Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

After one of the toughest years in anyones living memory, the Opinion Page team is offering up a gift to raise your holiday spirits: A Christmas Zoom chat, hosted by editor Sarah Garrecht Gassen this Thursday, Dec. 24, at 2 p.m. Shell be lighting her yule log, sipping some nonalcoholic eggnog and leading the discussion about why white Christmases are overrated.

The ever-entertaining cartoonist David Fitzsimmons will be dropping in to keep things jolly and bright, so if youre into cartoons or cartoonish antics, be sure to log on and tune in.

The discussion will take place over Zoom, so you can log in on your laptop, desktop or tablet, or call a special number and listen in over your phone. For a link, email Sarah at sgassen@tucson.com. Shell send the Zoom link out early on Christmas Eve morning.

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Deck the halls with the Opinion Page team chat on Christmas Eve! - Arizona Daily Star

I love this, so many towns are doing this right now, and our towns in Ocean County look fabulous.

I can't remember when Christmas lights in Ocean County looked so good. According to the patch.com, voting for the "Deck the House" began last week and runs through December 31st, 2020. It's your chance to vote for your favorite holiday light display in Barnegat.

Here's the list of 35 houses in Barnegat's Deck the House to check out and vote:

39 5th St.

31 Benjamin Ct.

104 Beverly Dr.

2 Buck Dr.

48 Chestnut Way Circle

32 Compass Ln.

41 Deck St.

677 E. Bay Ave.

22 First St.

119 Gunning River Rd.

16 Herkimer Ct.

49 Hickory Circle

27 Hillside Ave.

29 Jon Dr.

22 Lexington Ave.

19 Longboat Ave.

31 Longboat Ave.

11 Mast Dr.

63 Mutineer Ave.

152 Nautilus Dr.

11 Ninth St.

132 Pine Oak Blvd.

150 Ravenwood Blvd.

2 Rifle Ct.

9 & 11 Savannah Dr.

1 Seaview Ct.

17 Shelli Terrace

9 Tedesco Way

75 Village Dr.

9 Wavecrest Ct.

5 Windward Dr.

2 Woodmere Ct.

7 Woodmere Ct.

Click here toVOTE for your favorite Barnegat decorated house. Votes are for one person at a time.

The best thing to do with the family this holiday season is to be together. This is a great way for the family to be together. All 35 houses look beautiful and you could make a game out of it. Who's the first to spot Rudolph or Santa. I have some friends that made up their own scavenger hunt and it was so cool and creative and best yet it kept the kids busy for a while in the car looking at lights.

CLICK HERE to vote.

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Voting is Taking Place Now for Barnegat's "Deck the House" - wobm.com

Fujiyama Tower promises a viewing like nothing youve ever experienced before.

No trip to Japan is complete without seeing Mt Fuji at least once, and soon youll be able to see it from a brand new angle, thanks to a thrilling new setup at the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park in Yamanashi Prefecture.

Home to a number of thrill rides, Fuji-Q Highland is most famous for its giantFujiyama roller coaster, which stands at 79 metres (259 feet) in height, and this is where the new viewing deck will be installed.

Oncethe tallest roller coaster in the world when the park opened in 1968, Fujiyama is now the eighth highest in the world.

Image: Wikipedia/ Geomr~commonswiki

Those who ride the rollercoaster get to enjoy jaw-dropping views of Japans tallest mountain as they whizz by the circular section in the middle. A view this good is a shame to waste on a ride-by that takes a few seconds, though, so Fuji-Q have now come up with a brilliant new way for non-riders to enjoy it too.

Called Fujiyama Tower, the new viewing area comprises several different experiences for visitors to try, depending on their daredevil levels. First up, theres theFujiyama Sky Deck Observatory, where people can enjoy sweeping views ofMt. Fuji and its surrounding areas from a height of about 55 metres (180 feet).

Photos from here, where you can see a full vista of Mt Fuji rising up from the earth, promise to be spectacular.

The next activity, called Fujiyama Walk, is not for the faint of heart. Previously reserved for staff, who got to enjoy this unique view of Mt Fuji while performing daily inspections of the rollercoaster tracks above, this windswept passage without handrails can now be enjoyed by visitors attached to a harness.

The third new activity on offer is atube-type slider called Fujiyama Slider, which is said to transport visitors from the deck to the ground level in moments.

The slider wraps around the elevator shaft at the centre of the tower.

