Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

The 2020 construction season got off to a slow start because of pandemic-induced restrictions. Overall, though, industry observers here say the season finished better than expected, and 2021 is expected to even better.

About $30 million in public work is expected to continue into next year in the city, Marlene Feist, public works director of strategic development for the city of Spokane says. An additional $50 million in new work is also on the slate, including a $10 million investment package in street maintenance that will be delivered through 2021.

Major projects next year include the replacement of the deck on the Hatch Road Bridge, the next stage of rebuilding Sprague Avenue from Division Street to Grant Street, and work on the Cochran Basin, which will include infiltration of the stormwater in the basin. Water from the basin will be used on the Downriver Disc Golf Course for water features, says Feist. Other improvements will be made to T.J. Meenach Drive and the traditional Downriver Golf Course as part of the project.

The largest continuing project is the $18 million rebuild of the Post Street Bridge. An additional $15 million in water tank installations could also occur on the South Hill and near the Spokane International Airport, Feist says, though those projects are dependent on finding a suitable site and finishing additional permitting requirements.

On the residential side, Joel White, executive officer of the Spokane Home Builders Association, says builders are struggling to keep up with the demand.

Labor continues to be a hurdle, he contends. Construction companies saw a brief shutdown in March that saw several layoffs, and many workers declined to return to the workforce once the industry was allowed to restart work a few weeks following the shutdown, White says.

Additionally, supply chain disruptions made building materials, especially lumber, skyrocket in price in June, he says. Those price hikes drove up the cost of new homes, he says.

Through the first 11 months of 2019, 1,446 single family homes were permitted in Spokane County. This year has seen a marked decline, with 1,182 single family homes being permitted. However, White says, more multifamily buildings and duplexes were built this year than last.

In commercial construction, Cheryl Stewart, executive director of the Associated General Contractors Inland Northwest chapter, says she expects to see a decrease in public works projects as local governments grapple with smaller budgets.

She notes there are several big-budget transportation projects slated to begin this year, including large freeway projects and the continuation of the North Spokane Corridor.

Stewart says she expects to see fewer retail structures being built in the near future, while manufacturing and multifamily work will remain steady or grow.

Jim Frank, founder of Liberty Lake-based Greenstone Homes, says in-migration will continue to drive up demand for residential construction in Spokane and Kootenai counties. Frank says he expects to see strength in the medical and office space markets; however, he adds, retail is expected to take a major hit as the pandemic accelerates trends toward online buying.

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Construction activity likely to be strong in 2021 - Spokane Journal of Business

Bisnow/Jon Banister

The Boro, with the residential buildings in the background and Boro Park in the foreground.

This year has been a tough one for commercial real estate developments. From New York toCalifornia, projects have been stalled as developers grapple with everything from worker safety to uncertainty surrounding the future of the market. But in one Virginia community, development continues to soar.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, developers in Tysons, Virginia, have moved forward with their plans for massive mixed-use projects. The Fairfax County government has ambitious goals to transform Tysons into a more walkable, sustainable urban center that will be able to meet the needs of 100,000 residents and 200,000 employees by the year 2050 a major undertaking considering that the current population of Tysons is around 23,700.

Even during the pandemic, Tysons has been dotted with cranes for commercial and residential developments, said Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. This is a concrete testament to the value that developers, businesses and people see in locating in a quickly urbanizing center, and it validates the vision of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to transform this collection of suburban office parks and malls into a walkable, transit-oriented 21st-century city.

The Fairfax County government has been working hard to support local businesses during this difficult time and help keep Tysons expanding.

Read on to learn about some of the major development projects that have been under development in Tysons over the last several months and the key initiatives that have kept the local economy humming.

Capital One Center

In 2018, Capital One opened up a new headquarters in Tysons. Since then, several new buildings have been developed along what has been dubbed Capital One Center, and many of these projects were still under construction during the pandemic. As of August,offices, a hotel and retail space were all under construction, and a Wegmans grocery store opened in one of these spaces last month.

The Mile

This past October, real estate development group Kettler announced that it had broken ground on the next phase of its ambitious mixed-use project known as The Mile. Kettler plans to take 45 acres of unused space northwest of Tysons Galleria andturn it into a mix of residential, office, hotel and retail space totaling 2.8M SF.

The Boro

In October 2019, the first phase of The Boro, a mixed-use development that was cited as one of the first projects in the plan to make Tysons more walkable, was delivered. The development, located at the intersection of Westpark Drive and Greensboro Drive, was designed to feature apartment buildings reaching 32 and 13 floors, a 25-story condo building, a 20-story trophy office tower and a five-story boutique office building.

In May of this year, at the height of the pandemic, The Meridian Group, the lead developer behind The Boro, filed plans for a 1M SF expansion of the project to add additional retail and senior housing to the development.

Tysons Central

Tysons Central is a mixed-use office project under development located close to The Boro and Tysons Galleria. Once complete, this388,206 SF space will feature luxury offices and 18,650 SF of retail space. Developer Foulger-Pratt has yet to announce a signed tenant.

Local Businesses Get The Help They Need

For these new developments to thrive, there needs to be a strong local economy in place to help support them. To keep Tysons local businesses afloat during this difficult time, organizations like the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, the Northern Virginia Pro Bono Law Center and Start Small Think Big have teamed up to create the COVID-19 Pro Bono Collaborative, which isoffering free legal assistance to small businesses in Northern Virginia to help them with federal assistance, grant and loan programs, leases and employment issues.

Local businesses have also been encouraged to contact the Community Business Partnership or the George Mason Small Business Development Center for help applying for small-business grants, or for counseling sessions on steps they can take to support their companies.

