NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Citi Community Capital (Citi), Next Street, Carver Community Development Corporation and NCIF joined Jackson Development Group to announce the closing of permanent financing for 4469 Broadway. This recently-completed 8-story residential and commercial building is located at West 192nd Street and Broadway in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan.

This new development consists of 85 units of affordable and workforce rental housing; a new home for a Columbia University-affiliated Head Start program that serves more than 300 young children; 8,500 sq ft of retail space occupied by Deals, a Dollar Tree Stores retail chain; a 60-space parking garage; and office space. An estimated 135 construction jobs were created, and the project is expected to lead to more than 100 permanent jobs.

“This project is an example of our continued commitment to improving New York’s neighborhoods by bringing in a combination of much needed affordable housing, retail and community services. Our financing partners did an excellent job of stepping up and putting their resources back into communities that they serve,” said Neil Weissman, principal, Jackson Development Group.

“My colleagues at Citi and I are excited to have played a role in financing this important project,” said William Yates, director, Citi Community Capital, “Faced with a tight deadline, the project sponsors and our financing partners truly came together and managed to close a very complex transaction. Our role in this project is emblematic of Citi’s commitment to lend and invest in the communities where we do business.”

Permanent financing for 4469 Broadway was structured through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, a federal initiative designed to spur new or higher investments in businesses and real estate projects located in low-income communities. Citi provided $10.2 million in equity and a 7-year $17 million leverage loan for the project.

“In today’s market, financing for mixed use development is extremely challenging, even more so when that project is located in lower income communities. Next Street is incredibly proud to have secured both senior leverage debt and tax equity to help our client rebuild this block of Washington Heights,” said Gloria Lee, Partner, Next Street, which served as advisor to Jackson Development Group.

“The 4469 Broadway project is an example of catalytic community development through partnership. Carver had the pleasure of working with Jackson Development, Next Street, NCIF, and Citi, all trusted community partners that came together with one goal. Through patient capital and financing expertise from Citi, Carver continues its more than 60-year mission of working with community partners to meet the financing needs of the underserved in the Washington Heights community,” said Blondel A. Pinnock, President, Carver Community Development Corporation.

Saurabh Narain, Chief Executive with National Community Investment Fund summed it up with, “NCIF is a proud participant in this high-impact transaction that will bring much-needed affordable housing and early childhood education to the Washington Heights community. NCIF would like to thank all the project partners, particularly Carver, an NCIF investee and a community development anchor in low- and moderate-income communities throughout New York City.”

About Citi Community Capital

Citi Community Capital (CCC) is a premier financial partner with nationally recognized expertise in financing all types of affordable housing and community reinvestment projects. CCC's origination, structuring, asset and risk management staff across the country provides creative financing solutions designed to meet their clients' needs. CCC helps community development financial institutions, real estate developers, national intermediaries and nonprofit organizations achieve their goals through a broad, integrated platform of debt and equity offerings. Additional information may be found at http://www.citicommunitycapital.com

About Next Street

Next Street was founded in 2005 on the idea of providing growing companies in urban markets with the same level of expertise that investment banks, Madison Avenue, and the elite consultancies provide to Fortune 500 companies. Next Street portfolio companies now generate $600 million in annual revenues and employ over 4,000 people. Most are located in low-income areas. Two thirds are women- or minority-owned businesses. One third are nonprofit organizations. The firm has worked with over 100 small businesses to date. To learn more about the firm’s clients, partners and capabilities, please visit http://www.nextstreet.com.

About Jackson Development Group

Jackson Development Group, LTD., including its construction division, Jackson Builders, LLC, is a New York-based real estate development company specializing in residential and mixed-use commercial construction. The principals of JDG have been pioneering innovative development strategies since 1996.

About Carver Bancorp, Inc.

Carver Bancorp, Inc. is the holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank, a federally chartered stock savings bank. Carver Federal Savings Bank, the largest African- and Caribbean-American run bank in the United States, operates nine full-service branches in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. For further information, please visit the Company's website at http://www.carverbank.com.

