Hartford will press ahead with a sweeping development plan to bring housing, retail, a brewery and a 9,000-spectator minor league ballpark to long-vacant land north of downtown.

The city council approved the $350 million project Tuesday, capping four months of public debate. Six members voted in favor of the plan; three abstained.

"The redevelopment of Downtown North is going to create jobs, encourage new businesses, strengthen existing ones and help grow Hartford's grand list, all things that are absolutely vital to create a healthy vibrant city," Mayor Pedro Segarra said in a statement Tuesday night. "Over the last few months, support for the project has grown exponentially and it's exciting to see everyone invested in the future of our city."

Some council members hailed the project, which would bring the New Britain Rock Cats to Hartford, as a step forward for a city in need of additional revenue and a shot of vibrancy in an area that has been empty for decades.

"It is exactly a road map to how we move forward as a city," council President Shawn Wooden said at the meeting Tuesday. "There is no reward, there is no benefit, without some level of risk. ... It's appropriately risky for the return."

He noted that during recent budget cycles, the council had made deep cuts to city spending. The project offers an opportunity to capture new revenue, Wooden said.

"It's a lot more than a lot of other people have done at city hall and in state government for a long, long time," he added.

Others said they support developing the land, but had issues with the proposal.

Councilman David MacDonald, who along with Larry Deutsch and Raul DeJesus abstained during Tuesday's vote, raised concerns about the speed at which the project has moved.

"I understand the time constraints we're under, but that's not something we did to ourselves," MacDonald said. "It's something imposed on us."

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Hartford Council OKs Stadium Plan

Grace Contracting and Development knows the nuances of the ever-changing retail construction industry. Whether your space is boutique or your plans call for a grander scale, you can trust that your relationship with Grace Contracting and Development will generate a highly desirable and visually attractive retail environment.

At Grace Contracting and Development, we understand this demand and pride ourselves on being an asset for commercial ventures. As a retail construction company serving New York and the surrounding markets, our commitment is to quality construction services and our meeting the most exacting expectations of our customers. New York shoppers are among the most sophisticated in the world, and meeting their needs is the key to retail success. Grace Contracting can design and build your retail space to attract the demographics that most need your products.

When you trust us to build your ideal commercial space, you are getting a structure that will last a very long time. The last thing you will want to do is worry about continual maintenance costs and we ensure that this will not be the case. We even take advantage of certified green building materials to cut down on costs, increase overall energy efficiency, and reduce your business impact on the environment.

A shopper has the option of an online shopping experience, with free shipping. While that dynamic certainly has changed the shape of the retail marketplace, it only part of the picture.

Todays shopper wants options, for sure, but they also want the choice of going to a store and enjoying a real shopping experience. Many retailers use their online presence not only to generate sales, but to drive shoppers to the store where even more choices, excitement and fulfillment await.

Trust the professionals at Grace Construction and Development when it comes to renovating, rebuilding or building your retail space.

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Retail Space Construction | Grace Contracting & Development

Neutral-colored furniture with accent pillows and accessories doesn't overwhelm shoppers. An end table creates a divider between displays at Cocobolo Interiors in Armonk, N.Y.

Credit: Tom Anckner

When Julie Owen bought Cocobolo Interiors in 2008, she set about adding more contemporary items to the Armonk, N.Y., shop. But with only 3,000 square feet, she struggled to figure out where to put her expanding line of furniture, lighting fixtures and accessories. Her solution: create sections within the shop and arrange the furniture the way customers might imagine it at home, using low bookcases and folding screens as dividers.

As Owen discovered, making the most of a small retail shop means being strategic about how you design the space and organize your merchandise. Here are seven other simple and affordable ways to maximize a small retail space:

1. Paint an accent wall.Painting one wall a bold color is an affordable and effective way to not only spice up the space, but also to make it look larger. A bold colored wall creates the illusion of receding in space, says Libby Langdon, HGTV design expert and author of Libby Langdon's Small Space Solutions (Knack, 2009). Putting colorfully printed fabric or wallpaper on one of your walls is another way to achieve the same effect, while adding eye-catching textures and patterns to your store.

Related: Creating Shops from Shipping Containers

An old bed serves as a space-saving and creative way to display tea towels along an orange accent wall at Poppyseeds in Stanwood, Wash.

