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By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) A new apartment building, with a restaurant and retail space, is being built in center city.

Today, a ceremonial groundbreaking was held for the upcoming AQ Rittenhouse, a mixed-use tower at 20th and Chestnut Streets.

Mayor Michael Nutter says its all part of the planned revitalization of once-elegant Chestnut Street.

It was a terribly blighted building, and through the (Philadelphia) Redevelopment Authority we were able to ultimately move it to private ownership, the mayor told KYW Newsradio. They partnered with the charter school.

One floor of the new building is being reserved for expansion of the adjacent Freire Charter High School.

We are repurposing, rebuilding, revitalizing, renewing, what was once the old YWCA annex, says Leonard Poncia, president and managing partner of Aquinas Realty Partners, describing the 12-story luxury apartment building as providing tremendous amenities from the second-floor courtyard garden to the rooftop sky terrace to the community rooms, yoga rooms, extensive bike storage, to the dog walk. Weve got it all.

The building is expected to be completed by early 2015.

Read more here:
Construction Set To Begin For Center City Luxury Apartment Building

People crammed into New Brunswick City Hall on Tuesday to further air their grievances about the building of an apartment complex on Mine Street.

At the last meeting in March, the New Brunswick Planning Board announced it would hold off on construction to hear more testimony from the public, which overwhelmingly opposed the construction.

Private city-based attorney Thomas Kelso represents the construction company Construction Management Associates, LLC set to build on Mine Street. New Brunswick Today editor-in-chief Charlie Kratovil questioned whether it is ethically appropriate for Kelso to represent the construction company, citing Kelsos position as Middlesex County council as a conflict of interest.

After an agitated Kelso reacted and had to be calmed by board members, Kratovil asked the board to look into the matter, but the subject was not pressed any further.

Mine Street resident Jennifer ONeill testified that any new construction should match the architecture of already existing homes and buildings on the street.

Her father, Kevin ONeill, agreed.

Any new buildings must follow guidelines, he said. They must visually match existing infrastructure.

Kevin ONeill cited plans from the Rutgers College Avenue Redevelopment Initiative, stating the lot at 72 Mine St. provides only for the expansion and preservation of single and double family homes by prohibiting apartment buildings.

Only Rutgers has the right to build and run an apartment on the lot where 72 Mine St. is located, he said.

Elizabeth Ciccone, secretary and treasurer of the Friends of The William H. Johnson House, Inc., said her organization works to support the restoration, preservation and maintenance of the historic William H. Johnson house. She said the construction of an apartment building on Mine Street would tarnish the historic streets, buildings and sites in New Brunswick.

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Proposed Mine Street construction spurs controversy

At least three sizable apartment complexes with a total value of $42 million are in the construction pipeline in the Spokane area and several sources say they expect to see more apartment projects proposed and under construction here in the coming year.

Thats on top of apartment projects valued at more than $72 million currently in some stage of construction in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area.

Colin Conway, a broker with Spokane-based commercial real estate brokerage Kiemle & Hagood Co., says he expects this area to see continued growth in development and investment in apartment projects.

Apartments are usually a stable investment vehicle, Conway says. Everybody needs a place to live.

The growth in demand for rental units isnt necessarily tied to the economy, he says.

Even while the economy was growing (before the Great Recession), there was a move toward apartment living, Conway says.

Nationally, a third of the nations population now lives in apartment complexes, and a roughly equal proportion of the Spokane population also lives in rentals, he says.

Renter numbers are only expected to grow, Conway says, adding that an analysis sponsored by the National Apartment Association and the National Family Housing Council concludes that half of all new family households formed this decade will live in rental units.

Were seeing baby boomers move into more multifamily situations and out of single-family homes, Conway says. Were also seeing echo-boomers choosing apartment lifestyles over owning single family homes.

Carl Durkoop, an appraiser with Valbridge Property Advisors Auble, Jolicoeur & Gentry Inc., of Spokane Valley, says that even with new construction, apartment occupancy rates in the Spokane market and nationwide are trending upward, which also is putting upward pressure on rents.