The Fujiyama Tower is being built at a cost of1.07 billion yen (US$10.35 million), and is scheduled to open to the public in the summer of 2021. Interestingly, Fuji-Q Highland says visitors to the Fujiyama Tower will be able to enjoythe screaming entertainment that is typical of the park, which contradicts the scream in your heart request they put out as a coronavirus countermeasure for riders earlier this year.

Source, images: PR Times (unless otherwise stated) Want to hear about SoraNews24s latest articles as soon as theyre published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

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A terrifying new way to view Mt Fuji: From a deck at the top of a giant rollercoaster! - SoraNews24

COVID-19 is altering Minnesota commercial real estate in subtle ways from a boost in office subleases to quick construction pivots to adapt offices and apartments to allow tenants to safely gather outside in the winter or toil away indoors.

Doran Cos. was building its new Birke apartment complex in Minnetonka last summer when the coronavirus forced it to rethink its "amenities deck."

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advising that people avoid socializing indoors, the developer scrapped original designs and opted to heat the deck concrete to allow 125 future tenants to more comfortably use the outdoor BBQ grills, hot tub, fire pits and seating well into December and January.

The change was a first for Doran but is one in a growing number of COVID pivots that building designers are making to cope with a pandemic that is not expected to be completely eradicated for months, even as vaccines roll out nationwide. Many design changes are adding tens of thousands of dollars to construction projects, but not breaking the bank.

Still, the effects of COVID-19 are expected to last for years as office and factory workers, baristas, nurses aides and apartment tenants continue to look for built-in safety measures.

Minnesota building owners quickly installed touchless elevators, hand-sanitizing stations, temperature check-ins and new air-filtration systems during the early days of the pandemic. But now that the virus cases have surged, developers are adding shower rooms, private offices and heated three-season outdoor patios across Minnesota.

Builders are asking themselves, "What are the long-term impacts of COVID?" and then altering their plans, said Doran President and Chief Executive Anne Behrendt. Many are also careful to ask, "Are we going too far with design changes that are reacting to COVID, but that in two or three years may not be how people really want to live and interact?"

The Building Owners and Managers Association estimates only 10 to 15% of Minnesota workers have returned to the office so far. With that percentage not expected to escalate dramatically until well into 2021, it pays for some developers to embrace their COVID construction changes now.

Even with COVID's uncertainty, "You are probably building what still will be utilized for years to come," said Sam Newberg, senior field research analyst at property management and leasing giant CBRE and a BOMA member.

Some Transwestern office-lease clients in Minnesota recently expanded conference rooms thinking they will need bigger collaborative spaces post COVID-19.

The idea being that employee's "individual work" will continue to be done from home while collaborative or project work will be the thing that draws staffers back to the office in clumps even after the virus subsides, said Transwestern Principal Erin Fitzgerald.

Of its 12 Twin Cities projects, Doran Cos. pivoted again this month, changing the blueprints for a Richfield apartment complex going up next to Lunds & Byerlys. Designers dumped plans for an open business center in the lobby and are instead building three individual offices.

Seeing the demand swell for apartment workspace during COVID, Doran added more indoor and outdoor co-working spaces for a Tonka Bay luxury apartment complex now under construction.

"Post-COVID, the only thing that will stick around is people will continue to work from home," said Tony Kuechle, Doran president of development.

Subtle COVID changes are also altering buildings where the workforce can't work remotely.

Oppidan Investment, the senior-housing developer that broke ground on its sixth senior-housing complex in Minnesota one month ago, is adding a screening/locker room with showers for staffers at each of its new properties because of the pandemic. The room will become the new entrance for all staffers.

"We are doing that in Grand Rapids [Minn.] and in all of our [other] new communities," in California and on the East Coast, said Oppidan President Blake Hastings. "It's another step to keep [our workers] safe. So if they are concerned about bringing anything [virus-related] home, they can shower on site and change clothes before leaving work. It gives them a place to decompress and allows us a place to screen these teammates [before] coming into work."

Oppidan is also adding sinks in its resident hallways so aides can wash hands more frequently, Hastings said.

The vaccine won't be widely available for months so this is "the right thing to do," even if it costs more, Hastings said, noting that each new staff locker room will cost the same as adding one senior apartment to each building.

Offices, factories and other industrial builders are taking a different page from health care property managers and installing hospital-grade heating and air-conditioning systems (HVAC) that also purify the air. Murphy Warehouse in Minneapolis recently installed sterilizing UV lights in all its rooftop air systems. Those who sell the units are swamped with inquiries.

"We are definitely selling and shipping more units with the higher-efficiency filters today than ever before and we are shipping orders with the [air-sterilizing] UV lights definitely more than ever before," said Jim Macosko, product general manager at HVAC-maker Daikin Applied Americas.