Planning For The Holiday Season

To help Tysons residents support local businesses this holiday season, malls and outdoor shopping destinationshave made modifications to make the shopping experience safer.

Tysons Corner Centers retailers are offering shopping by appointment, both in-person and virtually, and many are offering curbside pickup, as are some stores at the Tysons Galleria.

Tysons is in the process of transforming itself, and its not letting the pandemic get in the way. From new office and retail developments to new fire stations and transit centers, theres a lot to look forward to in Tysons.

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The Pandemic Hasn't Stopped the Building Boom In Tysons - Bisnow

BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JBG SMITH (NYSE: JBGS), a leading owner and developer of high-quality, mixed-use properties in the Washington, DC market, has completed construction of 1770 Crystal Drive, an approximately 273,000 square-foot office building in National Landing. The entire 259,000 square-foot office portion of the 14-story building is now leased by Amazon as part of its HQ2 expansion to Northern Virginia.

The opening of the newly reimagined 1770 Crystal Drive coincides with the two-year anniversary of Amazons selection of National Landing as the location of its second headquarters and JBG SMITH as its partner to house and develop the project. The building was completed two quarters ahead of schedule and under budget.

Amazons offices at 1770 Crystal Drive are part of the initial 537,000 square feet of existing National Landing office space the company agreed to lease from JBG SMITH in November 2018. Since then, Amazon has continued to grow its National Landing leased footprint, which now encompasses 857,000 square feet across five JBG SMITH buildings.

In addition, JBG SMITH is managing the construction of 2.1 million square feet of office space in two sustainably designed towers, 50,000 square feet of community-serving retail, and more than an acre of public open space, representing the first phase of Amazons new headquarters in National Landing.

The return to productive use of 1770 Crystal Drive represents yet another significant milestone in National Landings ongoing transformation into a vibrant 18-hour neighborhood, said Matt Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of JBG SMITH. We are thrilled to partner with Amazon and accommodate its growing presence in the region as we continue to make progress on its modern new headquarters.

Working with Gensler, JBG SMITH has reinvented 1770 Crystal Drive with a striking contemporary design. A floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall and metal panels form the buildings sleek new faade, and a redesigned two-story lobby with high-end finishes create an elevated arrival experience. New outdoor terraces constructed on the upper floors offer expansive views of the DC skyline, Potomac River, and Reagan National Airport, and a double height pedestrian colonnade highlights 1770 Crystal Drives transformed retail spaces and storefronts. The buildings mechanical systems have also been upgraded, and the elevators have been modernized with destination dispatch technology.

1770 Crystal Drive is conveniently located just a short walk from the Crystal City Metro and VRE station and sits adjacent to a recently completed street-level retail project along Crystal Drive.

About JBG SMITH

JBG SMITH is an S&P 400 company that owns, operates, invests in and develops a dynamic portfolio of high-growth mixed-use properties in and around Washington, DC. Through an intense focus on placemaking, JBG SMITH cultivates vibrant, amenity-rich, walkable neighborhoods throughout the Capital region, including National Landing where it now serves as the exclusive developer for Amazons new headquarters. JBG SMITHs portfolio currently comprises 20.7 million square feet of high-growth office, multifamily and retail assets, 98% at our share of which are Metro-served. It also maintains a development pipeline encompassing 17.1 million square feet of mixed-use development opportunities. For more information on JBG SMITH please visit http://www.jbgsmith.com.

Original post:
JBG SMITH Welcomes Amazon to Newly Renovated 1770 Crystal Drive - Business Wire

(Updated at 2 p.m.) Plans to demolish Alpine Restaurant on Lee Highway have been approved, inching forward the planned construction of The Childrens School daycare facility.

Despite the approval, the permit to demolish the building at 4770 Lee Highway, held by Trinity Group Construction, has yet to be issued.

Once a payment is received, the permit is then issued, said Andrew Pribulka, a spokesperson for the Arlington Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development, in an email. Demolition may not begin until permits have been issued and posted.

Trinity has applied for two other permits, one to excavate and anotherto build the facility.

Requests for comment from Trinity and The Childrens School were not returned.

The progress comes two-and-a-half years after theCounty Board unanimously approved a permit to build a three-story daycare facility for children of employees of Arlington Public Schools, to be built where the long-time restaurant has stood vacant for a decade.

The private, nonprofit child care center will oversee no more than 235 children of APS staff between the ages of two months and five years old. This new facility will also be home to Integration Station, a program for kids with developmental or other disabilities.

Both the co-op daycare and Integration Station are temporarily housed in the same Ballston office building at 4420 N. Fairfax Drive. The programs were co-located in the Reed School building in Westover, but were forced out when APS decided to open a new elementary school there.

The Reed School is set to open to students in 2021.

One year after approving the project, the Board approved a request to eliminate off-site parking and modify initial architectural plans.

Most parking is below-ground with some above ground, and the plans now includes a third-story rear play deck and an expanded rear wall to shield neighboring houses from car headlights, a concern from residents.

Alpine Restaurant served Italian cuisine and was in business for 44 years before closing in 2010 upon the owners retirement. It was acquired by the owners of the Liberty Tavern Restaurant Group, which ultimately decided against opening a new restaurant there.

Photo via Google Maps

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Demolition of Alpine Restaurant is Approved, Kickstarting Work on The Children's School - ARLnow

Leaders of REBNY, the Building and Construction Trades Council, the Building Trades Employers Association and the New York Building Congress all framed the low number of new project filings as a major threat to the citys economic recovery.

