![]() Specializing in shafts, axles, and gears for everything from automobiles to motorcycles and tractors, a growing manufacturing company based in Taiwan has announced plans to build in southern New Mexico. Hota Industrial Manufacturing has announced that it wants to put up a new manufacturing facility on a 30-acre site inside the Westpark Industrial Park in Santa Teresa. The company, started in 1966 as Hexel Industrial, has emerged through the decades as a giant in the gear manufacturing world and currently has operating facilities in both China and Japan. In the West it has opened plants in Detroit, Los Angeles, and Monterrey, Mexico. The company's decision to build in Santa Teresa comes after extensive talks with State of New Mexico officials. Ultimately, said Alicia Keyes in a statement, "Hota chose New Mexico's Borderplex because of the availability of desirable land, the workforce, and our logistical advantages that provides access to both Mexico's factories and North American customers." The Secretary for the New Mexico Economic Development Department added that Hota is one of several growing companies "who see New Mexico as a solution to fortify and diversify their global supply chain." The Hota company is nothing if not innovative. According to the book The Future of Work in Asia and Beyond, the company emerged from the global Great Recession of more than a decade ago by incorporating robotics, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing into its production procedures. Hota also "redesigned its operational processes," the layout of its main factory, and quality control mechanisms "to accommodate the technology and production overhauls." According to the Wall Street Journal, Hota last year saw revenues in excess of $7.3 billion. By Garry Boulard
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![]() A large federal program designed to physically reconnect impoverished neighborhoods with the larger cities they exist in is now being rolled out by the Department of Transportation. The Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program was created as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act with the goal of removing existing access and mobility barriers such as highways and train tracks that border low-income communities. Planners have for decades looked at the impact of federal highway construction slicing though historic, settled neighborhoods in such cities as Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, and Miami. In New Orleans the Treme neighborhood was cut off from the rest of the city due to the building of an Interstate 10 ramp that also uprooted hundreds of historic oak trees. According to a study published two years ago by the Social Impact Review, “urban planners disproportionally and sometimes purposely routed freeways through the neighborhoods where people of color lived, or used these freeways to create boundary lines between White and Black communities.” Late last year, the New York Times pointed to a Transportation Department study estimating that over a million people across the country have been displaced by highway construction projects beginning in the late 1950s. The paper added: “Hundreds of thousands more were forced to move by urban renewal projects, with scant assistance provided to those relocated.” Now the Department of Transportation is announcing up to $198 million in available grant funding for its Reconnecting Communities program for cities and communities, with $50 million of that amount to be used for technical assistance. A second, and substantially larger effort is coming through the Neighborhood Access and Equity Program, offering $3.1 billion in planning grants and construction grants, among other things. In a statement, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg remarked that “transportation should never divide communities—its purpose is to connect people to jobs, schools, housing, groceries, family, places of worship and more.” In an effort to expedite the funding process, the Transportation Department is allowing grant applicants to apply for support from either the Reconnecting Communities or Neighborhood Access and Equity programs via a single application. By combining the two grant availabilities into one application, said Buttigieg, “We are making it easier for communities to seek and receive the funding they need to build a better, safer, inclusive infrastructure for the future.” Earlier this year the Transportation Department awarded upwards of $185 million for Reconnecting Communities projects in 45 states. By Garry Boulard ![]() A large hotel situated within the boundaries of a busy business park in Denver is being listed for sale by real estate giant CRBE. The seven-story Hilton Garden Inn, located at 7675 E. Union Avenue, changed hands a decade ago for around $27.9 million, and, according to the publication HNR Hotel News, is now "poised to recapture high-rate corporate business." The hotel is additionally, continues the publication, forecast to produce an income margin "to the 30% level achieved historically." With 180 rooms, the hotel features a swimming pool, fitness center, business center, and nearly 4,700 square feet of business space. The hotel is a part of the Garden Inn line offered by the famous