Major downtown construction projects such as the ongoing Davenport Grand Hotel and the recently completed Spokane Convention Center expansion, as well as planned historic Ridpath renovations, likely are drawing additional developer interest to the citys core, says Jan Quintrall, the citys business and development services director.

New projects being explored downtown include an envisioned retail and office building at the site of the long-halted Peppertree hotel project northwest corner of Division Street and Third Avenue and a high-rise project near Division Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard. In other projects, initial work on an auto dealership campus master plan is under way on along Second and Third avenues, and developers are looking at redeveloping an office building and parking facility just north of Interstate 90 on Stevens Street.

We sure seem to be seeing some nice projects coming in, and people making solid investment plans, Quintrall says.

Division & Third

Owners of the lot at the northwest corner of Division and Third, where a hotel project came to an abrupt halt during foundation construction in 2009, are exploring a new development option for the property.

On behalf of owners Rita and John Santillanes, Baker Construction & Development Inc., of Spokane, has approached the city with a preliminary concept for a two-story, 16,700-square-foot building with a construction value of $2 million.

Were working with Baker Construction, hoping to announce a project to put retail in there, Rita Santillanes says.

Santillanes hotel company, Spokane-based Peppertrees of Washington LLC, also would consolidate its administrative offices in the building, she says. The company owns and operates Best Western Peppertree Plus hotels in Liberty Lake, near the Spokane airport, in Omak, and in Auburn, Wash.

As envisioned, the building at Division and Third would have 10,700 square feet of retail and restaurant space on the ground floor and 6,000 square feet of office space on the second floor.

Here is the original post:
Development proposals percolate downtown

Elevator and escalator manufacturer Kone announced it will supply 19 elevators for the Fifth + Columbia project, a 44-story office building to be constructed in Seattle's central business district.

Kone, with operations in the Quad-Cities, said it won a contract to provide six Kone MonoSpace machine-room-less elevators and 13 Kone MiniSpace elevators. The office elevator groupsalso willutilize Kone Polaris Destination Control Systems, including state-of-the-art touchscreen destination operating panels.

The contract was awarded by JTM Construction, the project's general contractor. Financial details were not released.

The developer and owners of the more than $400 million project are Daniels Real Estate and Stockbridge Capital Group.

In addition to more than 500,000 square feet of office space, the tower will include a 184-room four-star hotel and spa and restaurant spaces. The new building's innovative geometric form and natural light glass facade were designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects of Seattle.

It is scheduled to open in 2017.

Kone said its machine-room-less solutions are helping return leasable space to the project owners by eliminating planned overhead machine rooms typically required with conventional elevator models.

"We are excited to be a partner on the most significant office and hotel project in the Seattle skyline,"said Larry Wash, KONE Americas's CEO. "Our local project management team will provide the most productive installation and highest degree of customer service for the Fifth + Columbia property. We look forward to a successful and safe installation."

The order was booked in the fourth quarter.

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Kone to supply 44-story Seattle office tower

Published on January 15, 2015

Published on January 15, 2015

A new partnership between local business and PLFN was announced Thursday morning.

CAROL DUNN THE NEWS

Published on January 15, 2015

A handful of workers were working in the fabrication shop at MacGregors Thursday. During construction season there are many more. This year, theyre expecting to be working on new project, building a band office for the Pictou Landing First Nation. ADAM MACINNIS THE NEWS

Published on January 15, 2015

The old Pictou Landing band office

PICTOU LANDING In December 2011 Pictou Landing First Nation closed its band office because it was in rough shape.

Chief Andrea Paul says the building was making people sick. We had to get out of the building and put people in different buildings, she said. Our band administration office is our focal point, and having employees scattered around created confusion amongst band members.

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UPDATED: Local businesses and First Nation community collaborate on new project

Updated: 01/14/2015 7:26 PM Created: 01/14/2015 7:15 PM KSTP.com By: Tom Hauser

The good news is the $273-million renovation of the Minnesota State Capitol is on time and on budget. The bad news is it might not stay that way if lawmakers and the governor can't resolve disagreements over office space allocation in the renovated building.