This 10-year low point for new construction activity calls for an all-hands-on-deck response by elected officials and a laser focus on policies that will generate jobs and growth without setting back crucial recovery efforts, REBNY President James Whelan said in a statement.

Brooklyn saw the largest number of project filings during the third quarter at 128, while Queens projects made upthe greatest percentage of total square feet at 38.6%, according to the report.

The largest Queens project was a mixed-use building spanning almost 500,000 square feet at 90-02 168th St. in Jamaica, and the largest Brooklyn project was a mixed-use building spanning about 240,000 square feet at 2700 Atlantic Ave. in Cypress Hills, according to the report.

REBNY's analysisfeaturedmultiple proposals for reinvigorating the city's construction industry. These included prioritizing and expediting major developments already in the pipeline, such as Sunnyside Yards and the remainder of the World Trade Center. The industry group also proposed developing a regionalmaster plan for transportation infrastructure thatwould focus on projectssuch asthe Second Avenue subway extension and the LaGuardia Airport AirTrain connection.

The analysis also recommends doing more to incentivize developmentin life sciences, a sector that has historically been stronger in cities such asSan Francisco and Boston than in New York.It specifically suggests making the Industrial and Commercial Abatement program available for new life science construction projects and creating a new tax abatement program for projects that dedicate at least 40% of their space to life science purposes.

In addition, it suggests allowing for as-of-right conversions of Class Band C office space to residential space as a way of making it easier to create new housing. Ideas around office-to-residential conversionshave become more prominent duringthe pandemicamid lingering skepticism about the resilience of the citys office market in the face of widespread workfrom home.

Investment in construction and large-scale infrastructure projects are what drive a robust economic recovery, BCTC President Gary LaBarbera said in a statement. These projects create thousands of jobs that lead to family-sustaining careers with benefits, and thats exactly whats needed to generate the economic activity and mobility that will help New York City turn the corner on this economic crisis.

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REBNY report finds New York construction hits lowest level of activity since wake of Great Recession - Crain's New York Business

GRAND RAPIDS Perrigo Co. plc is seeking a 12-year incentive agreement estimated at $4.1 million in total property tax savings for its plans to relocate its North American headquarters to downtown.

The Grand Rapids City Commission set a Jan.12 public hearing to consider the agreement. The commission will consider an Industrial Development District for the project, as well as a 12-year Industrial Facilities Exemption Certificate and a 12-year New Personal Property Exemption Certificate. Perrigos new headquarters is planned at 430 Monroe Ave. NW, where it has committed to a 15-year lease.

The proposed Industrial Development District will include the footprint of the new building, which will have frontage on Ottawa Avenue and Michigan Street, as well as a seven-story parking deck.

Of the estimated $4.1 million in property tax savings, the citys share would be approximately $797,000 in property taxes. Under the proposed incentives, the city would receive about $1.1 million in new property taxes.

Factoring in property and income tax revenue from the $39 million investment and 150 new jobs in Grand Rapids, the city stands to receive $2.6 million over the 15-year period, Grand Rapids Economic Development Director Jeremiah Gracia told MiBiz.

The tax incentive hinges on Perrigo having 150 employees in downtown Grand Rapids within two years of the projects completion. About 100 will be existing Perrigo employees that will transfer to Grand Rapids, and about 50 will be newly created positions.

Perrigo announced plans to relocate to Grand Rapids Medical Mile on Oct. 27, the same day the Michigan Strategic Fund board approved a $2 million Michigan Business Development Program grant for the project. The MSF support is predicated on the anticipated creation of 170 jobs in Michigan.

Perrigos offices are planned for the eighth through tenth floors of the building, comprising 63,550 square feet of what will be a 127,460-square-foot building. The development will be located within Michigan State Universitys Grand Rapids Innovation Park.

Rockford Construction Co. is the contractor on the project, which is expected to start in February and be completed in May 2022.

Employees in the new office building will make wages ranging from $25.43-$53.30 per hour for roles including managerial, professional, technical and sales positions.

While Perrigo will keep its operations in Allegan, the company is also in the process of constructing a new $13 million Holland distribution center, which is expected to create 40 new jobs and be completed in March.

The 357,000-square-foot facility at 796 Interchange Drive will be the third time Perrigo has expanded in the Holland area in the last two years. Earlier this year the company invested $13.6 million to expand its facility in Holland Township with a 66,000-square-foot warehouse. In 2019, Perrigo expanded its facility at E. 64th St. in Holland with a $7 million expansion.

Perrigo continues to be an employer of choice, strengthening their North American base of operations along the lakeshore, and we are pleased to once again take part in their continued growth, Lakeshore Advantage President Jennifer Owens said in a statement.

The new facility will add to Perrigos robust distribution and manufacturing presence in the region, said Ron Janish, Perrigos executive vice president of global operations and supply chain.

This distribution center exemplifies our consumer self-care mindset and brings together finished goods from numerous product lines into one point of distribution, which will enable our customers to receive one comprehensive shipment from Perrigo, Janish said.

The city of Holland is supporting the new distribution center development with a 12-year Industrials Facilities Tax Exemption.

We are pleased that Perrigo chose to build its distribution center in Holland, increasing its operational footprint in the region with its manufacturing facilities in Allegan County and a North American corporate headquarters in Grand Rapids, said Holland City Manager Keith Van Beek. Our support for the distribution center helps maintain and expand a robust economy and quality jobs throughout West Michigan.

