CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) -

Ohio already bans smoking in most indoor places but now some lawmakers want to make it illegal to smoke in cars when children are present.

The measure would prohibit smoking in a vehicle when youths 6 and under are present. 

"Illegal is pushing it a little too far!" said one smoker.
 
"There's no need for a law like that!" said another Ohio smoker.

But some smokers actually agree.
 
"I have asthma so I already know what it can do to somebody's lungs," said Rachel Carpenter.

Sen. Tom Patton, chairman of the Highways and Transportation Committee, is heading up the committee which supports the ban. The bill, if passed, calls for fines starting at $500 for violators caught lighting up in a vehicle with young children in the car.

Smoking in vehicles while children are passengers is already illegal in both Canada and Australia.

 

Copyright 2012 WOIO. All rights reserved.

Read the rest here:
First texting and now smoking -- Lawmakers considering limiting lighting up in cars

MADISON — After a decade of anticipation, the state is moving forward to develop a $75 million joint Wisconsin Historical and Veterans museum that could be part of a larger private project with private offices, retail space and parking in Downtown Madison.

No site has been selected, but the state has studied the current Historical Museum property on Capitol Square coupled with private holdings behind it at the corner of North Fairchild and West Mifflin streets.

The development could provide 200,000 square feet of space for the museums, state documents say.

State Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch has convened a task force of community leaders, interested parties and experts - including Mayor Paul Soglin - to explore sites, financing and other issues. The task force had an initial meeting on Jan. 23 and will meet through the year.

"It's a project that has been discussed for years," DOA spokesperson Jocelyn Webster said. "It's time to move forward with it. The Walker administration is taking this very seriously."

The task force is expected to spend the year formulating advisory recommendations, Webster said.

"I think this is really exciting. It's going to present a tremendous opportunity for our Downtown. It's going to add to the vibrance and vitality," Soglin said. "And it's going to be a total challenge."

The project will likely trigger debate over density, historic buildings and parking, Soglin said, adding, "I welcome it."

In 2001, $131 million in state borrowing and gifts was budgeted for a Wisconsin History Center, but the project didn't move forward and most budgeted money was rescinded, state documents say. But planning resumed in 2007 and the state thus far has released $1.8 million for preliminary planning, the documents say.

The new state budget includes $10 million for the project in the 2011-13 biennium and $65 million in 2015-17, Webster said.

It's unclear if $75 million would cover the cost of the new museums. Private offices, retail and parking could add tens of thousands of square feet of space and tens of millions of value to the overall redevelopment.

Hovde site eyed

Although a site hasn't been selected, state and Hovde Property officials have long eyed the L-shaped part of the block that fronts the Square and hosts the Historical Society museum and several Hovde-owned properties behind the museum.

"We're excited about the potential redevelopment of the site," said Mike Slavish, president of Hovde Properties, which owns four of five properties behind the museum but not the Silver Dollar Tavern. "This would be a great use for the corner and complementary to Overture Center, the new library and the potential redevelopment of the 100 block of State Street."

Hovde's Churchill Building and two properties owned by attorney Fred Mohs, which face the Square on North Carroll Street, could be part of a private, second phase of redevelopment, Slavish said.

At the initial task force meeting, the state shared preliminary concept renderings for the state-Hovde site showing a high-density, mixed use project, said city Planning and Community and Economic Development Director Steve Cover, who attended for Soglin because the mayor was out of town.

But Webster cautioned the process is only beginning.

The Historical Museum has occupied its current 39,000-square-foot building, a converted hardware store, for 25 years.

The Historical Society needs to triple its space for permanent and changing exhibits, and also requires a building with higher ceilings, bigger elevators, and a separate entrance for school groups, said Alicia Goehring, director of special projects.

"The existing space is very inadequate for telling the story of the state," she said.

The Veterans Museum has occupied its 32,000-square-foot building, once a department store, since 1993.

The museum also needs to triple its exhibit space, director Michael Telzrow said. "We've simply run out of room," he said.

A preliminary schedule shows construction starting in 2016.

