HOUSTON -

One year ago Wednesday, a dramatic rescue of a construction worker trapped during an apartment fire near downtown was caught on video.

Read the story and watch the video again:

A woman working in a nearby building grabbed her cellphone and recorded the dramatic rescue of a construction worker who was trapped when an apartment complex where he was doing work on went up in flames.

Karen Jones captured all of the dramatic moments.

At one point the construction worker was forced to jump to the balcony below to escape the flames. He was five stories up and was frantically waving at rescuers.

"I said, 'I'm going to die right here.' I said, 'God, you've got to save me. You've got to get me out of here,'" Curtis Reissig said.

Help was close, but Reissig began waving his arms because the flames were getting hotter and closer. He knew he had to act quickly.

With no where else to go, he dropped to the fourth-floor patio.

"The flames were getting so hot. I took one swing and said I'm going to drop to my feet or butt or my knees and my butt, just when I hit I'm not going to stumble backward," Reissig said.

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1 year later: Dramatic rescue of worker in massive fire caught on video

Listen Construction is booming but apartments hard to find 4min 30sec

From his office in downtown Minneapolis, Brent Wittenberg can see the region's apartment boom take shape just by looking out of his 13th floor window.

The Nic on Fifth, a 253-unit luxury apartment building a block away reportedly sold for more than $100 million last fall just after residents moved in an unheard of figure in Twin Cities residential real estate. Another luxury tower dubbed 4Marq is under construction on the same block.

Builders added 4,470 market-rate units in the Twin Cities in 2014 and Wittenberg expects another 3,500 to be move-in ready this year. Renters are signing leases as soon as the paint dries.

Still, all the construction has barely moved the needle on vacancy rates in the Twin Cities. They stood at 2.9 percent at year's end, up only slightly from a year prior. Over the same period, average monthly rent rose 4 percent and now tops $1,000.

As a result, anyone looking for an apartment in the Twin Cities likely will find fewer options and higher rents than they'd hoped. The metro area has one of the tightest rental housing markets in the nation.

When it comes to high-end apartments, Wittenberg can see a boom playing out in the data he keeps on his computer. Posh downtown apartments featuring dog runs, yoga studios, and concierge service may grab the most attention.

But rentals in all price ranges are in short supply across the Twin Cities, said Wittenberg, who tracks rental trends for the real estate consulting firm Marquette Advisors.

"I think that the demand fundamentals for apartments remain strong throughout the region," he said. "And we do not project a significant uptick in vacancy for the metro area as a whole."

Low vacancy rates and rising rents may be a landlord's dream, but they can be a nightmare for apartment seekers like Hilary Hannon, an attorney who has relocated twice in the last four years.

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Construction booming, but apartments hard to find

Listen Story audio 4min 30sec

From his office in downtown Minneapolis, Brent Wittenberg can see the region's apartment boom take shape just by looking out of his 13th floor window.

The Nic on Fifth, a 253-unit luxury apartment building a block away reportedly sold for more than $100 million last fall just after residents moved in an unheard of figure in Twin Cities residential real estate. Another luxury tower dubbed 4Marq is under construction on the same block.

Builders added 4,470 market-rate units in the Twin Cities in 2014 and Wittenberg expects another 3,500 to be move-in ready this year. Renters are signing leases as soon as the paint dries.

Still, all the construction has barely moved the needle on vacancy rates in the Twin Cities. They stood at 2.9 percent at year's end, up only slightly from a year prior. Over the same period, average monthly rent rose 4 percent and now tops $1,000.

As a result, anyone looking for an apartment in the Twin Cities likely will find fewer options and higher rents than they'd hoped. The metro area has one of the tightest rental housing markets in the nation.

When it comes to high-end apartments, Wittenberg can see a boom playing out in the data he keeps on his computer. Posh downtown apartments featuring dog runs, yoga studios, and concierge service may grab the most attention.

But rentals in all price ranges are in short supply across the Twin Cities, said Wittenberg, who tracks rental trends for the real estate consulting firm Marquette Advisors.

"I think that the demand fundamentals for apartments remain strong throughout the region," he said. "And we do not project a significant uptick in vacancy for the metro area as a whole."

Low vacancy rates and rising rents may be a landlord's dream, but they can be a nightmare for apartment seekers like Hilary Hannon, an attorney who has relocated twice in the last four years.

Read the rest here:
Construction is booming but apartments hard to find

Father Bach II planneddowntown

Catholic Charities Spokane plans to build a second apartment building that matches the design of its 2012-constructed Father Bach Haven Home located downtown. Father Bach II will be built on a vacant lot at 201 W. SecondAve.

