It was 2016, and Abraham Rodriguez received a text message that made him light up. It was from his friend Nik Pappaconstantine, who had just picked up a new toy: a sleek, speedy dirt bike perfect for back road riding in Lewiston, the small city in Maine where they lived.

Mr. Rodriguez had just turned 50, and had arrived in Lewiston a year or so before with nothing. He met Mr. Pappaconstantine, who worked at a local bank, when he came in to set up his first-ever bank account, and the two men grew close. They bonded over a shared love of cars and adventure sports, and when Mr. Rodriguez saw the text he bolted over to try out the new bike.

They carted the motorcycle to the woods, and Mr. Rodriguez hopped on. He revved the engine, popped a wheelie and rode it for a quarter mile. Then he turned, popped another, and rode it back, slipping through the empty, wooded field like a professional street rider.

Mr. Pappaconstantine was stunned. But Mr. Rodriguez laughed it off: I used to ride bikes back in the day, his friend recalled him saying.

At the time, Mr. Pappaconstantine brushed off the remark. It would be years before he learned that Abraham Rodriguez was not the mans name; his friend with the trick skills was actually Alberto (Alpo) Martinez, one of New York Citys most notorious cocaine dealers of the 1980s.

Five years after he tore through that Maine field on a dirt bike, Mr. Martinezs wild ride ended on Halloween in Harlem, when he was shot and killed through the window of a lifted pickup that he drove into the city from Maine.

The end was as dramatic as the rest of Mr. Martinezs life. As a young man in Harlem, Mr. Martinez rocketed to infamy as one of the flashiest, most successful cocaine dealers during the height of the drugs popularity. His fall, though, was swift: He murdered one of his best friends, expanded his business to Washington, D.C., and by 1991 was arrested and charged in a sweeping drug trafficking case. He would later inform on scores of associates as a federal witness.

Now, as the police investigate his murder, they say they are running into an unusual problem: An awful lot of people wanted to see Alpo Martinez dead.

No shortage of suspects, said one senior law enforcement official at the time of the killing. Part of the difficulty may be too many suspects with too many motives.

In the aftermath of Mr. Martinezs death, friends and neighbors who knew him in Lewiston have clammed up, unsure how to feel about the man they knew as a kind, affable friend.

The Great Read

Here are more fascinating talesyou cant help but read all the way to the end.

He was the nicest neighbor, said Marissa Ritchey, who was smoking a cigarette in an icy parking lot Saturday, and throwing a ball for her dog. He was always polite, nice with the dog.

You never would have thought anything, she said. He was one of the decent ones. Hed help the old people take their trash out.

In Lewiston, Mr. Martinezs killing was a bizarre, dark blip in a former mill town of about 36,000 people nestled between Portland and Augusta on the Androscoggin River.

There certainly was some buzz around town, the Lewiston mayor, Carl Sheline, said of Mr. Martinezs death. A convicted murderer from New York City, he said, was not your average neighbor in town.

Who would have thought that? said a neighbor, Harold Hanlon, who had a friendly relationship with the man he knew as Abraham. I was just as shocked as the next person when my neighbor goes, Hey, Abraham got killed. What?

Even in death, a coherent picture of Mr. Martinezs double life which was once the subject of a Hollywood movie proves elusive. He was both a loyal confidant and one of the most infamous turncoats in New York lore. He was a kind friend and an admitted, ruthless killer; a selfless neighbor and a man so loathed in Harlem that former friends popped champagne in the streets to celebrate his violent end.

He died almost like a comic book villain, said Kevin Chiles, a reformed cocaine dealer and former friend of Mr. Martinezs from Harlem. He antagonized fate.

The path that led Mr. Martinez from New York to Lewiston and then back to his death in the neighborhood where he made his name began more than 30 years ago. Nicknamed The Mayor of Harlem, Mr. Martinez rose to fame as a kingpin of the crack cocaine era, known for luxury cars and loud street bikes ripping wheelies down entire city blocks.

He was an attention seeker and an adrenaline junkie, Mr. Chiles said. You have to figure, we were all young adults, teenagers, and we had more money than we knew what to do with.

But even in an illicit business, Mr. Martinezs ruthlessness stood out. In 1990, he orchestrated the killing of a close friend and fellow dealer, Rich Porter.