Read more:
State progressing on joint history, veterans museum

SAN RAMON -- City leaders have learned that Walmart's construction division is accepting bids for making property improvements that would pave the way for a "neighborhood market" store in San Ramon.

Marc Fontes, the city's economic development director, revealed this in a news release Friday.

Tenant improvement plans previously submitted by the owners of the vacant grocery store space in the Country Club Village Center in south San Ramon were approved by the city, but the identity of the owners' prospective tenant was not given.

"It would now appear that a Walmart neighborhood market is the likely tenant for that space," Fontes said.

No one from Walmart has contacted the city about plans to lease space and open a San Ramon grocery store, which would be a permitted use for the existing vacant retail space. The Walmart neighborhood markets are much smaller than Walmart super stores and focus on groceries.

Contact Jacquie Oliverius at 925-847-2123.

Excerpt from:
Walmart soliciting bids for San Ramon neighborhood market store

21-02-2011 12:22 Talk a tour of how Great Falls Construction transformed an old barn into a two story apartment in Springvale Maine. The remodel also include the installation of 2 solar panels to the roof of the home to produce green energy.

Continued here:
Great Falls Construction restoration and Remodel of 100 year old home. Includes solar panels - Video

COMPOUND INTEREST: The oldest of eight siblings, Gran Semmes moved to the Irish Channel from the West Bank in the early 1970s when his father bought a collection of shotgun doubles at First and Tchoupitoulas streets. The old houses and historic neighborhood made a life-changing impression on Semmes, then in his 20s, and helped to inspire his passion for architecture, design, art and history.

"That was the starting point of my affliction," he said. "My wife calls me a serial renovator."

Since then, Semmes has been involved in dozens of real estate projects, but his most cherished may be the townhouse, slave quarter and cottage at Race and Religious streets, a successor of sorts to his family's Irish Channel compound.

"I started with just the Creole cottage on Religious Street back in the '70s -- I bought it to keep it from being torn down," Semmes said. "Then in 2003 we bought the townhouse and its slave quarter and connected all the courtyards."

Gran, Billie and Elsie Semmes (the couple's youngest daughter) were living in the cottage when Hurricane Katrina forced them to suspend their renovation of the townhouse and decamp to Colorado, where the family's elder daughter lives (a son, Granville IV, lives here in New Orleans).

But eventually the townhouse renovation project got back on track.

"My brother Paul and I literally renovated the cottage ourselves," Semmes said. "I didn't borrow any money to do it but worked on it when I had the resources. Years later, the townhouse was a collaboration of three of us: me, Paul and Steve Richardson, a wonderful painter and cabinetmaker. He can figure out all the intricate details."

PERSONAL SPACE

THE HOUSES: Two early 19th-century treasures, one a Creole cottage and the other a townhouse, sharing courtyards in the Lower Garden District

THE OWNERS: Gran and Billie Semmes

THE SPACE: The ground floor of the townhouse, where the living room, kitchen and entry foyer flow seamlessly into one another

WHY THEY LOVE IT: 'This was a working man's house, not a fancy place,' Gran Semmes said. 'We wanted to bring it back without changing its nature.'

Semmes said that he and his team would meet at the kitchen table in the cottage each morning and talk about the townhouse, then proceed with whatever ideas and solutions they hatched that morning. What risked becoming a helter-skelter amalgamation of disparate visions became instead a harmonious composition, an outcome that Semmes attributes to the talents of his two partners. For the intriguing atmosphere of the building's interior, Semmes credits his wife, Billie, and her unerring sense of taste, with pulling it all together.

"Billie has corrected many a mistake before I made them," Semmes said. "She has a great eye."

FURNISHINGS: The couple has traveled the world together and likes to seek out elements to incorporate into their home wherever they go.

From Buenos Aires, they brought back the wrought-iron gates to the courtyard on Race Street, as well as the tall stained-glass doors found throughout the compound. From Afghanistan and Iran came multisized geometric patterned rugs, now scattered across the townhouse's clay tile floors.

Other artifacts, especially the ubiquitous religious objects, come from anywhere Semmes finds them, including a front porch in Waveland, Miss. Fine antiques such as the Renaissance-era trestle table in the townhouse kitchen are used casually, rather than showcased.

