It is exciting to see that there is even a proposal to develop long-unused land in North Olean along Buffalo Street and near the Interstate 86 exit. Krog Corp., an Orchard Park-based development firm, plans a five-phase project for the almost 60-acre lot.

Major elements of the proposed project include the construction of a four-story hotel and neighboring restaurant and retail space. Overall development plans that have been revealed by Krog represent proposed investment of nearly $17 million.

If approved and assisted by the various city, county and state entities, the project would be the culmination of a long-held hope by city officials that the former industrial land could be repurposed for useful development. Decades ago, the land was home to industrial oil and fertilizer production operations, as well as several small businesses. Efforts to clean up contaminants, started by ExxonMobil in 2010 and taken over by a holding of Krog, are ongoing and are expected to be completed this spring.

Construction is targeted for a May start and would take most of the next year, should the project garner all the approvals it needs from authorities. The remaining four phases would be completed by 2020. Arnie Cubins, a senior project manager with Krog, told the Times Herald after an Olean Planning Board meeting that his company i taking with several retailers interested in leasing space.

Perhaps it is not by chance that one of the Krog holdings that will oversee construction and development of the retail component of the development is called Olean Gateway LLC, because not only would the project develop brownfield land, it would also provide a more inviting gateway to the city from I-86. Some planners have long noted that the citys two I-86 exits lack the inviting off-ramp appeal that can get travelers to decide to make a stop off the interstate.

The proposed project would create more of that appeal and, combined with the existing, outstanding retail centers, restaurants and other attractions in the greater Olean area, could result in the best shopping-day trip destination with the easiest access from an interstate between Big Flats/Horseheads and Erie, Pa.

We join Mayor Bill Aiello in encouraging the Olean Planning Board, the Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency and any state authority that might be involved to do whatever it takes to expedite this project and work hard to make this happen.

Go here to read the rest:
Our View: Development would bring more 'off-ramp appeal'

New look: How a changed Forest Chase could look. Illustration: Supplied

More than $100 million is being spent on projects to lure global retailers into the Perth CBD, breathe new life into Cottesloe's beachfront and shake up Subiaco's shopping strip.

Plans have been lodged with the cities of Perth and Subiaco and the Town of Cottesloe for three projects that vary in scope but each aim to make their mark.

In Perth, Forrest Chase shopping complex is facing a redevelopment that would involve walkways linking the central shopping space to Northbridge and the cultural precinct and public transport redesigned in steel and glass. Shopfronts would also be brought forward to boost the overall retail space.

A development application lodged by owner ISPT put a $67 million cost on construction.

But ISPT development services general manager Chris McCluskey said the total investment would be more than $100 million.

Mr McCluskey said a key driver behind the redevelopment plan was to bring more "global flagship retailers" into the CBD.

He said it was also part of the overall revitalisation of the city.

"It's a revitalisation, a renewal, a refresh," he said. "It's about the creation of a really strong flagship retail space.

"We're going to create something really special."

More:
CBD revamp to lure global retailers

Englewood is renovating this Yard House Restaurant in Kansas City.

CHICAGOThe nationwide increase in job creation, coupled with the Feds recent decision to continue holding down interest rates, has many in commercial real estate looking toward 2015 with great anticipation. This includes those involved in retail and restaurant ground-up construction and shopping mall renovations.

Confident in the improving economy, national retailers and restaurant owners have been adding new locations this year, and we expect that activity to continue in 2015, says William Di Santo, president of Lemont, IL-based Englewood Construction. Shopping mall owners are also renovating their space to make trips to the mall more experiential.

In 2014, many retailers and restaurateurs added new venues as well as tore down existing stores and replaced them with new ones in order to meet brand standards, Di Santo adds. While there still is ample space for retrofits in empty storefronts, were seeing more focus on ground-up construction.