The killing was the beginning of the end of Mr. Martinezs reign. He was arrested less than a year later after attempting to expand his cocaine empire to Washington, D.C. Facing drug-trafficking charges, Mr. Martinez one of Harlems hardest players agreed to become a federal witness, and pleaded guilty to contracting seven murders. His testimony would decimate the Washington, D.C., metro areas cocaine infrastructure.

Hes killed people for less than what he ultimately turned out to be and do, Mr. Chiles said.

The betrayal would later be set to film in the movie Paid in Full, which followed fictionalized versions of Mr. Martinez, Mr. Porter and another kingpin through Mr. Porters killing.

Mr. Martinezs real-life arrangement earned him a mitigated sentence, and a place in the federal witness protection program. The program, which officials routinely note has a 100 percent success rate of keeping witnesses safe when they adhere to its rules, requires participants to completely leave behind their old life, identity and contacts.

Released on parole in 2015 with a new name Abraham Rodriguez Mr. Martinez started over in Lewiston, the kind of place where people mind their own business and dont tend to pry, said Shawn Gummo, an owner of a local construction company.

Shielded by the program, Mr. Martinez flourished. He got his commercial drivers license and started working for Walmart, and played basketball with teenagers in the area. With the help of Mr. Pappaconstantine, he set up in an apartment, and was a well-liked neighbor.

By 2017, Mr. Martinez had started his own construction business, founding his own L.L.C. and working in construction cleanup. He often worked south of Lewiston, said Mr. Gummo, who said some members of his crews knew Mr. Martinez while he was living under his assumed identity.

Mr. Hanlon, who lived next door to the six-unit apartment building on College Street where Mr. Martinez stayed, said he never suspected anything.

Both of us owned Dodge trucks, so wed give each other rides to the dealership for repairs, and stuff like that, Mr. Hanlon said. It was a cordial relationship. He just came in and out, he didnt hang around here too much. He was a nice enough fellow.

Still, Mr. Martinezs old life and legacy beckoned. Almost as soon as he got out of prison, Mr. Martinez reached out to Mr. Chiles through a mutual friend. He said he wanted to explain himself, and what had happened in 1991. Soon, he was regularly returning to Harlem.

There were these sightings, almost like Bigfoot, Mr. Chiles said. People would say that theyd seen him.

Mr. Martinezs trips to Harlem would have almost certainly been a violation of his witness protection arrangement. (The U.S. Marshals, who operate the witness protection program, did not comment for this story.) Those who knew him in his post-incarcerated life said he seemed to have been kicked out of the program around the same time that he started returning to the city.

He apparently had somehow messed up the conditions of witness protection back in 2018, Mr. Pappaconstantine said. He would ride down to New York with somebody else. He was always worried about the government watching.

Around the same time, Mr. Martinez also appeared to capitalize off his notoriety in a YouTube clip from 2019, Mr. Martinez takes the film director Troy Reed to the corner where he says he killed Mr. Porter.

It happened right here. At this light, Mr. Martinez says in the video clip, leaning his head against the car window. I grabbed the gun from my little man and put one in his head.

By 2020, Abraham Rodriguez had largely disappeared from Maine. Alpo Martinez was once again a fixture in Harlem.

What ultimately got Mr. Martinez killed in the early hours of Halloween remains a mystery. Some say the killing was a belated meting of long-sought street justice for testifying against so many former associates. Others posit that Mr. Martinez was killed over a girl, or simply found trouble the same way he always had: He was cocky and ambitious, and angered the wrong people.

A senior law enforcement official said investigators now believe Mr. Martinez likely was back in the drug trade in Harlem. When the police discovered him dead in his truck last year, a trail of heroin packets led from his open window down the street, the official said as if he had tossed the drugs out of the car in a panic.

For those like Mr. Pappaconstantine, who only learned the true identity of Mr. Martinez just before his death, his demise feels complicated.

I want to sit here and say I know that he was fully genuine all the time, Mr. Pappaconstantine said, struggling to articulate his feelings on his former friend. You take somebody you know unbelievably well, and then you read this thing and it doesnt connect.

But to Mr. Chiles, Mr. Martinez was never going to start over it was always going to end in Harlem.

He wanted to peg his hat on redemption, said Mr. Chiles, adding that Mr. Martinezs thirst for his former glory may also have played a role. Hes a narcissist beyond anything that I could put my finger on. He needed that attention.

In a scene that now feels foreboding, Mr. Martinezs character in Paid in Full spends the final scene agreeing to cooperate with federal agents.