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Perrigo seeks $4.1M in tax incentives for planned GR headquarters; Holland expansion moves forward - MiBiz: West Michigan Business News

On a Sunday evening in late September, with wildfire smoke hanging in the air, a few dozen people gathered in the rooftop kitchen of a Hollywood apartment building called Treehouse for their weekly communal dinner.

The buildings co-founder and chief executive, Prophet Walker, stacked plates and cleaned up cutting boards behind the tiled kitchen island, while the buildings designer, Sean Knibb, manned the pans of turmeric chicken sizzling on the stove.

The rest of the residents drank wine and chatted as they waited to eat. A woman with the vibes of an Instagram astrologer waved hi at a man who seemed to leap from a Vineyard Vines catalog. One wall of the kitchen was open to the deck outside, but people were squeezed together at small tables. Nobody was wearing a mask.

It looked like a scene from the past, or from the future. These people werent friends, at least not before they moved in. They werent family, save a few parents with their children. They were co-livers, a building-sized pod in the time of COVID, in a housing experiment with grand ambitions.

Co-living isnt a new idea, or even a new target for tech money. Start-ups like Common, Bungalow and WeLive, the co-living division of the smoldering office-space Hindenburg WeWork, have been raising venture capital and carving up apartment buildings across the country in recent years. Most sell rooms to renters as a cheaper option, a nouveau-SRO with foosball in the laundry room and catered Taco Tuesdays on the patio.

Treehouse is taking a different tack. Walker and co-founder Joe Green, a tech entrepreneur in the Facebook orbit and big booster of psychedelic research, say they want to create the togetherness of intentional communities like co-ops, communes, or Burning Man without the anticapitalist politics or freegan cuisine. In an era when luxury is synonymous with isolation private jets, private islands, Uber Black versus Uber Pool theyre betting that real community can be packaged as a premium, an amenity that keeps atomization at bay as surely as heated floors banish cold feet.

From the outside, the five-story building on Carlton Way near the open cut of the 101 looks like any other upscale new construction sans serif font, little balconies, black-painted steel. But inside its walls, things look different, starting with a floor plan heavily tilted toward shared spaces.

The laundry/art room in the basement.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Rotating committees of residents determine which rental applicants get approved, and the process involves more checks of vibe than credit. Leases come with signed commitments to community values, and instead of simply showing up for scheduled events, residents are encouraged to create their own classes and shindigs for the rest of the building. Only 10% of the units are set aside as affordable for low-income tenants, but all are currently occupied by poets.

The rooms are pitched at the upper middle of the rental market in central L.A., with rents starting at $1,715 a month, plus a $210 fee to cover utilities, housekeeping, free coffee and Sunday dinners, yoga classes and other events.

Specifically, theyre pitched at people like Kimberlee Archer. When Archer left Facebook for a high-ranking job at Snap in May, the 38-year-old marketing executive could have rented an upscale pad with ocean views or found a spot up in the hills. But she wanted to live with other people, pandemic be damned. Before leaving Oakland, she googled coliving space.

A few weeks later, she moved into one of Treehouses units really just a bedroom and a private bathroom, furnished in the style of a cozy boutique hotel (Knibb also designed the Line Hotel in Koreatown).

Ive lived by myself, Ive lived with family members, Ive lived with roommates, Archer said. But after a career heavy on work travel, she realized she didnt need a lot of space she was used to living in a hotel room. What I enjoy is having really good conversations with people I dont work with.

A bedroom in Treehouse Hollywood.

(Treehouse)

She shares a kitchen with four other suitemates and shares the common spaces of the building with the rest of Treehouses 40-plus residents: Theres the lobby/cafe, laundry room/art studio, screening room/Japanese-themed bar, two-story library curated by the resident librarian, and on the roof, a garden, a deck, the communal kitchen, and yes, a little treehouse, wrapped around a 100-year-old olive tree shipped in from Sacramento.

The company views the Hollywood building as a beta test for its bigger plans: a network of Treehouses across Los Angeles, from Koreatown to Compton. A complex keyed toward families interested in co-life is already in the works in Leimert Park. Residents will be welcome to stop by any other Treehouse in the city for coffee or drinks on the roof when theyre in the neighborhood.

Walker and Green make an odd couple of utopian housing entrepreneurs. What brought them together was loneliness.

Walker grew up in Watts, broke someones jaw in a fight over a DiscMan, and went to Ironwood State Prison on an assault and robbery charge when he was 16. He got out and got into Loyola Marymount University, then worked on some of L.A.s splashiest real estate projects as a developer with Morley Builders, attempting a run for state Assembly in 2014 along the way.

Green grew up in Santa Monica and went to Harvard, where he found himself sharing a dorm with Mark Zuckerberg. He declined a chance to quit school to go work at the social network but managed to start a series of successful tech companies of his own. In 2013, he teamed up with Zuckerberg to start FWD.us, a lobbying shop that used tech money to push for immigration reform, among other issues.

By the time Green and Walker met in 2016, both had reached a similar conclusion: They had found success but felt more alone than ever.

I never experienced lack of community until I made money, Walker said. Growing up in Watts, he said, he felt like the child of everyone on the block. Prison, if anything, was an even more intense experience of closeness with his neighbors. Living in a hundred-person open dorm requires radical transparency literally theres no dividers between 15 toilets, Walker said. We needed each other to not go crazy.

After his run for office, he started thinking about how L.A. bred loneliness the skyrocketing rents, the neighbors who never met, the way that markets and neighborhoods in the city segregate people by race, class, age and interest.