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Multifamily magnetism

An apartment building that was still under constructionin Anaheim caught fire and partially collapsed Tuesday morning in a dramatic blaze that caused an estimated $2 million in damage.

Part of a housing development in Anaheim caught fire on Tuesday. (Credit: KTLA)

The fire was located south of the 5 Freeway near the intersection of North Muller Street and West Lincoln Avenue (map) and was reported to the Anaheim Fire & Rescue department just before 8:30 a.m., according to a fire department dispatcher.

Aerial video from Sky5 showed multiple apartment buildingsin the area, many of which appeared to still be under construction.

One of the buildings was heavily damaged and appeared to have suffered a partial collapse.

Smoke was visible for miles as more than 80 firefighters responded to the construction site blaze.

There were no reports of injuries as a result of the fire, according to a tweet from the Anaheim Police Department.

Investigators were working to determine the cause and origin of the fire, the fire department said on Twitter. Representatives from the building estimated the damage at $2 million, the tweet stated.

Read the original:
Fire Damage at Anaheim Apartment Complex Estimated at $2 Million

Dan Wilson is a captain of the fire prevention task force that will be taking an inventory of all the wood frame walk up apartment buildings in New Westminster to rate them for their fire safety. The task force was formed in the wake of a fire in January that destroyed an apartment building on Ash Street.

image credit: MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER

The fire that destroyed an apartment building on Ash Street in January has sparked a task force to prevent such a conflagration from happening again.

New West fire chief Tim Armstrong said the eight-member task force will visit each of the city's approximately 500 wood frame walk-up buildings. Their task is to take an inventory of their age, construction, general condition and state of fire safety. The full tour should take 18 months.

He said such an effort was already in the works, but the Ash Street fire gave it more urgency.

"Ash Street was an example of how quickly this type of construction can get away from you in a fire," said Armstrong.

A special agreement with the firefighters' union will allow the task force to be on duty seven days a week. They will also make appearances at community events and provide public education.

New West Coun. Chuck Puchmayr praised the creation of the task force at a recent city council session.

"Anything you can do to give those tools to firefighters is very positive," Puchmayr said.

Puchmayr had called for the federal and provincial governments to find a way to help the owners of older buildings retrofit with sprinkler systems.

Read the rest here:
Task force aims to make small apartment buildings safer

Another towering luxury apartment building is set to rise in Hoboken.

Behind the backdrop of cranes, cement trucks and rows of steel, city officials and developers yesterday dug the ceremonial first shovel of dirt at 900 Monroe St., kicking off construction of the $83 million, 11-story apartment building there.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer said at the ceremony that the 135-unit luxury rental building is designed for the future and fits into her vision of a Hoboken that is more resilient against flooding and power outages.

The development that we do in Hoboken has to be built more resiliently, and this project is an excellent example of building for the future and building a more resilient design, Zimmer said.

The apartment building will incorporate innovative energy-efficient features.

Some of those include high-efficiency heating and cooling systems, LED lighting, bike racks, electric car-charging stations and more.

The development, known as 900 Monroe, is a joint venture between Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. and Bijou Properties.

The apartment building is located next to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and adjacent to two recently constructed apartment buildings.

Larry Bijou, managing partner for the company that bears his name, said the apartment building will be an improvement for the neighborhood and will help fulfill the growing housing demand in Hoboken.

The project is expected to be completed in the fall of 2015 and bring 125 full-time jobs to the area.

Read more here:
Hoboken breaks ground on luxury apartment building

A former elementary school in Lackawanna County is getting new life as an apartment building.

After nearly a year of construction, people have started to move into the former Academy Street school in Moscow.

The renovation project only began last June.

The old school is now home to 20 different one-and-two-bedroom apartments.

The former school closed in 2009.