Credit: Amber Strehle, Tres Birds Photography

2. Create window-like effects. Windows can open up a small space and make it seem larger. At Poppyseeds, a vintage decor and fashion accessory shop in Stanwood, Wash., the owners cut window spaces into the walls separating two small rooms to create a more airy feel. In another room, co-owner Marybeth Sande put white linen panels across an entire wall, creating the illusion of windows. Hanging drapes around tall, skinny mirrors is another way to create a window effect, Langdon says. "That gives an illusion of more light and movement in a small space."

3. Think vertically.Displaying items on various levels maximizes space and is visually appealing to customers, says Jerry Birnbach, a Somers, N.Y., store-planning consultant. Hanging shelving at different levels is the easiest way to achieve this effect. You also can mount drapes and other items from the ceiling to the floor to draw the eye up and create the sense of a larger space, Langdon says.

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7 Low-Cost Design Ideas for Small Retail Spaces

Commercial listing search

Commercial real estate professionals such as brokers and other listing agents look to SHOWCASE to help them advertise commercial property for sale or commercial property for lease direct to the general public on Google, Yahoo and Bing. That's why so many results-minded commercial real estate professionals in trust SHOWCASE to market all their property for sale or lease listings. Retailers, CEOs, tenants, investors and brokers looking to buy or lease commercial property have free access to the industry's largest database of commercial property for lease or sale listings without registration or fees of any kind.

Each month tenants and investors search listings of commercial properties for sale or lease on SHOWCASE over 600,000 times, making it one of the most heavily searched commercial real estate marketing Web sites on the Internet. brokers listing real estate for sale or lease value SHOWCASE for the way SHOWCASE advertises and continuously updates all their listings for one flat monthly fee with no long term commitment.

The commercial property database behind SHOWCASE is by far the industry's largest, with over 1.4 million active, continuously updated listings of commercial real estate for sale or for lease across all commercial property types, including office, industrial, retail, flex, multifamily, commercial-zoned land, hotels and more. A SHOWCASE subscription also includes a personal website at no extra charge to promote the listing agent's name, contact information and services as well as on-demand listings performance reports to share with clients.

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Retail Space for Lease & Sale - Free Retail Space Property ...

MIAMI -

While standing about a block away from the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. federal courthouse in Miami, Jose Rios said "having no money" made him feel "invisible."

Rios was setting up a sleeping area early Friday morning on a sidewalk next to an empty parking lot. He said he had been living near Miami's Overtown neighborhood for the last year, because he was running away from "step dad sex abuse and no one gave a f---."

A few blocks away, there was a line in front of Club Space, a nightclub that remains open 24 hours. Another Jose, also known as Joe Ramirez, was also running away. He was there for "EDM acoustics" and was "already drunk and ready for $7 water" bottles.

"We're space cadets. That side has [the] Terremark conspiracy. You have strip club pervs, Grand Central hipsters [and] bay yuppies," Ramirez's friend Tatiana Alvarez, 22, said. "One day, cops will send homeless crack heads running. Dollar bills gonna come. It'll be like newspaper bomb turn[ed] into rich opera [expletive] glass."

That was Alvarez's description of Miami's Park West neighborhood, an area west of Biscayne Bay, north of downtown Miami and east of Overtown, formerly known as Colored Town.Developers have been talking about a Miami Worldcenter vision in the area for about a decade. This year, Miami commissioners have been giving the 28-acre mixed-use $1.5 billion project the green light.

What the city wants in the area is "substantially similar, if not identical, to that of plans that have been approved for Brickell City Center, River Landing and the Design District," Nitin Motwani, Miami Worldcenter developer, said in a statement.

Developers want to start construction this year. The project -- a partnership between Boca Raton based The Falcone Group and Marc Roberts Companies -- faced bitter litigation against commercial broker Edie Laquer who wanted to be a partner in the project. They also faced opposition on their management of public streets.

According to the Miami Worldcenter plan Northeast 7th and 9th Street would be closed to traffic. Seventh from North Miami Avenue to Northeast 2nd Avenue would become a pedestrian-only promenade, and 9th Street would turn into retail space. Northeast 8th Street would be open for traffic.

"Miami Worldcenter has earned the support of the Miami Entertainment District Association as well as the owners of Mekka, Will Call, E11even and others," Motwani said.