For Green, loneliness struck when he was on a spiritual sabbatical following the self-described failure of his lobbying efforts. Alone with his thoughts, he realized he had been happier as a kid first in his Santa Monica neighborhood, with friends up and down the block, and then at Harvards Kirkland House, where undergrads lived in separate rooms but shared common space.

He began reading about the spread of loneliness in modern society, and was drawn to the work of Johann Hari, who argues in his book Lost Connections that leaving the multigenerational home and familiar neighborhood is a new phenomenon of the last 70 years, and that this isolation is to blame for increasing depression, anxiety, addiction and suicide.

In 2016, mutual friends introduced the pair at the opening of Locol, a burger stand in Watts started by celebrity chefs with the mission of bringing healthier fast food to low-income neighborhoods. Walker had helped build the restaurant with a construction crew drawn from the neighborhood, and he says he was looking for a new project that captured the same feeling of building community and using physical space to actually do so.

They hit it off, but Treehouse wasnt fully born until Green went on a silent meditation retreat a few months later. I spent several days being unable to get my mind off of a vision for this building, Green said. When he got back to San Francisco, he spoke with his friend Michael Birch, the tech millionaire behind the elite S.F. social club the Battery, who reintroduced Green to Walker. Soon, they started scouting out locations.

Unlike most co-living companies, which reconfigure existing apartment buildings, Walker and Green saw that they needed to build from the ground up to get the mix of public versus private space they wanted.

But the decision to start from scratch presented its own challenges. Banks typically finance real estate projects based on dollars per rentable square foot, a model that assumes that shared spaces in the building, such as stairwells and lobbies, are worthless. Green and Walker had trouble finding a lender willing to back their plan. It was, frankly, through some relationships and luck that we finally found a bank that was willing to do a construction loan, Walker said.

A number of prominent tech names have since bought into the vision, though Green is the largest financial backer. Alexis Ohanian, who started the online community Reddit, chipped in, as did L.A. investor Arlan Hamilton and Justin Kan, who co-founded the streaming platform Twitch.

By that Sunday in late September, it seemed like the vision was working, at least to a visitor, even in the face of the pandemic.

After Knibb introduced the meal squash blossoms, jeweled rice, chapulines and a big salad along with the chicken Elizabeth Williams, an Australian screenwriter, saw that a journalist had joined for the evening and immediately introduced herself.

Williams had moved into Treehouse after a few cripplingly lonely months in a Studio City apartment, after moving to the U.S. in 2019. She explained that she grew up in a close-knit neighborhood in Townsville, North Queensland, no locks on doors, the kids would just swarm around like bees, where her fondest memories were of neighborhood game nights and jam sessions. She was happy to pay extra for a built-in community.

Michele Esquivel, Treehouses lone inhabitant older than 50, sat eating squash blossoms and rice at a table with three building mates. Her 14-year-old daughter, Violeta, hung out at the next table over.

For years, Esquivel had wanted to move into the city from Orange County, where she worked as a nurse at Kaiser, mostly to help Violeta pursue her budding career as a slam poet. The closest place they had been able to afford was in Long Beach, until she heard about Treehouse earlier this year.

Now they live in a suite with three other poets, whose rooms make up the 10% of units that are affordable in Treehouse, which the building includes in exchange for denser zoning allowances. Esquivel said that it could feel like a retirement home for millennials from time to time, but she was surprised at how well it was working out.

I felt the vetting process was long and tedious, and they asked really odd questions, but I understand it now, Esquivel said. To maintain the vibe of the building, potential renters have to go through an extensive application process, with other renters serving on the application committee. Everyone has to sign a commitment to the buildings core values being kind, present, curious, candid and responsible as part of their lease.

Prophet Walker, left, and Joe Green in a communal space at Treehouse. Every Sunday, residents gather here for a shared meal.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

One question had been what she would bring to the table as a resident; she had picked her cooking and her massage therapy practice. Now she sets up her table on the roof deck and gives massage sessions to residents. Other Treehousers give fitness classes in the basement gym, or teach lessons on medicinal herbs in the rooftop garden. Every Sunday, a rotating group of residents get a $500 budget to cook or order family dinner for the whole building.

The building shares a Slack for internal announcements, which also plays host to the occasional call-out and heated conversation. To keep conflicts to a minimum, residents have set up a regular series of conversations, called Tree Talks, where the community values are often invoked to keep things kind and candid when residents are being less than responsible. A resident who washed their dogs clothes in one of the shared machines was a source of building-wide tension. Now, after a Tree Talk, a washer and dryer set is earmarked just for items that might have pet hair on them.

Esquivel said there were some initial issues with dish-doing and living room clutter within the poets suite, but the benefits have outweighed the rough patches. We would have never met anybody in these circles, Esquivel said, and especially for her daughter she thinks its been a wonderful experience, shes learning to cohabit with other people, other age groups.

A dissenting voice on the deck came from James Swiderski, who owns a solar energy company. He had always lived alone, and described his decision to move into Treehouse as a personal challenge. He planned to leave soon. Im glad I came, I dont regret it, Swiderski said. But it was an overstep for me, to be honest.

For Green, too, co-life has only been a temporary change of pace. When the pandemic first swept over California, he was staying in the spacious Beverly Hills house that his dad grew up in, which he said was in certain ways the peak of what Americans think they want. But Beverly Hills got lonely.

He moved into a room at Treehouse, where residents had created a building-wide bubble of viral trust after a few nervous weeks that had left the common areas mostly empty. Immediately, Green said he could feel his COVID isolation anxiety melt away. He could post on Slack and ten minutes later have a Settlers of Catan game going on the roof. It felt so much better, because I had people to be around. Still, after several weeks, he returned to his primary home in San Francisco.