About NCIF

National Community Investment Fund (NCIF) is a non-profit private equity trust fund established in 1996 to invest private capital in CDFI-certified banks around the country that have a mission of economic and community development. NCIF is the largest investor of equity in CDFI banks (by numbers) in the country and has provided thought leadership by developing its proprietary Social Performance Metrics methodology – a tool that enables investors measure the social and economic development impact of CDFI banks. NCIF is also focused on strengthening the capacity of the banks in the NCIF Network. Total assets under management are approximately $150 million including $128 million of NMTC allocations.

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Citi and Next Street Structure New Markets Tax Credit Transaction to Finance 4469 Broadway, a Mixed Use Development

Home » business » Boutique looks ahead as Rainy Hill kicks off

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn
The Nation February 22, 2012 1:00 am

Managing director Prab Thakral said the new project would be on a 5-rai (8,000-square-metre) plot with gross leasable space of about 20,000 square metres.

He said the company would announce details of the project in the next few weeks.

"We have acquired the plot on Sukhumvit with a long lease period of about 30 years. Construction of our new brand-extension retail project will start next year and will take about 18 months," Prab said.

He said the new project would position itself for mid-market retailing, a little lower than its Rain Hill community mall, which targets the upper mass to high-end markets.

"Thailand is experiencing a consumer-driven boom because of its fast-growing middle class. The opportunity for retail is quite large in the Kingdom," Prab said.

The Boutique Group yesterday officially opened its Rain Hill community mall, which has been developed under the concept of "The Cosmopolitan Hangout".

Located on Sukhumvit Soi 47 in the heart of Bangkok, the mall, which cost more than Bt400 million, features more than 40 leading brands, hand-picked to cater to the urban lifestyles of the capital's residents.

The retail complex is designed to be an ideal meeting place of a true eco-conscious retail mall and a hip urban lifestyle, the group says.

Prab said the community mall would turn this location into the newest favourite among target customers, including business professionals in the Sukhumvit area, Japanese expatriates, and residents of Sukhumvit, including the Oakwood and Citadines projects.

"We expect our Rain Hill retail complex to achieve its return on investment within the next five to seven years," he said.

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Boutique looks ahead as Rainy Hill kicks off

WILLIAMSBURG — The problem for WJC middle schools may not be lack of space, but poor use of it.

The James City Citizens Budget Advisory Committee has spent the last few months walking the halls of all three schools to assess every nook and cranny to avoid new construction.

The committee shared its report this week with Superintendent Steven Constantino and his administrative staff. The School Board is next, as well as a rigorous review by school officials.

“A lot of this is not ‘big think,’” said David Jarman, a member of the committee. “It’s just: Can we be more efficient in our utilization of classroom space?”

They found readily available space by reconfiguring rooms. That will preclude trailers, new wings, or building anew –– for nearly a decade.

Last month the School Board looked at several options for overcrowding. It would cost $29.5 million to convert James Blair back to a school and build a new central office.

The School Board decided on trailers at Berkeley for now, but the Budget Advisory Committee is encouraging another look. Jarman said that if WJC continues to do “business as usual,” it will continue to erect small, fancy schools and “sub-optimize” space within them.

3 BIG OPPORTUNITIES

* Increasing class sizes by two students could free up 10-12 classrooms. That alone would accommodate 250 students, alleviating half the problem for the next decade.

It’s a move the school division is already considering to save money as it faces a $7.5 million operational shortfall. Increasing ratios by one student per classroom could eliminate 24 teachers and save $1.7 million. 

* Repurposing activity rooms, auditoriums, gyms, music rooms and art rooms could yield six additional classrooms.

David Jarman said his group found that WJC has historically overbuilt and created large open spaces and high ceilings throughout its schools. Eliminating some programs not essential to the core curriculum would free up space as well. “It’s a difficult issue because it trades off programmatic issues for space issues,” he said. 

* Optimizing full-size classrooms could also make more room within the school. Jarman said some classrooms are only used half of the day and that more efficient scheduling could lead to more efficient space.

Moving storage to an off-site location, converting teacher lounges into classrooms and eliminating non-teaching use of classroom space are other ways the committee’s report identified to improve use of space.