"I always believed the toughest hurdle to get over would be the actual allocation of the space within the structure," says Gov. Mark Dayton. Under a tentative plan, the amount of space devoted to the governor's administration would grow.There will also be space for both the Senate and House. Most House members will continue to have their offices in the State Office Building. A new Senate office building under construction across the street from the Capitol is supposed to have offices for all 67 state senators. However, some Senators might have a second office in the Capitol.

"There is an issue of offices relative to the Senate (needing) a number of offices for the function of the Senate," says Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, (D-Cook). Bakk says most office the Senate needs will be for the administration of the Senate, but he admits there could be some offices for Senators.

Republican Senate Minority Leader David Hann (R-Eden Prairie) objects to that idea. "I don't need two offices," says Hann. "Now maybe some people do, but I don't. In my opinion you build a new office building for Senator, that's where they should be."

That's a reference to the new Senate office building under construction across the street from the Capitol that was strongly opposed by Republicans.

The Capitol Preservation Commission has until next Thursday to approve the final construction plans and avoid construction delays that could cost $680,000a month.

Read the rest here:
Office Space Dispute Clouds Capitol Construction

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) Minnesota lawmakers are caught in a dust-up over office space at the State Capitol, and its threatening to delay the massive Capitol restoration now underway.

The three-year, $272 million project is on time and on budget. But the tenants in the new building including the governor, the Senate, the House and the attorney general cannot come to agreement over how much space they will control.

The Capitol Preservation Commission overseeing the Capitol work met Wednesday, but failed to reach agreement on who will get how many offices.

This is where we get hung up in, you know, Whos getting this percent more or whatever, Gov. Mark Dayton said. My view is the public space is whats most important, and the rest of us should fit in accordingly.

Daytons office will be larger in the newly-renovated building. Failing to agree is expensive, because if theres no signed agreement by next week, construction crews will slow down or stop their work.

Its estimated it will cost the state $680,000 a month.

Meanwhile, Republican leaders are reviving election campaign complaints about the Senate Office Building, now under construction behind the Capitol.

Theyre complaining that Democrats are holding out for double offices in the new building and in the Capitol.

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Office Space Disputes Threaten Capitol Renovation

Construction could begin this spring on a more than $1 million office building that would provide Howard Hanna real-estate agents with a permanent location again in Sewickley.

A fire destroyed the company's offices on Broad Street in June.

The Sewickley Planning Commission approved the O'Hara-based real estate company's 4,500-square-foot building plan last week, in a 5-0 vote. Members Paul Pigman and Jamie Morrill were absent.

Council is expected to consider the plan at Monday's 7:30 p.m. meeting.

The building, with a planned red brick facade, would accommodate up to 39 agents and include work space and conference rooms, architect Stephen Casey said. It would include a mezzanine level.

The key to the building is to provide a proper terminus to the corner of Broad Street and Thorn, taking minor cues from the library and, because of the setback of the church, we're really in a prominent position here, said Casey, referring to nearby buildings. Hopefully, we're filling it with a building worthy of its prominent position.

Issues surrounding how rainwater would be collected and moved off the site would be worked into a developer's agreement with the borough, Sewickley manager Kevin Flannery said.

Coming up with parking for agents would be handled before the building opens, Howard Hanna property-management director Terry Corbett said.

After construction, the agency would work with the borough's tree commission to replant nearby trees, Flannery said.

The Sewickley real-estate office caught fire June 13, when a lightning strike hit the Sewickley United Methodist Church clock tower. The fire damaged the structure, displaced residents living above the offices and forced real-estate agents to work in temporary locations.

The rest is here:
Sewickley planners OK proposal for new realty offices

A small Class C office building, along with an adjacent parking lot, at the west end of Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice sold last month for $15.5 million.

The 9,500-square-foot former medical office building at 910 Abbot Kinney was sold by Hanimax Properties of Chatsworth to Santa Monica developer Fogel Real Estate Corp. in an off-market deal.

Sitting at what one might consider the gateway to Abbot Kinney, the stucco-clad building was one of only a few nonretail buildings remaining along what has become a popular shopping stretch between Main Street and Venice Boulevard.

Blake Fogel, founder and president of Fogel Real Estate, said he saw a rare opportunity in the property to gain a retail foothold on what GQ Magazine has dubbed the coolest block in America. The buildings former tenant, Hall Health and Longevity Center, moved out Dec. 31 and construction to convert the medical office space into prime retail storefronts is expected to begin this week.

