A man in an apartment building south of the Rosedale subway station got in touch the other day. He told me there was a condo tower being built across the ravine; the lights from the construction site were powerfully bright, profoundly annoying, and aimed right into his building; hed made some calls, but he couldnt get anyone to do anything.

I decided to take a look. I hate it when people cant get anybody to do anything.

Also, the man who got in touch is Larry Krotz, a consummate professional freelance writer, and he also makes films, and we once had books out at the same time, and I trust him.

As I neared his address on a recent evening hey, who goes to see bright lights during the day? I saw the construction crane, and the lights on it, but I also noticed the brightness of the street lamps, and the one didnt seem worse than the others.

Oh, well, keep an open mind.

Larry and a handful of his neighbours were waiting for me in the lobby; smart people, hard-working professionals. They gave me a short history of the problem, which at that point didnt seem to me to be a very large problem.

Larry said, Construction started a couple of years ago. In July of last year, the crane went up and they started building. Some days the lights on the crane were on at night. The tenants lived with that.

But, as the building began to rise, the crane was also rising, and then the problem got worse when new and more powerful lights were added to the base of the building under construction.

Those, I hadnt seen while walking.

Stephanie Woodside said, Theyre very bright, and shining into all the apartments on the north side. I asked the obvious question:

Read more:
Fiorito: Darkness in Rosedale

A Ridgeland apartment building appears to be a total loss following a massive fire.

The fire was at the Ridgeland Ranch Apartment Complex along County Line Road. It started just after 6:00 Sunday night.

"I watched a little girl, maybe 8, just cry because she didn't have shoes on, only thing she had on was her white shirt and her little dress, and she was just crying her eyes out because she lost all of her toys and everything," says Stacy Morrison, who lives at the complex.

All the residents could do was watch as fire ripped through their home and their belongings. Fire Chief Matt Bailey tells us he got the call around 6:20pm. Residents say firefighters were quick to respond.

"They got here before I even saw flames coming up, so they got here very fast!" says Moriah Hinds Jackson, a Ridgeland Ranch resident.

Chief Bailey says right now, it's not clear what caused the fire, but the construction of the building made it a difficult fire to fight.

"The building is relatively older than most of our other complexes," he says. "It doesn't have a sprinkler system to it, so once it gets into an open space, especially like if it's a common area like the roof structure itself, it's going to take off."

Sure enough, when the fire reached the attic, the flames spread fast.

"They had it under control a couple of times, and it breached into the ceiling," says Chief Bailey. "And once it did that, we're in the process of following it wherever it goes. We've got to go with the fire."

The Chief also says this is the second building in this complex to catch fire. The last one completely burned to the ground. He says it doesn't appear the buildings violate any codes, but without sprinklers in the buildings, the fire spreads very quickly.

Excerpt from:
Fire destroys Ridgeland apartment building

The transformation of the former First Baptist Church of Whitman into a 15-unit apartment building is set to begin in about two weeks.

We have been doing a lot of demolition work to get ready for construction, said Richard Rosen, owner of Rosen Realty in Whitman. He bought the 190-year-old town centerpiece for $200,000 about a year ago and won the approval of the towns zoning board to covert the building.

The congregation closed its doors in 2009 after membership in the church dwindled. Rosen was chosen to market the building for sale. The church corporation sold the deed to American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts. That group sold to Rosen after other potential buyers fell through.

The town considered buying the old church and turning it into a senior center but town officials decided the renovation would be too costly.

The assessed value of the 12,000-square-foot building is about $287,900.

Rosen said he has already received calls from prospective tenants who are attracted to it because of the buildings central location in Whitman.

See more here:
Conversion of former Whitman church about to begin

Years of inactivity at a Central West End corner that neighbors called a mosquito pit will soon come to an end with construction of an apartment building that will house a coveted tenant: a Whole Foods grocery.

Bruce Mills, whose Mills Properties is the project's developer, said he expects work to begin by early 2013. He said that erecting the seven-story building at 100 North Euclid Avenue will take 22 months.

Mills, the company's chief executive, said this week he has from Whole Foods Market a letter of intent to occupy the entire first floor, encompassing 30,000 square feet.

"We've been working on this for quite a while," he said. "I will get excited the day the shovels start moving dirt."

Kate Klotz, a Whole Foods spokeswoman, said Thursday the company does not discuss new locations until leases are signed.