The 35,300-square-foot transitional housing project is in the plan review stage with the city of Spokane. Its designed to have four stories and 51 units in a mix of studio and one-bedroom floor plans. Inland Group of Spokane Valley is thecontractor.

In January 2013, Catholic Charities opened Father Bach Haven at 108 S. State

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Catholic Charities Spokane plans to build a second apartment building that matches the design of its 2012-constructed Father Bach Haven Home located downtown. Father Bach II will be built on a vacant lot at 201 W. SecondAve.

The 35,300-square-foot transitional housing project is in the plan review stage with the city of Spokane. Its designed to have four stories and 51 units in a mix of studio and one-bedroom floor plans. Inland Group of Spokane Valley is thecontractor.

In January 2013, Catholic Charities opened Father Bach Haven at 108 S. State St. to provide housing aimed at getting chronically homeless individuals off the street and into a place oftheirown.

Etailz Inc., a Spokane-based e-commerce retailer, has leased about 7,200 square feet at the Spokane Business & Industrial Park in Spokane Valley. The new space is primarily for use as a warehouse processingfacility.

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The Dirt: Catholic Charities plans second Father Bach apartment building - Mon, 23 Mar 2015 PST

Photo by: John Dixon/The News-Gazette

The former C.R. Marble building at the corner of Washington and Neil streets in Champaign

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And now, an update on a few student apartment projects coming to the Campustown area ...

First off, Chris Saunders and Scott Cochrane have revised plans for their redevelopment of the Marquette School site.

Initially they had envisioned a planned unit development at 203 S. Fifth St., C, with 260 beds. They've since trimmed back the plans to a five-story apartment building, called The Marquette, with 144 beds.

"We decided to keep current zoning standards and scale back the project," Saunders said.

"There's a lot of new construction in the market, and so we've scaled this project down about half," he said.

The Marquette will offer a mix of one-, two, three- and four-bedroom units, with the heaviest concentration on one- and two-bedroom apartments, he said.

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It's Your Business: Developers firm up plans for apartment projects

Los Angeles building officials on Thursday ordered a real estate developer to remove tenants from a 22-story apartment building in Hollywood, the latest piece of bad news to befall the recently opened project amid a long-running court battle.

The Department of Building and Safety informed CIM Group that the temporary occupancy permit for its partially leased Sunset and Gordon development has expired. Because of a recent court decision, that permit cannot be renewed until the project goes through a new environmental review and approval process, the order said.

Under the city order, tenants must leave by April 19. However, that deadline would be postponed if CIM Group files an appeal, Building and Safety spokesman Luke Zamperini said.

The city's action comes five months after a judge invalidated construction permits for the 299-unit project, saying that city officials improperly allowed the developer to demolish a 1924 building on the site. Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant said in his ruling that CIM Group had proceeded with construction during a legal challenge at "its own peril."

At the time of Chalfant's decision, city officials estimated that the building had 40 tenants. Zamperini said he does not know how many are there today.

The case is one of several lawsuits challenging Mayor Eric Garcetti's vision of larger, denser developments in Hollywood. A spokesman for Garcetti, who was the councilman for the area when Sunset and Gordon was approved, had no comment.

Zamperini said he knows of no other large Los Angeles residential project targeted with such a tenant-removal order. "In 24 years at the city, I personally have not seen this before," he said.

Representatives of CIM Group weren't available for comment. Any appeal of the city's order would be handled by the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners, a five-member panel made of up Garcetti appointees. The appeal process typically takes about 90 days, Zamperini said.

A lawyer for La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Assn., which filed the legal challenge to Sunset and Gordon in 2012, questioned whether CIM Group has the legal right to file an appeal of the city's order. "This is more game playing by the city," attorney Robert P. Silverstein said.

When Sunset and Gordon was approved, city officials called for the facade of the vacant Spaghetti Factory restaurant building to be preserved and incorporated into the residential tower. CIM Group said in 2012 that the facade was too deteriorated to be saved, opting to raze the structure and build a replica instead.

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L.A. orders tenants to vacate troubled Hollywood building

LOWER HEIDELBERG TWP., Pa. -

While investigators search for clues in the Legacy at Papermill arson, construction crews are working to rebuild.

The apartment building, an over-55 community in the area of Calming Drive and Legacy Boulevard in Lower Heidelberg Township, Berks County, burned to the ground Feb. 25, 2014.

"This whole building was engulfed. It was 3-4 stories high. It was the most incredible sight. The heat, the sound of the crackling wood," said Marlies Leid, a neighbor.

It is an image that many neighbors cannot erase from their minds.

For Cynthia and Ray Bickley, who live across the street, the trauma the fire caused was even more substantial.

"The glass started cracking as I was calling 911, so it was really scary," said Cynthia Bickley.