Daikin, a Japanese firm with two factories in Faribault and one in Owatonna, sees demand spiking for three technologies it can embed in its Minnesota-made HVAC systems. It's using more Merve 13 and 14 air filters or embedding UV lights to trap or kill germs.

Separately, it's also starting to install bipolar ionization equipment in some HVAC systems. Ionization electrically charges air particles and neutralizes bacteria and viruses.

Daikin has yet to install the systems at its own Minnesota factories but has bolstered air-exchange rates and now runs air filters 24/7 not just during work hours, Macosko said.

Even with the arrival of a coronavirus vaccine, high-tech air-purification systems will not fall out of favor after COVID-19 is gone, he said. After all, "COVID won't be the last virus we have."

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COVID will leave lasting changes in Minnesota office and apartment projects - Minneapolis Star Tribune

A Boise developer hopes to add a small office and retail building to a block that will soon include two residential projects in the Downtown Boise core.

Weve been following the two apartment projects developed by Clay Carley and other groups on Grove St. between Fifth Street and Sixth Streets for the last few years. The related but separate projects, currently under construction, will bring a rent-restricted apartment project on the 6th St. side of the block known as Thomas Logan, as well as a market-rate apartment building on the 5th St. side dubbed The Lucy. The two buildings will share a plaza in the middle along Grove St.

[19-story condo tower planned for Downtown Boise]

Now, an area previously designated for a pocket park will instead get a three-story commercial and office building, if a plan submitted to the City of Boise is approved.

The small site sits along 5th St., right behind the Chip Cookies building. The plan from Carley and developer GGLO for Fifth and Grove would include a retail space on the ground floor with two stories of office above.

Though the previously noted ground floor pocket park would go away they hope to include about the same amount of green space somewhere else: the roof.

The vegetated fescue roof, viewed from nearby buildings, draws inspiration from the Boise Foothills in the distance, an application letter from GGLO notes.

Renderings show a series of shaggy green plantings on the roof of the building.

The larger form has an open floorpan for users, with large open windows facing east to the park across the street, and to the west, GGLO wrote. Internally, the building provides flexible spaces with large openings to the street, with exposed floor and roof structures. The exposed wood joist ceilings on each level give the open spaces a colorful richness and natural textures that will be visible from street level.

A public hearing on the project is set for January 13th at 6pm. Participants can testify in person or online. Due to limitations with the City of Boises online permit system, we cannot link you to the hearing notice, but if you click this link, then click Documents, then navigate to page 4, then select PDS-Legal Notice DR_HYBRID MEETING LEGAL NOTICE 1-13-2021 you can find further details.

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Three-story office building proposed to slide in between apartments, alley in Downtown Boise - boisedev.com

A jump in apartment construction projects in November boosted the tight supply of homes in the booming US real estate market, according to government data released Thursday.

With borrowing rates at record lows during the Covid-19 pandemic, home sales have been one of the bright spots in the US economy, pushing prices higher and challenging builders to keep up with demand.

Total housing starts rose 1.2 percent compared to October to a 1.55 million seasonally-adjusted annual rate, the Commerce Department reported.

That was slightly better than economists had expected, and a solid result heading into winter when construction usually slows.

Building initiated on multi-family units jumped eight percent, while single-family starts rose just 0.4 percent, according to the report.

Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said the total increase was a slight disappointment, but the 6.2 percent surge in building permits -- also concentrated in apartment buildings -- points to another increase in December, and a jump in home sales in the spring.

"All these numbers -- but especially starts -- are erratic from month-to-month, but the key point here is that construction activity has not yet fully caught up with the surge in housing activity, leaving room for modest further gains," he said in an analysis.

Housing starts in the Northeast more than doubled last month, while activity fell in the South and Midwest, according to the report.

hs/cs

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US apartment construction boosts housing supply in November - Yahoo News

Some of the City of Fishers major construction projects will be finished in 2021, including the 146th Street and Ind. 37 interchange and the Nickel Plate Trail tunnel under 116th Street, among others.

146th Street and Ind. 37 will be the citys major road construction project for next year.

Fadness

Mayor Scott Fadness acknowledges that 2020 was a prolific year for road construction in the city.

It was a very busy year in terms of road improvements, Fadness said. In 2021, there will be a bit of a rest. The only major road infrastructure project youll see in Fishers next year is 146th Street and State road 37 under serious construction.

Earlier this year, 126th Street and Ind. 37 opened as part of the State Road 37 Project.