Im not snitching on nobody in Harlem, Mr. Martinezs character says. Cause when I come home, Im still gon be the king.

Murray Carpenter contributed reporting from Lewiston, Maine. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.

Read the rest here:
He Was in Witness Protection in Maine. But His Harlem Life Kept Calling. - The New York Times

New York is a city thats seemingly always under construction. But for all that building, some richer neighborhoods havent added a single new home overall in the past decade and have even lost units.

Thats because so many people combined apartments or homes into one dwelling, the total for new housing dipped below zero, according to a new analysis by the Department of City Planning.

The Upper East Sides stagnation was particularly stark, the study shows. The area saw more than 2,000 residential units built since 2010. But because so many alterations took place there over the same period, much of the neighborhood lost housing.

Overall, the area added fewer new residential units over the past decade than 57 of the citys 59 community districts, the report said.

The news came to no surprise to Barry Schneider, an Upper East Sider for 54 years who lives in a condominium building on First Avenue that he estimates has lost about 20 units to combination renovations since hes lived there.

Its fairly common, he said. The apartment directly below us combined two floors. The apartment directly to the south of us, next door, they have a combined apartment.

The department analyzed the figures using its new database of all housing construction and demolition jobs approved by the Department of Buildings in the five boroughs since Jan. 1, 2010.

The vast majority of city neighborhoods added housing. In Hudson Yards, Long Island City, the Greenpoint waterfront and Downtown Brooklyn, the net gain for housing proved high up to 65 new units per acre.

But in other parts of town, demolitions and alterations wiped out new construction gains including in the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side adjacent to Central Park, most of SoHo and the West Village. Those areas lost between half a unit and six units per acre over the 10-year period analyzed.

The report analyzed data through June of 2020, accounting for the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic when some New Yorkers fled the richest parts of the city including both the highest and lowest housing-producing neighborhoods.

Howard Slatkin, deputy executive director for strategic planning at the Department of City Planning, believes this type of analysis is important to help New Yorkers to grasp the forces affecting the housing supply.

People see housing demand when it spreads vertically when buildings pop up, when you see new construction but what they dont see is that the demand for housing also spreads horizontally, he said. In the absence of those new additions, as affluent people take more space and larger residences for themselves, what you get is a reduction in total housing units.

The report includes alterations of all kinds, from relatively simple two-apartment combinations to mega-mansion projects like Russian billionaire Roman Abromavichs four-townhouse complex on East 75th Street.

It also includes those places where alterations actually added units, such as in Queens Ozone Park, where creating multiple apartments within a single-family home is common.

The report comes as conversations about how to contend with New Yorks housing affordability crisis seeps into the citys upcoming elections, with a fight over rezoning SoHo to allow for more residential housing taking center stage. Many mayoral candidates are aiming to make affordable housing a priority in their administrations.

More broadly, a cohort of City Council candidates have made bringing more affordable housing to the citys richest neighborhoods part of their campaigns.

On the Upper West Side, Sara Lind is among them. Her housing plan calls for changing land use rules to allow more dense residential construction and create subsidized apartments for low-income families.

Were losing units. We need more housing, and more of it needs to be affordable, she said. Instead, people are doing these conversions to create what works for their family.

Sign up and get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning

More:
NYCs Wealthy Enclaves Lost Housing in Past Decade as Combining of Apartments Outpaced New Construction - THE CITY

The Leo at LaGrotte Square would incorporate the former Indianapolis Public Schools School No. 7 building (at right) at 748 E. Bates St. (Rendering courtesy of Holladay Properties)

Holladay Properties plans to develop a 138-unit apartment project adjacent to its downtown Indianapolis offices in the Fletcher Place neighborhood.

The South Bend-based firm is expected to start construction this summer on The Leo at LaGrotte Square in the 200 block of South College Avenue, which will include new construction and the rehabilitation of the former Indianapolis Public Schools School 7 building at 748 E. Bates St.

The project, with an estimated development cost of $27 million, would include a six-story, 124-unit building on a lot north of Holladays local headquarters at the former Milano Inn restaurant.

The project would feature four stories of apartment units over a two-story parking podium with 134 parking spaces and a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom units. Another 14 apartments with exposed brick and high ceilings would be incorporated into the former school building, which is currently being used as office space.

The Leo is expected to include a variety of amenities, such as courtyards, a fitness center, a dog park, a game room and clubhouse, a business center and a dog washing and grooming area. It is also expected to include bicycle storage and a bocce court.

