Big changes are brewing in Boulder.

The city is on the brink of a building boom that -- in relatively short time -- could alter the look and feel of large parts of the city.

The developments that are expected to come online within the next two years are on track to add 1,500 apartments, a few hundred new hotel rooms and a large volume of new office and retail space.

Of the dozens of projects either in the planning process or already under construction, the Daily Camera has identified more than 30 private developments that are significant in size, location or historical context.

"This long list certainly contradicts the notion that Boulder is not growing -- and, indeed, is a note of caution that we not rush to develop them all at once," City Councilwoman Suzanne Jones wrote in an e-mail to the Camera. "There are finite options for new development and redevelopment within Boulder, so we need to proceed with deliberation, creativity and even restraint to ensure that this pulse of building activity reflects Boulder's long-term values and community aspirations."

The amount of projects that could move forward is not surprising, city officials say. Financing and construction dried up with the rest of the economy four years back.

"I don't know that there would be a dramatic transformation," said Charles Ferro, a city planner. "It may feel that way in certain pockets."

In some of those areas -- notably the transit-oriented Boulder Junction east of 30th and Pearl streets -- the city has planned for change, said Tim Plass, a city councilman. For other areas, this flood of new projects will serve as a "great test" for the effectiveness of the city's rules and regulations, he said.

"My hope is that with the regulatory structure in place with the site review (and other) processes, that we get products that are going to complement our vision for our community," he said. "...While we have room for change, we want to make sure we keep the things about Boulder that make it Boulder."

The influx of construction activity and the resulting projects could be a boon for city coffers.

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Boulder's boom: More than 30 building projects on tap for next 2 years

CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas has indicted a former barangay captain in Tuburan for alleged irregularities committed in the construction of a multi-purpose building project.

The anti-graft office found probable cause to charge former Poblacion I barangay captain Severo Evales for violation of the Republic Act 9184 otherwise known as the Government Procurement Reform Act.

It appears that respondent Evales, through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross negligence gave unwarranted benefit, advantage or preference to the pre-selected winning bidders by providing directly or indirectly said bidders with copies of the program of works in the project, Graft investigator Luanne Ivy Cabatingan said in her resolution recommending the filing of the case in court.

Cabatingan said the respondent restrained competition within the three bidders for the construction of the multi-purpose building.

The case stemmed from a fact-finding investigation conducted by the Public Assistance and Corruption Prevention Office (PACPO) of the Office of the Ombudsman.

Based on the investigation the barangay council passed a resolution requesting Evales to sell a portion of his lot for the project.

Tuburan Municipal Engineer Leo Montecillo prepared the program of works and bill of materials amounting to P450,000. Evales approved it. A separate program of works for lightning materials was prepared and approved by respondent with a total material cost of P22,789.50.

The bidding was conducted and the notice of award was issued to XLA General Merchandise being the lowest bidder.

Another program of works for construction materials was prepared and again approved by respondent with a total material cost of P147,651.60.

During the bidding, the notice of award was issued to DLJ General Merchandise having a lowest bid proposal. World Trade Enterprise got the contract for the supply of hollow blocks amounting to P15,455.

Continued here:
Ex- barangay chief in Tuburan charged

PETALING JAYA (June 15): Point 92, a new Grade A green-rated office building which is fast becoming a landmark in Damansara Perdana in Petaling Jaya with its eye-catching design, will be completed in September.

The Malaysian Green Building Index-(GBI) certified 19-storey tower is an MSC-status building with a nett lettable area (NLA) of 155,000 sq ft. It has six levels of basement car park and outdoor decks on the 7th, 8th and 9th floor with the landscaping by Seksan Design.

The building is located at the entrance to Damansara Perdana via the Damansara Puchong Highway.

Tujuan Gemilang Sdn Bhd, the developer of PJ Trade Centre in Damansara Perdana, sold the office tower late last year to Sarawak-based OBYU Holdings Sdn Bhd. OBYU is a company involved in property development, construction and engineering, power and telecommunications, plantations, services and trading.

Zerin Properties assistant head of mergers and acquisitions (business space) Carlo Russo told The Edge Financial Daily that demand for green buildings is rising.

The increase in demand for such buildings is mostly seen from multinational companies. However, more local companies are also stepping up their corporate social responsibility requirements and want to reduce their carbon footprints.

Demand is seen in Kuala Lumpur city centre, Petaling Jaya and KL Sentral. The most recently completed GBI-certified building close to full occupancy is KL Sentral Park, now known as KL Sentral Platinum with a NLA of 434,000 sq ft, said Russo.