The heat of the fire was so intense that it actually spread across the street and started melting the siding off the Bickleys' home.

"We had all the siding replaced. We had all the windows replaced. The back porch was all warped, PVC plastic, had that whole thing replaced," said Bickley.

Now a year later, the developer said the new apartment building is about 50 percent complete, and three quarters of the units have already been leased, but with police not being any closer to catching the arsonist, neighbors said they are sleeping with one eye open, afraid it could happen again.

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One year after arson, apartment building being rebuilt in Lower Heidelberg Twp.

By AJ Moser | Published 20 hours ago

The first-ever Biggby Coffee store, which is located in East Lansing, will not be torn down for an apartment complex project, as originally planned by DTN Management.

CEO Bob Fish founded the company in 1995 as Beaners Coffee. The original store was opened at the Grand River Avenue location March 15, 1995. The franchise now has more than 200 locations in the U.S.

The Gateway construction project, first proposed in 2013, required demolishing the coffee shop to make space for a six-story apartment building. The plan has since changed to a four-story building as the proposed project would have cut off public views to Valley Court Park.

Cost estimates for the Gateway project are down significantly after the design changes from $22 million to $9 million. In addition, the number of apartment units has been cut from the proposed 160.

Gateway will now focus on a vacant lot across from Delta Street. The complex will feature underground parking, a bank with a drive-thru, available space for retail stores on the first floor and a total of 39 two-bedroom apartments on upper floors.

The original plan had also included a rebuilt Biggby coffee on the first floor, which will no longer be necessary.

The Biggby location at 270 W. Grand River Ave. provides a valuable resource to MSU students as it is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This is a great location, close to campus, said political science junior Keith Davis. And I can easily access somewhere to study.

Students also appreciate the quiet late-night atmosphere, as opposed to the sometimes raucous Main Library.

Read more here:
Revised Gateway project proposal would prevent demolition of first-ever Biggby Coffee

Collins House will feature floor-to-ceiling windows. Photo: Supplied

Melbourne is about to sprout one of the world's skinniest residential towers at the historic Makers Mark site at 466 Collins Street.

Golden Age Group announced on Wednesday a $200-million plan to build a 195-metre tower only 12 metres wide.

The 57-level building project designed by architects Bates Smart will accommodate 263 apartments and include plans to restore the facade of the historic Makers Mark building at its base.

Developers hope Collins House will appeal to local buyers. Photo: Supplied

Slender skyscrapers might be uncommon in Australian city skylines, but they are not entirely new. In the world's skyscraper capital of New York, the scarcity of land for new developments has inspired a trend towards pencil-thin buildings.

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A 396-metre apartment building only 18.2 metres wide is planned for 111 West 57thStreet in Manhattan.

Perhaps the most famous slender building is the triangular Flatiron building in New York built in 1902 that is only two metres wide at the vertex.

Collins House will be an unusually slim tower. Photo: Supplied

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Super-skinny apartment tower Collins House to soar in Melbourne's CBD

Pittsburgh is demolishing the historic John A. Brashear factory in the North Side because a wall collapsed Monday night onto an occupied apartment building next door, a city official said Tuesday.

Brashear, a world-renown scientist and philanthropist, worked in the factory to make mirrors and lenses for telescopes until his death in 1920.

The National Registry of Historic Places lists Brashear's house and factory on Perrsyville Avenue. The factory has been vacant for nearly 20 years, and was in poor condition, neighbors said.

It's tragic, said Janet Gunter, a longtime Perry Hilltop resident. No one stepped up to preserve the building. Everybody knew it was in bad shape. Now it's gone and you can't replace history.

Maura Kennedy, who heads the city's Department of Permits Licenses and Inspections, said she issued an emergency demolition order because a wall collapsed about 10:30 p.m. Monday.

Jaydell Minniefield Construction Services Inc. of Hazelwood began razing it Tuesday morning. The city is paying the company $235,000, Kennedy said.

It's unfortunate, but the structure has gotten to a point where it is imminently dangerous, so we needed to take it down immediately, Kennedy said.

The American Red Cross is providing shelter to residents of the apartment building, which was evacuated. Residents won't be permitted to return until city inspectors certify the building is safe, she said.

Brashear was a founder and director of the Allegheny Observatory in Riverview Park and created lenses for telescopes worldwide. He was known in Pittsburgh as Uncle John for the philanthropic work he did and once was named as Pennsylvania's most eminent citizen.

His home still stands on Perrysville Avenue near the factory. He died in 1920 at age 79. His ashes are interred with his wife's in Allegheny Observatory.

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Wall collapse forces Pittsburgh to raze historic Brashear lens factory