The buildings would be connected by a one-story building housing some of the amenity spaces. The business center and a library will be in the school building, with the fitness center incorporated into the new construction.

Holladay acquired the properties containing the Milano Inn and the former school building in 2017 and 2018 from the LaGrotte family, which ran the Italian restaurant for several decades.

Dan Phair, a partner and vice president of development for Holladay, said the firm considers the project a perfect fit for the southeast side of downtown.

He pointed to the projects location within a few blocks of corporate campuses for Eli Lilly and Co., Indiana Farm Bureau, Anthem Inc. and Rolls-Roycealong with a variety of amenities like Bankers Life Fieldhouse and the Indianapolis Cultural Trailas likely being key drivers for the the project when it comes time to lease units.

Those, Phair said, along with the amazing views of the skyline, are just some of the benefits of the location of The Leo.

The project is expected to go before the citys Regional Center Hearing Examiner for design approvals on Feb. 25, after the group received a continuance from the previously scheduled Feb. 11 meeting.

Axis Architecture is the designer on the project.

The project is south of the $28 million Vue apartment project by Herman & Kittle Properties Inc., a 240-unit complex completed in early 2018, and the 31-unit Switchyard townhouse project from Onyx & East.

Read the original:
Holladay planning $27M apartment project in Fletcher Place by former Milano Inn - Indianapolis Business Journal

February 8, 2021 Prices for residential building construction increased at a faster pace in Q4 2020 (+2.9%) than in Q3 (+2.5%). In the fact, gain in the fourth quarter was the largest on record, reports Statscan.

Conversely, the growth in prices for non-residential building construction slowed in Q4 (+0.4%) compared with Q3 (+0.5%).

Construction prices for residential buildings were up in Q4 in all of the census metropolitan areas (CMAs) covered by Statscans survey. Non-residential construction prices increased at a slower pace in every CMA except Moncton, where they were flat.

Year over year, residential building construction costs (+6.6%) rose at 4X the pace of non-residential construction (+1.5%) in the fourth quarter, mainly because of the high demand for housing and a shortage of lumber across the country.

Lumber shortages still impacting residential construction prices

A combination of tight supply and high demand for lumber continued from the third quarter into the fourth, driving up the cost of residential building construction.

Typically, the seasonal nature of the construction sector results in less activity in the winter months and provides sawmills with the opportunity to restock their log yards in preparation for the coming year. However, shutdowns of sawmills last spring because of Covidas well as unseasonably mild weather in British Columbiamade it more difficult to harvest logs.

The resulting tight supply drove up prices for lumber and other wood (+44.0%) and softwood lumber (+78.8%) in December 2020 compared with December 2019.

The demand for residential construction in the United States and Canada also remained high, with the total value of building permits increasing 9.5% in Q4 2020.

Costs increase for all residential building types

Nationally, construction costs rose for all residential building types covered by Stascans survey in the fourth quarter.

The largest quarterly price increases were for townhouses (+4.1%) and single-detached houses (+3.8%). Due in part to the smaller usage of lumber in high-rise apartment construction compared with all other residential building types, the cost for this building type rose at the slowest pace, edging up 0.6% in the fourth quarter.

While construction costs for residential buildings were up in every CMA covered by the survey, St. Johns (+5.5%) and Ottawa (+4.7%) recorded the largest gains.

Non-residential construction price growth is minor

The growth of the cost of non-residential building construction slowed in the fourth quarter, with price increases ranging from 0.3% for shopping centres and bus depots with maintenance and repair facilities, to 0.5% for warehouses and factories.

The largest increases in construction costs for non-residential buildings were in Halifax (+1.1%) and Ottawa (+0.9%), as well as in Montreal and St. Johns (both up 0.6%).

The slower price growth in non-residential buildings was partially attributable to lower construction costs in this building type, which requires less lumber, as well as to business uncertainty and a reintroduction of tighter physical distancing measures in certain regions of the country during the recent resurgence of Covid cases.

The year 2020 in review

Nationally, residential building construction rose at a faster pace in 2020 (+3.8% versus 2.9%) compared with a year earlier, while non-residential construction costs rose at a much slower pace (+1.6% versus 3.5%).

Residential construction costs increased the most in Ottawa (+5.8%), Moncton (+4.5%) and St. Johns (+4.3%) in 2020.

Non-residential construction costs increased the most in Montreal (+3.4%), Ottawa (+3.0%) and Toronto (+2.6%), while Saskatoon was the lone CMA covered by the survey to show no price movement in 2020.

