The investigation continues into what caused a massive blaze at the Waldo Heights apartments Monday in Kansas City.Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from across the country are headed to Kansas City to help determine what caused the fire and whether the circumstances are suspicious."There was some absolutely heroic firefighting by the Kansas City, Missouri Fire Department last night," said John Ham, spokesman for the Kansas City ATF.As daylight broke, work began to figure out what caused the fire"We start with everything on the table as a possible cause," Ham said.Ham said the Kansas City ATF is working with the fire department and the police department's bomb and arson squad. The ATF's national response team has also been called in."That team is made up of fire investigators with collectively hundreds and hundreds of years of experience," Ham said. "We have forensic chemists, forensic engineers, electrical engineers."He said they're being tapped because of the size and complexity of the fire."Just because we're bringing in the national response team doesn't mean that we believe it to be a set fire, but that's certainly one of the things that are on the table," Ham said.Patrick Williamson lives in another building at the complex."We were seeing embers flying over our heads, hitting the building behind us," Williamson said.He said he also noticed a challenge for emergency crews."There were firemen, firefighters running all around just searching for fire hydrants," Williamson said.The fire department said it's typical for older construction to have fewer hydrants and that they had to use around 1500 feet of hose line to get water on the flames.Police say there was a disturbance call Monday night before the fire started. Right now, they cannot say whether they believe it's related to the fire. The ATF's national response team is expected to be on site Wednesday morning.The Red Cross is helping 30 families that lived inside the apartments. Officials said 33 people are sleeping at 16 different hotel rooms."There's so much stress going on when you have a life event like this, so we try to offer as much empathy as we can and try to get immediate assistance as quickly as we can," said Scott Riggs, of the American Red Cross.Waldo Heights required families to have renter's insurance, which should help with housing and replaced damaged items.Charities like Salvation Army are stepping up to fill in the gaps both short and long term."Nobody knows when an entire apartment building in Kansas City is going to go up in flames. But when it does, the donations we receive mean that we can be there to help folks not just with the necessities they need today but with longer term re-housing tomorrow," said Doug Donahoo, of the Salvation Army.

The investigation continues into what caused a massive blaze at the Waldo Heights apartments Monday in Kansas City.

Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from across the country are headed to Kansas City to help determine what caused the fire and whether the circumstances are suspicious.

"There was some absolutely heroic firefighting by the Kansas City, Missouri Fire Department last night," said John Ham, spokesman for the Kansas City ATF.

As daylight broke, work began to figure out what caused the fire

"We start with everything on the table as a possible cause," Ham said.

Ham said the Kansas City ATF is working with the fire department and the police department's bomb and arson squad. The ATF's national response team has also been called in.

"That team is made up of fire investigators with collectively hundreds and hundreds of years of experience," Ham said. "We have forensic chemists, forensic engineers, electrical engineers."

He said they're being tapped because of the size and complexity of the fire.

"Just because we're bringing in the national response team doesn't mean that we believe it to be a set fire, but that's certainly one of the things that are on the table," Ham said.

Patrick Williamson lives in another building at the complex.

"We were seeing embers flying over our heads, hitting the building behind us," Williamson said.

He said he also noticed a challenge for emergency crews.

"There were firemen, firefighters running all around just searching for fire hydrants," Williamson said.

The fire department said it's typical for older construction to have fewer hydrants and that they had to use around 1500 feet of hose line to get water on the flames.

Police say there was a disturbance call Monday night before the fire started. Right now, they cannot say whether they believe it's related to the fire. The ATF's national response team is expected to be on site Wednesday morning.

The Red Cross is helping 30 families that lived inside the apartments. Officials said 33 people are sleeping at 16 different hotel rooms.

"There's so much stress going on when you have a life event like this, so we try to offer as much empathy as we can and try to get immediate assistance as quickly as we can," said Scott Riggs, of the American Red Cross.

Waldo Heights required families to have renter's insurance, which should help with housing and replaced damaged items.

Charities like Salvation Army are stepping up to fill in the gaps both short and long term.