At Berkeley, 11 rooms are used for paper storage, while Hornsby has nine storage spaces for books. Berkeley also has one full-size classroom broken into five offices, and another classroom full of exercise bikes.

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Space utilization study in hands of School Board

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Construction has returned to the Interstate 65 corridor south of Nashville, the region's most popular location for corporate offices.

The question that remains unanswered is whether Nashville's commercial real estate industry has shaken off the lingering effects of the recession and is ready to create new corporate addresses in other areas of the city. According to The Nashville Ledger, developers have announced projects in most of those areas but have been waiting for the economy to improve (http://bit.ly/zSlwYa).

"There's going to be a breakout, but not this year," says Tom Frye, managing director of CB Richard Ellis' Nashville office.

He predicts another reasonably healthy year for the commercial real estate industry but expects everyone to continue exercising caution about building speculative office space which, by definition, is constructed before it is taken by tenants. That was common before the economic downturn but has not been seen for several years - until now.

Boyle Investment Co. is under way with the area's first speculative office building since 2006. The seven-floor, 177,577-square-foot building is part of the company's Meridian development in the Cool Springs Mall area in Williamson County. Boyle also is building a much smaller 15,000-square-foot mixed use building. Both are expected to be finished this summer.

'We all felt that if a corporate headquarters wanted to come to Williamson County, there were not any large office blocks available," Boyle spokesman Shelby Larkin says.

"Although it's risky, it's a calculated risk," she adds. "We do have some leases signed (and) we feel strongly about the Williamson County economy."

Cool Springs, which has the second-best occupancy rate in Middle Tennessee at 6.1 percent, has new office space construction and more in the planning stages.

Boyle isn't alone in that sentiment. Even though no one has been building speculatively in Cool Springs, companies in search of upscale office space continue to move there. Cool Springs and nearby Brentwood now have a vacancy rate of just 6.1 percent, according to an end-of-2011 market survey by CB Richard Ellis. Only the West End-Belle Meade area in Nashville has a lower vacancy rate.

Over the course of 2011, growing or relocating companies took 650,000 square feet of office space off the market across the region. That was somewhat less, but not drastically less, than the typical pre-recession "absorption rate" of 700,000 to 750,000 square feet, says CB Richard Ellis' Frye.

Nashville's overall office market, as measured by the firm's survey, had a vacancy rate of 12.7 percent at the end of last year. The rate reported in the survey varied widely in different parts of the city.

"You have pockets that are doing very well right now," says Pat Emery, president of Spectrum Properties, which manages about 1.4 million square feet of office space in the Cool Springs area, about a third of Cool Springs' total.

Developers are ready to start building when they sense the time is right. Some projects are already moving forward.

Highwoods Properties will build a new 203,000-square-foot corporate headquarters for LifePoint Hospitals. The seven-floor building will be in Brentwood's Seven Springs development. Nashville is considering tax breaks for LifePoint to encourage the company to move from Williamson County to Davidson County.

South of Cool Springs on I-65, Boyle is creating its mixed-use Berry Farms development. Berry Farms, which is being developed in phases over time, will eventually feature more than 3 million square feet of office space ranging from corporate campuses, multi-story buildings, smaller professional offices and mixed use space that combines offices with retail and restaurants. Other buildings will combine office and residential spaces.

"The whole idea of Berry Farms is that sooner or later, Cool Springs is going to fill up. Berry Farms is the next step" south along I-65, says Frye.

___

Information from: The Nashville Ledger, http://www.nashvilleledger.com

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I-65 south of Nashville regains construction work

The last dead zone along an otherwise bustling North Carrollton Avenue commercial strip is about to stir to life. After closing on financing and land acquisition this month, Stirling Properties officials say they are poised to green light construction on the Mid-City Market, a Winn-Dixie-anchored shopping center that will include a mix of smaller retail outlets.

Workers are scheduled to start prepping the site in the 300 and 400 blocks of North Carrollton as early as Friday, said Townsend Underhill, vice president of development for Stirling. He said demolition should commence next week on the dormant Bohn Ford dealership building, which will be replaced by the planned 53,000-square-foot supermarket.

Underhill said the $38 million project is set to open in about a year. To date, about 80 percent of the 107,000 square feet of space at the site has been leased.