Englewood recently started three new ground-up projects, a Coopers Hawk Winery and Restaurant in Oak Lawn, IL, a suburb of Chicago, a Seasons 52 restaurant from Darden in Bridgewater, NJ, and a 55,000-square-foot Hobby Lobby at Seabrook Crossings in Seabrook, NH. In 2014, Englewood also completed a ground-up Goodwill store in the Chicago area.

Over the past few years, the majority of restaurant construction has been confined to upscale activity, Di Santo says. That has changed in recent months as consumers are returning in all categories, including fine dining, fast casual and fast food. As a result, we expect a very robust pipeline for restaurant work in 2015.

Englewood also recently began an expansion at white tablecloth restaurant The Purple Pig in Chicago, as well as the renovation of a Yard House in Kansas Citys Power and Light District. Englewood is also working with Red Robin and Buffalo Wild Wings in the fast casual arena to roll out several new restaurants in 2015.

Stratford Square Mall in suburban Bloomingdale, IL, has been a popular retail destination in its market for decades, but its owners recently tapped Englewood to manage the malls redesign, construction and tenant coordination, a good example of the recent trend to revitalize and revamp existing malls. The traditional mall has faced an uphill battle as competition from lifestyle centers and online shopping has only increased in recent years, says Di Santo. To draw shoppers to malls, investors will be adding entertainment venues, fine dining and other features that cannot be recreated online.

People are willing to go out and spend money on services they cannot get at home, he adds. Entertainment options, such as new theater and bowling concepts, are both trending for 2015.

And increased confidence among consumers has resulted in more foot traffic in malls, leading retail tenants to relocate from tucked-away corners to more expensive center-court locations. To offset the higher rent, many national retailers have decided to take smaller floor plates. And for shopping mall owners, this has meant reconfiguring areas with renovation projects.

More here:
Retail Construction Set to Rise in 2015

A $38 million plan to put up a three-building complex of offices, storefronts and apartments along East Third Street in south Bethlehem got approval Thursday to receive tax benefits through the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone.

The centerpiece of the Greenway Commons would be a five-story building between Fillmore and Pierce streets that would have ground-floor retail space and 95 luxury apartments above.

To its east there would be a four-story building with more ground-floor retail and 15 apartments. To its west, there would be another four-story building with retail and 63,000 square feet of Class A office space.

With conditional approval from Bethlehem's CRIZ authority board, developer Bethlehem Renovations can take that to banks to help secure private financing for the project. The project received approval from the city Planning Commission in October.

Several lenders have expressed interest in investing in the project, not only because of its inclusion in the CRIZ but also because it represents another step in the "rebirth of south Bethlehem," said Rob DeBeer, a development director for Bethlehem Renovations.

Among the conditions attached to the approval is proof of private financing for the project. The developer and authority also must negotiate the "level of increment," or the percentage of tax deferment the project will be allowed to leverage.

The CRIZ covers 130 acres in Bethlehem, including large portions of former Bethlehem Steel land, and allows developers to use certain state and local taxes to offset construction costs, so long as new jobs are created.

According to the developer's CRIZ application, the project would create more than 200 temporary construction jobs, more than 200 office jobs and 300 retail jobs.

DeBeer told the authority some prospective tenants have expressed interest and that Bethlehem Renovations may have announcements regarding anchor lessees by the time construction begins in March. He anticipated construction would take nine to 12 months.

Bethlehem Renovations is a company of BethWorks Now, one of the original investors in the redevelopment of the Bethlehem Steel brownfield.

See the original post:
Three-building multi-use complex gets approval from Bethlehem CRIZ authority

Something was missing Wednesday when city officials unveiled drawings of a Chinese developer's plans for a massive, mixed-use skyscraper along the Chicago River: the 89th floor.

As currently conceived, the building would be 88 stories tall not 89, as had been widely reported.

In China, eight is considered a lucky number. Many Chinese skyscrapers are 88 stories tall. The Beijing Summer Olympics began on August 8, 2008 8-8-08.