The effect is a visually arresting and refined environment that manages to be comfortable and unpretentious.

With all offspring well out of the house, Gran and Billie Semmes now spend more time at their Slidell home than their city roost. Set on more than 100 acres, the house they occupy was built according to a plan by Frank Lloyd Wright. No Renaissance kitchen tables or 200-year-old French hospital tiles at the Slidell house; the couple has furnished it in mid-century modern.

Billie's parents live across a bog connected to the Semmes house by bridges, constituting yet a third family compound. When Gran and Billie come in from Slidell, they stay at their "city house" at Race and Religious, but when they aren't there, they rent it out as an event venue.

REACHING BACK: Semmes says that what attracted him to the Lower Garden District 30 years ago stills holds him there today.

"When I started looking around here, there were many more old houses and warehouses than there are today, but it was clear change was coming," he said, citing the expansion of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and establishment of the truck route as two factors that resulted in sweeping changes to the once-quiet area.

"There was just this feeling that you wanted to reach back and hold on to it before it slipped away."

The same reverence for and instinct to protect the city's architectural and cultural heritage is expressed in various artworks found throughout the compound, especially in the townhouse kitchen mural painted by Richardson at Semmes' request.

Both Elsie Semmes and Richardson contributed smaller, framed pieces that appear in the townhouse, slave quarter and cottage. Mixed in are a few contemporary works, as well as oils that resemble Old Master portraits. Some paintings rest on mantels, but others hang on the sumptuously weathered walls that Semmes took care not to make too perfect.

"It's always tricky when you're renovating to make only the improvements that need to be made and to avoid erasing the place's past by smoothing out all the dents and imperfections," Semmes said.

"Those are the things that connect you to the people who lived here before you, and you want to keep those."

Read the original post:
Restoration at Race and Religious streets is a family affair

Each month since the relaunch in September, sales executives at DC Comics have met with Newsarama to talk about the latest Diamond sales figures.

This month, the news indicated top tier DC titles were holding steady - and held the Top 10 spots on the chart. DC also held the largest share of the market's units sold, although Marvel had the highest dollar figure.

We spoke to John Rood, the company's executive vice president of sales, and Bob Wayne, the senior vice president of sales, to discuss what the numbers mean. During our discussion, they disclosed:

- Being No. 1 in units indicates to DC that their comics reach more individual people than competitors.

- Any future cancellations and additions to the core "New 52" ongoing titles will most likely be done in groups like the six "second wave" titles coming in May, to maximize the "lift" provided by the additions.

- While there is no current plan to have a third wave, chances are that there will be another batch canceled and replaced before the New 52 is a year old.

- While there's a marketing plan in development for the Before Watchmen comics, DC is also already planning how to market the collected edition to the millions of readers who picked up the original Watchmen as a book, not a comic.

- Before Watchmen is not just a one-time comics event. It's a plan to "set in place something that is lasting."

- DC continues to place importance on this month's ComicsPRO meeting, where it will not only reveal the results of its Nielson survey, but will also get feedback to guide future marketing initiatives.

The pair also had a little fun with the fact that they "won" the top 10 spots in Diamond's sales chart - among other accomplishments - as the following transcript of the conversation shows.

Newsarama: John and Bob, you know even more about what these numbers mean than we do. When you look at January, what do the highs and lows of the month say about the viability of DC right now?

Bob Wayne: It certainly says to me that being No. 1 in units sold in the marketplace for the month means that we're able to reach more consumers than our competitors. So I'm happy about that figure, along with us having the No. 1 title for a number of months in a row.

And we're also happy about having 10 out of the top 10 on the comics' chart, because it's been a long time since anyone has done that particular hat trick.

We're also very happy with the strength of our Batman titles in particular, especially as we're kind of moving into the Dark Knight Rises level of attention for the character from folks who might be more casual.

