![]() A national sporting goods chain may be planning to expand its presence in Colorado with a new 22,000 square foot store on the south side of Durango. According to city documents, the store will go up on a 2.3-acre site at the intersection of U.S Highway 550 and Turner Drive and will include store, display, and office space. The building will be constructed as a concrete masonry unit with metal framing. Secondary building materials include wood treatments and metals panels. The proposal has won the initial approval of the Durango Planning Commission, as well as the city’s Design Review Board. Although the identity of the company has not been officially disclosed, the Durango Herald has suggested that the interested party may be Recreation Equipment Incorporated (REI). That company is based in Seattle, and specializes in everything from skiing to climbing, cycling, and camping equipment. Founded in 1938, the company has more than 160 locations, with nearly a dozen stores in Colorado and a strong presence on the East and West coasts. In 2021, it realized revenue in excess of $3.7 billion. By Garry Boulard
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![]() A default on the federal government’s debts could cause general economic turmoil, with the impact spreading to the nation’s state capitals, according to a just-published analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures. “Federal reimbursements to states would cease,” predicts Brian Wanko, legislative director for the NCSL’s State-Federal Affairs Program, of a Washington default. In addition, “matching money for partnership programs would no longer be available, and the federal government would suspend funding for state-led projects and programs,” continues Wanko. Overall state budgets would be severely impacted, too, with the possibility of the U.S. economy even entering a depression. Interestingly, the last time a state government defaulted on its debts was during the Great Depression in 1933 when Arkansas fell short on its highway bond funding. But the model for what might happen nationally is nonexistent, simply because a U.S federal default has never happened. Wanko additionally notes that should a federal default occur, “Social Security and federal pension payments might cease, federal agencies would furlough employees.” Such vital agencies as the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Customs could only continue to operate with an emergency stopgap measure by approved by President Biden and Congress. Earlier this month the National Conference of State Legislatures, along with the National League of Cities, and National Association of Counties, among several other groups, sent a letter to Congress asking it to “increase or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible.” The letter additionally urged the President and Congress to “consider serious long-term reforms that will reduce the national debt and put the country on more sustainable fiscal footing.” It is thought that the federal government could run out of funds by as early as July if a solution to the looming debt limit is not reached. By Garry Boulard ![]() A major supplier of dry bulk processing and handling equipment has announced plans to expand its current manufacturing facilities on the southeast side of Prescott Valley, Arizona. Superior Industries, which is headquartered in Morris, Minnesota, wants to increase the square footage of its plant located at 9880 E. Superior Lane. The company said the expansion will increase its currently facility footprint by about a third. In a statement, Jason Adams, president of Superior, remarked: “Our dealers in the region are growing rapidly and we need to increase production space so they can continue supporting their customers.” Founded in 1972, Superior opened its Prescott Valley location in 2007 in a move designed to better serve its growing markets in both the Southwest U.S. as well as Latin America. The following year Superior was listed by the publication Inc. as one of the fastest growing companies in the country. Adams added that the new facility will make it possible for Superior to “employ more people, help our dealers grow, and supply more American-made products to the region’s stone, sand, and gravel companies.” The company also specializes in screening, washing, and conveying systems, while also supplying parts and services for the aggregate and mining industries. By Garry Boulard ![]() A bill designed to increase economic development opportunities in rural sections of Colorado has won approval in the legislature’s House Committee on Appropriations. As introduced by Representatives Marc Caitlin and Barbara McLachlan, the legislation calls for making official what is already called the Rural Opportunity Office, to assist communities as they transition from economies based on the production of coal. As proposed, the Rural Opportunity Office will operate under the umbrella of the state’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade and will require that economic development staff must be physically located in rural communities across Colorado. The legislation, SB23-006, has thus far won approval in the full Senate in advance of a vote before the full House. As quoted in the Sterling Journal-Advocate, McLachlin remarked that the Rural Opportunity Office will provide a “pathway to promote, diversify, and expand economic opportunities in small towns to meet the needs of our neighbors.” Nearly 75% of the landmass in Colorado is defined as rural, comprising just under 1,700 square miles. According to the U.S. Census, more than 500,000 people live in rural swaths of the Centennial State, a large percentage of whom have relied on coal-fired power plants and coal mines for employment. It is thought that nearly 2,000 people currently work in those industries. By Garry Boulard ![]() Up to $562 million in federal funding is being made available for