"Nobody knows when an entire apartment building in Kansas City is going to go up in flames. But when it does, the donations we receive mean that we can be there to help folks not just with the necessities they need today but with longer term re-housing tomorrow," said Doug Donahoo, of the Salvation Army.

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ATF helping to investigate massive fire at Waldo Heights apartments - KMBC Kansas City

In 2020, Minneapolis rolled out major changes to building standards to guide the city's growth under its 2040 Comprehensive Plan. But one year after its final adoption by the City Council, that controversial plan hasn't led to many visible changes in the cityscape.

That doesn't surprise city planners, who expected developers would take some time to analyze the new regulations before changing their business plans. Last year's upheavals also played a role, they said.

"I think 2020 has had so many things going on with civil unrest and the pandemic," said Jason Wittenberg, manager of code development for the city of Minneapolis. "I think people are still wrapping their minds around what that is going to mean for people's preferences related to what kinds of environments they want to live in."

While the plan's biggest champion City Council President Lisa Bender is set to leave office in early 2022, she expects that will have little impact on the plan's rollout. "This has always been a team effort," she said in a recent public meeting.

Much of the day-to-day work is being led by a steering committee that includes city staff as well as Council Members Jeremy Schroeder, Kevin Reich and Cam Gordon.

The 2040 plan aims to create a more densely populated, transit-friendly Minneapolis by loosening restrictions on multiunit buildings across the city, among other changes. The city is pushing forward with implementing the plan even as it awaits a decision from the Minnesota Supreme Court, which heard arguments late last year on an environmental challenge.

Jack Perry, an attorney representing the groups that have sued the city, said they hope they will get to fully argue their case, which was dismissed by lower courts, and ultimately seek to block the plan and new ordinances from being enforced.

"We're confident that if we have a hearing on the merits, the city's plan will be ruled invalid," Perry said.

In a statement, city spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie said the city "remains confident that there is no legal basis to block full implementation of Minneapolis 2040."

"The Comprehensive Plan will manage the city's growth with a focus on undoing significant racial disparities created by a history of policies that have prevented equitable access to housing, jobs and investments," she said.

Here's what's happening with the 2040 plan:

2020 ushered in one of the most contentious elements: the end of single-family zoning.

City staff are still compiling statistics on the number of permits for new duplex and triplex construction in Minneapolis but don't expect to see a dramatic increase just yet.

"I think those have been fairly slow to ramp up," Wittenberg said.

Council members have asked city staff to continue monitoring the statistics and provide an update in March 2022 so they can figure out if they need to make adjustments.

After tiny homes gained popularity on home design shows, some in the city began eyeing them as a way they might provide shelter for homeless people.

New ordinance changes took effect early in 2020 that allow for "intentional community cluster" developments. Those projects allow people to live in clusters of tiny houses with shared common areas.

Wittenberg said, "We haven't seen one of those come across the permit counter yet," but they still expect that some of those projects are on the horizon.

In the interim, the city signed off on a similar project called an "indoor village," where tiny shelters are placed inside a warehouse. Local officials hope that will allow them to provide housing while also giving people a way to keep some distance from others amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Late last year, city leaders signed off on a 10-year Transportation Action Plan that's intended to change how people get around in Minneapolis.

It offers new guidelines to increase the speed and reliability of public transit, connect bikeways across the region and make the city safer for walking. The overarching goal, city leaders said, is to ensure that more people have access to affordable transportation and reduce carbon emissions.

"Our streets make up nearly a quarter of all land in Minneapolis and present an incredible opportunity to make good on commitments to race equity and climate change," Bender said in a statement after city leaders approved the plan.

Early in the new year, the city also expects to look at what parking and transportation requirements will be in place for new development. Those requirements could include developers subsidizing transit passes for residents or providing more parking for electric vehicles and bicycles.

Some developers threatened to stop doing business in Minneapolis when the city required them to include affordable housing units in new, large apartment buildings.

City staff hope to have data in the coming weeks that will show how many new affordable housing units were constructed in 2020, but Wittenberg said they "expect that those numbers are going to look fairly similar to the previous year."

In their last meeting of the year, City Council members approved new guidelines that outline how buildings should be designed in various parts of the city.

