David Stalheim, City of Bellingham Block Grant Program Manager, left, answers a question during an Aug. 21, 2012 meet5ing about a about a proposed Catholic Community Services homeless housing project in Bellingham.

ANDY BRONSON THE BELLINGHAM HERALD Buy Photo

BELLINGHAM - Construction of a 42-unit apartment building for homeless and low-income people should begin within the next month, and a lawsuit seeking to revoke a permit for the building is likely to be settled this week.

A nonprofit called the Association of Bellingham Merchants and Citizens formed in September 2013 to challenge the project, to be built downtown on Cornwall Avenue. Doug Robertson, a Bellingham lawyer who represented the association in its appeal, said on Tuesday, April 15, final settlement documents should be completed Wednesday or Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed against building developer Catholic Housing Services and the city, claimed city planners should not have issued a permit for the project, and did not adequately review the impacts the building and its tenants would have on the neighborhood. Of the 42 apartments, 32 would be slated for homeless people, including some with mental illness and addictions.

The association argued in its suit that the city should have required Catholic Housing Services to make parking available to the public. The one-acre project site is now a parking lot.

Perhaps an even bigger concern for the merchants in the association was that another low-income housing project downtown would be bad for business.

Documents filed with the state show that the people involved in the association include Bellingham attorney Bradley Swanson; David Johnston, an owner of Leopold Retirement Residences and part owner of the Herald Building; and Kae Moe, co-owner of Kulshan Cycles.

"The project as approved will significantly diminish the value of surrounding real estate, interfere with and devalue existing businesses ... and negatively impact the interface between the central city core and the future development of the waterfront," the group's appeal said.

Nearby business owners have criticized the Cornwall proposal since it first gained publicity two years ago. They said residents at existing Catholic Housing Services apartments, such as Kateri Court and the Grocery Building, smoke, loiter and otherwise discourage customers from coming into their shops.

Continued here:
Construction to begin on downtown Bellingham housing for homeless

The San Francisco Fire Department released a report Tuesday morning finding that a five-alarm fire that destroyed an apartment building under construction in the city's Mission Bay neighborhood last month was accidental.

The massive blaze was reported shortly before 5 p.m. on March 11 at the site at Fourth and China Basin streets, where a 172-unit building was under construction as part of the MB360 development project by BRE Properties.

There were no fire detectors installed yet in the unfinished six-story building, according to the report.

The building was expected to be ready to start leasing later this year. Another nearby site of the project with 188 units under construction was not affected by the blaze.

The building, which was under construction with building contractor Suffolk Construction Co., was completely destroyed after the fire spread from the top story.

According to the report, the fire was accidentally sparked on the sixth-floor roof area by a hot or smoldering object.

The fire originated in the southeast section of the building between the top floor and the roof, the report states.

According to the report, the fire caused $40 million in property damage at the $60 million construction site.

Additional contents in the building, valued at $100,000, were destroyed in the blaze.

Surrounding apartment buildings were also damaged in the fire and residents were evacuated overnight.

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Fire department report calls 5-alarm Mission Bay fire accidental

A second three-story apartment building for senior citizens will be constructed off Orchard Road in Oswego as a result of action taken this past week by the village board.

Village President Brian LeClercq cast the tie-breaking vote on the motion to approve the preliminary and final development plans for the second phase of the Diamond Senior Apartment project along the south side of Lewis Street, just east of Orchard Road.

Board members Gail Johnson, Judy Sollinger and Pam Parr cast ballots in favor of the plans, while board members Tony Giles, Terry Michels and Scott Volpe cast the negative votes.

Oswego Senior Apartments LP (limited partnership) is the project developer.

According to information presented to the board by Rod Zenner, the village's community development director, the 63 unit apartment building will be constructed on a 2.76 acre parcel immediately south of the existing 60 unit apartment building constructed as part of the project's first phase three years ago.

Like the existing building, the new apartment building will be clad in three toned bricked and siding and have a gable roof. The building will have a total of 65,809 square feet and include 50 one-bedroom apartments and 13 two-bedroom apartments.

