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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Excerpt from:
Construction underway for colleges apartment building

A 26-story luxury apartment building planned for downtown Clayton is the latest foray into the market for modern high-rise living in the St. Louis area.

Jerry Crylen a developer behind the $75 million Clayton project, called The Crossing said construction of the 250-unit building should begin this fall.

The Crossing is among at least six new apartment towers on developers drawing boards from Clayton to downtown St. Louis.

It seems like everyone now is interested in high-rise development, said Bradd Beggs, a principal of Development Strategies, a real estate consulting firm in St. Louis. At this point, its a pretty underserved market.

How many such towers get built is undetermined. Also murky is whether a sudden sprouting of several high-end apartment high-rises would exceed the demand for such residences.

Beggs said Clayton appears ready now for more high-rise living. The success of Clayton on the Park, a 206-unit building, established a market there for pricey rentals, he said.

Creve Coeur-based Koman Group opened the 24-story project on Bonhomme Avenue in 2012 after converting the former hotel and senior residence into high-end apartments.

It leased pretty quickly, Beggs said. It has since increased rents and it showed that a Clayton market is there.

Clayton on the Park rents begin at more than $1,000 for a studio and top $4,000 a month for three-bedroom units.

Crylen said the Crossing will have a rooftop swimming pool, a fitness center and ground-floor retail space. The glass-and-aluminum design by HDA Architects has four parking levels and 20 floors of apartments.

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High-rise apartments planned for Clayton

Samuelson Development has spent the past 15 years building and managing apartments in Sioux Falls, one of the fastest growing cities in the nation.

Now, the construction firm has struck out for the west where it is seeing new opportunities and investing millions of dollars.

"We love the Rapid City market," saidMatt Petersen, property manager for Samuelson Development. "Our research showed there was a high demand for luxury housing."

The company, which has about 600 properties in its portfolio, is spending about $16 million on the Copper Ridge Apartments project now under construction at 2000 Golden Eagle Road in southwest Rapid City, project manager John Samuelson said.

It is the company's first project in Rapid City.

The construction of those apartments, along with the Gateway Apartment project on Marlin Drive in southern Rapid City that has a permit value of $15.1 million,represents a resurgence in the construction of new multi-housing projects in Rapid City after the national housing market implosion of 2008.

In 2007, 18 building permits were issued for multi-family housing with a value of$18,863,915, according to the Rapid City Community Development and Planning website.

But in 2008, new apartment construction slowed to a crawl, Brett Limbaugh, director ofCommunity Planning and Development Services for Rapid City, said.

Data from theRapid City monthly and yearly building permit reviewsshowed the city issued a total of 11 permits from 2008 to 2011, with a total permit value of $8,585,405.

However, there was still a demand for apartments even as construction slowed, Limbaugh said.

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Rapid City seeing growth in apartment building

By Carl Rotenberg crotenberg@21st-centurymedia.com

The Conshohocken Planning Commission reviewed the plans March 11 and recommended approval with several conditions.

Council members Edward Phipps, Robert Stokley, James Griffin and Anita Barton voted for the preliminary plan. Council member Karen Tutino and council President Paul McConnell voted against the plan. Councilman Matt Ryan was absent.

The 6.5-story building proposed by ONeill Properties Group of Upper Merion will be located 65 feet from the Fayette Street Bridge on the upstream side. The building will have five stories of apartments over two stories of parking garage on a 3.25-acre parcel. With the lowest level of parking dug into the ground, the building will be 6.5 stories high.

The meeting lasted less than 15 minutes. Before council approved the preliminary site plan, council unanimously rejected a March 28 compromise proposal by J. Brian ONeill, the chairman of OPG, to grant full construction approvals for both the 51 Washington St. plan and a proposal for 615 apartments at 401 Washington St. in four, four-story buildings over a single level of parking.

ONeill said, We have before council two of right plans and we would like to discuss the compromise we gave you on Friday.

The compromise said OPG would pay a general impact fee of $1,165 per residential dwelling unit, a total of $361,150, for 51 Washington St. and $1,000 for each unit, a total of $615,000, for 401 Washington St.

Riverfront land on the bank of the Schuylkill River would be dedicated to the borough for public access to the riverfront areas on both projects. An observation area or platform would be built by OPG on the riverfront if borough officials agreed to exclude additional impervious coverage from zoning calculations and waived any requirement to obtain conditional use as these will be borough amenities.

OPG agreed to pay for the boroughs global traffic study, capped at $35,000, as long as the payment satisfied the requirement for any traffic study and all off-site traffic improvements needed for future development at 401 Washington St., 51 Washington St. and the balance of development at Millenium Block A.

The compromise proposal required council to grant all zoning, conditional use and final land development approvals for both 51 Washington St. and 401 Washington St. The Conshohocken Zoning Hearing Board is an independent body and cannot take direction from council. Continued...

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Conshohocken Borough Council approves preliminary site plan for 310-unit apartment building

These are good times for U.S. landlords. For many tenants, not so much.

With demand for apartments surging, rents are projected to rise for a fifth straight year. Even a pickup in apartment construction is unlikely to provide much relief anytime soon.

That bodes well for building owners and their investors. Yet the landlord-friendly trends will likely further strain the finances of many renters.

A 6 percent rise in apartment rents between 2000 and 2012 has been exacerbated by a 13 percent drop in income among renters nationally over the same period, according to a report from Apartment List, a rental housing website, which used inflation-adjusted figures.

"That's what we call the affordability gap," says John Kobs, Apartment List's chief executive. "I don't see that improving in the near future."

Demand for rental housing has grown as the U.S. economy has strengthened since the end of the Great Recession nearly five years ago. Steady job growth has made it possible for more people to move out on their own and rent their own apartments. Yet rising home prices are preventing many from buying.

A combination of rising rents and sluggish pay gains will likely continue to weigh on the U.S. economy, which relies primarily on consumer spending.

The trend is straining the finances of tenants like Michael Strane.

The geologist recently decided to move from Pasadena, California, to the L.A. suburb of Whittier, where asking rents jumped an average of nearly 14 percent last year, according to real estate data provider Zillow.

The location of Strane's new apartment cut his two-hour commute to work in half. But he'll be paying $1,045 a month, $200 more than he paid before.

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Apartment Rents Rise on Growing Demand