We're already going back to press on some of the Batman titles. We're seeing a lot of interest in Nightwing because of how it ties to The Court of Owls storyline that's building up. And All-Star Western has been a success in part because it merged the Jonah Hex story with historical Gotham City, allowing that book to plant things that can echo in the present, but being completely acceptable within Jonah Hex's story. We've got Harley Quinn and Joker in the Suicide Squad book. We even have a Resurrection Man issue with Arkham Asylum. So we have a lot of Batman things going on to keep readers excited. And it's the readers and the retailers who are helping to fuel what's going on in The Court of Owls storyline, because Batman has great buzz. Scott and Greg are doing a wonderful job on Batman, and all the other teams are pulling along as well. And we're happy to have that as one of the main engines on our January numbers.

Nrama: But wait a minute, Bob. You're raving about how well comics do that interact with Batman, so are there any plans to add to that line, or is there a danger of it getting too diluted if all these titles are suddenly set in Gotham City?

Wayne: We are adding Batman Inc. as one of the second wave of titles, so clearly, we think there's room for Batman Inc. and Grant [Morrison]'s flavor of storytelling, along with the other flavors.

But you have think there is a point where the rubber band gets stretched so far that it either breaks or snaps in some other direction, and people start to go, you know, I love Batman, but I don't want to buy that much Batman.

It's always a fine line we have to walk between these types of things.

But right now, these books are doing gangbusters, and I think it's really driven the sales strongly by the Court of Owls story that's building for its full debut in May. Without doing a lot of promotion on this, there's still a lot of interest in that.

John Rood: What I'd say is two things: No. 1: Dark Knight Rises in theaters July 20th. And then I would say that the intent with DC Comics' the New 52, was not to make us any more top heavy. And so as excited as we are about Batman's performance, we're delighted that readers and retailers are responding to titles like Swamp Thing and Animal Man and Resurrection Man and Suicide Squad.

The health of our whole line - 52 titles deep - is as crucial to us as making sure our franchise characters like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash and Green Lantern, stay at the top of the list.

Nrama: John, what do you think the numbers say about the market overall, beyond DC. You guys are the only ones with books in the top 10. I know they did well, but it also speaks to the lack of competition this month, doesn't it? Taking all 10 spots doesn't bode well for the overall market, does it?

Rood: If I had stood at those Road Shows with the retailers last summer and said that our #5's for the New 52 were going to sweep the Top 10, Bob would have grabbed a large butterfly net and put it over my head and pulled me off-stage.

Wayne: To a round of applause, because they would have thought it was the right thing to do before he could hurt himself.

Rood: We have had so many pleasant surprises associated with DC Comics New 52, but lately, this idea of our #5's sweeping the industry Top 10 - 10 for 10 - is probably the most pleasant of pleasant surprises and the most surprising of pleasant surprises.

Nrama: But my question was, what does it say about the market overall, beyond just DC Comics? What do you think is going on with the comic market not selling anything as well as your 10th lowest title?

Rood: Take it up with the publishers who didn't crack the Top 10.

Nrama: Fair enough. One week after we talked last month, we found out there were six titles being replaced in the 52 line-up. I assume you'll still be continuously tweaking the comic line-up though, won't you?

Rood: I think the tweaks won't be ongoing and ad hoc. I think we will have what we were trying to do with these six titles [coming up in May] - do it at a moment in time and have it as a second wave, and that's what we're calling it. And have the incentives tied to the incentives of the initial New 52, which is what we're doing.

But yeah, I'd like to think of it as 46 out of 52 that are continuing, which is crazy good. And no cancelations or replacements until issue #8, which is crazy good. And the anecdotal feedback on our six replacement titles being so favorable is exactly what we had hoped. Actually, all of the New 52 is lifted by our "Replacement Six."

Nrama: Do you think you'll have another wave before the first year is finished, by September?

Wayne: Well, while we don't have another wave planned, my gut is that we'll be making some additional mid-course corrections as we move forward month-to-month and look at the numbers on the titles, and also looking at the creative direction the titles are going.

But there is nothing that we're planning right now to have another six pop out.

And I think it will be more likely that the next time, we'll look at the comics, and it will be more like, OK, this one may have run its course and what do we have that might either hit that note differently, or hit a completely different note, but add to the overall effect of what we're doing?

So there is not a plan for another major group of them right now.