Hilton group which is made up of just under 900 hotels globally. But it is the property's four-acre site within the Denver Tech Center business park that is perhaps its greatest selling point. First developed in the early 1970s, the park has offices for some of the biggest names in corporate America, including Dow Jones & Company, the Comcast Corporation, JP Morgan Chase and Company, and PepsiCo Incorporated. Altogether, the business park comprises around 37 million square feet of office space. Earlier this year a 263-room Sheraton property located within the Denver Tech Center sold for $16.2 million. The Hilton Garden Inn Denver Tech Center property was acquired in the fall of 2013 by Chatham Lodging Trust, based in West Palm Beach, Florida. By Garry Boulard ![]() Plans to significantly transform a much-used transit station in Albuquerque are taking a significant step forward with the awarding of around $25 million in federal funding. Located at 2121 Indiana Street NE, the Uptown Transit Center has for years served as one of the city’s public transportation stations for its busy ABQ Ride bus system. But City of Albuquerque officials have wanted to do more with the facility and larger site, located in a part of the city dotted with office structures. According to city documents, what is now a planned redevelopment of the site will be a three-phase effort, with the first two phases transforming the center into a 100-foot-wide transit plaza housing half a dozen bus docks, along with covered waiting areas, and some 22,000 square feet of commercial space. The second phase of the project, which has received the most media attention, will see the building of a 7-story tower structure housing more than 200 affordable apartment units, along with an additional nearly two dozen separate apartments. Upon completion of phase one and two, the project will move onto the construction of yet more housing, in this case, some 194 market-rate residential units and another 6,000 square feet of commercial space on one-acre piece of land. Work on that third phase will also see demolition of a two-story Nusenda Credit Union location at 6501 Indian School Road NE, one block from the current Uptown Transit Center. The $25 million is coming through a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant, offered by the federal Department of Transportation. Such grants are designed to focus on road, rail, transit, and port projects, with a focus on multi-modal development. According to a press release issued by the Transportation Department roughly 70% of RAISE grants awarded this spring have gone to regions defined as either a Historically Disadvantaged Community or an Area of Persistent Poverty. In a statement, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich said a RAISE-funded project is not like an Intermodal Surface Transportation Act project “that comes along every five years on transit.” Instead, Heinrich likened the RAISE projects in importance to the historic Federal Highway Act of 1956, signed into law by President Eisenhower, which triggered the actual building of the interstate highway system. By Garry Boulard ![]() Rents are continuing to increase for student housing across country, responding to a distinct post-pandemic demand for more student residential space, according to several new reports. Notes the site Real Page: rents for student housing space saw a 9% increase in May of this year over May of 2022. That strong market improvement is in contrast to an overall multifamily rent increase during the same time period of only 2.3%. “Housing geared to college students at popular schools is a rare bright spot in the beleaguered commercial real estate business,” notes the Wall Street Journal. The demand is all the more impressive just three years after the Covid 19 outbreak devastated the student housing market with millions of students returning to their parents’ homes, emptying out college dorms. Demand, in fact, was well underway last year, notes the commercial real estate services firm CRBE, which says investors purchasing student housing properties accounted for a record $22.9 billion in sales as of the end of 2022. That $22.9 billion figure is more than double what it was the year before. The numbers reflect a return to a market that was thriving before Covid 19 when investors were scooping up student housing properties everywhere, especially high-end complexes with swimming pools, fitness rooms, and ground floor retail. Prospects for continued student housing construction and investor purchases look all the more promising due to a projected increase in the nation’s undergraduate student population. According to the National Center for Education Statistics that population is expected to reach 16.6 million by 2026—up from 15.4 million in 2021. In May, Riverside Development of Chattanooga purchased the Edge apartment complex across the street from the main campus of the University of Tennessee for $6.6 million. Just weeks ago, the Everly on the Loop student housing complex near Washington University in St. Louis was purchased for nearly $50 million. The market, according to analysts, is additionally expected to remain strong for the foreseeable future largely because interest rates have limited student housing