what has historically been a rural part of the state. In a recent presentation a representative for the project from the Boulder-based Vertex Consulting Services said that those concerns are expected to be addressed in an upcoming traffic study that will be submitted to El Paso County officials. While the overall project plan has been submitted to the both the El Paso County Planning Commission and the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners, it is not known when either of those bodies will vote on the matter. By Garry Boulard |
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