Rood: Which is not to say that when we see Dan [DiDio] and Jim [Lee] next week in person, that they won't go, "we've got a great idea!" We're always going to respond favorably when someone has a really great idea and convinces us it's a great idea, because their track record on this stuff has been pretty good.

Wayne: Top 10 out of 10.

Nrama: John, we've heard you joke quite a bit about how many different titles Marvel are being released, but the Watchmen titles increases the number of releases beginning this summer. What's the philosophy behind adding to the comics line that drastically? That it's worth it for the sake of a massive event this summer?

Wayne: Well, on the Before Watchmen, it was more a matter of, not so much summer, because it's going to be running for a good chunk of time, it was more a matter of, there are some stories people have wanted to tell and characters people have wanted to do stuff with for a number of years, and it just kind of came together and reached the critical mass.

And when sales and marketing is approached by editorial and told, "We've got this idea for something we just don't want to waste, and when can we do it, and what's the best time to do it," there's a lot of strength in that. And there certainly is a lot of interest in those titles that fall under that umbrella.

There's no pre-set number, like, OK, we've got to add two mini-series in July, so let's spin the wheel of available projects and see which ones we're choosing. There's no whimsy to it. It's really based upon, you guys tell us what you've got, and let's hear it and come up with ideas on what kind of response we'll get from the readers.

Nrama: Talking to retailers about Before Watchmen, there was a sense that they fully expect a similar type of promotional and retailer incentive program for this series that you gave the New 52. What's your plan for Before Watchmen?

Wayne: What we plan is that we're going to be meeting face-to-face with a number of our retailers at the ComicsPRO annual meeting in Dallas next week, and we think that will be a topic. And we want get the feedback from our customers before we finalize our plan.

So we don't have a plan set in stone right now. We're going to talk to our customers.

Nrama: I'm sure, though, that when you came up with the idea to do Before Watchmen, you had to think about how this series would be marketed to those "new" and "lapsed" readers, didn't you?

Rood: Yeah, we're definitely mindful of the fact that Before Watchmen has many interesting facets, including the new creators and the character-specific sell.

So we have a periodical marketing plan and an incentives plan in development, but then we also have a collected editions marketing plan and an incentive plan in development, because that's how most readers are familiar with the original Watchmen.

And so this idea, just like we've said with the New 52, was not to win a month, was not to do a one-off that drove sales temporarily, but rather to set in place something that is lasting.

And same with Before Watchmen, as with the New 52, we're not in this to win dollar share. We're not even in this to win unit share. But we're in there to tell the best stories, and do it in an efficient model, and with integrity.

Wayne: As head of sales, though, I never complain when we manage to win market share or unit share or dollar share, because even if it's not our overall most important metric that gives us, you know, a sign post to point to, as far as what type of job we're doing and what kind of response we're getting from people.

Nrama: You've talked about reaching new readers through the Before Watchmen collected edition, but your expansion of the New 52 to another earth - Earth 2 - has been questioned by some fans who think of that not being new reader friendly. Are Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest the type of comics that you can market to a "new reader" or a mainstream audience? After all, the Earth 2 characters are at their core WW2 era characters. How hard a job is it for you guy to try to sell WW2 era characters in a contemporary market?"

Wayne: We aren't really, at this point, saying all that much about what's going to be in these titles. That will be rolling out soon. But I think people will be intrigued by some of the ways in which these new titles interact with our existing New 52 titles and how they amplify certain things.

Rood: It's an ongoing challenge in our category, is to take the nostalgic and make it timeless. So that shouldn't hold off any creative. But it also is something we have to be mindful of in marketing.

We're not here to hold up the past at the expense of the future.

Nrama: With the introduction of the Earth 2 comic, are there plans for multiverse crossovers as future events? Will there be a Watchmen/New 52 crossover, or comics set on Earth 6 or 7? Or wait - are the Before Watchmen comics on one of the 52 earths?

Wayne: I don't believe that we have made that claim. I think our intention is to leave that an entirely separate mythology, and to not have it intersect with the rest of what we do.

I think you end up, at some point, losing the effectiveness of the earth numbers as your title names. In the same way that you may have a First National Bank or even a Second National Bank, when you get down to the Seventh National Bank, I think people start to wonder why they would put their money there. So I doubt you see an Earth 7 #1 title coming out at some point in the future.