The "built form" policies regulate such things as the height of buildings and where they should be situated on lots.

"The point that we've been making is that, in many cases, we will be allowing more development and our regulations, in some cases, will be more permissive," Wittenberg said. But, he added, "we're going to apply those rules more rigidly than we have in the past to create those predictable outcomes."

Wittenberg said city staff are working on handouts that will help residents understand how the new rules apply to them.

Liz Navratil 612-673-4994

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With little effect on ground, work on Minneapolis 2040 plan continues behind the scenes - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Dec. 29Construction of a new affordable housing project for the elderly has begun in Dupont.

The Dupont Housing for the Elderly project is being developed at the former Ben Franklin School at 611 Walnut St.

Michael Molitoris, executive director of the Housing Authority of Luzerne County, the developer, said the project represents a unique public and private partnership and the culmination of three years of planning to create a housing development which will remove a vacant deteriorated building and transform the site into a "true community asset" to provide affordable housing to low-income seniors. Construction is projected to be completed in December 2021, he said.

A + E Group JV of Wilkes-Barre designed the building which consists of 36 one-bedroom units. Four of the apartments will be designed to be accessible handicapped units and one apartment will be designed for the hearing/sight impaired.

Common amenities, which are located on the first floor, include a community area, a kitchen, an elevator accessing all floors, on-site management and supportive services office and community facilities for laundry.

The building was certified with Enterprise Green Communities for its advanced energy efficiency, the use of zero VOC paints and sealers and water-resistant materials in humid areas for quality interior environment.

The financing structure for the $10.79 million project includes low-income housing tax credits through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency with equity investment of $7.56 million facilitated by Enterprise Housing Credit Investment, LLC and other permanent financing commitments from PHFA Housing Trust Fund and the County of Luzerne HOME and Housing Trust Fund programs. Citizens Bank has provided a $5.4 million construction loan.

Trade Eastern, Inc. is the general contractor. Legal partners include Dermot Kennedy, Ernest (Bucky) Closser and Bruce Anders/ Low-Income Housing Tax Credit technical services are being provided by Tom Elias of T. Elias and Associates.

The Housing Authority of Luzerne County will provide management and maintenance staff with technical support from JLD Compliance Advisory, LLC of Hummelstown, PA. Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton will provide supportive services to assist residents in meeting their everyday needs to remain independent.

Dupont Borough Council and Council President Stanley Knick were key to the plan to develop affordable housing for the elderly when they acquired the school back in 2015, according to a press release announcing the project.

Contact the writer: dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2115, @CVAllabaugh

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(c)2020 The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

Visit The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) at citizensvoice.com

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Construction of housing project for the elderly begins in Dupont - Insurance News Net

COVID-19 is altering Minnesota commercial real estate in subtle ways from a boost in office subleases to quick construction pivots to adapt offices and apartments to allow tenants to safely gather outside in the winter or toil away indoors.

Doran Cos. was building its new Birke apartment complex in Minnetonka last summer when the coronavirus forced it to rethink its "amenities deck."

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advising that people avoid socializing indoors, the developer scrapped original designs and opted to heat the deck concrete to allow 125 future tenants to more comfortably use the outdoor BBQ grills, hot tub, fire pits and seating well into December and January.

The change was a first for Doran but is one in a growing number of COVID pivots that building designers are making to cope with a pandemic that is not expected to be completely eradicated for months, even as vaccines roll out nationwide. Many design changes are adding tens of thousands of dollars to construction projects, but not breaking the bank.

Still, the effects of COVID-19 are expected to last for years as office and factory workers, baristas, nurses aides and apartment tenants continue to look for built-in safety measures.

Minnesota building owners quickly installed touchless elevators, hand-sanitizing stations, temperature check-ins and new air-filtration systems during the early days of the pandemic. But now that the virus cases have surged, developers are adding shower rooms, private offices and heated three-season outdoor patios across Minnesota.

Builders are asking themselves, "What are the long-term impacts of COVID?" and then altering their plans, said Doran President and Chief Executive Anne Behrendt. Many are also careful to ask, "Are we going too far with design changes that are reacting to COVID, but that in two or three years may not be how people really want to live and interact?"