Construction costs for residential buildings rose the most for townhouses (+4.4%) and single-detached houses (+4.1%) from 2019 to 2020, while construction costs for high-rise apartment buildings (+2.3%) increased the least.

Slowdowns in shipments of construction materials, along with physical distancing measures, curtailed or temporarily halted building construction activity in the first quarter of 2020.

Although construction resumed in the second quarter in all CMAs covered by the survey, productivity on worksites declined as employees abided by increased health & safety protocols.

Supply chains continued to be disrupted throughout 2020, and lumber shortages drove construction prices higher in the wake of increased demand for new housing and renovation projects.

Outlook for 2021

Shifts in homebuyers preferences to accommodate working from homecombined with historically low interest rates and increased optimism for the reopening of the economy as the vaccine rollout beginsare factors that should continue to drive demand for housing and put upward pressure on residential building construction prices.

Lumber prices are predicted to continue rising for most of 2021, which will increase the construction costs of new homes. Homebuilders could struggle to take advantage of the demand for new housing as they scramble to obtain the lumber they need amid tight supplies.

See the original post here:
Building construction price indexes, Q4 2020 - Lumber still an issue - Electrical Business - Electrical Business

BOAT WORKS RESIDENCES

Marathon, Florida

What: 52 units of affordable housing featuring a majority of two-bedroom, two-bath apartments, but also one-bedroom and one-bath apartments and three-bedroom, two-bath apartments. Market rate homes will be developed on the oceanfront (gulf) in a separate phase. Building is three stories over parking.

Where: Corner of Louisa and 39th streets.

What used to be there: boat yard.

When: Scheduled to be complete by late summer.

How much? Rent is calculated based on household income and number of bedrooms based on rules by Florida Housing Finance Corp., a state-run entity. The units at Boat Works are intended to serve locals who earn 80% of the median income of $81,400. A two-person household earning $64,480 would qualify for a two-bedroom apartment that rents for $1,814.

How can I apply for residence? Registration is handled by the AGPM Management team and company officials say there is already a waiting list of 300. For more information, visit the office at 624 73rd Street, call 305-916-5416 or email [emailprotected].

Read the original here:
WHATS THIS? ANOTHER 50+ AFFORDABLE APARTMENTS UNDER CONSTRUCTION - Florida Keys Weekly

ANN ARBOR, MI A major housing development on a 64-acre site could bring 538 new homes to Ann Arbors north side, along with nature trails and new connections to Leslie Park.

The new community, dubbed the Village of Ann Arbor, would rise between the Arrowwood Hills housing cooperative to the south and the Northside Ridge condos to the north and west.

An initial conceptual plan calls for a variety of rental and for-sale homes, including 78 townhomes with two-car garages, 67 townhomes with one-car garages, 48 units of townhomes over flats, 45 single-family homes and 300 apartments.

Bloomfield Hills-based Robertson Brothers Homes is teaming up with Lansing-based DTN Management Co. on the development off Pontiac Trail and Dhu Varren Road.

They presented initial plans to neighbors during a virtual Zoom meeting Monday night, Feb. 8.

Our vision for the property really is more of a village type of concept, said Tim Loughrin, Robertsons land acquisition director. What were envisioning is a wide mix of housing options for all ages and stages of life.

As for pricing, townhomes could start in the $200,000s while the single-family homes may start in the $300,000s, with upscale apartments priced at about $2,000 per month on average, according to the development team.

A closer look at the mix of housing types included in the Village of Ann Arbor conceptual plan.Land Design Studio courtesy of Robertson Brothers Homes

Housing units could range from 684 to 3,000 square feet overall, including everything from one- to five-bedroom units, Loughrin said, assuring residents they would be very high quality. A lot of the homes would be family-oriented, he said.

The apartments would have lots of amenities and would be designed to look like houses, the development team said.

The conceptual plan shows a small dog park, an outdoor barbecue area and grassy outdoor seating area within the apartment community, plus an outdoor pool next to a community clubhouse, which could include amenities such as a fitness center/yoga studio and work stations.

The project, while within the citys ultimate borders, involves annexing a township island from Ann Arbor Township into the city and zoning it for residential development.

That process could take several months, Loughrin said, predicting the development could start in 2022 or 2023 with approvals from the city and state.

24 Ann Arbor developments to watch in 2021

The development team plans to seek brownfield tax incentives for an environmental cleanup of the site.

