When city officials promoted the Lofts at Farmers Market as a feasible project, some housing advocates and skeptical members of the St. Paul City Council balked. If the private sector wasn't interested in bankrolling a five-story, market-rate apartment building in the warehouse district, why should the city take the risk?

Council Member Dave Thune and others pressed the case that market studies showed downtown St. Paul as a popular place to live, and the upscale Lowertown building would be fully occupied within nine months of accepting leases.

In the end, they leased it out in three.

On Wednesday, June 6, Thune joined St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Cecile Bedor, director of the city's Planning and Economic Development Department, in a ribbon-cutting for the Lofts project, which overlooks the popular St. Paul farmers market at 5th and Wall streets.

The 58-unit, $13 million apartment building represents a controversial break from tradition for St. Paul, which has previously focused much of its efforts downtown on building "workforce" housing for residents at modest incomes.

The luxury Lofts project hit a standstill in 2008 after developer Brian Sweeney fired general contractor Gerry Flannery, setting off a legal dispute over cost overruns. Amid a series of legal claims and counter-claims, the team abandoned the site mid-stream. City officials debated the issue and decided to develop it themselves using Build America bonds, federal stimulus support

"I almost can't believe that we're standing here," Thune told a crowd of onlookers at the ribbon-cutting, which occurred on the Lofts' second-story roof deck. Two years ago, he sat in on a legal settlement conference, wondering if the city should simply "fill the hole" left by the unfinished construction work. "It was below ground level at that point," he said.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman called the Lofts a key part of his "Rebuild St. Paul" development initiative, which seeks to jumpstart a number of construction projects that fell by the wayside during the recession. He thanked Bedor for rescuing the Lofts "from the grave" on a number of occasions, and Bedor gave similar accolades to project manager Diane Nordquist.

Nearby, the city is taking a similar "hands on" approach in developing the long-delayed Penfield project, 254 units of upscale housing at 10th and Minnesota streets.

Legal wrangling over the Lofts continues. The Minnesota Court of Appeals recently ruled that the city should not have allowed general contractor Shaw Lundquist to adjust its sealed bid upward after discovering a mathematical error in its calculations. The judges said the city should declare the $8.04 million contract null and void, though it is unclear what impact that would have on the building, which is already occupied.

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St. Paul leaders tout Lofts luxury apartments developed by the city downtown

A Massachusetts company is building about 940 apartment units in and near the Baltimore area, with plans to start construction on about 460 more units this year.

The Dolben Co.'s project in Owings Mills, the View at Mill Run, is slated to finish this month. Other developments are the Village at Odenton Station, near Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County, which the company expects to complete in September, and Charlestown Crossing in the Cecil County community of North East, newly under way with completion expected in early 2014.

The company also plans to start construction on a Baltimore project called the Marketplace at Fells Point this month and finish in the fall of next year. It also intends to break ground by the end of the year on an Elkridge project called Howard Square.

Rents will likely be $1,200 to $3,500 a month, Dolben said.

The company said it has worked in the Baltimore area for years and sees it as a good place to build apartments, in part because of demand from workers at Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground.

jhopkins@baltsun.com

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Dolben Co. builds hundreds of apartment units in Balto. area

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About 200 people were told that they will have to leave the 75-unit, six-story building at 2400 Webb Avenue by 6 p.m. Tuesday, after the New York City Fire Department and Department of Buildings determined that the illegally removed fire escapes created unsafe conditions.

An inspector from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development first noticed the absence of fire escapes on Saturday.

Since Saturday there were licensed fire guards sitting in the building, keeping watch in case of fire, but fire officials said that was a temporary solution that cannot replace the vacate order.

"It's something that we don't take upon lightly," said FDNY Deputy Chief Jay Jonas. "We explored other possible options and none of them we could really live with."

The FDNY and several agencies met with the owners of building, Goldfarb Properties, and fire officials said the company was cooperative and will give tenants an $840 check to pay for a week-long hotel stay.

Goldfarb Properties also promised to pay hotel costs for all the tenants while the situation still lasts, according to city officials.

Nevertheless, tenants were shocked to learn they had to suddenly leave their homes and most of their possessions behind.

"I'm very upset. You know what, I've been here 14 years and I have nowhere else to go. I work every day. It's just hard. But what can you do? It's for our own safety," said one tenant.

"It's a big inconvenience for me. It's a big stress for me," said another.

Excerpt from:
Bronx Tenants Ordered To Vacate Building Without Fire Escapes

By Mark Ferenchik

The Columbus Dispatch Monday June 4, 2012 9:14 PM

Construction will begin this summer on a 165-unit apartment complex in Columbus between Dublin and Hilliard, after the Columbus City Council voted to rezone the land last evening.

Colonial American Development Corp. of Columbus will build two-story apartments, said Jeff Brown, the companys zoning attorney.