In addition to Winn-Dixie, businesses that have signed on as tenants are Office Depot, Neighborhood Pet Market by Jefferson Feed, Felipe's Taqueria, Pinkberry frozen yogurt, Five Guys burgers and fries and Pei Wei Asian diner.

Five of the signed tenants will be housed in three new buildings that will front on North Carrollton Avenue. A renovation is planned for the former Harry's Ace Hardware building, which will be home to Office Depot and Jefferson Feed.

Underhill said negotiations continue with four other retailers.

When fully operational, the development is projected to generate more than $60 million in annual retail sales. Underhill said the project will create about 365 permanent jobs and employ 275 construction workers.

The supermarket will be modeled after the Winn-Dixie store on Louisiana 21 in Covington, which opened in February 2010 as a national prototype for the Jacksonville, Fla., company.

Like the north shore location, the new store will have stained concrete floors, high ceilings, soft lighting and a 30-foot open-air covered entryway with produce displayed farmers-market-style in open boxes. The new store also will offer a yogurt bar, olive bar, salad bar, wing bar and a seafood case that's about twice the size of a regular store's, as well as nuts and dried fruit sold by the pound.

The grocery will be set at the back of the Bohn Ford site.

In recent months, the development team and City Hall haggled over a design detail that threatened to delay the start of construction.

Winn-Dixie officials wanted a two-way crossing of the proposed Lafitte Greenway to allow customer access to an adjacent, overflow parking lot. Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration and advocates of the 3-mile-long park opposed the idea.

In the end, the city and the developer agreed to a one-way crossing.

"We reached a solution to allow the development to go forward while still preserving the integrity of the greenway," said Aimee Quirk, Landrieu's economic development chief.

As part of the compromise, the developer agreed to pick up the tab for safety features, including speed bumps and signage, and some landscaping. Quirk said the city also reserves the right to close the crossing if it is deemed a safety risk down the road.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall on the $7 million Lafitte Greenway, which will connect Armstrong Park on the edge of the French Quarter to Canal Boulevard where Lakeview meets Mid-City. Plans call for the project to be finished in the spring of 2014.

Mid-City Market's amenities will include terraced outdoor seating and pedestrian plazas, benches, bike racks, trellises and landscaping throughout to complement the greenway.

The stretch of North Carrollton between Canal Street and Orleans Avenue has rebounded since Hurricane Katrina, with a bank and other small businesses joining several new restaurants and a few established eateries that reopened at their old locations.

The Mid-City Market site is the only dormant tract along the strip. Winn-Dixie had a Mid-City location before the storm, but the site became a Home Depot after Katrina.

City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, who represents the area, said the shopping center and linear park represent "exciting new opportunities" for the neighborhood.

"This has the potential to create a premier destination shopping experience that is easily accessible by car, bike, streetcar and walking through the Mid-City neighborhood," Guidry said.

In the past, Guidry has commended Stirling officials for working with the Carrollton Design Review Committee, a citizens' group that advises City Hall on commercial development in the area.

The new supermarket will be directly across the street from Rouses. Before Katrina, there were three grocery stores in the area: Winn-Dixie; Sav-A-Center, which was bought out by Rouses in 2007; and a Robert Fresh Market at the corner of Canal and Carrollton, which is now a Walgreens.

Frank Donze can be reached at fdonze@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3328.

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Work on Mid-City Market is slated to begin

GREENSBORO, N.C., Feb. 20, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE:SKT - News), announced today that construction has begun on the new 328,000 square foot Tanger Outlet Center Westgate in Glendale, Arizona. Situated on 38-acres, the Tanger Outlet Center Westgate in Glendale, Arizona will be located on Loop 101 and Glendale Avenue in Western Phoenix. This site is adjacent to Westgate City Center, Jobing.com Arena, University of Phoenix Stadium, Cabela's and The Renaissance Glendale Hotel and Spa.

The 328,000 square foot first phase of this upscale Tanger Outlet Center is underway, offering the nation's best outlet shopping including some 85 brand name outlet stores at opening. The modern design will feature a pedestrian friendly layout that will function as an open-air mall with both covered and uncovered landscaped courtyards and a park-like setting throughout the complex. The Tanger Outlet Center will create 700-800 jobs during construction and 900 full and part-time retail jobs upon completion.