Asked if the overall office rental market in the Klang Valley is softening, Russo said that the market is stable.

We still see strong demand rather than a decline. There is genuine interest by local and foreign companies and we expect this interest to continue for the rest of the year with most new tenancies starting in 4Q12 onwards We think the office market in 2012 will be stable with rentals also stable but with a slight drop in occupancies, he added.

Zerin Properties and Hartamas Real Estate Sdn Bhd are joint marketing agents for Point 92.

Link:
Point 92 new landmark in Damansara Perdana

HEALTH CARE

A groundbreaking ceremony Friday launched construction of a new medical office building in Midtown that will house Wayne State University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences.

The five-story, 62,846-square-foot office building is on Beaubien, north of Mack, next to the new Children's Hospital of Michigan Pediatric Specialty Center.

WSU will lease the building from Queen Lillian, a Detroit architectural firm, for 25 years and then would have the option to buy it for $1.

The $18-million project is expected to be completed by January.

Jenkins Construction of Detroit is the construction manager.

ECONOMY

U.S. factories produced less in May than in April, as automakers cut back for the first time in six months. The report indicates that manufacturing, a key driver of economic growth, is slowing.

The Federal Reserve said Friday that factory output declined 0.4% last month, after increasing 0.7% in April. Auto production fell 1.5%, the first drop since November.

Overall industrial production, which includes mines and utilities, dipped 0.1%, after a solid 1% rise in April. Both mines and utilities increased production.

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Ground broken for medical offices

Representatives of Springfield Clinic and Memorial Medical Center, along with local officials, broke ground Friday for Springfield Clinic 1st North, a medical office building to be built north of Dodge Street and between First and Second streets.

The $60.5 million, four-story building being developed on more than four acres of Memorials campus will connect to a new, 600-vehicle parking garage to be constructed on its north side. Patients will have walk-in access to physicians offices from each level of the garage. An overhead walkway crossing Dodge Street east of First Street will connect the new medical office building with the existing Springfield Clinic 1st facility.

The project was approved in February by the Memorial Health System board.

Kevin England, the health systems vice president for business development, said then the new building is part of a larger Memorial construction plan thats been significantly scaled back, in part because of uncertainty about whether railroad traffic eventually will be moved off the Third Street corridor east of Memorial.

Memorial favors consolidating rail traffic along the 10th Street corridor, England said.

Springfield Clinic has estimated it could hire at least 70 more doctors and at least 100 more nurses and other support staff because of the new outpatient treatment space.

The project also will create 1,700 construction jobs.

Springfield Clinic will move its chemotherapy infusion services and medical oncologists from its main campus at 1025 S. Sixth St. to the new buildings fourth floor. General-surgery and colorectal surgeons will be based on the new buildings third floor, moving from the Springfield Clinic 1st building.

The first and second floors of the new building will primarily be devoted to womens health. Obstetricians-gynecologists will move to those floors from the 1st building and the Springfield Clinic SOGA building at 350 W. Carpenter St.

See the article here:
Springfield Clinic, Memorial break ground for $60 million project

DURHAM An unused office building at Copp Construction on Pinkham Brook Road was destroyed in a fire of undetermined origin early Friday morning.

Chris Stanford of the State Fire Marshal' s Office and Durham fire Chief Bill St. Michel sifted through the ruins Friday morning and although they couldn't pinpoint a cause, it is "not considered suspicious," St. Michel said.

Owner Mike Copp estimated his loss at a minimum $40,000 and said it was "good news" that the fire marshal ruled out arson as a cause. He said the fire marshal told him he was "80 percent sure it was an electrical issue."

The building was insured.

Androscoggin County Deputy Sheriff Eric Samson was on routine patrol when he noticed a glow in the sky and discovered the blaze shortly after midnight.

The 27- by 40-foot wood-frame structure was engulfed in flames when Durham firefighters arrived and the roof had already collapsed, the fire chief said. Two engines and a tanker from Lisbon Fire Department also responded and the blaze was knocked down in about half an hour, St. Michel said.