Fadness said the most disruptive portion of the Nickel Plate Trail will be tackled in 2021.

That is the 116th tunnel being built, he said. For a period of time, 116th Street will be closed to traffic as we build that tunnel. Our hope is to see significant work done on the Nickel Plate Trail in the downtown area in the near future, and at the end of next year, we expect to see that trail open from 106th Street to 131st Street.

Some stretches of the trail on the south side and north side are complete, and the 116th Street tunnel will connect to those stretches.

Its always the most complicated work is the downtown trail section, but at the end of that, we will have world-class infrastructure, Fadness said.

In the spring, 116th Street will close. Fadness said crews will work when schools arent in session.

The first phase of the Geist Waterfront Park will begin next year.

There will be a lot of activity out there. The beach, the parking lot, the restrooms, the gate, the entranceway are all parts of that first phase, Fadness said.

Fadness said the city plans to open Geist Waterfront Park in the spring of 2022. The project will go to bid in February or March. Three phases are planned, but the park will be fully functional after the first phase.

Construction of First Internet Bank and CRG Residential will continue in 2021. (Submitted renderings)

First Internet Bank will remain under construction in 2021, with completion planned for the end of next year. Fadness also said CRG Residentials downtown project will be under construction through all of 2021. CRG Residentials project is a five-story apartment building with 241 units, 10 townhomes, office and retail space along 116th, North and Maple streets. The project also will include a parking garage.

Another 116th Street project includes the Maple Del west of the Chatham Tap restaurant. Fadness said the project will break ground next year.

Our economic development team continues to work, so theres a lot of interest and activity on investing in our community, so I really am optimistic about 2021 when it comes to jobs and investment in our community, he said.

In 2021, the City of Fishers will launch a series programs to grow home ownership.

This is a new idea we are looking at for next year, Mayor Scott Fadness said. Theres a desire to see diversified housing stock in our urban core multi-family homes, new homes, single-family residential homes, so we are trying to work toward having a creative program in place to accelerate that opportunity.

Fadness also wants to refresh the citys sense of community.

Hopefully, as we clear COVID and are able to interact and engage as residents once again, I really hope we have a strong offering of opportunities for people to engage in their community as well as they did, if not better, than they did prior to the pandemic, Fadness said.

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Looking ahead: Fishers major projects in 2021 include the Nickel Plate Trail tunnel and First Internet - Current in Carmel

In a pandemic environment not friendly to commercial tenants, the SoDo (for South Downtown) development centered on the 1010 State St. property is tilting more toward residential than originally planned.

Kyle Shirley, the principal of the TinTin Properties LLC that has been working since 2017 to develop the block bordered by East 10th and East 11th avenues, won approval Dec. 17 for a rezoning that will allow for that emphasis on apartments.

The City-County Planning Commission of Warren County, meeting via Zoom teleconference, approved in an 11-0 vote the application from TinTin Properties to rezone the 1.09-acre property from central business to planned unit development in order to use more than 50 percent of the first floor of the existing structures for residential.

The rezoning, which will go to the Bowling Green City Commission for final approval, will allow Shirley to expand the residential portion of the 511 E. 10th Ave. building that is called 511 Flats in the original development plans.

What happened is when he (Shirley) started the interior buildout, he was slightly beyond the 50 percent maximum, said Chris Davenport, the attorney representing TinTin Properties. That triggered the necessity for this request.

Plans call for a maximum of 30 apartments in the development, which is adjacent to the 23-unit Armory Lofts apartments also overseen by Shirleys group.

With occupancy in the Armory apartments and those in the Roebuck building at 1010 State St. running at about 85 percent, Shirley reasoned that it made more sense to emphasize the residential aspect of the development.

What Kyle found is that there isnt justifiable demand for commercial space on the first floor, Davenport said. There is demand for additional residential space.

Shirley said the rezoning will allow him to build a two-bedroom apartment on the first floor of the 511 Flats building and still include a small footprint for commercial.

He said the total SoDo development now has 25 apartments that range in rent from $950 to $1,700 a month.

For high-end downtown rentals, the 85 percent occupancy is acceptable, he said.

Shirley said he hasnt had as much luck with the commercial portion of the development, which includes 6,000 square feet in the basement of the Roebuck building.

Weve had a few people look at the space, Shirley said. Its just not the right time. The whole basement floor is available. Its a blank envelope at the moment.

The planning commission also approved a Future Land Use Map amendment and rezoning request that could allow Stewart Richey Construction to expand the industrial use of its property at 2137 Glen Lily Road.