The Building Owners and Managers Association estimates only 10 to 15% of Minnesota workers have returned to the office so far. With that percentage not expected to escalate dramatically until well into 2021, it pays for some developers to embrace their COVID construction changes now.

Even with COVID's uncertainty, "You are probably building what still will be utilized for years to come," said Sam Newberg, senior field research analyst at property management and leasing giant CBRE and a BOMA member.

Some Transwestern office-lease clients in Minnesota recently expanded conference rooms thinking they will need bigger collaborative spaces post COVID-19.

The idea being that employee's "individual work" will continue to be done from home while collaborative or project work will be the thing that draws staffers back to the office in clumps even after the virus subsides, said Transwestern Principal Erin Fitzgerald.

Of its 12 Twin Cities projects, Doran Cos. pivoted again this month, changing the blueprints for a Richfield apartment complex going up next to Lunds & Byerlys. Designers dumped plans for an open business center in the lobby and are instead building three individual offices.

Seeing the demand swell for apartment workspace during COVID, Doran added more indoor and outdoor co-working spaces for a Tonka Bay luxury apartment complex now under construction.

"Post-COVID, the only thing that will stick around is people will continue to work from home," said Tony Kuechle, Doran president of development.

Subtle COVID changes are also altering buildings where the workforce can't work remotely.

Oppidan Investment, the senior-housing developer that broke ground on its sixth senior-housing complex in Minnesota one month ago, is adding a screening/locker room with showers for staffers at each of its new properties because of the pandemic. The room will become the new entrance for all staffers.

"We are doing that in Grand Rapids [Minn.] and in all of our [other] new communities," in California and on the East Coast, said Oppidan President Blake Hastings. "It's another step to keep [our workers] safe. So if they are concerned about bringing anything [virus-related] home, they can shower on site and change clothes before leaving work. It gives them a place to decompress and allows us a place to screen these teammates [before] coming into work."

Oppidan is also adding sinks in its resident hallways so aides can wash hands more frequently, Hastings said.

The vaccine won't be widely available for months so this is "the right thing to do," even if it costs more, Hastings said, noting that each new staff locker room will cost the same as adding one senior apartment to each building.

Offices, factories and other industrial builders are taking a different page from health care property managers and installing hospital-grade heating and air-conditioning systems (HVAC) that also purify the air. Murphy Warehouse in Minneapolis recently installed sterilizing UV lights in all its rooftop air systems. Those who sell the units are swamped with inquiries.

"We are definitely selling and shipping more units with the higher-efficiency filters today than ever before and we are shipping orders with the [air-sterilizing] UV lights definitely more than ever before," said Jim Macosko, product general manager at HVAC-maker Daikin Applied Americas.

Daikin, a Japanese firm with two factories in Faribault and one in Owatonna, sees demand spiking for three technologies it can embed in its Minnesota-made HVAC systems. It's using more Merve 13 and 14 air filters or embedding UV lights to trap or kill germs.

Separately, it's also starting to install bipolar ionization equipment in some HVAC systems. Ionization electrically charges air particles and neutralizes bacteria and viruses.

Daikin has yet to install the systems at its own Minnesota factories but has bolstered air-exchange rates and now runs air filters 24/7 not just during work hours, Macosko said.

Even with the arrival of a coronavirus vaccine, high-tech air-purification systems will not fall out of favor after COVID-19 is gone, he said. After all, "COVID won't be the last virus we have."

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COVID will leave lasting changes in Minnesota office and apartment projects - Minneapolis Star Tribune

A Boise developer hopes to add a small office and retail building to a block that will soon include two residential projects in the Downtown Boise core.

Weve been following the two apartment projects developed by Clay Carley and other groups on Grove St. between Fifth Street and Sixth Streets for the last few years. The related but separate projects, currently under construction, will bring a rent-restricted apartment project on the 6th St. side of the block known as Thomas Logan, as well as a market-rate apartment building on the 5th St. side dubbed The Lucy. The two buildings will share a plaza in the middle along Grove St.