construction activity, making existing properties more in demand than ever. By Garry Boulard ![]() An initial feasibility study has been completed looking at a proposal to build a new performing arts center in Thornton, Colorado. The possibilities of such a facility have intrigued Thornton officials for years, with the study coming just weeks after work was launched on the construction of a 40,000 square-foot community center in the city. The feasibility study looked at building a performing arts center with a 1,500-seat capacity theater and both meeting rooms and classrooms. A second option explored the benefits of a smaller 500-seat theater building that would feature a greater variety of amenities, such as studios and art galleries. Both options, according to the study, which partly relied on the input of focus groups conducted earlier this spring, would include a lobby large enough to hold banquet-type events. The consultant's study was put together by a group called Theater Projects, a firm specializing in venue planning and design services, with offices in Denver; along with Keen Independent Research, which is headquartered in Phoenix. Still to be explored: whether the center will be built as a public-private partnership and be part of a larger entertainment district that might include restaurants and bars. While the study bluntly raised questions regarding the viability of a performing arts center in the vicinity of other popular theaters in nearby Arvada, Denver, and Broomfield, it did also reference Thornton's ongoing population growth. The most recent U.S. Census pegs Thornton's population at just under 142,000, with the study itself forecasting that the city's population will easily surpass the 210,00 mark in the next 30 years. And the more residents in a given city, the thinking goes, the more likely the need for a performing arts center. A further look at project costs and funding options is expected to be explored before the proposal is finally taken up by the Thornton City Council. By Garry Boulard ![]() The building of a 750,000 square-foot hospital and healthcare facility in Flagstaff is expected to begin sometime next February. This timeline represents a recalibration of the project, which is also thought to be over budget, according to several news sources. Northern Arizona Healthcare has for years been planning to build what it is calling a Health and Wellness Village near the Fort Tuthill County Park, roughly 6 miles to the southwest of downtown Flagstaff. As approved by the City of Flagstaff, the project is slated to see the construction of both a multi-story hospital as well as an ambulatory care center. The larger village site, according to plans, will include 315 residential units, restaurants, a hotel, grocery store, and walking trails spread out over some 22 acres. Originally budgeted at $750 million, with work expected to begin this summer, the project’s price tag has since increased to $800 million. It is now thought that work on the ambulatory care center will be completed in the late summer of 2026, with the hospital finished and ready for business in February of 2028. Last month members of the Flagstaff City Council unanimously voted to approve the first phase construction of the village project. Some area residents, however, have expressed opposition to the project, saying that the approval process for it was too quickly executed. A group called Flagstaff Community First has submitted more than 4,800 signatures to the offices of the Flagstaff City Clerk calling for project to be decided by voters in a referendum. The group charges, among other things, that not enough effort was put into an earlier proposal by Northern Arizona Health to renovate its existing, historic facilities in downtown Flagstaff at 1200 N. Beaver Street. Hospital officials have said that that facility, last renovated more than 25 years ago, is no longer large enough to handle current patient needs. An earlier announced plan to repurpose that structure has yet to be released. Founded in 1995, the Flagstaff-based Northern Arizona Health care is the largest healthcare provider in northern Arizona, serving an estimated 700,000 residents. By Garry Boulard ![]() Construction spending in the manufacturing sector saw a massive increase in the 12 months, according to new U.S. Census Bureau figures, vastly outdistancing expenditures in all other sectors. Just released figures shows an unprecedentedly large 76% gain in the manufacturing sector from May of 2022 to this most recent May. No other sector comes close to that gain, with only the nonresidential, highway and street, and healthcare sectors showing double-digit increases below the 20% mark. Smaller gains were charted in the healthcare sector, with a 12% increase in spending over the spring of last year; the transportation sector, up by 9%, and education sector spending, showing a 7% gain. Only one sector registered a decline: private residential: off by 12% from May of 2022. The new numbers also show an increase in overall construction employment, with residential work seeing a 1.6% increase over the early summer of 2022; while nonresidential jobs were up by 3.2%. Overall, total construction employment in the last year stood at just 7.9 million, for a gain of 23,000 over