The Whole Foods in the Central West End would be the grocery chain's third in the St. Louis area. The others are in Town and Country and Brentwood. Mills said the city store will be much like the one in Brentwood.

Whole Foods is a high-end grocery that features organic and natural foods, plus a wide range of prepared dishes.

From its health-food roots in the late 1970s in Austin, Texas, the chain has grown by expansion and acquisition to more than 300 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company, still based in Austin, says sales last year topped $10 billion.

Much like Trader Joe's, a decision by Whole Foods to open a grocery can signal that the chosen neighborhood has crossed a threshold of affluence and desirability.

"I've had calls from people thanking me for increasing their property values," said Mills, chuckling.

More here:
CWE to get new apartments and a Whole Foods grocery

Some money people showed up today at the formal groundbreaking of the $42 million Cortona apartment complex under construction at the Highlands development just south of Forest Park.

Financing for the project is coming from the AFL-CIO's Building Investment Trust, which is putting union pension funds into the development. On hand at today's ceremony were officials of developer Balke Brown Transwestern, the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council, the local PRIDE labor-management team and PNC Realty Investors, the adviser to the Building Investment Trust.

Over the past two decades, AFL-CIO-sponsored real estate funds are credited with investing more than $500 million in union pension funds into St. Louis projects, including the Laurel and Park Pacific developments downtown.

The Cortona at Forest Park will be a 280-unit apartment complex at the Highlands mixed-used development on the former site of the St. Louis Arena. In 1999, demolition charges flattened the "Old Barn, " as it was known to Blues fans.

Two office buildings, two loft-apartment buildings, a hotel, a restaurant and medical offices now sit on the old Arena site. A fourth office building is planned.

When completed in early 2014, the Cortona will have nearly 200 one-bedroom apartments and 80 two-bedroom units. A large courtyard will have a 7,000-square-foot clubhouse, a saltwater swimming pool, an outdoor kitchen and a spa, the company said.

Balke Brown hopes the Cortona will attract members of Generation Y, the tech-savvy younger professionals who can afford nice apartments.

Although the formal groundbreaking was today, site work on the development began several weeks ago.

View post:
AFL-CIO pension money funds St. Louis apartment project

CTVNews.ca Staff Published Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012 8:54AM EDT Last Updated Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012 10:17PM EDT

A drop in the number of condominium and apartment building construction projects in Toronto slowed the pace of Canadian house starts last month, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said on Tuesday.

In its monthly report, the CMHC pointed to a dip in urban multiples starts in Ontario, specifically Toronto, as a primary reason why fewer homes were built in September.

The CMHC says there were 19,750 starts across the country last month, setting a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 220,215 a 3 per cent dip from last month.

Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist at CMHC, said in a statement that Septembers housing construction numbers were largely in line with the latest figures, save for an anticipated dip in multiple-home buildings.

As expected, the number of multiples starts in Ontario, particularly in Toronto, reverted back to a level more in line with the average pace of activity over the last six months, Laberge said..

Following a period of elevated housing starts activity due to strong volumes of multi-family unit pre-sales in 2010 and 2011, the pace of housing starts is expected to moderate.

The CMHC uses a seasonally adjusted annual rate calculation to account for swings in monthly estimates. The number is calculated by taking a monthly figure and extrapolating it over a 12-month period, adjusting it for seasonal variations.

In September, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 220,215, down from 225,328 in August.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of construction starts in urban centres decreased by 3 per cent in September to 203,731 units. Construction starts in rural areas stayed relatively constant at 16,484 units.

Originally posted here:
Drop in Ontario housing starts spurs national dip

CTVNews.ca Staff Published Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012 8:54AM EDT Last Updated Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012 10:17PM EDT

A drop in the number of condominium and apartment building construction projects in Toronto slowed the pace of Canadian house starts last month, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said on Tuesday.

In its monthly report, the CMHC pointed to a dip in urban multiples starts in Ontario, specifically Toronto, as a primary reason why fewer homes were built in September.

The CMHC says there were 19,750 starts across the country last month, setting a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 220,215 a 3 per cent dip from last month.

Mathieu Laberge, deputy chief economist at CMHC, said in a statement that Septembers housing construction numbers were largely in line with the latest figures, save for an anticipated dip in multiple-home buildings.

As expected, the number of multiples starts in Ontario, particularly in Toronto, reverted back to a level more in line with the average pace of activity over the last six months, Laberge said..