"We are pleased to begin construction in this dynamic Phoenix market," said Steven B. Tanger, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The area serves as an excellent opportunity for our outlet concept. Phoenix has such a healthy regional population coupled with one of the most vibrant visitor markets. We feel confident they will enjoy our leading brand names and designer outlet stores offering substantial savings. We are happy to find a home in Glendale and bring Tanger Outlets to Arizona this year."

"Tanger's new location in Glendale means new jobs, new brand name shopping opportunities for residents and tourists and an increase in tax revenue for the city, " said Ed Beasley, Glendale City Manager. "The hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to the Sports and Entertainment District in Glendale each year now have another destination attraction with the opening of the new Tanger Outlet Center."

Glendale, Arizona is one of the largest cities in Arizona with a history going back more than 100 years. The city has become known for its significant transformation in the past decade, growing from a bedroom community to a city featuring a world class Sports and Entertainment District. Glendale will host the 2015 Super Bowl after previously hosting the 2008 Super Bowl. Glendale is also home to the Fiesta Bowl, and BCS championship games. All of these amazing events have generated millions of dollars in revenue to benefit the entire state of Arizona.

An official Ground Breaking Ceremony is scheduled in the weeks to come. At this ceremony, Tanger Outlets will share the project timeline and some of the enticing brands and designer outlets that will be opening at this center.

ABOUT TANGER FACTORY OUTLET CENTERS, INC.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE:SKT - News) is a publicly-traded REIT headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina that operates and owns, or has an ownership interest in, a portfolio of 39 upscale outlet shopping centers in 25 states coast to coast and in Canada, totaling approximately 11.8 million square feet leased to over 2,500 stores operated by 450 different brand name companies. More than 175 million shoppers visit Tanger Factory Outlet Centers annually. For more information on Tanger Outlet Centers, call 1-800-4TANGER or visit the company's web site at http://www.tangeroutlet.com

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Construction Begins on the New Tanger Outlets

Diversifying revenue streams

Lokale Immobilia sits down with Zbigniew Wojciech Oko?ski, president of the management board of Warsaw Stock Exchange-listed developer ROBYG, to talk about the company's entry into the commercial segment of Poland's property market and its plans in the residential sector

Adam Zdrodowski: The launch of ROBYG Business Center in Warsaw’s Wilanów district marks your company’s first commercial investment in Poland. What’s the rationale behind the firm’s entry into the sector?

Zbigniew Wojciech Oko?ski: We bought the land in Wilanów a few years ago in the belief that this project would complement the main part of our business: the development of multifamily residential buildings.

We also came to the conclusion that the investment would fit the concept of the whole Miasteczko Wilanów estate. We’ve been involved in the development of that project since construction began.

Apart from housing schemes, the estate will also feature office and retail space. Several other developers are working on commercial projects in the area. This is how the most modern neighborhoods in the world are designed these days.

Your company is not the only residential developer in Poland that has entered the commercial property market of late. Will this trend continue?

We can assume it will. For any large, experienced developer that has accumulated a certain amount of capital and land, entering new sectors of the property market is a natural way of developing its business activity. It also gives a company diversified sources of revenue and thus greater security.

How would you respond to the claim that a company that has until now focused solely on building apartments does not have the know-how needed to develop office space?

In the case of our company, such a claim would be totally unfounded. One of our co-owners is active in the office market in Israel, so we will be able to use the ample experience that we have gained there in the Polish market.

What will be built in the next phases of ROBYG Business Center?

We are planning 28,000 sqm of office and retail space in the next, five-floor building in the complex. However, it is possible that this space will, in the end, be distributed across several smaller buildings. That will ultimately depend on the tenants which we will secure for the investment.

Don’t you face strong competition from the developers that have already been involved in office projects in Miasteczko Wilanów for some time now?

We rather see those seemingly competing projects as a magnet that will help promote the location in general and will attract tenants to the Miasteczko Wilanów estate, from which our investment will definitely benefit as well.