I think there's a specific reason for Earth 2 that will be much more apparent after you have the opportunity to read Earth 2 and a couple of other titles.

Nrama: For the top-tier stuff that we sense will not be canceled anytime soon, like Action Comics and Batman, is the intention with them to continue with the numbering. Will there be a #13 Batman come September?

Wayne: There's no plan to go to having a year's worth of comics be a "Volume 1" and then we have a "Volume 2 #1" as of the #13. There was probably two or three minutes of conversation in one meeting I was in about that, and everyone very quickly say, nah, we want to do it the other way.

Nrama: Unlucky #13 isn't unlucky for next September, huh?

Rood: If it ain't broke - if it's sweeping the top 10 - don't fix it.

Nrama: Is that the new mantra? Or do you care to sum up what you're feeling today with the release of the latest sales numbers?

Rood: We're holding steady. It's really exciting to see this much interest this far into the renumbering, so to speak, and the selling out continues to surprise us. So it's a testament to the staying power of readers and retailers alike.

Got a comment? There's lots of conversation on Newsarama's FACEBOOK and TWITTER!

Newsarama.com is the go-to source for the latest comic book and genre entertainment news, reviews and commentary. Newsarama's passionate audience contributes to lively discussions ranging from classic and new comics to movies, TV, manga, anime and more. Watch previews, interviews and more on our video player, sneak peeks of new comics on our Comic Book Viewer and sign up for our RSS feeds. And be sure to join our community so you can voice your opinion on our articles and in our lively forums.

Here is the original post:
DC Execs Tout Jan. Sales; Talk WATCHMEN 2, EARTH 2

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Only a short window of time is left for individuals and businesses to review the applications submitted by four air carriers looking to provide services to airports in Presque Isle and Bar Harbor.

Four carriers have submitted bids to provide service to Northern Maine Regional Airport in Presque Isle or to Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton under the Essential Air Services Program.

Colgan Air, which operates as U.S. Airways Express in the region, petitioned the U.S. Department of Transportation in September to end its service between Boston and Presque Isle and between Bar Harbor and Plattsburg, N.Y., sometime this year. Colgan Air expressed a desire to close its Boston office because the market that it serves has become smaller.

Under federal Essential Air Service regulations, the airline would not be allowed to leave until a replacement is found. But there has been concern that smaller airplanes might be brought in to provide that service.

In Presque Isle and Bar Harbor, Colgan Air offers business and leisure air travelers nonstop service to and from Boston’s Logan Airport in a 34-seat Saab 340 turbo jet prop.

The four bids to replace Colgan are from Air Choice One of St. Louis, Mo.; Cape Air of Hyannis, Mass.; Peninsula Airways of Anchorage, Alaska; and Sovereign Air of Minneapolis. Cape Air has bid only on servicing the Bar Harbor airport, according to the proposal. Cape Air now is the EAS provider at airports in Augusta and Rockland.

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud all have spoken to officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation, stressing the importance of finding cost-effective, convenient carriers to service the airports. They also stressed the importance of the new EAS provider using aircraft large enough to fly directly from Presque Isle to airports outside of Maine without having to stop in Bangor or Portland to refuel.

Snowe said in a statement that she was “extremely pleased” that multiple carriers had submitted bids.

After the bids were submitted the U.S. DOT opened a 30-day public comment period that ends Feb. 7. This allows for individuals and businesses to review the submitted applications and voice their opinions and provide information on topics related to the applications and air service.

Snowe said that the review process will evaluate the applications as well as the public comments, with a final decision expected as early as April.

Mainers are welcome to submit comments to the DOT regarding the selection of a new air carrier service in Presque Isle and Bar Harbor. Comments are due to the Department of Transportation and must be submitted to EAS@dot.gov.

All four proposals can be viewed online at http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=air-service-for-maine.

Read more:
Window for public comments on air service to close next week

02-10-2011 07:05 Take a tour of the new executive office building that Great Falls Construction, of Gorham Maine built for Community Concepts Inc. in Lewiston Maine. Todd Rothstein, Project Manager of Great Falls will take you into the building and show you this beautiful property.