Part of the site used to be an old city landfill up until about the 1950s, and another part was a sand and gravel operation that was heavily mined in the 1920s and 30s and later filled with mainly construction-type debris, Loughrin said.

Theyre planning to leave the landfill area, which is filled with household waste and now nicely treed over, as a nearly 10-acre community woodland park with trails connecting to the adjacent Leslie Park, Loughrin said.

The former gravel pit area is where there would be some cleanup before homes are built on top.

There are environmental concerns that were working through with our environmental consultants, Loughrin said.

The site is across from two new developments taking shape on Pontiac Trail: the North Sky project by Pulte Homes, which includes 139 single-family homes and a four-story, 56-unit condo or apartment building, and a 682-bed apartment complex called The One targeting University of Michigan students.

The Village of Ann Arbor plan shows access drives from both Pontiac Trail and Dhu Varren, giving the public new ways to access Leslie Park by cutting through the development.

There also could be a connection for pedestrians and cyclists to the condo neighborhood to the north via Hunley Drive.

There will be multiple open space areas and plenty of new neighborhood connections that will connect Olson Park all the way through Leslie Park through the development, and this would include biking and walking trails, Loughrin said.

The primary concern of neighbors who spoke Monday night was the potential for more vehicle traffic, as well as more people walking and cycling on their streets, including people walking dogs to and from Olson Park, and the need to ensure safety.

Some suggested doing more to coordinate plans with the other neighboring developments, including configurations of driveways, crosswalks and bus stops.

James Adams, who lives in the Dhu Varren on the Park neighborhood on Leslie Park Circle, raised the issue of traffic to and from Leslie Park via his private street off Dhu Varren.

Development team representatives said they think the new Village of Ann Arbor development will actually help with that by giving people more ways to come and go from the park, and many coming up Pontiac Trail will be able to take a straight shot over to Leslie Park through the new development.

There are several more layers of review to go and traffic studies will be done, the development team noted.

With hundreds upon hundreds of new housing units being built in the area, several neighbors said theyre hoping to eventually see some new retail built so they can have a neighborhood store. Thats something they agreed is missing.

As for the level of housing density proposed, Loughrin said its in line with the citys master plan for the area, which calls for 10 units per acre. The Village of Ann Arbor would have 8.4.

Robertson has constructed over 7,000 homes in southeast Michigan over the last 75 years, with about 100 different developments, and 97% of homebuyers are willing to refer their friends and family to Robertson, Loughrin said.

The company has 15 more residential developments underway and about 1,200 more homes in its land acquisition pipeline, Loughrin said.

The company focuses on infill developments that create vibrant communities, rather than building out in corn fields, he said.

DTN, founded in 1972, manages about 120 properties and has acquired or developed over 8,000 residential units, plus about 1 million square feet of commercial space, Loughrin said. DTN would manage the apartment community.

Julie Roth, leader of Ann Arbors Solarize Program, asked the development team about possible sustainability features to help meet the citys carbon-neutrality goals and whether there could be solar panels and a district geothermal loop tapping into the earths energy to heat and cool the entire development.

The development team has been in talks with the citys sustainability office and the project will strive for several green-energy initiatives, Loughrin said, mentioning the possibility of having all-electric buildings, for example.

As far as geothermal, the team would have to work with environmental consultants and engineers to see if thats possible, he said.

Parking spaces for all units would be wired for electric vehicle chargers, the development team said.

Following Mondays meeting, next steps in the process include the developer finalizing and submitting a site plan to the city that will be reviewed by city staff and then eventually go through Planning Commission and City Council for approval.

MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS:

Big zoning changes on the horizon could allow more housing in Ann Arbor

Developer aims to save Ann Arbor oak forest from becoming a subdivision

Ann Arbor spending $1.5M to add 3.8-acre wooded area to city park network

Expecting senior population boom, Ann Arbor officials OK new housing for older adults

Hybrid learning information sessions for elementary students being hosted by Ann Arbor Public Schools

See the original post:
538 new houses, condos and apartments proposed on Ann Arbors north side - MLive.com

A new seven-story building is planned for Reily Street in Harrisburg on a 1.01 acre site near the future Federal Courthouse.

KevGar Holdco, which is owned by Kevin Baird and Gary Nalbandian, and 400 Reily Street Management, plans to develop the building that will include commercial space for a 23,000-square-foot grocery store, an 8,000-square-foot restaurant and coffee shop, a 1,500-square-foot office; 85 apartments; and an approximately 500-space parking garage.