We see the area as a promising office location; some of the employees of the potential tenants that could lease space in the planned offices in Miasteczko Wilanów already live, or will soon live, in the neighborhood.

Are you already planning new commercial projects in other locations in Poland?

As for purely office projects in completely new locations, their potential launch will depend on how successful the Wilanów investment is. However, we are now planning commercial space within our ongoing and planned residential projects in Warsaw and the Tri-city area.
One of the buildings in the Osiedle Kameralne estate in the capital’s Bemowo district, for instance, will mostly feature retail space and offices with just its two top floors expected to house upmarket apartments.

Will you continue to concentrate most of your activities on the residential market in the upcoming years?

By all means. We have actually stepped up our residential activity in recent months. Last year we managed to sell more than 1,000 apartments, which makes us one of the three largest developers in the sector. Currently we are building a total of some 1,300 units in our Warsaw and Tri-city projects.

Are you planning to expand to other Polish cities as well?

No. In the current uncertain market conditions that would be too risky. You have to remember that starting development activity in a new market is a complex, time- and cost-consuming logistical process.

We will grow in the cities in which we are already present. In Warsaw, for one, we have recently bought land in the Bemowo district, where we will develop a new housing estate with approximately 70,000 sqm of usable space. The first phase of the project alone will deliver some 300 units.

We are also looking for plots in other parts of the city. For instance, we would like to secure land on the right bank of the Vistula River where we have not yet built a single project and where we would like to establish a presence.

From Lokale Immobilia

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Adam Zdrodowski: The launch of ROBYG Business Center in Warsaw’s Wilanów district marks your company’s first ...

Cabela’s is coming to Grandville.

Cabela’s Chief Executive Officer Tommy Millner has announced the store featuring hunting, fishing, outdoor gear, and more will open at the east end of the Rivertown Mall retail corridor on 44th Avenue in spring 2013. The 88,000-square-foot store will be a part of a retail center currently under development by CWD Real Estate Investment.

“Because of the many great customers we have in the Grandville/Grand Rapids area, we have been interested in building a store there for years,” Millner said. “Michiganders are dedicated outdoors people who live the Cabela’s lifestyle and so many of them are loyal customers through our catalogs, website and Dundee store, we wanted to reward them with a Cabela’s store of their own.”

Millner said the store will include a Boat Shop, Gun Library, Bargain Cave, and Fudge Shop and employ about 200 full- and part-time employees. Construction on the building will start this summer and will feature Cabela’s trademark style of an exterior log construction and stonework along with metal roofing and a glass storefront. The inside of the store will include conservation-themed wildlife displays, animal mounts, and a built-in aquarium.

Grandville City Manager Ken Krombeen said since the City Council already rezoned the 1.9-acre parcel on 44th Avenue for the 88,000-square-foot building back in December the project “is basically pre-approved.” He said the next step is for Cabela’s officials to apply for a building permit, which the city will review, before starting construction.

The store will be part of a 380,000-square-foot retail complex development planned on the former X-Rite property. Krombeen praised the development, saying the complex is taking shape just the way city leaders and developers had hoped since the project began in 2009. “They wanted something different than a typical retail development,” he said. “There was a lot of effort to give it a unique feel.”

The retail complex includes multiple buildings, green space, sidewalks, and bike trails. Target also plans to open a 135,000-square-foot store in the complex in October.

Krombeen said the economic impact from the new Cabela’s will benefit not only the city but area municipalities as well as the state through jobs, property taxes, and sales tax.

The Grandville store will be Cabela’s second in the state with one located in Dundee. Cabela’s officials previously began plans to bring a store to the city of Walker, including asking for an economic incentive package for about $15 million, but those talks stopped in 2010.

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Cabela's announces plans to open in retail complex on 44th Avenue in Grandville

Rovio Entertainment's "Angry Birds" have conquered mines, construction sites, Rio, and all four seasons, which is why the colorful birds will leave this planet and take their slings and fury to space. On Friday, Rovio announced its newest addition to the Angry Birds franchise, "Angry Birds Space," which will launch on March 22.