So the change could be product of superstition. Whatever the reason, plans for the $900 million, mixed-use mega-tower, called Wanda Vista, boast impressive numbers and beg the question about where the high-rise would rank among the giants of the Chicago skyline.

To be built on a riverfront site along East Wacker Drive, the $900 million tower would contain a five-star hotel with about 250 rooms, 390 condominium units and about 9,000 square feet of shops. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration characterized the project, which it said would generate 2,000 construction jobs, as the largest real estate investment by a Chinese firm in Chicago and one of the largest in the United States.

"This is huge," said a spokeswoman for the mayor. "The mayor has put a significant amount of time and energy into ensuring that we open our arms and make this city for international businesses and international visitors."

The timing of the announcement coincided with the onset of U.S.-China trade talks in Chicago.

The developers the Wanda Group, which is controlled by mainland China's richest man, Wang Jianlin, and Chicago-based Magellan Development Group want to break ground in 2016. With Wanda Group's investment, many expect that the project may not need pre-sales before starting construction.

But the developers' path is not without obstacles.

They confront a downtown market awash in new and planned hotel rooms, including a 290-room Conrad Hotel that local hotelier Laurence Geller wants to build inside a vacant office building at 101 E. Erie St.

Here is the original post:
A look at plans for Chinese developer's massive skyscraper on Chicago River

TAMPA Jeff Vinik isnt just developing some new buildings in the Channel District. Hes remaking an entire area of downtown into a new neighborhood, and nearly building a second skyline for Tampas urban identity.

Unveiling a master plan Wednesday, Vinik said he looked around the area after buying the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team five years ago, and saw massive untapped potential. Now his development team is ready to start making his dreams into a reality.

Largely funded privately, the project includes nearly a dozen new buildings, including hotels, office buildings, apartment towers, restaurants, medical school facilities, retail promenades, parks and entertainment venues, with a budget topping $1 billion. In all, the project could remake 40 contiguous acres along the waterfront and rank as one of the largest downtown development projects underway in the Southeast, letting Tampa join ranks of other U.S. cities seeing a resurgence of urban spaces.

We have a blank canvas to develop an entire district to help revitalize downtown and change this area for generations to come, Vinik told several hundred people gathered at the Marriott Waterside hotel for the revealing ceremony. Its critical we create a unified district, and its critical that this district have a soul and a brand.

Viniks team has already begun a nation-wide tour to recruit a major Fortune 500 firm to the area and he said they have several very interested candidates. If successful, they will move forward on office construction and the overall project could add 6,700 direct and indirect jobs to the area with an average wage of $78,000.

Some construction work can begin right away, as Vinik already owns or controls the bulk of the land in the area, and has the strong endorsement of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn. By summer, he hopes to have begun dirt moving to re-arrange some dormant streets in the area, and by this time next year he hopes people see a crane building a new medical school campus for the University of South Florida.

After the big ceremony, Buckhorn pulled Vinik aside to hand him a small, white card with a quote from Winston Churchill: We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.

Ive kept that on my desk since the day I took office, Buckhorn told Vinik. Now you keep that on your desk.

Anticipation has been building for months about Viniks plans downtown.

Read the original:
Vinik's plans include more than $1 billion in construction

Washington County-based Millcraft Investments said Tuesday it secured the first of several retail tenants for a building it is planning on the site of Downtown's former Saks Fifth Avenue department store.

Fogo de Cho Brazilian Steakhouse will occupy space on the ground floor of a building that Millcraft is dubbing 350 Oliver. The building's street-level retail space will be topped by a 585-space parking garage and six floors of condominiums.

Construction of the retail space and parking garage is expected to be completed in 2016, at a cost of $35.5 million. Work on the condominiums would begin after that.

Fogo de Cho operates 24 restaurants in the United States and nine in Brazil.

There are hundreds of millions of dollars being invested on Smithfield Street and Fogo de Cho will be a great complement to the growing number of hotels, apartments, condos and offices being developed here, said Millcraft President Lucas Piatt.