"I love the building. I love the apartments. They've turned out beautifully. I couldn't ask for anything nicer," Lois Hughes said.

Lois Hughes just moved in one week ago.

She used to teach 4th grade in the former school and says she's glad it wasn't torn down because there are still a lot of memories for people.

"I am very glad that they've done this over. This was originally an elementary school, then it became Moscow's high school and then it went back to being an elementary school again," Hughes said.

Contractors say many of the school's old classrooms were the perfect size for apartments.

See the original post here:
New Life for Old School Building in Lackawanna County

Australian construction continues to decline but at a slower rate according to a new survey. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA'S construction industry remains in decline but there are signs of improvement.

The Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association Performance of Construction Index rose 2.0 points to 46.2 in March.

The index remained below the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction but the rate of contraction was milder than in February.

Further signs of recovery in commercial construction and consolidation of recent gains in the house building sector were outweighed by a further decline in engineering construction and apartment building, Ai Group director of public policy Peter Burn said.

"As is the case with the broader economy, the rebalancing of the construction sector as mining-related activity slows still has a considerable way to go," Mr Burn said.

HIA chief economist Harley Dale said it had now been three months of contraction for the index, despite promising signs at the end of last year.

But it should be a healthy year for new home building activity, he said.

"What the sector and broader economy needs, however, is a sustained recovery in new home building commensurate with average construction levels being considerably higher over coming decades than those achieved over the past 20 years," he said.

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Aust construction still in contraction

April 7, 2014 In Brief - 04/08/2014

Anonymous Cumberland Times-News The Cumberland Times-News Mon Apr 07, 2014, 10:52 PM EDT

Barton town meeting tonight

BARTON The Barton Mayor and Commissioners will meet April 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the council chambers of the Barton Town Hall. The Party in the Park Committee will meet at 6:45 p.m.

Both meetings are open to the public.

Kitchens work to be premiered

CUMBERLAND Local composer Eric Kitchen will have a work premiered by soprano Deborah Sternberg, accompanied by pianist Mark Vogel April 9 at noon at the Steinway Piano Gallery in North Bethesda. The event is part of the Washington Friday Morning Music Clubs 127th concert season.

Sternberg will sing Kit-chens The Olney Avian Verse of William Cowper, consisting of settings of five bird-themed poems by Cowper. Kitchen wrote the score in 2000, using his transcriptions of Ellerslie bird songs for the thematic material.

For additional information, visit http://www.fmme.org and search Deborah Sternberg, soprano or email eric_kitchen@hotmail. com.

Eagles auxiliary to install members

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In Brief - 04/08/2014

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Posted: Saturday, April 5, 2014 8:00 pm | Updated: 9:46 pm, Sat Apr 5, 2014.

Construction underway for colleges apartment building

With the recent thaw, construction of Phase II is now underway. Phase II, the second apartment building being constructed on Williston States campus, is a mirror image of the first apartment building built at WSC, completed in August 2013.

Managed by Dakota Commercial & Development Co., Phase II is an 11 million dollar project consisting of four stories and 80,000 sq feet making up 74 residential units. Additionally, 13,000 square feet of space will provide 41 underground parking stalls and 8,000 sq feet of will be available for commercial use.

Three million of the total cost was garnered through the Housing Incentive Fund, provided by the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency. Half of the units in Phase II will be dedicated to housing essential service workers in the area, while the other half will be available at market rate.

There are current conversations between Dakota Commercial and Williston State in regards to the market rate units as the college is continually looking for ways to meet student housing needs. While discussions are still underway, WSC President Dr. Raymond Nadolny says, the college plans on using some of these units for student housing. Its very similar to what one sees at other major universities.

Dakota Commercial is not yet looking for tenants or taking information from those hoping to occupy the residential units.

However, they are seeking business interested in filling the commercial space(s) which will be online this coming winter. More information about available residential units will be announced to the public as the project nears completion.

Expected completion of Phase II is December 2014.

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Construction underway for colleges apartment building