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Miami WorldCenter to begin construction soon

Amid an intensely competitive property market, leading developers have had to create a new business model in order to boost demand for their residential projects by building community malls and other facilities close to their projects.

This new type of approach has been adopted by companies aiming to sell out their residential projects and meet their targets, according to property experts.

For example, Sansiri has introduced a community retail project, Habito, at Sukhumvit 77, located close to several of its residential projects worth Bt8.7 billion in total.

The nearby projects are Blocs Sukhumvit 77, The Base Sukhumvit 77, The Base Park East Sukhumvit 77, The Base Park West Sukhumvit 77, Garden Square Sukhumvit 77 - an upscale townhouse development with prices starting at Bt10 million - and its latest condominium project, Hasu Haus.

These projects comprise more than 1,000 units in Sansiri's portfolio.

We Retail, the retail arm of Property Perfect, is investing Bt20 billion to develop four new community malls from last year through to the end of 2015. They are also located close to the developer's residential projects.

Two of the mall projects, worth Bt1.5 billion, commenced construction last year, with operations scheduled to begin in the final quarter of this year. They are Metro West Town, located at Kalapapruk, and Metro East Town, located at Sukhumvit 77-Lat Krabang.

One of the other projects will be situated on Ram-Indra, with retail space of 150,000 square metres and an investment cost of Bt6 billion, and the fourth on Ratchadaphisek, with retail space of 300,000 square metres at a cost of Bt12 billion.

Construction of these two projects is scheduled to commence next year.

Besides its community-mall development programme, Property Perfect has also sold land on Bang Na-Trat road to The Mall group for the development of a shopping mall, which will be located close to its Sky Sukhumvit condominium project.

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Residential firms turn to mall, other projects to boost sales

8 hours 47 minutes ago by Cody Proctor (cody@krtv.com)

GREAT FALLS -- The new Easter Seals-Goodwill store is set to open in Great Falls on Thursday.

The store's new location is at 1201 7th Street South, and has about 25,000 square feet.

The retail space accounts for about 15,000 square feet, much larger than the old store's 9,600 square feet.

The official grand opening of the new Goodwill store takes place on Thursday, October 9th, at 8 a.m.

(October 5, 2014) After months of construction, the Easter Seals-Goodwill's Great Falls Goodwill store is just a week away from its grand opening.

Step inside the Great Falls Goodwill store on Tuesday and you'll find a lot of empty space.

After years in their location near 9th Street, the store held it's last business day on Tuesday. After weeks of discounts, the pickings are slim.

But move over to the store's new location at 1201 7th Street South and the shelves are full.

Store manager Laurie Gorence says, "We've been producing in this location to fill it since September 15th. So by the time we get into, we have about three weeks worth of production and product on the floor. This is all new fresh product from donations that have recently come in."

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New Goodwill store opens on Thursday in Great Falls

North Jerseys Meadowlands, once home mainly to warehouses and industrial sites, will be getting a new mixed-use redevelopment with two hotels, 500 apartments and retail space in Rutherford.

The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission has approved amendments that Lincoln Equities Group LLC sought to the roughly decade-old redevelopment plan for its Highland Cross project.

Lincoln Equities is ready to proceed with the project, set for 26 acres near the intersection of Routes 17 and 3, said Joel Bergstein, president of the East Rutherford-based real estate firm. The property, a former brownfield site, fronts on Veterans Boulevard and is behind the Meadows office complex on Route 17.

Construction is likely to start in about 18 months, Bergstein said.

There is certainly a changing landscape in the Meadowlands, where communities are recognizing that mixed-use development is a good thing, he said. It helps bring ratables, which all the municipalities need. And its the next stage of evolution in the Meadowlands.

With North Jerseys office market still struggling to recover from the recession, and a growing demand for apartments, real estate developers are increasingly looking to build projects that incorporate residential, hospitality, retail and office space. The proposed plans for drug giant Roches campus, on Route 3 in Nutley and Clifton, call for mixed uses, including a hotel. And Hartz Mountain Industries Inc., whose original bailiwick was industrial real estate in the Meadowlands, has taken the mixed-use tack with great success in Secaucus.

Lincoln Equities officials anticipate an increased demand for hotel rooms when the American Dream project eventually comes online in East Rutherford. However, they add that Highland Cross can succeed without the huge new entertainment-retail venture.