[19-story condo tower planned for Downtown Boise]

Now, an area previously designated for a pocket park will instead get a three-story commercial and office building, if a plan submitted to the City of Boise is approved.

The small site sits along 5th St., right behind the Chip Cookies building. The plan from Carley and developer GGLO for Fifth and Grove would include a retail space on the ground floor with two stories of office above.

Though the previously noted ground floor pocket park would go away they hope to include about the same amount of green space somewhere else: the roof.

The vegetated fescue roof, viewed from nearby buildings, draws inspiration from the Boise Foothills in the distance, an application letter from GGLO notes.

Renderings show a series of shaggy green plantings on the roof of the building.

The larger form has an open floorpan for users, with large open windows facing east to the park across the street, and to the west, GGLO wrote. Internally, the building provides flexible spaces with large openings to the street, with exposed floor and roof structures. The exposed wood joist ceilings on each level give the open spaces a colorful richness and natural textures that will be visible from street level.

A public hearing on the project is set for January 13th at 6pm. Participants can testify in person or online. Due to limitations with the City of Boises online permit system, we cannot link you to the hearing notice, but if you click this link, then click Documents, then navigate to page 4, then select PDS-Legal Notice DR_HYBRID MEETING LEGAL NOTICE 1-13-2021 you can find further details.

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Three-story office building proposed to slide in between apartments, alley in Downtown Boise - boisedev.com

A jump in apartment construction projects in November boosted the tight supply of homes in the booming US real estate market, according to government data released Thursday.

With borrowing rates at record lows during the Covid-19 pandemic, home sales have been one of the bright spots in the US economy, pushing prices higher and challenging builders to keep up with demand.

Total housing starts rose 1.2 percent compared to October to a 1.55 million seasonally-adjusted annual rate, the Commerce Department reported.

That was slightly better than economists had expected, and a solid result heading into winter when construction usually slows.

Building initiated on multi-family units jumped eight percent, while single-family starts rose just 0.4 percent, according to the report.

Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said the total increase was a slight disappointment, but the 6.2 percent surge in building permits -- also concentrated in apartment buildings -- points to another increase in December, and a jump in home sales in the spring.

"All these numbers -- but especially starts -- are erratic from month-to-month, but the key point here is that construction activity has not yet fully caught up with the surge in housing activity, leaving room for modest further gains," he said in an analysis.

Housing starts in the Northeast more than doubled last month, while activity fell in the South and Midwest, according to the report.

hs/cs

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US apartment construction boosts housing supply in November - Yahoo News

Some of the City of Fishers major construction projects will be finished in 2021, including the 146th Street and Ind. 37 interchange and the Nickel Plate Trail tunnel under 116th Street, among others.

146th Street and Ind. 37 will be the citys major road construction project for next year.

Fadness

Mayor Scott Fadness acknowledges that 2020 was a prolific year for road construction in the city.

It was a very busy year in terms of road improvements, Fadness said. In 2021, there will be a bit of a rest. The only major road infrastructure project youll see in Fishers next year is 146th Street and State road 37 under serious construction.

Earlier this year, 126th Street and Ind. 37 opened as part of the State Road 37 Project.

Fadness said the most disruptive portion of the Nickel Plate Trail will be tackled in 2021.

That is the 116th tunnel being built, he said. For a period of time, 116th Street will be closed to traffic as we build that tunnel. Our hope is to see significant work done on the Nickel Plate Trail in the downtown area in the near future, and at the end of next year, we expect to see that trail open from 106th Street to 131st Street.

Some stretches of the trail on the south side and north side are complete, and the 116th Street tunnel will connect to those stretches.

Its always the most complicated work is the downtown trail section, but at the end of that, we will have world-class infrastructure, Fadness said.

In the spring, 116th Street will close. Fadness said crews will work when schools arent in session.

The first phase of the Geist Waterfront Park will begin next year.

There will be a lot of activity out there. The beach, the parking lot, the restrooms, the gate, the entranceway are all parts of that first phase, Fadness said.