Stewart Richey was approved for a FLUM amendment taking the 35.61 acres at 2137 and 2191 Glen Lily Road from mixed-use/commercial and moderate density residential to industrial. The property was then approved for rezoning from light industrial and residential estate to heavy industrial.

According to the application, the rezoning is needed in order to bring the property into compliance with zoning ordinance regulations and accommodate future industrial uses.

The rezoning will go to Warren Fiscal Court for final approval.

Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.

Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.

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Downtown development to focus on apartments | News - Bowling Green Daily News

Bisnow/Miriam Hall

Long Island City from Manhattan

TF Cornerstone, the developer tapped to build Amazons campus in Long Island City before the deal went south, is now planning to build two big apartment buildings in the neighborhood.

The firm filed plans with the Department of Buildings for two buildings that will span a total of 1.43M SF, The Real Deal reports. One building, at 55-01 Second St., would feature 575 units while the other, at 2-10 54th St., will contain 812 units.

The site cost the firm $285M back in 2018, a deal that was secured just daysbefore Amazon announced its plans to build nearby. The tech giant had planned to build its campus on the Long Island City waterfront, but the community and local politicians chafed against the billions in tax breaks and grants Amazon was due to receive. They also voiced concerns about the strain on local infrastructure and what the tech giants presence would mean for rents and housing affordability.

Ultimately,Amazonwithdrewfrom the city, a stunning decisionthat devastated many who predicted it would have been a boon for the area. Instead of bringing a promised 25,000 workers to Queens, earlier this year, Amazon paid$1.5B to WeWork for the former Lord & Taylor building on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

TF Cornerstone is also active in Manhattan,joiningwith RXR Realty for Project Commodore, a mixed-use building planned for the site at 109 East 42nd St. Last year, it paid Greenland and then Forest City New York $143.1M for Pacific Park land parcels at 615 and 595 Dean St. in Brooklyn.

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Developer Who Almost Landed Amazon HQ2 Planning Scores Of Apartments In Its Place - Bisnow

Pictured is an artists rendering of Avenue on 34th, a mixed-income apartment complex being constructed at 2136 W. 34th St. (Contributed rendering)

Construction has begun on a four-story, 70-unit apartment complex at the site of the former Doyles Restaurant on West 34th Street.

Avenue, a Houston nonprofit that develops affordable housing, announced Tuesday that it had broken ground on Avenue on 34th, a mixed-income rental development on a 2.1-acre site at 2136 W. 34th St. Construction is expected to be complete by mid-2022.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held last week that included Avenue executive director Mary Lawler, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Housing and Community Development Department director Tom McCasland and Amegy executive vice president Brian Stoker, whose bank is a primary lender for the project.

We are delighted to advance construction on Avenue on 34th at a time when affordable housing with proximity to the Inner Loop is such a critical need among working families, Lawler said in a news release. The influx of new developments in and around the citys urban core has resulted in the demolition of existing lower-cost housing and, as a result, has priced low- and middle-income families out of many communities.

The Houston City Council voted unanimously in September to provide a $9.09 million loan to Avenue, using Hurricane Harvey Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Funds awarded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Texas General Land Office. According to the council agenda item, the estimated total cost of the project is nearly $18.2 million.

Avenue said another funding source for the project are 4 percent low-income housing tax credits allocated by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Additional funders include the Houston Housing Finance Corporation and Hunt Capital Partners through a multi-investor fund that includes Aetna.

The general contractor for the development is Block Companies, which Avenue said will host a community day and job fair in February. The event will be free, open to the public and include information about employment opportunities for local construction-related jobs.

Citing a recent report by the United Way of Greater Houston, Avenue said 25 percent of the nearly 11,000 households in the 77018 zip code where its new development will be located qualify as ALICE, which stands for asset-limited, income-constrained and employed. Such families represent hardworking members of the Houston community whose household income is above the federal poverty level, but insufficient to cover basic necessities such as housing, child care, food, transportation and healthcare, according to Avenue.

Data shows that affordable homes help strengthen families and communities as a whole, providing families with a path forward to greater financial stability and improved health outcomes, Lawler said.

Avenue on 34th will feature 23 one-bedroom apartments, 27 two-bedroom apartments and 20 three-bedroom apartments, with a total of 14 units offered at market rate. The rest will be designated for families earning between $35,000-$65,000 annually.

Among the amenities to be offered are an outdoor play space, learning center and activity room, business center and fitness room, along with resident services such as after-school tutoring for children as well as credit-building and homebuyer education programs for adults.

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Avenue breaks ground on 34th Street apartment complex - The Leader