The original redevelopment plan for the Rutherford property allowed the construction of 1 million square feet of commercial office space and a hotel.

But North Jerseys office market declined following the recession and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, prompting Lincoln Equities to look for other uses for the Rutherford site. The developer and the borough went back and forth for years on how the Rutherford site should evolve into a mixed-use project, in terms of the density of the residential units and other issues.

In pre-2007, before the financial crisis, there was a more ambitious proposal with high-rise residential buildings that arent appropriate in todays environment, said Robert Schenkel, Lincoln Equities senior director of development.

Originally posted here:
Rutherford industrial tract getting 2 hotels, 500 apartments, retail space

North Jerseys Meadowlands, once home mainly to warehouses and industrial sites, will be getting a new mixed-use redevelopment with two hotels, 500 apartments and retail space in Rutherford.

The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission has approved amendments that Lincoln Equities Group LLC sought to the roughly decade-old redevelopment plan for its Highland Cross project.

Lincoln Equities is ready to proceed with the project, set for 26 acres near the intersection of Routes 17 and 3, said Joel Bergstein, president of the East Rutherford-based real estate firm. The property, a former brownfield site, fronts on Veterans Boulevard and is behind the Meadows office complex on Route 17.

Construction is likely to start in about 18 months, Bergstein said.

There is certainly a changing landscape in the Meadowlands, where communities are recognizing that mixed-use development is a good thing, he said. It helps bring ratables, which all the municipalities need. And its the next stage of evolution in the Meadowlands.

With North Jerseys office market still struggling to recover from the recession, and a growing demand for apartments, real estate developers are increasingly looking to build projects that incorporate residential, hospitality, retail and office space. The proposed plans for drug giant Roches campus, on Route 3 in Nutley and Clifton, call for mixed uses, including a hotel. And Hartz Mountain Industries Inc., whose original bailiwick was industrial real estate in the Meadowlands, has taken the mixed-use tack with great success in Secaucus.

Lincoln Equities officials anticipate an increased demand for hotel rooms when the American Dream project eventually comes online in East Rutherford. However, they add that Highland Cross can succeed without the huge new entertainment-retail venture.

The original redevelopment plan for the Rutherford property allowed the construction of 1 million square feet of commercial office space and a hotel.

But North Jerseys office market declined following the recession and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, prompting Lincoln Equities to look for other uses for the Rutherford site. The developer and the borough went back and forth for years on how the Rutherford site should evolve into a mixed-use project, in terms of the density of the residential units and other issues.

In pre-2007, before the financial crisis, there was a more ambitious proposal with high-rise residential buildings that arent appropriate in todays environment, said Robert Schenkel, Lincoln Equities senior director of development.

The rest is here:
North Jersey's Meadowlands getting 2 hotels, 500 apartments, retail space

After years of being an eyesore to Evesham residents and those traveling along Route 70, the Tri-Towne Plaza will be transformed from a lot of vacant storefronts to a $25 million shopping center and apartment complex.

Evesham Mayor Randy Brown, in a Tuesday news conference, boasted that once the project was completed, the location, which would be renamed the Shoppes at Renaissance Square and the Residence at Renaissance Square, could potentially be "the most active site in Evesham Township."

The mayor noted it had been a long process to reach an agreement with the property's owner, RD Management of New York, about what should be done with the 20-acre site. The township had threatened to use eminent domain to seize the land before recently reaching the project agreement.

"I didn't think this day was going to come, but I'm very glad it did," Brown said. "We're on the same page. We're moving on to next year."

Developers and residents alike hope that part of the 180,000 square feet of retail space will include another grocery. Birdoff said that no retailers had been contracted yet, but that some have already started discussions with his team about moving in to the Tri-Towne Plaza. The last store moved out of the plaza a year ago.

No construction will happen until the township council and the planning board approve the plans for the site, though Brown said he was confident that the project, which will be completely funded by RD Management, could start next year.

"I would be hopeful that by early spring," Brown said, "we will have shovels in the ground to begin construction."

The township offered payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) as an incentive for RD Management to develop the property. Brown said that they were still months from an exact agreement about what kind of tax cuts the developer would receive, but added that "it is understood that they will have some sort of a five-year PILOT."

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Plans advance in Evesham to develop vacant plaza