Walker has no plans to leave. After the meal wound down and people began to filter back to their rooms, he finished doing the dishes, then plopped down in a booth, proud of the social feat he was in the process of pulling off: filling a building with strangers who were becoming friends, or at least fond acquaintances, against the head wind of a pandemic that has mostly driven Americans further into isolation.

Between its opening in fall 2019 and the beginning of the pandemic, Treehouse had rented only a third of its rooms. In the months since, the building has nearly filled up. The pandemic showed us if nothing else how important community and proximity is, Walker said. We have all these massive online communities, and thats like cool, cute, Walker said, but people in quarantine in New York and Italy still felt compelled to sing out their windows with their neighbors during the first lockdowns.

Walker reached for a painful memory from his teenage years in Watts to underscore the point: I watched my best friend get murdered in front of me, Walker said. That should be like a death knell to anyones psyche, but he credits the neighborhood with saving him.

The entire block came outside, Walker said, and then when they saw what happened, every single person, just about, hugged me, like youre gonna get through this, this sucks, but weve got you, and every day weve got you. His hope for Treehouse is that it can build that kind of neighborhood, one where everyone knows your name and comes together in tough times, but for people like him who left their neighborhoods behind.

And of course, he hopes that it can make a lot of money at the same time. It just so happens that through density arbitrage, through a host of laws, through real estate financials, the Treehouse business model is an incredible investment, Walker said. But truly, were trying to build a community.

Read more here:
Treehouse is trying to cure L.A. loneliness with co-living - Los Angeles Times

PINELLAS PARK The tornado that tore through mid-Pinellas County on Wednesday was the most powerful to hit the area in nearly three decades.

That twister was officially classified as an F2 on the Fujita scale by the National Weather Service. Also known as the FujitaPearson scale, thats how meteorologists rate the intensity of tornadoes according to how much damage they inflict.

That means its the most powerful tornado to strike the county since the deadly 1992 tornadoes that touched down in Pinellas Park.

Two tornadoes, rated an F2 and an F3, hit the area on Oct. 3, 1992. They killed four people, injured 130 and destroyed or severely damaged hundreds of homes and mobile homes, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report. The Fujita scale changed in 2007, but those were still powerful tornadoes by any measure.

But there were no fatalities or injuries reported after Wednesdays tornado strike, which damaged businesses, tore up roofs, knocked down trees and cut off the power to up to 14,000 customers.

Spectrum Bay News 9 chief meteorologist Mike Clay said Thursday that the region is fortunate no one was killed or seriously injured. He noted that after damaging Seminole and Pinellas Park, the tornado then moved into the waters of Tampa Bay and passed near the Howard Frankland Bridge during rush hour.

Were very lucky that it didnt hit any cars on the Howard Frankland Bridge, he said. There were probably 80 cars on the bridge when it came by and just missed it.

Wednesdays tornado touched down at 3:49 p.m., generated peak winds of 125 mph and traveled 13 miles before it entered the bay.

By comparison, the strongest tornado that hit in 1992 had maximum winds of up to 206 mph and traveled a length of three miles.

The 1992 tornadoes were also notable for this: President George H. W. Bush made a campaign stop in Pinellas County just an hour before the tornadoes hit. Air Force One was able to take off just before things got bad.

Read the rest here:
The tornado that hit Pinellas was the most powerful in 28 years - Tampa Bay Times

The town of Nespelem, on the Colville Reservation, is about a dozen city blocks surrounded by hills speckled with snow in mid-November.

Gary Carden has owned and managed the towns only tavern for about 25 years.

When I drove up, Carden, 63, is waiting on a La-Z-Boy recliner on the taverns concrete front porch, with his dogs Sissy and Harold.

"Shes the older dog, and thats probably the best thing that happened to her is finding her a small buddy, 'cause hes so active and keeps her active," he told me.

Last June, Carden was sitting inside the tavern, by the wood stove that heats the place through the cold winters.

Hes normally active, not just running the tavern but riding horses and motorcycles but on this particular June day, he felt out of breath and exhausted.

"My sister came walking in," Carden told me, "and she says, 'God, brother, you don't look good. Do you want me to call the ambulance?'" He replied, "Yeah, I think you better. There's something wrong."

Carden said he thought he had heat exhaustion he had spent the day splitting wood with his nephew.

But it was Covid.

Since early March, the Colville tribal council has been doing their best to insulate their community in north-central Washington.

They arranged for meals to be dropped off at the homes of tribal elders. They closed the reservation to non-essential travel. And, when members tested positive for Covid, the council helped them isolate themselves from their families by providing portable toilets, mobile homes, and even hotel rooms as needed.

But borders are fluid, so even the tribes extensive precautions havent been enough to fully protect Colville members.

Despite all the steps the tribe took to keep Covid at bay, the reservation has had two big outbreaks: one in the summer, and one thats happening right now.

"We got hit so hard," said Larry Smith, a doctor on the reservation who runs two of its four clinics.

Smith said the tribe set up large tents at the very beginning of the pandemic, so health providers would have a place to treat Covid patients and to don protective gear before administering Covid tests.

He said part of the reason it was important to him to prevent outbreaks was that so many of his patients are at risk of bad outcomes if they contract Covid-19.

"Probably 80 percent of the people that I see have some risk factors whether its hypertension, diabetes, or autoimmune disease," Smith said.

Between the two big outbreaks and a steady trickle of cases, about 300 people on the Colville Reservation have had Covid. Three have died of it. Thats a big hit for a small community the Covid rate there is more than double the rate in King County.

