![]() The long-standing site of a former sugar beet production facility and warehouse in downtown Grand Junction will soon see the construction of a new apartment complex. Five separate buildings housing a total of 164 residential units will go up on Riverside Parkway, across the way from Las Colonias Park. The site in question was once home to the Colorado Sugar Manufacturing Company, which opened the state’s first beet-processing facility there in 1899. At the cusp of the Great Depression in 1929, operations were ceased at the site, with the structures subsequently used as a uranium mill and finally a warehouse. Now a development firm based in Aspen has received City of Grand Junction approval to put up apartment buildings at the site, as well as storage units, as part of a project that is expected to be built in phases. The Grand Junction-based Kaart Planning & Landscape Architecture has been brought in as project designer. Aspen’s Sweeney Real Estate & Development has also recently completed the three-story Struthers Residences, located at 805 Structures Avenue in Grand Junction, a complex with just under 50 units. Construction on the Riverside Parkway complex is expected to begin sometime next year. By Garry Boulard
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![]() Plans have now been revealed for the construction of a massive new shopping center on the north end of Phoenix that will go up on property currently owned by the Arizona State Land Department. What is being called the Black Mountain Village is being developed by the Phoenix-based Vestar Development, which specializes in the acquisition and management of retail real estate. According to city records, the project will go up on a 20.5-acre site at the southwest corner of Deer Valley Drive and the Black Mountain Parkway. As envisioned by Vestar, the project will see the construction of retail and restaurant space measuring just over 140,600 square feet. An additional and important feature of the project will include what is being called a “neighborhood grocery store,” along with “appropriate parking, lighting and landscaping improvements.” The project is set for an initial review by the neighborhood Desert View Village Planning Committee, before being submitted to both the Phoenix Planning Commission and Phoenix City Council. The developer has stressed that the shopping center will be designed to cater to local neighborhood needs rather than being built with a regional market in mind, such as is usually the case with such projects. As noted in a document submitted to the city by the Phoenix law firm Gammage & Burnham, the shopping center will serve residents of the western portion of the Desert Ridge vicinity, and in so doing will “reduce transportation burdens on residents to reach grocery and other retail opportunities.” Besides securing the approval of the various public bodies for the project, Vestar will also be required to purchase the site location via an Arizona State Land Department public auction. Launched in 1989, Vestar has emerged as a major retail developer in Arizona and throughout the West. Its portfolio includes the 65-acre Lake Pleasant Towne Center in Peoria; and the 25-acre San Tan Village Marketplace in Gilbert. By Garry Boulard ![]() Construction could begin on the north side of Albuquerque later this year on a new soccer stadium to be used by a popular professional local soccer team. The New Mexico United team has for years been trying to get built a stadium that could hold up to 12,000 seats, accommodating a fan base that has seen at least that number of people showing up to watch the team play at Isotopes Park. Even though the New Mexico United's ownership earlier pledged to commit around $10 million to the project, Albuquerque voters in the fall of 2021 rejected a $50 million bond funding the stadium's construction. In the months since, city officials have been trying to figure out a new route for the stadium, an effort hastened by $13.5 million in capital outlay funds approved by the New Mexico State Legislature. Now, reports indicate that the project has moved forward enough for the City of Albuquerque to be actively considering a site for the stadium at the 86-acre Balloon Fiesta Park, located at 4401 Alameda Boulevard. If that site is ultimately decided upon, the stadium would more specifically go up east of the field where the balloons are launched on what is now a parking lot. Earlier this year Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said the stadium should be placed in a manner that would "not put an undue burden on the city with respect to additional infrastructure, or to neighborhoods, and how it may impact the neighborhoods." Speaking last week to a meeting of the NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association, Keller additionally commented: "We're not giving up, and we are going to do this stadium." Neither a site plan nor an official date of construction has yet been announced. By Garry Boulard Foreign Investment in American Real Estate Still Strong, Despite Recent Decline, Says New Report8/3/2023 ![]() International investment in U.S. residential properties remains a very big business, according to a new report issued by the National Association of Realtors, with the greatest investment coming out of three countries in the Western Hemisphere and two countries in Asia. Between April of 2022 and March of this year total foreign buyers purchased 84,600 homes in the U.S. with a total dollar value of $53.3 billion. While that figure is large, it is actually down by 9.6% over the previous year and represents the fewest total number of homes purchased with foreign dollars since the realtors group began tracking such transactions in 2009. The report, 2023 Profile of International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate, reveals Canada, Mexico and Columbia as the countries with the largest number of U.S. property investments in the Western Hemisphere, while China and India rounded out the rest of the top five. The number one state seeing the most foreign investment was Florida, representing 23% of all purchases; followed by California and Texas, at 12% each. Further down the list: Arizona, North Carolina, and Illinois, at 4% each. A breakdown of the figures shows that foreign buyers actually living in the U.S. purchased upwards of $23.4 billion in property. Adds the report: "Foreign buyers who lived abroad purchased $29.9 billion worth of existing