The grocery store would have an outdoor seating area and bike racks will be installed as part of the project.

The building would replace four buildings on Reily Street, that are all more than 100 years old, according to Dauphin County property tax records. Those buildings would all be demolished. The buildings include a 1,784-square-foot structure at 422 Reily St.; a 1,476-square-foot structure at 430 Reily Street, a 1,920-square-foot structure at 432 Reily St. and another 1,248-square-foot structure.

The project was brought before the Harrisburg Planning Commission on Wednesday night via Zoom to request various zoning relief from use and development regulations required for the construction of the development, which unanimously recommended by the commission.

The Federal Courthouse is currently under construction.

The Harrisburg Housing Authority also plans to build a new five-story, 50-unit affordable housing apartment building nearby in front of Lick Tower on Sixth Street.

--Business Buzz

You can follow Daniel Urie on twitter @DanielUrie2018 and you can like him on Facebook.

See the original post here:
7-story building with parking garage, restaurant and apartments to be built near new courthouse in Harrisburg - PennLive

Natale also hopes to have the first two of the three apartment buildings ready for occupancy by the end of 2021, with the third coming online in spring 2022, Corrao said.

But this depends on receiving tax breaks from the Amherst IDA, Natale said at the Jan. 25 Village Board meeting.

That's because labor for the project is getting more expensive and harder to find thanks to the pandemic and the cost of lumber and other building materials also is going up,according to Natale. Each of the three apartment buildings likely will cost an extra $250,000 to construct for those reasons, Natale said.

The apartment buildings represent about half the estimated $30 million cost of the project, Corrao said. The developer calculates the apartments now will cost $16 million to $16.5 million, with an unknown increase in the cost of the town houses still to come.

The tax incentives won't fully cover this increase but will help put the project back on solid financial footing, Natale told Village Board members.

Only the apartments would be eligible for the incentives, which would take the form of sales, mortgage recording and property tax breaks.

And the tax breaks, if approved by the IDA, only would apply to future investment in the project.

A payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement would be the most lucrative piece of any tax incentives.

See the article here:
Developer of in-progress $31M housing project in Williamsville seeks tax breaks - Buffalo News

The citys permitting process has four main stages: pre-application, land use review, building permit review and then, once the permit has been issued, construction. There are currently four projects in the pre-application phase, totaling 484 units, plus three in the land use stage with a total of 507 units.

Four more projects are in building review, with a combined 457 units, and 11 projects are actively under construction or have permits issued. Thats 2,339 units in the pipeline for the next couple of years on top of 949 units that have already been built downtown since the adoption of the 2007 plan, Eiken said, in total representing about 75 percent of the target for 2027.

Commercial development is also showing signs of increased growth, Eiken noted. The city has only added a few major office buildings since the recession, he said the Hudson Building, Hurley Tower and the Murdock building at the Waterfront but several projects currently in the pipeline will probably double or triple the amount of new office space added in the post-recession era.

The city doesnt have a hard target for office development like it does for residential, Eiken said, but it all serves the same goal.

A lot of it is more in the intangible area of adding vitality to the downtown, he said. By bringing more residents to the downtown as well as workers, theres more support for the local businesses, and as we know, the more rooftops we get in the downtown, the more likely it is that well get a grocery store, so its really important that we get income levels up but also the number of units in the downtown.

Continued here:
Downtown Vancouver is on the rise - The Columbian

CLEVELAND, Ohio The ground shook. Debris rained down as the sharp teeth of an excavator bucket chewed at the concrete innards of a three-story, brick-faced building. A man in heavy work clothes and a hard hat sprayed water from a hose to keep the dust down.

That was the scene Monday as contractors began tearing down the former Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority Big 8' apartment complex on West 25th Street in Ohio City, a block south of Detroit Avenue.

After more than a decade of planning, dreaming, designing, and grant-writing, the demolition marked the first highly visible step toward the creation of a 23-acre park at Irishtown Bend overlooking the Cuyahoga River and the downtown skyline.

Every bite of the excavators bucket opened up a bit more of the view.

Once the site of a 19th-century Irish immigrant settlement, Irishtown Bend is a sodden, unstable, weed-covered slope on the outer curve of the Cuyahoga River opposite Columbus Road Peninsula, with a few buildings on top, along West 25th Street.