See more here:
Great Falls Construction Gorham Maine builds the new Community Concepts Office Building - Video

New buildings seem to be popping up all over town. They're physical proof of the strength of the Anchorage economy. New construction, particularly speculative construction, happens when an economy is growing, as ours is.

Let's run through the more significant commercial buildings under construction and then take a quick look back at 40 years of Midtown commercial development.

• The Three Cedars Office Building at 2701 Gambell St. is a twin to the 2700 Gambell Street Building, constructed about 10 years ago. Three Cedars is a speculative Class A office building. It will contain 35,000 square feet on three floors over a heated parking garage on the first floor. Construction is scheduled for completion this spring. The asking lease rate is $3 a square foot.

• The ReMax Dynamic Office Building is under construction on A Street just south of Wal-Mart. This 34,000-square-foot Class A building will have three floors. The building will be occupied by Dynamic Properties and ReMax Properties. Construction is scheduled for completion in November.

• Alaska USA Federal Credit Union is constructing a three-story, 30,000-square-foot building on B Street just north of Tudor Road. The first floor will consist of facilities management and warehouse space. The second and third floors will be Class A office space for Alaska USA's use.

• The new Anchorage Neighborhood Health Clinic is on C Street just north of International Airport Road. This building replaces the clinic's Fairview facility. The project is 43,000 square feet on three floors and will be ready for occupancy in August.

• Scheduled to break ground this spring is a speculative four-story, 84,000-square-foot Class A office building at C Street and International Airport Road, just south of the health clinic's new building. Completion is set for early 2013. The developer is JL Properties, which built several Class A office buildings during the last 10 years on C Street between 36th and 40th avenues.

In addition to these, a number of other commercial developments are under way. They include:

• A new 50,000-square-foot retail store for Alaska Industrial Hardware on the Old Seward Highway, just south of International Airport Road;

• Renovation of The Mall at Sears between Benson and Northern Lights boulevards;

• A 9,000-square-foot office building south of Klatt Road in South Anchorage for the construction services company STG; and

• A new 22,500-square-foot building for Verizon on 40th Avenue between the Old Seward Highway and Denali Street.

The Tikahtnu Commons shopping center continues to announce new stores, and construction continues for small commercial, medical, university and multi-unit residential buildings.

Now for some history. The first significant commercial development in Midtown occurred in 1971 when the Northrim Bank building was built on C Street. This building was constructed by what was then the Sohio Oil Co. for its own use. However, the development that established Midtown as a significant commercial area was construction in 1974 of the first of the two Calais Office Center buildings. They were speculative developments.

In the 1980s came a raft of buildings, including the Frontier Building, which was also a speculative project. A number of corporate headquarters buildings went up: Cook Inlet Regional Corp., First National Bank, Alaska USA and Wells Fargo Bank (actually constructed by its predecessor, National Bank of Alaska). The move by National Bank of Alaska, the state's largest bank at the time, from downtown to Midtown was significant.

In the first decade of this century, we experienced a surge of development with JL Properties projects on C Street. The JL buildings include Arctic Slope Regional Corp., Centerpoint, JL Tower and Centerpoint West.

Developments by Alaska Native corporations and others include 188 West Northern Lights, 2700 Gamble Street and a number of smaller Class A office buildings.

Now at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century we are seeing continuation of that development. With the new construction this year, Midtown will have expanded 1.5 miles south to International Airport Road.

I wonder what development will occur, and where, during the next 40 years.

Chris Stephens, CCIM, is a local associate broker specializing in commercial and investment real estate. His column appears every month in the Daily News.

Original post:
New construction affirms city's economic growth

For a city whose last Fortune 500 company was about to be acquired by an out-of-town corporation, there was not just consolation but actual excitement over one of the deal sweeteners: Chicago-based Exelon Corp. promised to build a new downtown office building for the merged company, the first such construction in Baltimore's central business district since 2004.