"It's going to be the biggest game launch since the original Angry Birds!" Rovio said in a company blog post. "Angry Birds Space is a completely new game with innovative new gameplay, but with some of the familiar Angry Birds elements that fans already know and love -- plus some surprises!"

Rovio says it will release more information about the game in early March, but come the 22nd, the company will be launching its galactic game across several different verticals, including mobile gaming, retail, publishing, and animation. The game's tagline reads, "It's one small fling for a bird, one quantum leap for birdkind."

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"Not only is this a first for us as an integrated entertainment company, but the first time this has ever been done for a mobile game!" Rovio said.

Angry Birds has already released a trailer to tease the new game. The game's tagline reads, "It's one small fling for a bird, one quantum leap for birdkind."

For those who have never played Angry Birds, the game is simple: players use a slingshot to launch multi-colored birds at structures populated by evil green pigs. Players must eliminate all of the pigs from each level before moving on. There are currently three different iterations of the game, including the original 'Angry Birds,' the holiday-themed 'Angry Birds Seasons,' and 'Angry Birds Rio,' which was released as a promotional tie-in with the 20th Century Fox animated film "Rio."

In November, Rovio's CMO Peter Vesterbacka announced that Angry Birds has become the most downloaded game of all-time and fastest-growing game in history, scoring 500 million downloads in less than two years since its December 2009 release.

"This is a fantastic landmark achievement for us, and we're extremely delighted to see such an incredible amount of people enjoying our games," said Rovio CEO Mikael Hed. "We remain committed to creating more fun experiences and bringing exceptional quality to 'Angry Birds' fans everywhere."

In December, Rovio branched out and built its first fully-branded Angry Birds game with Wonderful Pistachios, called "The Hunt for the Golden Pistachio." The game was completely playable on Wonderful's website, GetCrackin.com, and required a Google Chrome browser to play it. Users were incentivized to pummel evil green pigs and crack open pistachios for a chance to win $300,000 in prizes, which range from free pistachios to $25,000 in cash. The promotion ended on Jan. 1.

But even with four games and countless levels and collectibles, people still want more Angry Birds. The company has been growing in size to accommodate the high demand, developing a long line of Angry Birds-themed toys, apparel, accessories, board games and a cookbook. Rovio recently announced that it will open up its first Angry Birds store in Helsinki and later open up shops in China, where the brand is huge - it's Rovio's second-largest and fastest-growing market --  but most of the available merchandise there is pirated.

"We're insanely profitable," Vesterbacka said. "We are very, very profitable. We're not a publicly traded company yet but we can fund our own growth."

The brand has grown so big that Rovio recruited former Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel, producer of the "Iron Man" films, to produce a feature-length Angry Birds movie.

"Hollywood is hot for the brand," said Rovio's North American GM Andrew Stalbow. "There's a very strong focus on Angry Birds to turn it into an entertainment franchise. That's why I joined."how

Vesterbacka believes Rovio is "not ready to file for an IPO tomorrow," but sees his company going public in "maybe a year from now." Rovio most recently received $42 million in March, from investors including Accel Partners and Niklas Zennstrom's Atomico Ventures. Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said it's "very possible" the company would have another funding round before going public.

"We're still building a lot of our infrastructure, our company, our platform, everything," Vesterbacka said. "There's a lot of good discipline in having to be ready to go public."

"Angry Birds" has become the fastest growing game in history, scoring 500 million downloads in less than two years since its December 2009 release, the most for any game all-time. The game is the top rated game in 79 countries. Gamers worldwide play the game on Android and iOS devices for 300 million minutes daily, which amounts to a grand total of 200,000 years.

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As more jobs are created and some Americans are beginning to feel more confident about the economy, stock prices have surged across the board. While most sectors have benefited from this surge in optimism, a few of the more cyclical—and heavily beaten down—corners of the market have seen even more impressive performances to start the year. No more has this been true than in the construction segment, as investors have piled into this corner of the market thanks to solid data, reasonable valuations, and hopes for greater demand going forward.