a variety of projects across the country designed to enhance climate change resilience. The funding is coming through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate-Ready Coasts Initiative and will see creation of resilient projects in some 30 states. The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration has a long history of “working with community partners to advance our understanding of coastal processes, conserve coastal resources, and restore habitat,” remarked Rick Spinrad, administrator of the agency, in a statement. Spinrad added that funding secured through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is making it easier to “super-charge these activities so that communities facing all types of climate impacts can prepare for what’s ahead, create climate-smart jobs, and build economic resilience.” The new funding will see $477 million targeting projects strengthening communities in coastal areas in their response to extreme weather events, while also restoring coastal habitats, among other initiatives. While most of the funded projects are located in states along the East and West coasts, Texas will share in just over $22 million in funding for a marine debris removal competition, along with just under $5 million for an oyster reef habitat restoration effort. By Garry Boulard ![]() Members of the Phoenix City Council have given their approval to a rezoning proposal that will see the demolition of a nearly 80-year-old church to make way for a modern apartment complex. Located at 745 W Fillmore Street, the Mercy Hill Church, in the city’s downtown Triangle Neighborhood, is under contract to be sold to the Trumont Group, a real estate and investment firm based in Dallas. Preliminary plans call for the construction of a four-story building that will house 122 residential units. While some consideration was given to preserving the church, which features a nave with intricate wood ceiling cross beams, it was subsequently thought that it would cost too much to bring the building up to date. Even so, published reports indicate that the new structure will incorporate the brick colonnades of what was originally called the Church on Fillmore as well as its highly visible bell tower, while also trying to maintain the Spanish-style design of the original structure. At least one public input meeting has been held regarding plans for the site, which include building live-work units on the first floor of the new structure as well as several studio spaces. A final sale date for the property has not yet been announced. Officials with the Mercy Hill Church say the congregation will move to another location in the city once that sale is finalized. The Trumont Group specializes in apartment complexes ranging in size from 228 units to 374 units in both Texas and Arizona. By Garry Boulard ![]() Funding has now been secured for the construction completion of a new school on the main Albuquerque campus of Central New Mexico Community College. Members of the New Mexico State Legislature several weeks ago voted in favor of a $7.3 million dollar capital outlay to fund the completion of the Applied Technology facilities. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has subsequently signed that legislation into law. The language in what was House Bill 505 specifically requires the $7.3 million to be spent to “plan, design, construction, furnish and equip” the Applied Technologies project. Last fall voters in New Mexico approved a nearly $216 million general obligation bond, with some $15 million targeting the new trades and applied technology facility at CNM. The school, which was launched in 1964 and has a current enrollment of around 22,000 students, has in recent months has seen additional new construction in the form of a 43,000 square foot Student Services Building, with work launching earlier this year. By Garry Boulard ![]() A move to streamline the application process for broadband deployment is picking up steam in Congress. Members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have heard testimony from a wide range of industry groups contending that the current process is not just unnecessarily lengthy, but also chaotic. According to an Energy and Commerce staff memo, new projects must not only secure the usual zoning and construction permits, but also endure lengthy environmental and historic preservation reviews. “The unpredictable timelines for permit approvals and high fees for processing applications have made it more expensive and burdensome to deploy broadband infrastructure,” continues the memo. While historic new levels of federal funding for broadband construction have been made available through the 2021 Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act, the permitting process has served as an obstacle to new projects, asserts Cathy McMorris Rogers, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “We need to lift these regulatory burdens, cut the red tape, and roll out the red carpet,” said Rogers, adding that unless the permitting process is simplified, rural America will be left behind, while children will “continue to go without access to educational resources.” A number of bills presently being considered in Congress would ease restrictions on projects on federal land and remove historic preservation and environmental reviews, while also implementing what are called “shot clocks” designed to limit how long broadband infrastructure applications can be reviewed. The move to shorten the broadband project review process has won the support of a number of prominent industry groups, including the National Association of Realtors. By Garry Boulard ![]() A company dedicated to advancing sustainable farming practices in the West has announced plans to develop two solar projects on around 7,500 acres of land on the far east side of Colorado. Crossroads Agriculture, which is a subsidiary of the Delray Beach, Florida-based