For decades, the hillside has threatened to avalanche into the river, an event that could rupture a major sewer line and block ore boats from reaching steel mills upstream.

The Port of Cleveland, Cleveland Metroparks, LAND Studio, Ohio City Inc., the City of Cleveland and other nonprofit organizations and government agencies have joined forces to stabilize the slope, rebuild waterside bulkheads, and create a park with trails zig-zagging down to the water.

Other partners include the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA),

West Creek Conservancy, CMHA, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.

Its a pretty monumental day,' said Tom McNair executive director of Ohio City Inc. Its an odd thing in our business where you literally spend years working making things happen. To reach a point where you can see actual, tangible progress on a project is pretty incredible.

McNair and other advocates have long described the Irishtown project as a gigantic two-fer, with numerous benefits to communities and businesses.

Safeguarding the slope would protect a $3.5-billion shipping industry that serves 20,000 jobs in the region, according to information attributed to the Port of Cleveland on LAND Studios website.

The park also has the potential to become one of Ohios best public waterfronts, with trails connecting it to Lake Erie at nearby Wendy Park on Whiskey Island, and to the Towpath Trail, which links Cleveland to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Akron, and points south.

The northernmost five miles of the Towpath, reaching Canal Basin Park opposite Irishtown Bend, are scheduled for completion this summer.

Other nearby trails nearing completion this year include the 2.25-mile Red Line Greenway, which will intersect the Towpath at Columbus Road at Franklin Boulevard, and reach deep into the West Side.

The Irishtown Bend project is also likely to help spur residential redevelopment on the citys West Side, where a reverse migration after decades of white flight has brought an influx of new residents.

New and upcoming projects in the neighborhood include the 158-unit Church and State apartment building at Detroit Avenue and West 28th Street, and the 10-story, 288-unit Intro apartment building at West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue, which bills itself as Americas tallest timber-framed building.

McNair said the project to stabilize the Irishtown slope and build the park has so far attracted roughly $40 million in grants and donated property.

The funding includes $9 million awarded for the project in 2019 by the U.S. Department of Transportation through NOACA for slope stabilization.

Linda Sternheimer, the director of planning and urban development at the Port of Cleveland said the agency hopes by this fall to complete engineering plans for stabilization of the slope and to start construction by next winter.

NOACA, meanwhile, has identified $3.3 million to extend a half-mile section of the Cleveland Foundation Centennial Lake Link Trail across the lower edge of Irishtown Bend along the river, which will connect to already completed sections leading north to Whiskey Island and south to the Towpath.

Cleveland Metroparks said the trail link could be finished as soon as 2024.

To pay for the acquisition and demolition of the CMHA apartments and a nearby former CMHA office, which will also be demolished soon, LAND Studio obtained a $1.4 million grant from the Ohio Public Works Commissions Clean Ohio Conservation Fund.

Cleveland Metroparks is leading the demolitions. The two buildings have been vacant for nearly a decade.McNair said the Big 8 building, a long, rectangular, three-story structure, took its name from its role in housing families with up to eight members.

Various plans for the transformation of Irishtown Bend have been underway at least since 2006. It was then that nonprofits including ParkWorks, a predecessor of LAND Studio, initiated discussions about the area.

In 2007, Michael Christoff and Bradley Fink, two then-recent graduates of Kent State Universitys College of Architecture and Environmental Design, organized a low-cost international design competition to brainstorm ideas for a future park on the bend.

Two years later, ParkWorks and other organizations completed a Flats Connection Plan,' using part of a $740,000 grant from the Gund Foundation. Many of the trails envisioned in that plan have been built or are close to being completed.

In late 2009, the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit land conservation organization based in San Francisco, announced it had closed a $3.2 million deal to preserve 1.3 miles of abandoned rail bed on the west bank of the Flats for a future trail network.

In 2014, the Cleveland Foundation announced it would devote $5 million toward building those trails, most of which are now complete or soon will be, except for the Irishtown Bend section.

In 2017, LAND Studio, Ohio City and partnering agencies unveiled the first conceptual plans for the new park on the bend. Those plans continue to evolve in synch with the Ports work on engineering the stabilization of the slope.

We know theres a long way left to go with this,' McNair said. But to reach the point where we finally see buildings coming down and opening up the viewshed so people can see whats so exciting, is really special.

Continue reading here:
Demolition in Ohio City signals big visible first step toward creation of park at Irishtown Bend - cleveland.com