Fadness said the city plans to open Geist Waterfront Park in the spring of 2022. The project will go to bid in February or March. Three phases are planned, but the park will be fully functional after the first phase.

Construction of First Internet Bank and CRG Residential will continue in 2021. (Submitted renderings)

First Internet Bank will remain under construction in 2021, with completion planned for the end of next year. Fadness also said CRG Residentials downtown project will be under construction through all of 2021. CRG Residentials project is a five-story apartment building with 241 units, 10 townhomes, office and retail space along 116th, North and Maple streets. The project also will include a parking garage.

Another 116th Street project includes the Maple Del west of the Chatham Tap restaurant. Fadness said the project will break ground next year.

Our economic development team continues to work, so theres a lot of interest and activity on investing in our community, so I really am optimistic about 2021 when it comes to jobs and investment in our community, he said.

In 2021, the City of Fishers will launch a series programs to grow home ownership.

This is a new idea we are looking at for next year, Mayor Scott Fadness said. Theres a desire to see diversified housing stock in our urban core multi-family homes, new homes, single-family residential homes, so we are trying to work toward having a creative program in place to accelerate that opportunity.

Fadness also wants to refresh the citys sense of community.

Hopefully, as we clear COVID and are able to interact and engage as residents once again, I really hope we have a strong offering of opportunities for people to engage in their community as well as they did, if not better, than they did prior to the pandemic, Fadness said.

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Looking ahead: Fishers major projects in 2021 include the Nickel Plate Trail tunnel and First Internet - Current in Carmel

In a pandemic environment not friendly to commercial tenants, the SoDo (for South Downtown) development centered on the 1010 State St. property is tilting more toward residential than originally planned.

Kyle Shirley, the principal of the TinTin Properties LLC that has been working since 2017 to develop the block bordered by East 10th and East 11th avenues, won approval Dec. 17 for a rezoning that will allow for that emphasis on apartments.

The City-County Planning Commission of Warren County, meeting via Zoom teleconference, approved in an 11-0 vote the application from TinTin Properties to rezone the 1.09-acre property from central business to planned unit development in order to use more than 50 percent of the first floor of the existing structures for residential.

The rezoning, which will go to the Bowling Green City Commission for final approval, will allow Shirley to expand the residential portion of the 511 E. 10th Ave. building that is called 511 Flats in the original development plans.

What happened is when he (Shirley) started the interior buildout, he was slightly beyond the 50 percent maximum, said Chris Davenport, the attorney representing TinTin Properties. That triggered the necessity for this request.

Plans call for a maximum of 30 apartments in the development, which is adjacent to the 23-unit Armory Lofts apartments also overseen by Shirleys group.

With occupancy in the Armory apartments and those in the Roebuck building at 1010 State St. running at about 85 percent, Shirley reasoned that it made more sense to emphasize the residential aspect of the development.

What Kyle found is that there isnt justifiable demand for commercial space on the first floor, Davenport said. There is demand for additional residential space.

Shirley said the rezoning will allow him to build a two-bedroom apartment on the first floor of the 511 Flats building and still include a small footprint for commercial.

He said the total SoDo development now has 25 apartments that range in rent from $950 to $1,700 a month.

For high-end downtown rentals, the 85 percent occupancy is acceptable, he said.

Shirley said he hasnt had as much luck with the commercial portion of the development, which includes 6,000 square feet in the basement of the Roebuck building.

Weve had a few people look at the space, Shirley said. Its just not the right time. The whole basement floor is available. Its a blank envelope at the moment.

The planning commission also approved a Future Land Use Map amendment and rezoning request that could allow Stewart Richey Construction to expand the industrial use of its property at 2137 Glen Lily Road.

Stewart Richey was approved for a FLUM amendment taking the 35.61 acres at 2137 and 2191 Glen Lily Road from mixed-use/commercial and moderate density residential to industrial. The property was then approved for rezoning from light industrial and residential estate to heavy industrial.

According to the application, the rezoning is needed in order to bring the property into compliance with zoning ordinance regulations and accommodate future industrial uses.

The rezoning will go to Warren Fiscal Court for final approval.

Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.

Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.