The City Council rezoned 13 acres at 5287 Avery Rd., across the street from Ables Golf on Avery, a driving range. The plan calls for the developer to preserve the trees along the sites perimeter.

No one spoke against the project last night. The citys Development Commission recommended approval in April.

In other business, the council approved a five-year tax-incentive package for Food Safety Net Services to open a new food-testing laboratory in a vacant commercial building at 4130 Fisher Rd. on the West Side.

The company, based in San Antonio, Texas, will create 40 full-time jobs with an annual payroll of $1.2 million, making the average annual salary $30,000. The company will receive 25 percent of the amount of income taxes withheld over five years, or $37,125. The city will receive $111,375 in new tax revenue.

The council also:

Approved $250,000 for small-business faade improvements in Franklinton and the Hilltop; Parsons Avenue on the South Side; E. Main Street, Long Street and Mount Vernon Avenue on the Near East Side; and North and South Linden. Businesses can use grants for awnings, signs, paint, doors, windows and lighting, Councilman Zach Klein said. Those interested can call the Development Department at 614-645-8585.

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Council approves construction of Avery Road apartments

Affordable apartments for people 55 and older will soon be built at Quincy Village.

Lou Varella, executive director of Quincy Village, said construction of the 36-unit, three-story apartment building should start this summer along Orphanage Road across from the health care center.

The plans for the project were submitted to the township two years ago, but it was put on hold until federal low-income housing tax credits were approved through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. A for-profit agency, Enterprise Community Investment Inc. of Columbia, Md., has partnered with Quincy to finance the project and use the tax credits.

Quincy Village is a 360-acre continuing care retirement community that is operated by the non-profit Presbyterian Senior Living of Dillsburg.

Quincy Village offers independent living, personal care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation, care for patients with Alzheimers and other forms of memory impairment and at-home services.

Westminster Place

The apartments will be called Westminster Place, according to Quincy Township Supervisor Bob Gunder.

The land development plan was approved well over two years ago, he said. It caters to citizens over age 55 who would like to rent an apartment, someone who maybe doesnt want the upkeep of a home, or someone who has undergone foreclosure.

The apartment building will be handicapped-accessible, and some of the apartments will be designed for those with hearing and vision impairments.

Varella said the building will be a separate entity on campus, but Quincy will run the apartments.

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Quincy Village to add apartments for seniors

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -

Homeowners in a popular Nashville neighborhood are opposing a new apartment building that would bring in at least 90 new residents.

The controversial apartment building, 12th South Flats, which is already under construction, is located on 12th Avenue South, near Linden Avenue.

The new four story complex will take up take up four lots and will feature retail on the first floor and apartments on the remaining three floors.

Many homeowners, such as Ken Winters are not in favor of the new complex.

"[It's] too big and too much traffic," he said.

His neighbor Mark Scotland added, "This is a little too massive for the neighborhood and it's going to cause a lot of congestion."

Neighbors told Nashville's News 2 they have seen similar projects around Nashville and while it may work in other neighborhoods, it's just too big for 12th Avenue South.

Winters said, "This is an imported model from 1st Avenue, from Germantown, from the Gulch where the streets are four lanes and it's brought here to a two lane streetscaped street that can't handle it."

Although developers of the project have been approved by the planning department, they declined an on camera interview during a Monday night meeting to show neighbors their plans.

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Residents oppose new 90 unit apartment complex near downtown

Stevens Duval Apartments, the former Duval High School on Ocean Street downtown, has a new owner.

Mulligan Housing Group LLC, based in Massachusetts, bought the senior-living apartment building recently from the Ida M. Stevens Foundation for $1.82 million.

Stephen Schneider of Mulligan said as of Thursday, 50 of the 52 units were occupied. He said he simply intends to keep running the building as it is.

His company, under various names, has multifamily units in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but the only other one in Florida is in Fort Pierce. This is his first building geared to seniors.

"It's a well-operated building, it's in great shape, so it's easy to take over," he said. "And it's small enough that we can learn as we go."

The center part of the building was completed in 1908 with annexes completed in 1920 and 22. In 1977, the School Board declared it a surplus and sold it to the Stevens Foundation for $85,000. Ted Pappas redesigned it as apartments and it was converted in 1980 for $1.7 million.

Peninsula near sellout

On the other end of history, the Peninsula at Southbank is getting awfully close to selling out. Paul Bobik of Palladium Realty Group, which has been marketing it for the past year, said as of Friday afternoon, 11 of the 334 condominium units are still unsold.

The price range: $200,000 to $1.5 million.

Bobik said the entire building had been presold in 2007. But when the bottom fell out of the market, a lot of those buyers walked away.