May, and nearly 280,000 compared with May of 2022. While employment in construction is clearly on the upside almost everywhere, so are, conversely, the number of open jobs. According to a survey put together by the Associated General Contractors of America there were “396,000 job openings in construction, not seasonally adjusted, at the end of May.” That figure marked the second-highest total for the month of May in the 23-year history of the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey. Looking at all jobs in all industries, employment growth was up by some 209,000 last month, a drop from the 306,000 recorded in May. Those numbers, according to the New York Times, represent a “continued cooling of the labor market,” standing in stark comparison to the more than 500,000 new jobs created in the month of July 2022. Looking at the numbers from another direction, the Financial Times noted that the “unemployment rate remained near a multi-decade low,” falling to 3.6%. “Wage growth,” the publication added, “was also stronger than expected at 4.4% on a year-on-year basis.” In a statement upon release of the new BLS statistics, President Biden noted an overall gain since January of 2021 of 13.2 million new jobs. “That’s more jobs added in two and a half years than any president has ever created in a four-year term,” he remarked. By Garry Boulard ![]() Used vehicle retail giant CarMax is planning to build a service facility and auction space in the northern Colorado city of Fort Lupton. The project, to be built just to the north of the city, will see the creation of nearly 71,000 square feet of service space, as well as another just under 5,000 square-foot facility that will be used for auctions. Additional space of around 1,000 square feet will be used as a staging and fueling area, and also for vehicle washing. Based in Richmond, Virginia, CarMax is a fast-growing national retailer with around 250 locations. The company's business model is simple and straightforward: car owners can list their vehicles online for sale with CarMax, while would-be car buyers can review and purchase a car, also primarily online - all without the participation of a typical used car lot salesperson. What has been frequently called a "hassle-free" form of car transaction has netted up to $19 billion in revenue for the company, whose typical locations measure around 59,000 square feet. The company has an equally thriving auction service, with auctions often scheduled on a weekly and biweekly basis. CarMax currently has four store locations in Denver, and one each in the cities of Colorado Springs and Golden. By Garry Boulard ![]() Nearly $47 million in New Mexico loan funding is being made available for infrastructure repair work related to a massive 2022 wildfire that swept through large swaths of northern New Mexico. The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire burned through an estimated 341,000 acres during the summer and spring of last year, destroying just over 900 structures and significantly damaging nearly one hundred more. The fire began as part of a controlled burn project in the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest that quickly spread owing to heavy winds. By the time the fire, in late August, was declared officially over, it was classified as the largest and most devastating wildfire in New Mexico history. Now, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed legislation approved earlier this year providing zero interest loans for repair work in Mora and San Miguel counties. Projects eligible for the loans are expected to center on road restoration, culvert restoration, and road resurfacing. “This is by no means the end of our support for communities affected by the largest wildfire in state history,” the Governor remarked in announcing the loans. Communities in those two counties are also anticipating funding support via the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance program. Previous FEMA support has seen the agency awarding around $17.3 million in funding to the Mora-San Miguel Electric Co-Op for electric infrastructure damage repair, along with another $1.5 million to reimburse the New Mexico FEMA office for shelter operations, equipment, and stuff during the fire. Lujan Grisham has also issued 21 executive orders pushing through some $15 million in additional funding for Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire rebuilding efforts. Last fall President Biden signed into law the Hermit’s Peak Fire Assistance Act, providing upwards of $2.5 billion for personal injuries, and property or business losses suffered as a result of the fire. According to various reports the application process for FEMA funding has been regarded as cumbersome. Two months ago, Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan, along with Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez sent a joint letter to the agency asking for a speeded-up process. “Every day that passes without compensation to the victims delays their ability to begin rebuilding after losing so much,” the lawmakers remarked. FEMA opened offices this spring in Las Vegas, Mora, and Santa Fe in an effort to expedite fire damage claims. By Garry Boulard |
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