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Downtown development to focus on apartments | News - Bowling Green Daily News

Bisnow/Miriam Hall

Long Island City from Manhattan

TF Cornerstone, the developer tapped to build Amazons campus in Long Island City before the deal went south, is now planning to build two big apartment buildings in the neighborhood.

The firm filed plans with the Department of Buildings for two buildings that will span a total of 1.43M SF, The Real Deal reports. One building, at 55-01 Second St., would feature 575 units while the other, at 2-10 54th St., will contain 812 units.

The site cost the firm $285M back in 2018, a deal that was secured just daysbefore Amazon announced its plans to build nearby. The tech giant had planned to build its campus on the Long Island City waterfront, but the community and local politicians chafed against the billions in tax breaks and grants Amazon was due to receive. They also voiced concerns about the strain on local infrastructure and what the tech giants presence would mean for rents and housing affordability.

Ultimately,Amazonwithdrewfrom the city, a stunning decisionthat devastated many who predicted it would have been a boon for the area. Instead of bringing a promised 25,000 workers to Queens, earlier this year, Amazon paid$1.5B to WeWork for the former Lord & Taylor building on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

TF Cornerstone is also active in Manhattan,joiningwith RXR Realty for Project Commodore, a mixed-use building planned for the site at 109 East 42nd St. Last year, it paid Greenland and then Forest City New York $143.1M for Pacific Park land parcels at 615 and 595 Dean St. in Brooklyn.

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Developer Who Almost Landed Amazon HQ2 Planning Scores Of Apartments In Its Place - Bisnow

Pictured is an artists rendering of Avenue on 34th, a mixed-income apartment complex being constructed at 2136 W. 34th St. (Contributed rendering)

Construction has begun on a four-story, 70-unit apartment complex at the site of the former Doyles Restaurant on West 34th Street.

Avenue, a Houston nonprofit that develops affordable housing, announced Tuesday that it had broken ground on Avenue on 34th, a mixed-income rental development on a 2.1-acre site at 2136 W. 34th St. Construction is expected to be complete by mid-2022.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held last week that included Avenue executive director Mary Lawler, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Housing and Community Development Department director Tom McCasland and Amegy executive vice president Brian Stoker, whose bank is a primary lender for the project.

We are delighted to advance construction on Avenue on 34th at a time when affordable housing with proximity to the Inner Loop is such a critical need among working families, Lawler said in a news release. The influx of new developments in and around the citys urban core has resulted in the demolition of existing lower-cost housing and, as a result, has priced low- and middle-income families out of many communities.

The Houston City Council voted unanimously in September to provide a $9.09 million loan to Avenue, using Hurricane Harvey Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Funds awarded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Texas General Land Office. According to the council agenda item, the estimated total cost of the project is nearly $18.2 million.

Avenue said another funding source for the project are 4 percent low-income housing tax credits allocated by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Additional funders include the Houston Housing Finance Corporation and Hunt Capital Partners through a multi-investor fund that includes Aetna.

The general contractor for the development is Block Companies, which Avenue said will host a community day and job fair in February. The event will be free, open to the public and include information about employment opportunities for local construction-related jobs.

Citing a recent report by the United Way of Greater Houston, Avenue said 25 percent of the nearly 11,000 households in the 77018 zip code where its new development will be located qualify as ALICE, which stands for asset-limited, income-constrained and employed. Such families represent hardworking members of the Houston community whose household income is above the federal poverty level, but insufficient to cover basic necessities such as housing, child care, food, transportation and healthcare, according to Avenue.

Data shows that affordable homes help strengthen families and communities as a whole, providing families with a path forward to greater financial stability and improved health outcomes, Lawler said.

Avenue on 34th will feature 23 one-bedroom apartments, 27 two-bedroom apartments and 20 three-bedroom apartments, with a total of 14 units offered at market rate. The rest will be designated for families earning between $35,000-$65,000 annually.

Among the amenities to be offered are an outdoor play space, learning center and activity room, business center and fitness room, along with resident services such as after-school tutoring for children as well as credit-building and homebuyer education programs for adults.

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Avenue breaks ground on 34th Street apartment complex - The Leader