These expectations have been further boosted by strong economic indicators relative to the construction space specifically. Recent readings on the construction spending front came in well above expectations in terms of month/month reports, while other metrics such as housing starts also posted favorable figures. Beyond these data points, investors have also seen favorable releases regarding both personal income and the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index, all the while rates have stayed low, keeping borrowing costs at a minimum for those looking to expand their operations (read Three Cyclical ETFs That Are Surging Higher).

As a result of this broadly improving economic environment, low borrowing costs, and the vast wealth of untapped capital stored up by many businesses, some are forecasting that a resurgence in the building sector could have some staying power. This could especially be true if the trends highlighted above remain strong and investors continue to pile into highly cyclical industries like construction for their equity exposure (read Three Industrial ETFs For A Manufacturing Revival).

In light of this, it may be a good idea to tilt portfolios towards the building sector, at least in the short-term. While an investment in an individual stock could be an intriguing idea, some investors may be better off seeking broad exposure to the sector via an ETF. For these investors, we have highlighted three construction ETFs that could be in prime position to benefit from this positive trend in the construction world, or at least surge if the economic climate continues to improve as we go further into 2012:

ISE Global Engineering and Construction Index Fund (FLM)

If investors are looking for a global way to play this trend, both from an engineering and construction perspective, FLM is tough to beat. The product tracks the ISE Global Engineering and construction index which focuses in on firms that are principally engaged in the production or completion of large civil and capital projects or any aspect of the engineering process. In order to weight securities, the fund uses a linear-based cap-weighted method which stops a few firms from dominating the performance of the total index. With this strategy, the fund holds just under 70 securities although it does charge investors 70 basis points a year in fees (read Three Outperforming Active ETFs).

Top holdings for FLM are Vinci SA, McDermott international (MDR), and Fluor Corp (FLR), giving the fund a heavy tilt towards industrial firms. However, the product does have a median market cap of just $2.3 billion, suggesting a smattering of mid and small caps are in the fund. In fact, mid caps make up a majority of the fund’s assets at close to two-thirds of the total. In terms of country exposure, U.S. securities make up about one-quarter of assets while Japan (19.1%), and developed Europe (44%) make up much of the rest of the fund.

Dynamic Building & Construction Portfolio (PKB)

If investors are searching for a U.S centric play on the broad sector, PKB could be the way to go. The PowerShares fund tracks the Dynamic Building & construction Intellidex which consists of 30 companies in the U.S. from those sectors. The product also utilizes a more quantitative methodology which looks to evaluate companies based on a number of investment criteria including growth, valuation, timeliness, and risk factors. This approach produces a fund that charges a net expense ratio of 63 basis points a year, after current fee waivers of 28 basis points (also read Are Telecom ETFs In Trouble?).

Current top holdings include Vulcan Materials (VMC), KBR Inc (KBR), and Home Depot (HD) suggesting that while the fund has a heavy tilt towards industrials, consumer firms make up a decent chunk as well. In fact, industrials make up about 52% of the fund while consumer discretionary (23.5%) and materials (19.2%) help to round out the fund from an industry perspective. For market capitalization exposure, the product has a definite focus on smaller firms as mid caps make up a plurality at about 40% of the fund while small and micro make up another 50% of the product, leaving just 10% for large and giant cap firms. This suggests that the fund could be more volatile than some in the sector, pushing standard deviation levels up compared to more large cap focused funds in the industrial and materials sectors.

Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index Fund (ITB)

For investors searching for more of a housing recovery play, ITB could be an interesting choice. The product tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Select Home Construction Index which is a broad benchmark of firms that includes companies that construct residential homes including mobile and prefab domiciles. Homebuilders make up roughly two-thirds of the total exposure, although firms in the building materials segment occupy another 19.5% while home improvement firms take up another 9% of total assets (see Five Cheaper ETFs You Probably Overlooked).

This is in stark contrast to the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) as this product puts less than 30% of its assets in homebuilders, giving double digit weights to home furnishing retail and home furnishing manufacturers. As a result, ITB could be more of a pure play on construction and thus make for an intriguing play for those focused in on this corner of the market. Total holdings include 27 firms while DR Horton takes the top spot, followed closely by Lennar Corp and Pulte Group. The product charges 47 basis points a year in fees but pays out a respectable 65 basis points in dividends in 30-Day SEC Yield terms.

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