Following a period of elevated housing starts activity due to strong volumes of multi-family unit pre-sales in 2010 and 2011, the pace of housing starts is expected to moderate.

The CMHC uses a seasonally adjusted annual rate calculation to account for swings in monthly estimates. The number is calculated by taking a monthly figure and extrapolating it over a 12-month period, adjusting it for seasonal variations.

In September, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 220,215, down from 225,328 in August.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of construction starts in urban centres decreased by 3 per cent in September to 203,731 units. Construction starts in rural areas stayed relatively constant at 16,484 units.

Read the original:
Drop in Ontario housing spurs national dip

WATERLOO, Iowa --- Strong winds fueled a two-building construction fire and threatened an occupied apartment building downwind before being contained Monday afternoon.

Waterloo firefighters were called to blaze at a partially constructed apartment building near Mount Olivet Cemetery on West Fourth Street shortly after 5 p.m.

When they arrived, crews were unable to stop flames from jumping to the other apartment building also under construction, according to part-owner of the buildings, DuWayne Wessels.

As the wind grew, there was no way they could contain it, Wessels said, watching firefighters continue to spray the blackened remains of both buildings.

Aided by the bare timber and wind, flames shot hundreds of feet in the air for more than half an hour. It also snaked along about 100 yards down a treeline, threatening an occupied apartment building and a garage further downwind.

No injuries were reported as of Monday night, and the cause hasnt been determined.

Pat Treloar, director of fire services for Waterloo, said crews will stay on the scene overnight to keep embers in check and protect the scene until morning when the investigation resumes.

Holly Markovic, who lives in an upstairs apartment at 3844 W. Fourth St., said her son came to her complaining that the apartment smelled like smoke.

Then I looked out the window and saw black smoke, she said.

She heard from a neighbor that someone had already called the fire department, so she went and knocked on her neighbors doors before evacuating the building.

Continued here:
UPDATE: 2 under-construction apartment buildings burn in Waterloo

But the developer's latest project is a lot closer in - at 81st Street and Mingo Road.

When finished next year, Cascata Apartments will have 286 units. Ground was broken for the $22 million project a few weeks ago.

Scott Case, vice president of Case & Associates Properties Inc., said the company has been building in the suburbs because land is relatively inexpensive and abundant. But an opportunity presented itself in southeast Tulsa.

"We paid a little more for the land, but we feel the rents and occupancy will justify it," Case said.

Case & Associates hasn't had trouble filling its most recent additions.

Properties such as Tuscany Hills, a 316-unit companion to Nickel Creek near Tulsa Hills, and the Park at Coffee Creek, a 228-unit facility in Owasso, quickly achieved occupancies around 93 percent, Case said.

That has encouraged the company to keep building.

"We've been fortunate to lease up everything we've built, so if we can continue to fill them up, we'll continue to build," Case said.

While single-family home sales and construction have improved significantly over the past year in metro Tulsa, Case said interest in apartment rental remains strong.

"Although interest rates are at historic lows, credit can be tight and hard to get approved," he said. "A lot of Generation X saw their homes get foreclosed, so I think some people are a little wary of jumping into a home."

See more here:
Cascata Apartments being built in southeast Tulsa

City officials approved plans for one downtown apartment building and heard two new development proposals for the downtown and campus areas Wednesday night.

The Urban Design Commission gave their final approval to The Alexander Company and architectural company Iconica for an 11-story multipurpose building at 306 W. Main St.

The development would consist of 164 condominium homes, 151 hotel rooms, as well as 92,500 square feet of commercial space.

Before construction can begin, both the Plan Commission and City Council must approve the proposal, according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4. The Plan Commission will consider the proposal Oct. 15.

The UDC also heard informational presentations for two proposed downtown apartment developments from property owner Scott Faust and Knothe & Bruce Architects, LLC.

The first proposed building would be a five-story multi-family apartment complex with available underground parking. The proposed structure would replace current buildings at 202 and 210 N. Bassett St. as well as 512 and 520 W. Dayton St.

The building would offer 61 parking spaces as well as underground and surface bicycle stalls.

Code requirements say one bicycle space is necessary per unit, said Knothe & Bruce Architects managing member Randy Bruce. But I think the neighborhood likes one per bedroom and we are close to approaching that.

The building would also offer 20 underground moped stalls.

The second proposed building would be a 12-story apartment building at 313 and 315 N. Frances St. with the first floor being commercial space.

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City officials approve building proposal, hear two new development proposals for downtown area