Soloviev Group, wants to build what will be more than one gigawatt of photovoltaic solar energy on land it already owns not far from the small statuary town of Haswell. In a press release issued by the company it is noted that the solar installations in the Eastern Plains region have the potential of operating for “approximately 30 years, which allows the farmland and groundwater aquifer below to rest and regenerate.” The two solar projects will be done in conjunction with a subsidiary of NextEra Resources LLC. In a statement, Stefan Soloviev, Crossroads Agriculture chairman, said that the two planned solar projects are “another step in our commitment to renewable energy.” Continued Soloviev: “We already have more than 30 wind turbines operating in New Mexico, with another 40 to be built in 2024 on Crossroads ground in Colorado, with hundreds more anticipated in the years to come.” Crossroads Agriculture was launched in 1999. In the decades since, the company has operated up to 400,000 acres of ranch and farmland not only in Colorado, but also Kansas, New Mexico, and New York. According to the publication Kiowa County Independent, Soloviev is regarded as “one of the top 100 landowners in the country.” By Garry Boulard ![]() On a downtown street lined with historic one and two-story buildings in downtown Silver City, a building is up for sale that has provided endless hours of entertainment to three generations of residents. “It’s really in very good shape,” says Levi Hermman of the Gila Theater, which was first opened in 1948 when the top movies were the Red River starring John Wayne, Paleface starring Bob Hope, and Easter Parade starring Fred Astaire. “But although we have kept it up through the years, we decided it would just be easier to sell it, especially to someone who wants to keep it going as a theater,” continues Hermann, who owns the building. Measuring around 12,600 square feet, the Gila Theater at 415 N. Bullard Street was the first movie house of its kind in the area to feature a built-in candy concession, and features office space on the second floor and adjacent retail space. “We’ve had quite a few inquiries,” says Hermann of a building that has had a series of owners through the decades and underwent an extensive renovation in 2007. “But so far, nothing has been finalized.” With an asking price of $419,000, the Gila Theater should be seen as something of a steal. But such properties, notes Ken Stein, are not always that easy to sell. “They really are special kinds of properties,” remarks Stein, the president of the Forest Hill, Maryland-based League of Historic American Theaters. “Potential buyers are always confronted with the challenge of whether they want to keep these places open as theaters, or repurpose them for some other kind of use,” continues Stein. While the 19th century movie palaces of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities originally served as opera houses, before giving themselves over to vaudeville and finally becoming strictly movie theaters by the 1920s, the movie houses of small-town America followed a slightly different trajectory. “Unlike the grand palaces, which are really beautiful places that have been updated in recent years and still either show movies or feature Broadway plays, the movie houses in smaller towns have had a tougher time of it,” says Stein. That’s not just because the small towns in which the movie houses are located have oftentimes lost populations and been economically challenged themselves, but because such venues have frequently had only one screen. “That makes it harder to sell,” agrees Phyllis Bechtold, a realtor with Montana Real Estate who is representing the Roxy Theater, an Art Deco-designed two-story building in Choteau, Montana. Opened in the summer of 1946 and measuring around 4,800 square feet, the Roxy has been a mainstay in the northwestern Montana city of around 1,700 people ever since. “It’s one of our main social events,” Bechtold says of the movies that are still shown at the Roxy, located at 25 Main Street. “What happens to this movie house is important to the entire town.” In recent years, the Roxy Theater has endured by also hosting live theater. A stage was built to the front of the movie screen, providing enough space for performances, while the old-fashioned 35-millimeter project room has been upgraded to allow for digital technology. But such conversions, making movie houses more marketable as properties, come with their own challenges. “The projection equipment used for the digital screening of a movie has a different throw and angle, as well as a different lighting quality,” notes Stein. Some theaters, such as the grand Tampa Theater in downtown Tampa, built in 1926, spent around $150,000 switching over to digital. “They set up a series of mirrors to deal with the problem of the digital being too far away and at the wrong angle,” reports Stein. A nearly equal challenge has come with the iconic neon marquees that decorate the fronts of the movie houses and are treasured by movie house fans. “That’s not going anywhere,” says Bechtold when asked about the Roxy Theater’s classical multi-color marquee with the word “Roxy” spelled out in script form. In fact, while other theaters currently listed for sale around the country, such as the West Theater built in 1941 in Cedartown, Georgia; and the World War II-era Noyo Theater in Willits, California, have seen some interior renovations, their marquees have remained intact, prominent, and always colorful. “It would be great if everything about the place could remain the same,” says Hermann in speaking of the Silver City’s Gila Theater,” and that includes the marquee.” In fact, adds Hermann, his ultimate wish is not just finding a buyer for the Gila Theater, but one who “will keep it just as it is, showing movies, so that people can enjoy forever.” By Garry Boulard |
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