homes, up 20% from the 12 months prior." In a statement, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said the overall decline in foreign investment seen in the last year was most likely due to a combination of higher borrowing costs and lower home inventories. Even so, Yun added that "recovering international travel following the end of the pandemic will bring more foreign transactions in coming months and years." As part of a trend that has been playing out now for around a decade, China was first in the dollar amount of U.S. home purchases at $13.6 billion, followed by Canada at $6.6 billion. Purchases from Mexico represented $4.2 billion, with India close behind at $3.4 billion. The top five countries list was rounded out with Columbia at just under $1 billion. By Garry Boulard ![]() A nearly century-old building in a small southern Colorado town may soon be the subject of a rehabilitation project. Located at 603 Main Street in the town of Antonito, the structure, officially the La Sociedad Proteccion Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos (SPMDTU) building, was built in 1925 for the purpose of providing community meeting space for area Hispanic workers. The 7,000-square-foot building has also through the decades been the home of any number of concerts, weddings, boxing matches, plays and movies, among other activities. Listed on both the National and State Register of Historic Places, the building, also known as the Concilio Superior Building, has for some time been in need of an upgrading, including new roofing, and an effort to make the facility entirely Americans with Disabilities Act compliant. Now the State Historical Fund, which is a part of the non-profit group History Colorado, has awarded a grant of just over $245,000 to be used in the rehabilitation effort. That funding is part of a total $875,000 that the group has awarded to the project in recent years. Additional plans call for the creation of both a visitor center and research center. The SPMDTU organization once had around 65 chapters, primarily in Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Texas, and served as a mutual aid society, providing assistance to workers, while also endeavoring to combat discrimination. The group, the Conejos County Citizen newspaper recently noted, continues today as a “diverse group of men and women who conduct monthly meetings and functions,” providing both community services and scholarships. In a statement, Antonio Esquibel, vice president of the organization, said rehabilitation of the Antonito building is expected to spark “new interest in the organization and a desire to participate in its events and acknowledge the importance of the Hispano influence in the San Luis Valley.” If all goes as planned, the rehabilitation work is expected to be completed, with the building once again open to the public, sometime in 2024. By Garry Boulard ![]() One of the most prominent resorts in the Southwest has just announced extensive expansion plans. The Arizona Grand Resort & Spa, located at 8000 South Arizona Grand E, on the southeast side of the city, is a luxury oasis in a 17,000-acre nature preserve. Built in 1986 as the Pointe South Mountain Resort, the property includes 744 rooms, private villas, indoor and outdoor meeting space, and an 18-hole golf course. Guests of the resort, notes the book Moon Phoenix, Scottsdale & Sedona, “spend days at a time braving the ocean-like wave pool, tubing the lazy river, or plunging down the eight-story waterslide.” Now, the owner of the resort, Grossman Company Properties, which is based in Scottsdale, has revealed plans to build 460 new rooms on the property. Those plans also include new restaurant space measuring 35,000 square feet; the addition of some 49,500 square feet in meeting space to an existing 78,000 square feet; and new outdoor terraces measuring 7,300 square feet. The Scottsdale-based architectural firm Swaback has been brought in as the project’s designer. In its proposal to the City of Phoenix, the Grossman company says it wants to develop portions of the massive property that have to date “never been developed.” At the same time, the company wants to update other portions of the property and facilities in an effort to maintain the “classic, timeless character of the Arizona Grand Resort.” The Arizona Grand Resort is one of more than half a dozen hotels owned and operated by the Grossman company as part of the Classic Hotels & Resorts brand. The resort last underwent a major renovation in 2017, a $13 million project which saw an updating of all of its rooms, conference space, and lobby, as well as the addition of 100 luxury villas. By Garry Boulard ![]() Plans for the building of new hotels across the country are up by around 7% over where things stood exactly a year ago, according to a new report. The actual number of rooms, meanwhile, is up by 6%. Lodging Econometrics, which is based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is reporting that the hotel pipeline as of the end of the second quarter of this year was equal to 5,572 individual projects. Those projects, notes the report, represent nearly 661,000 rooms. As of this June, says the report, the “total pipeline is only 5% from its all-time peak in terms of projects.” The new projects represent a buoyancy in the industry, particular in light of such factors as higher interest rates and inflation. “Developers continue to believe in the strength of the economy long-term as witnessed by the continued growth in the pipeline,” says the Lodging Econometrics narrative. Largely, both upscale and upper midscale new projects are leading the way, making up 62% of all planned hotel projects across the country and 57% of all new rooms. At the same time, “announced renovations and brand conversions, combined, reached record high project counts over the last four quarters.” Altogether, such work comprises 1,939 individual projects, representing 253,473 rooms. The extended stay segment is also playing a role in the pipeline scene, with nearly 2,100 projects in the development stage as of June. Those projects represent 214,557 rooms. Continues the report: “Extended stay projects account for 32% of projects under construction in the total pipeline, 42% of projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months, and 26% of the projects in early planning across the U.S.” Not incidentally, the extended stay segment is currently growing at anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 times the forecasted industry growth rates heading into 2025. The New York Times recently noted that extended stay hotels are additionally “appealing to work crews on road, green energy, and other infrastructure projects.” Such hotels, the newspaper added, “are less expensive to build and operate than their full-service counterparts.” By Garry Boulard Historic 150-Year-Old Retail/Residential Structure Listed for Sale in Las Vegas, New Mexico8/2/2023 ![]() A two-story structure with a front balcony in Las Vegas, New Mexico built five years after the end of the Civil War is being listed for sale for $1.8 million. Located at 1805 Old Town Plaza, the building has been the home of a number of retail tenants through the years, most prominently the Plaza Antiques store, which opened there in the late 1990s. Measuring around 10,600 square feet, the structure is designated as a Class B building and houses on its first floor an office, workshop, and photo studio, while the second-floor features two large bedrooms and an extensive modern kitchen. The building is in the middle of Las Vegas Old Town Plaza, a district populated by pleasant two and three-story structures dating to the late 1800s and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Originally known as the Wesche-Dold Building and serving as a general merchandise store, the structure is composed of adobe covered by stucco and designed in what is known as the Territorial Style. The property is being listed by the Duke Realty Group, also of Las Vegas. By Garry Boulard ![]() Work could begin early next year on the building of a 7-story structure in Colorado Springs that will include 400 residential units and site creek and trail amenities. The Creekwalk Apartments will go up on a mostly vacant 4.5-acre site near E. St. Elmo Avenue and E. Ramona Avenue on the south side of the city. The project, which has now won the approval of the Colorado Springs City Council, will also include space for nearly 550 vehicles within an internal parking structure. The developer has additionally agreed to build a pedestrian bridge spanning the nearby historic Cheyenne Creek, which cuts through the city in a general north to southwest direction. The apartment site falls within the boundaries of the city's Creekwalk Redevelopment Concept Plan which focuses on renewal efforts in a part of the city dotted by older retail development. The project belongs to the Colorado Springs-based developer Creekwalk North LLC and has been the subject of at least one public input meeting. Comments regarding the project have complained about its height, although two other residential complexes of equal and greater height exist within the vicinity. City documents define the Creekwalk Apartments project as one that will "serve as a buffer between lower density residential and higher intensity commercial corridor." By Garry Boulard ![]() A downturn in the economy, perhaps large enough to be called a recession, is almost certainly in the offing between now and the summer of 2024, says a top construction economist. Participating in a webinar sponsored by the Washington-based publication Construction Executive, Anirban Basu said that even though the national economy is “humming along and is much stronger than I would have expected at this point,” a downward trend is indicated. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” said Basu, the chief economist for the American Builders and Contractors. Basu noted that even though total non-residential construction spending rose by just under 20% between February of 2020 and May of this year, some sectors have continued to lag. He pointed in particular to hospitality construction, noting that contractors “built a ton of hotel rooms in the five years preceding the pandemic, and business travel has just not come back aggressively.” The economist also noted the price of one-year Treasury bonds with historically high interest rates, remarking that in order to really jumpstart the economy the Federal Reserve should begin to reduce rates, “but I don’t expect that to happen until some point.” Basu said he was also concerned about inventory cycle problems causing major retailers to report lower earnings as signs of an economy headed for trouble. A poll of industry executives surveyed for purposes of the webinar indicated that supply chain problems have greatly decreased in the last year, with 43% in the spring of 2022 pointing to such matters as a leading challenge and only 19% saying the same thing today. Meanwhile, the problem of finding skilled workers persists: in March of 2022, 52% of respondents pointed to a lack of skilled workers as the leading challenge to their companies. Today that number has increased to 58%. Smaller challenges were noted in the areas of an “insufficient demand for construction services,” and the availability of project financing. The survey additionally noted that new nonresidential building construction since the early summer of 2022 was up by a strong nearly 13% in the South, followed by 12.2% in the Northeast, 11.4% in the West, and 8.5% in the Midwest. Factoring in all of the challenges and opportunities, a question asking construction executives to rate how their project backlogs have fared in early 2023 indicated mostly good news, with 42% saying they have seen either a considerable or slight rise; and 27% reporting either a slight or considerable decline. Just under a third reported that their backlogs “remained about the same.” The most dramatic project spending increases by sector since the month before the Covid 19 outbreak were seen in manufacturing, up by 148%, sewerage and waste disposal, with a 42% jump, and water supply work up by 36%. In a survey presented to the Construction Executive in late 2020, when the construction industry was still adjusting to changes wrought by the pandemic, it was noted that manufacturing was only slightly up by 6.5%, with sewerage and waste disposal work seeing a 4.1% improvement, and water supply projects up by 7.3%. Despite the spring 2023 trend lines, Basu said, “I think the national economy is weakening. We’re seeing that in terms of job growth, retail spending, and inventory cycle.” Only seven sectors this spring have seen a decline, with lodging off the most by just under 31%, public safety projects down by 29%, and religious institution work off by 19%. By Garry Boulard |
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