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers.

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

Read the original:
Brazilian steakhouse coming to former Saks site Downtown

The $56 million Domus Group/Coles development, Lotus, will include 155 apartments. Photo: Supplied

Plans have been lodged with the ACT government for the redevelopment of the Dickson car park into two supermarkets and 155 residential units.

ACT Treasurer Andrew Barr announced in March this year that Coles and Aldi supermarkets, apartments, specialty retail stores and office space would be constructed at the site.

The new Dickson Group Centre, which is a joint venture between Coles Group Property Developments and the Doma Group, will be built on the existing car park on the corner of Antill and Badham streets.

Pending ACT Planning and Land Authority approval, construction of the $56 million project is expected to begin in mid-2015.

Advertisement

Traders in the area had previously expressed concerns about the development, saying the lack of car parks during construction could sink local businesses.

The plans for a temporary 100-space car park next to the Dickson Pool to alleviate this concern also raised the ire of residents, as 27 trees would be cut down to facilitate it.

In a statement Coles confirmed that in response to community feedback the Land Development Agency had identified an alternative location closer to the Dickson retail centre.

Final negotiations with Coles and the current landowner of the site are under way.

See the original post here:
Plans lodged for Dickson car park redevelopment

Shaw Heights has a reputation.

A doughnut hole in the midst of Fayetteville, the Cumberland County neighborhood has remained neglected as surrounding areas have been annexed by the city.

The area is known for drug activity. Earlier this year, a 3-year-old boy was shot and killed when hit by a stray bullet while sleeping in a mobile home park along Shaw Road.

A stream of pedestrians has worn dirt trails along the side of the narrow street where there are no sidewalks. Vacant and crumbling homes dot the landscape.

But Fayetteville officials are exploring ways to redevelop the neighborhood that lies along the edge of Fort Bragg.

"It certainly looks to us like a doughnut hole we might want to fill in," City Manager Ted Voorhees said.

Voorhees said the city, along with the county, has a responsibility to focus on the quality of life for all its residents, in the city limits and in adjacent areas.

"In an area that has significant under-investment, if that is contributing to poor quality of life, contributing to a crime problem, then we need to do something about it," Voorhees said.

Last year, the city asked the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Government to analyze four scenarios for development there. They were to include various combinations of military and market-rate housing, retail space and public facilities such as a high school, library and recreation center.

But since the report was commissioned, there has been a shift in the military landscape, with Fort Bragg facing troop reductions and opening military housing to retirees and Department of Defense civilians.

Read this article:
New vision emerging for neglected Shaw Heights neighborhood

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) - Westgate Resorts on Monday hosted a ground breaking ceremony to celebrate the construction of a new $11 million mixed-use retail development that will feature award-winning restaurants, event and meeting space and a parking garage at Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa on Turkey Lake Road in Orlando.

Westgate Resorts Founder and CEO David Siegel, was joined by Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, Orange County Commissioner Scott Boyd, and President and CEO of Visit Orlando George Aguel for a groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of Westgate Lakes Retail Village.

The ceremony celebrated the continuing growth of Central Florida's tourism industry and the impact the locally based company has in that development.

"We're excited about bringing high-quality entertainment, dining and meeting options to our Westgate guests and Central Florida visitors," said Siegel. "The Westgate Lakes Retail Village also will create many new jobs and contribute to the economic development of Central Florida."

Westgate Lakes Retail Village will introduce the company's premium dining concept - already successfully launched at Westgate Park City Resort & Spa (Utah) - Edge Steakhouse to Central Florida. The village also will include Drafts Sports Bar & Grill, retail shops, 32,000 square feet of flexible banquet and meeting space, a full-service marketplace grocery store, game room, two-lane bowling alley and a more than 450-space parking garage.

Follow this link:
Groundbreaking for Westgate Resorts Retail Village