View original post here:
Durham contractor loses office building to fire

Tyra Banks's new office on Manhattan's Avenue D is currently under construction, but when it's finished, it'll be located in the same space as her latest project a leadership center for girls. Its official name isthe Tyra Banks TZONE at the Lower Eastside Girls Club, but who's going to be like, "Let's go hang out at the Tyra Banks TZONE at the Lower Eastside Girls Club after school?" Yeah. Shortening it to TZONE seems like a long shot, too, because what teenage girl wants to be reminded of the most problematic area of her face? Anyway, the 30,000-square-foot building is tricked out with lots of swish amenities like a bakery, a "wellness center" (is that a gym?), a studio space, and because why not? a planetarium.*

Banks tells theTimesthat her goal for the space is to empower young female entrepreneurs. "My dream was to have a place that was brick and mortar, where they could build on that experience all the time," she said. "The real impact is to have consistency, as opposed to an excursion." Perhaps best of all, she herself will work out of her office in the building when she's in New York, so the girls will see her leading by example as she goes into work every day. In fact, Tyra says she wants them to get to the point where they don't even pay attention to her:

What I dont want to be is Tyra, the "celebrity girl," coming here and the girls being excited when they see me ... I want them to be numb to me. I can do normal work here and they can see me, to know that this is what a business is. Its not about living on a red carpet. I am a businesswoman who goes to work every single day.

Okay, but she surely still wants them to notice her at least just alittlebit.

*A rep for Banks has clarified that the Tyra Banks TZONE will only occupy 2,000 square feet of the 30,000 square foot Lower Eastside Girls Club, and that Tyra's actual office is "small"and will be within the TZONE area.

Excerpt from:
Tyra’s New Complex Will Have an Office, In-House Planetarium, Bakery, and ‘Wellness Center’

Rusty Malik, principal in charge of the central office construction at 35 Leroy Ave., said Darien could get the go-ahead to renovate the former library building as early as July 1 at a Board of Education Central Office/Mather Community Center Building Committee meeting in Town Hall Tuesday.

Malik met with state officials at the Department of Construction's Bureau of School Facilities June 4, where they discussed the review process that determines whether the project

is ready for construction.

"By going through this process, we will get state funding to the tune of $196,000 to $200,000," Malik said.

A state review would add a month to the process. He said, however, if the state cannot do a review process in 30 days, the project will go to a local review.

"If that happens, I anticipate that we'd be done with the review process by the end of the month," he said, recalling a previous discussion with the committee of a possible mid-July bid period for construction.

tmichael@bcnnew.com; 203-972-4407; http://www.twitter.com/tmichael89

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Shuffle: Central office construction could start July 1

The one-story home health care business at 2514 Ballard Rd. in Des Plaines could be torn down to make way for a larger building.

National Home Health Care Services, 2514 Ballard Rd., originally was given permission to construct a new two-story office building in 2009. The company was granted a conditional use permit because the building sits in a C-1 neighborhood shopping district zone.

However, no work has been done on the building in the past three years and the approval expired, according to Scott Mangum, senior planner for the city.

The proposed buildings design will be presented to the citys architectural review commission at 7 p.m. tonight (Wednesday) in Room 101 of city hall.

While the commission might sign off on the design, the propertys owner must still reapply for the conditional use permit, which they have not yet done, according to Mangum.

Mangum said he did not know if National Home Health Care planned to have other tenants at the office building or when they hoped to begin construction if granted approval.

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Try Again On Office Building

TRENTON Unexpected expenses will add $1.1 million to the overall $52 million cost of the new Mercer County criminal courthouse, officials said.

Amended contracts and unforeseen expenses that came up during the two-year construction process at Market and Warren streets have inflated the cost of the building, Phillip Miller, executive director of the Mercer County Improvement Authority, said. Completion of the four story, 141,000-square-foot building is expected by the fall. The additional costs were noted at yesterdays meeting of the MCIAs board of commissioners.

Some of the expenses resulted from deliberate actions taken by the MCIA, and others were unknown expenses, Miller said.

We ran into issues that were not anticipated, Miller said.

The courthouse construction is part of an $80 million justice center renovation plan that includes the design and construction of the new building as well as the demolition of a detention center and parking garage formerly on the site. Billed as the largest county government construction project in dollar terms, it is funded partly through the use of Build America Bonds under the Federal Stimulus Package.

Miller said that the unexpected costs only make up about 2 percent of the courthouse construction cost.

We are coming in on time and under budget and that is key, said Miller. This has gone extremely well.

John Thurber, chair of the MCIA board, commended his colleagues for their hard work to ensure that building and the total project stayed within budget.

The interior of the new courthouse is completely dry walled and painted, Miller said. The audio-visual components, including drop-down video in projector screens in each of the 10 courtrooms, are being installed, Miller said.

It is the beginning of the end, Miller said.

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Unforeseen costs add $1.1M to Mercer County Criminal Courthouse construction bill