Carden, the tavern owner, caught the virus during the first wave. When he tested positive, his doctor sent him to a hospital in Wenatchee about 100 miles away. He spent a week on a ventilator and more time in the ICU.

He said the hardest part was the isolation.

"I was even ready to give up," Carden said. "I even told them doctors, you know, 'Hey, I quit. Pull these tubes out.'"

Both big outbreaks on the Colville Reservation happened when case numbers were way up in surrounding communities.

Joel Boyd, the vice-chair of the Colville Tribal Council, said, when the virus is so prevalent all around the reservation, its just hard to keep it out.

"One of the biggest things that bothers people here on the reservation," he said, is that, "when you do go off-reservation, ... theres communities that almost pride themselves on not wearing masks, and its a serious danger.

Boyd said both outbreaks came from tribal members going places or visiting family or friends or receiving outside visitors.

The current outbreak was seeded when a group of 10 or so people from the Colville Reservation visited a bar or restaurant in a nearby town. That was in mid-November, right before Governor Jay Inslee re-closed all indoor dining in the state.

"It was the last weekend for these restaurants and bars to be open before the governor had closed them," Boyd remembered. "And so it was a packed location at the time, just because everyone was getting in their last little hurrah I guess you would call it. And unfortunately, that was all it took for us to get a nice little outbreak."

Boyd said, once one person on the reservation gets Covid, its hard to stem the spread, because so many tribal members live in multi-generational households.

"Once one family member gets it, there could be six other family members that end up being infected as well," he said. "It's hard to say where those other five people have gone or it spreads so rapidly."

Take the current outbreak, in a part of the reservation called Inchelium.

"In Inchelium, we had under 10 cases, and, in a matter of two days, we had over 40 cases," Boyd said.

Now, nearly a quarter of the five hundred people in that small community have either tested positive or are quarantined, awaiting results.

Boyd said, during this outbreak, the tribal council took a new step it hadnt tried last time to try to keep the virus from spreading too quickly across the reservation.

The council imposed a curfew, from nine every night to six the next morning.

The reason for that is that there had always been a lot of rules in place during the workday: Wear masks; check temperatures; stay six feet apart.

But the council had less control over what happened after work.

Boyd said hes hopeful the current outbreak might be the last.

"A lot of people that have got it recently theyre being pretty vocal about, you know, how they got it and that theyre sorry for spreading it and sorry for, you know, what theyve done," Boyd said. "You know, thats one of the heartbreaking things is that theres no way to go back. Im thankful that theyre sharing that to prevent it from happening again."

Back in the town of Nespelem, Gary Carden, who had Covid, shows off his tavern: a few pool tables, an easy chair next to the black woodstove.

"Its a small little ma and pa place," he said. "I sit there till somebody walks in," he added, gesturing at the easy chair. "A lot of the people now they come and get their deal and they leave."

No socializing these days, he said not with Covid.

Carden said, back when he was still in the hospital and he told his doctors he was ready to quit and wanted them to pull the tubes out, a young intern sat down by his bedside and gave him a pep talk.

"He says, 'Gary, dont give up,'" Carden remembered. "'Youve made it through the hard part. Youve got 20+ years still to go. Hang in there. Youve almost got it licked!'"

And lick it Carden did.

He had to go to physical therapy and re-learn how to walk. And, when he first got back home and re-opened his tavern, he used a walker to get around.

But, now, hes back on his feet, and can even ride his horse and motorcycle.

See more here:
A rural tribe tried to keep Covid at bay, but a last hurrah seeded an outbreak - KUOW News and Information

On a fall night in November 1990, college senior Amy Blount went out to havefun with her group of friends but it would tragically be her final night with them.

The group of college students went to St. Georges Tavern, a local hotspot near Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. Theywere having a good time when Kelly Brockman, Blount's roommate, decided to leave early because she wasnt feeling well. When she left, Blountwas spending time with her crush, Shawn Nolan.

However, when Brockman woke up the following morning,Blount had still not returned home andfailed to show up at her morning classes.Her friends initially assumedshe was still with Nolan, butwhen they asked himabout Blount, they were shocked by what they heard: Nolantold themhe andBlount had walked out to the coastline the night before at around 2 a.m. butgot into a fight while waiting for a taxi to take her home. When Blountbegan walking off by herself, Nolantook a cab home alone.

Upon hearing Blounthad been left to walk home alone in the middle of the night, Blounts roommates were immediately concerned andsuspicious of Nolan.

As much as Amy liked Shawn, I thought Shawn didnt seem like he was really too concerned, to be honest, Brockman told Oxygens Buried in the Backyard, airing Thursdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.

Brockmann reported Blountmissing to police, and investigatorslaunched a search for Blount, checking local hospitals for reports of any Jane Does who may have matched Blounts description and reaching out to local cab drivers. These first stepswent nowhere.

Sincethere was not yet any evidence of foul play, policecould not officially declareBlount a missing person, despite her friends beliefsomething bad may have happened to her.With no answers, Brockmanrealized it was time to call Blounts parents.

That was probably one of the toughest calls Ill ever make in my life, she recalled to producers.

The search for AmyBlount leads to numerous dead ends.

The following day, Blounts loved onesbegan searching for her around town, putting up missing persons flyers and forming search parties to scour the woods, but no one found anything. When days passed andBlount still had not materialized, authorities finally launched an official investigation into her disappearance, and the first thing they did was bring in Nolan, Blount's crush, for questioning.