The rest is here:
Sunday notebook: New owner plans no changes with Stevens Duval Apartments

159 passengers may have died in a crash in the Iju Ishaga area of Lagos, Nigeria. It seems that the airplanefrom a company called Dana Aircrashed into a two-story apartment building just after taking off. Witnesses say it hit a power line, but there is no official cause yet. (WARNING: STRONG IMAGES)

According to tweets and local blogs, witnesses are reporting burned people on the ground. The imagescaptured by witnesses in the area using cellphonesshow some dead bodies on the ground.

The airplane was an old McDonnell Douglas MD-83 with about 152 people on board, including passengers and crew. The MD-83aka DC-9-83started to fly in 1984, finishing production in 1999. It could carry 155 passengers while keeping a range of 2,504 nautical miles (2,881 miles, 4,636 kilometers).

There are no official casualty figures yet, according to Lagos emergency manager Femi Oke-Osanyinpolu, but it could be pretty high if you add the passengers to the people on the ground.

Firefighterstwo firetrucksand emergency medical teams, including 50 rescue people, are already in the area trying to rescue potential survivors from the plane and on the ground.

An AP reporter says that there are seats scattered across the area. It seems the apartment building crumbled as the firefighters were trying to put down the fiery flames and thousands of people looked from a distance.

The fire is pretty bad, as the airplane had just taken off from Lagos' airport and it was full of fuel.

It was en route to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Nigeria's capital in the center of the country. Like Braslia in Brazil, Abuja is a planned city built to hold the country's administrative center from scratch. It became the official capital of the country in 1991, after construction begun in the 1980s. Lagos is still the largest city in Nigeria.

There's no official cause for the crash yet, although witnesses say the plane hit a power line. If that's true, it must have been on its way down, since the runway is not close enough to that part of the town. The weather conditions were good and visibility was 10+ kilometers (more than 6.2 miles).

Nigeria received a Category 1 status by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2010. That's their top safety rating, awarded to countries that can fly airplanes directly into US airspace. [Tondan and Opeyemi Blog, HuffPo and USA Today]

Continue reading here:
159-Passenger Airliner Crashes Into Apartment Building (WARNING: Strong Images) [Breaking]

QUINCY -- Quincy Village plans to build a 36-unit apartment building for low income people age 55 years and older.

Construction on the apartment building is expected to begin this summer and be substantially complete in spring of 2013. All common areas will be handicap and mobility accessible. Some apartments will be designed for people with vision and hearing impairments.

"We are excited to be able to offer this new level of service to the residents of our area," stated Lou Varella, Executive Director of Quincy Village. "These well-designed, comfortable apartments will complement the continuum of care currently offered at Quincy Village and enable us to reach out to serve people with limited resources."

Presbyterian Senior Living of Dillsburg operates the 360-acre continuing care retirement community in Quincy Township near Waynesboro. Quincy Village provides skilled nursing and rehabilitation services, personal care, and independent living apartments and cottages. About half developed, the site has 173 cottages, 10 apartments, a 32-unit personal care center and 134-bed medical center.

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency recently awarded federal low-income housing tax credits to the project.The tax credit program previously allowed development of low-income housing developments elsewhere in the county, including Hamilton Park Apartments east of Chambersburg and Sunset Court north of Chambersburg.

Enterprise Community Investment Inc. of Columbia, Md., is the for-profit partner financing the project and using the tax credits. Presbyterian Senior Living has worked with Enterprise on eight other projects, according to Varella.

Founded 30 years ago, Enterprise has raised and invested more than $11 billion in financing more than 300,000 affordable homes in communities across the nation.

Quincy Village acquired township approvals before seeking the housing credits, according to Quincy Township Supervisor Kerry Bumbaugh.

"They are set to go," he said.

Presbyterian Senior Living, founded in 1927, provides healthcare, housing and other services to more than 5,400 older adults in the mid-Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and southeastern Ohio. Their website is at http://www.presbyterianseniorliving.org.

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Quincy Village to build apartments for low income seniors

Updated: Thu May. 31 2012 07:19:06

ctvwinnipeg.ca

A fire led to the evacuation of a downtown apartment building in Winnipeg on Wednesday.

About 60 people were forced out from the building at 52 Edmonton Street after a fire in the building's attic area on Wednesday afternoon.

No injuries were reported, said fire officials.

Tenant Michael Potts was feeding his six-month-old boy when they were forced to leave in a hurry.

"I heard a knock on the door and I opened up the door and a guy said the roof was on fire," he said.

Brittany Hoorne and her roommate live in the suite below where the fire was burning.

"I hope my stuff doesn't get burnt up," she said.

Officials said one apartment was damaged by fire while several others were affected by water and smoke. They said Wednesday most tenants will have to find somewhere else to stay overnight.

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Fire forces evacuation of downtown Winnipeg apartment building