The competition was spirited among a handful of developers: They produced architectural renderings of shiny towers and lined up contractors and financing packages. One had a request en route to the mayor proposing a tax break to make his Inner Harbor parcel even more attractive. Meetings, presentations and behind-the-scenes lobbying ensued to land the prize.

But last week, in an earlier-than-expected announcement, Exelon dashed the hopes of many when it announced the winning bid: a waterfront parcel in the Harbor East area, which in recent years has steadily drawn businesses away from the traditional downtown core. Once again, the score was bakery magnate and Harbor East developer John Paterakis Sr.-1, downtown-0.

M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp., was among those caught off-guard when Exelon, which is in the process of a $7.9 billion acquisition of Constellation Energy, announced its decision. The company had said that it would not reveal where it would build in Baltimore until after the deal was completed, and it still needs the approval of the Maryland's Public Service Commission, which meets later this month.

"I was very surprised," said Brodie, longtime head of the city's quasi-public economic development arm. "I wouldn't have guessed the outcome either."

And there were those who were dismayed that Exelon rejected downtown, with its ample office vacancies and empty lots, and headed east to an area that is fast becoming a glitzier alternative to the historic central business district, with firms such as Legg Mason and Morgan Stanley setting up shop there.

Now, those who advocate for downtown say the city needs to reconsider the tax breaks that have favored new developments like Harbor East at the expense of the aging parts of downtown. Despite the upscale nature of the boutique- and restaurant-filled Harbor East, for example, the area remains in an enterprise zone that reduces property taxes for new buildings.

"The challenge is there are many commercial properties paying the highest property taxes, and they are in the older parts of town and they're losing tenants to the newer parts," said J. Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership, a nonprofit that looks out for business and residents in the city's central core. "We need to step back and consider how incentives are doled out, and how we can be proactive and find ways to help older buildings in the core."

That the Harbor East area, and Harbor Point specifically, have become so attractive represents a remarkable transformation — and one cheered even by those who would have preferred Exelon to build downtown.

For more than a century, beginning in 1845, what is now the 27-acre Harbor Point was the site of a chrome factory that leached toxic industrial chemicals into the ground and harbor. It took a decade and more than $100 million worth of remediation to contain the cancer-causing chromium within a slurry wall and beneath layers of impenetrable material at the former AlliedSignal plant until the Environmental Protection Agency deemed it safe for redevelopment in 1999.

But for all its environmental damage, the site has long been viewed as perhaps the last, best undeveloped real estate on the harbor, with sweeping water and skyline views.

"Let's be honest: It's a very good development site," said J. Joseph Clarke, of J.J. Clarke Enterprises, whose own bid to build a downtown tower for Exelon lost out to Harbor Point. "It's surrounded on three sides by water. That's a big win for the city. We should all be glad [Exelon] found a home there."

Still, Clarke, who proposed a 25-story office building on the site of the old Southern Hotel at 1 Light St., said he thought his bid hewed closely to what Exelon had requested, particularly since the corporation asked for energy efficiency and other green measures — fittingly, given that the new building will house the company's renewable energy division.

"We were the only site with our own subway stop," Clarke said. "We have 11 bus lines. We thought that was a strong suit."

There was no shortage of downtown suitors, with prime spots such as the former McCormick & Co. site at Light and Conway and the old News American parcel, at 300 E. Pratt, being used as surface parking lots while awaiting development.

Brodie thought the McCormick site in particular was a development waiting to happen.

When Stephen Gorn, president and chief executive of Questar Properties, bought the site of the former spice company plant, Brodie said he wrote him a note saying he had just bought the best unbuilt site downtown and inviting him to a chat whenever he decided what to do with it.

That eventually led to Brodie bringing Gorn's request for a tax subsidy for his proposal — an office building for Exelon, apartments, retail and parking — before the Baltimore Development Corp.'s board. Brodie said the board agreed to recommend to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake that she approve an incentive.

But before she could act on the BDC recommendation, Exelon made public its decision to go with Harbor Point.

Rawlings-Blake spokesman Ryan O'Doherty said he didn't know whether the mayor had even seen Gorn's request before the Exelon announcement, but said that she believed Harbor East could grow without harming downtown.

Read the original:
A downtown building not built