Theres a lot of upside in that area. Its like being at Main and Main of cool tech companies, as well as cool retail, Fogel said. Its a great place to be. We were just fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time with a seller.

The one-story brick building with a bow-truss ceiling, built in 1948, was at some point covered over in white stucco. Fogel said the coating was going to be one of the first things to go during renovation.

Right now the property is all but invisible; no one really sees it because its an ugly stucco building, he said. Were going to blast that off and bring it back to being an interesting architectural building with new storefronts.

The soon-to-be retail property was the first building Fogel Real Estate acquired in an effort to invest $100 million in equity in Los Angeles in a span of about two years.

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Venice Office to Return to Retail Roots

A veteran Washington, D.C., developer has raised financing for a speculative office building project near Fords Theater with a $44.5 million construction loan and $9 million obtained through a federal program that allots visas to foreigners who invest in U.S. development projects.

Douglas Development Corp. has already started building the 93,000 square foot tower at 1000 F Street. The building is considered speculative because Douglas is moving ahead with very little preleasing. So far, it has done only one deal, with American Eagle Outfitters for the buildings retail space.

But Douglas, which has extensive experience with projects in that neighborhood, is betting it will have little trouble filling the space with nonprofit agencies, government affairs offices of major corporations and other tenants, says Norman Jamal, a principal with the firm. Many of the tenants are likely to be in the 6,500 square foot to 10,000 square foot range. Those folks dont typically prelease, Mr. Jamal said.

Construction financing for speculative projects remains difficult to obtain these days, even though the commercial real estate market has been steadily recovering. Still, Douglas got a $44.5 million three-year construction loan from United Bank of West Virginia with a rate of 4% and two one-year extension options.

Douglas was able to pull it off partly because the developer has worked with the bank in the past, according to Joe Donato, who led a team from NGKF Capital Markets that arranged the construction financing. Also, he said: Douglas has a tremendous presence in Washington.

Douglas also sold $9 million in preferred equity to foreigners participating in the so-called EB-5 program. Started 24 years ago, the program gives U.S. visas to people who invest at least $500,000 in development projects that create a specified number of jobs.

Mr. Jamal said holders of the preferred equity will be paid an interest rate of below 5%, which he described as extremely inexpensive for the developer. This was the first time that Douglas raised financing through the EB-5 program, but probably not last. Were actually working on another project right now that were planning to use EB-5 on, he said.

Douglas, which currently manages 9 million square feet of space, plans to finish the 11-story building at 1000 F Street in the third quarter of 2016.

More here:
Douglas Taps United Bank, EB-5 To Finance Spec Office Project

Monday, January 12, 2015, 12:09pm

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Read more here:
Office-To-Residential Conversion Proposed In Brighton

H.S. Narasimha Kumar

Two important State agencies the Police Department and the Mysore City Corporation appear to be at loggerheads over the construction of a new office building for the Mysuru City Police Commissioner.

Months after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah laid the foundation stone for the mammoth building to be constructed at a cost of Rs. 14 crore on the Police Band Bungalow premises, city councillors objected to it saying it was being constructed without obtaining prior permission from the MCC.

Turning their ire towards MCC Commissioner C.G. Betsurmath for remaining a mute spectator to the ongoing illegal construction, the councillors demanded that a notice be issued to the Police Commissioner to stop the work.

But, Police Commissioner M.A. Saleem was in no mood to oblige the naysayers. There is no need for the Police Department to obtain a building licence from the MCC, he said, citing exemption for construction of police buildings under the Karnataka Municipal Act.

Why was the MCC silent when the Police Department constructed more than 20 buildings in the city in the last few years, he asked.

A new building was also constructed on the City Police Commissioners office premises in Bengaluru. Sources in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike said the civic bodys permission was not required for the building as it was constructed by the Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation Ltd.

Kannada activist and former MLA Vatal Nagaraj will win hands down if there is ever an award for the most eyeball-grabbing protest. His modes of protest range from threatening to urinate in public while demanding construction of toilets to riding a chariot around Bengaluru on Valentines Day in solidarity with young couples targeted by Right-wing activists.

The ever-in-the-news leader has a penchant for using animals in his protests.

Donkeys, buffaloes and cows have routinely walked with him on his marches.

See the original post here:
Much ado about an office building