When speaking to police, Nolangave a different story than the onehed given Blounts roommates: At the end of the night, when he was ready to go home, hed used a nearby payphone to call a taxi to take Blounthome, he said, but when he turned around after making the call, she was gone. Although he waited for awhile, he said she never reappeared, so when the cab arrived, hewent home.

Police reached out to the cab driver to verify Nolans alibi, and he confirmed hed picked Nolanup that night. He also said when he arrived, Nolan had been slumped over, asleep on a public bench.Most importantly, however? Nolanwas alone.

We knew that Shawn was the last person [Blount] was actually seen with, Steve Fricke, aninvestigator with the St. Augustine Police Department, told producers.

After Blounthad been missing for nearly 10days with no activity on her bank accounts authorities offered a $10,000 reward for information about Blounts disappearance, leading to an influx of tips. One such call came from a man named Timothy Gatchell, who told policeas soon as he saw Blounts face on the missing person poster, he recognized her as a young woman hed seen in the downtown area on the same night Blounthad disappeared.

Gatchell met with police in person and told themhed seenBlount approached by someone in an older-model car a Camaro or a Firebird and Blounthad spoken to what looked to be two people who were in the car before getting inside and leaving with them.

While police now had a promising lead, they were also suspicious of the person whod hand-delivered it to them, though they could not initially explain why.

You could call it police intuition, but there was just something that wasnt right about him, Fricke said.

Police convinced Gatchell to take a polygraph testand he passed. Their doubts assuaged, police followed up on the tip, searching for cars that matched the description, but after interviewing everyone they could find with a car of that type, they wereback to square one. They were no closer, it seemed, to finding Blount.

Weeks had passed, andBlounts family was struggling with having to celebrate Christmas without her.

There was no news, Blount's sister, Kim Blount Potter, told producers. I really felt numb.

A gruesome discovery leads to answers.

Weeks after Blounts disappearance, a man walking his dog on New Years Day 1991 on the outskirts of St. Augustine made a horrifying discovery. After the mans dog was attracted to a pile of logs and rocks in a deserted area, the man went to investigate, only to find what looked to be human bones.

He immediately called the authorities, who, upon their arrival, found a body that had been wrapped in a floral bedsheet and buried in a shallow grave.

I really started thinking that this truly could be Amy Blount, Mary Fagan, a detective with the St. Johns County Sheriff,told producers.

An official autopsy confirmed Fagan's hunch. Italso revealedBlount had been stabbed five times in the front of her body. Additionally, there were bruises on the left side of her head and on her left shoulder, suggestinga struggle had taken place prior to her death.

After authorities delivered the devastating news to Blounts loved ones, they were heartbroken to find their search had reached the worst possible conclusion.

It made me sick to my stomach, but there was a little bit of relief that I could start the grieving process, Brockman recalled. I could start mourning, really mourning, the loss that Im never gonna see my friend again.

As Blounts family and friends began to grieve, police continued the investigationby identifying the owner of the property on which Blountwas found. However, because that man was very cooperative with police, they soon ruled him out as a suspect and instead zeroed in on other possibilities: The property owner had rented out two mobile homes on that plot of landand he told police hed been having problems with one of the tenants a man named Timothy Gatchell.

The truth of what happened to Amy Blount finally emerges.

Investigators rushed to search Gatchells home, where they found a sheet that matched the kind that Blountwas found wrapped in as well as a long hair that was the color of Blount'scaught in a screw on a weight-lifting bench. Crime scene technicians also discoveredthere were traces of blood throughout the home.

Police also found a scrap of paper with the name "Toby" written on it and a phone number, leading them to a man who could help them finally fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. When contacted by police, this Tobyagreed to come in for questioning.

He told investigatorshe was with Gatchellon the night of Blounts disappearance and that the two of them had been out bar-hopping when they spottedBlount walking alone.Gatchell told Tobyto stop the car sohe couldtalk to her, and Tobywatched as Gatchell went to talk toBlount andled her back to the car. She got inside willingly, Tobysaid, and he drove them all to Gatchell'shouse. Once there, Gatchellbegan coming on to Blount, but Blountwasnt interested. At that point, Toby said, he went to the bathroom andleft the home without seeing either of them again.

Weeks later, after Toby realized the missing girl everyone was talking about was the same onetheyhad picked up that night, he confronted Gatchell, who claimed hed given Blounta ridedowntown and thensaw her talking to a couple of guys in a Camaro before he drove away. Toby pressed him to report what hed seen to the police, which prompted Gatchellto reach out to investigators and give them the tip regarding the old car.

At that point, authorities had heard enough: They rushed toGatchells home to take him into custody. He didnt resistand instead told officershed been expecting them.

Once at the station, Gatchell told the same story as Tobyand claimed hed given Blounta ride back into town using the property owners truck. Investigators immediately knew thenGatchell was lying: The truck in question had three flat tires.

With a little more coaxing from authorities, Gatchell slowly started to confess: He claimedhe andBlount had gotten into a fight andat some pointa knife had gotten got involved, but he wasnt sure because he may have blacked out. He said the next thing he knew, Blountwas lying on the floor with blood coming out of her mouth and the knife was in his hand.

He claimed hethen went outside, got a shovel, and dug a hole before going back inside, wrappingBlount up in a sheet, and carrying her outside, where he buried her body and said a prayer for her.

Gatchell was arrested for first-degree murder andstood trial in July 1991. In order to avoid the death penalty, he pled guilty and is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

For more information on this case and others like it, watch Buried in the Backyard on Oxygen on Thursdays at 8/7c or stream online any time at Oxygen.com.

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'Just Something That Wasnt Right About Him: Student's Killer First Masqueraded As A Witness - Oxygen