A parking lot with 93 spaces will be located immediately west and north of the building, according to project plans.

Dan Kramer, a Yorkville attorney representing the developers, said the building has an estimated construction cost of $15 million.

As with the existing building, the developers are seeking federal tax credit financing for the project through the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), the state's housing finance agency. This financing method serves to reduce the debt that developers have to borrow. As a result of the lower debt, the developers can offer lower rents to qualified tenants. Developments, financed with tax credits, serve households earning 60 percent or less of the area median income. However, rents are restricted so they don't exceed 30 percent of household income, according to the IHDA.

Kramer said his clients are currently seeking IHDA financing for the second building.

See more here:
Oswego OKs Orchard Rd. senior apartments

Building a Fire
Learn how to build a fire from tinder to flames.

By: Paul Balsamo Jr.

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Building a Fire - Video

Wednesday's meeting was "the end of the public review and approval process," said Elizabeth S. Rogan, president of the board.

The plan from Dranoff Properties calls for construction of an apartment building with retail at ground level and parking.

Critics say the project is too big for its site and neighborhood. Proponents claim it would boost downtown Ardmore by drawing young residents to live in a transit-friendly building near the train station.

The meeting's more than five hours of discussion on the proposal was punctuated by tetchy exchanges among commissioners, staff, and audience members.

The last dustup came around midnight, between Commissioner Lewis F. Gould Jr. and Philip S. Rosenzweig, the Building and Planning Committee's cochair.

In a last round of commissioner comments before the vote, Gould scolded Rosenzweig as being "boorish" in how he had laid down rules at the meeting's start for what could be discussed about the project.

Rosenzweig supports the project, while Gould opposes it if it is given state funding, which currently is in question.

Gould also was critical of his colleague's comments about another commissioner, Cheryl B. Gelber, who announced during the meeting that she had gone from being a supporter of the project to opposing it. Gelber was not at the table for the vote.

Rosenzweig used his comment time, he said Thursday afternoon, to reply that he wouldn't "lower myself to respond to Commissioner Gould's venomous comments."

The sniping among commissioners began last weekend in a series of heated e-mails.

Read more here:
Ardmore development moves closer to approval

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By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) A new apartment building, with a restaurant and retail space, is being built in center city.

Today, a ceremonial groundbreaking was held for the upcoming AQ Rittenhouse, a mixed-use tower at 20th and Chestnut Streets.

Mayor Michael Nutter says its all part of the planned revitalization of once-elegant Chestnut Street.

It was a terribly blighted building, and through the (Philadelphia) Redevelopment Authority we were able to ultimately move it to private ownership, the mayor told KYW Newsradio. They partnered with the charter school.

One floor of the new building is being reserved for expansion of the adjacent Freire Charter High School.

We are repurposing, rebuilding, revitalizing, renewing, what was once the old YWCA annex, says Leonard Poncia, president and managing partner of Aquinas Realty Partners, describing the 12-story luxury apartment building as providing tremendous amenities from the second-floor courtyard garden to the rooftop sky terrace to the community rooms, yoga rooms, extensive bike storage, to the dog walk. Weve got it all.

The building is expected to be completed by early 2015.

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Construction Set To Begin For Center City Luxury Apartment Building

People crammed into New Brunswick City Hall on Tuesday to further air their grievances about the building of an apartment complex on Mine Street.

At the last meeting in March, the New Brunswick Planning Board announced it would hold off on construction to hear more testimony from the public, which overwhelmingly opposed the construction.

Private city-based attorney Thomas Kelso represents the construction company Construction Management Associates, LLC set to build on Mine Street. New Brunswick Today editor-in-chief Charlie Kratovil questioned whether it is ethically appropriate for Kelso to represent the construction company, citing Kelsos position as Middlesex County council as a conflict of interest.

After an agitated Kelso reacted and had to be calmed by board members, Kratovil asked the board to look into the matter, but the subject was not pressed any further.

Mine Street resident Jennifer ONeill testified that any new construction should match the architecture of already existing homes and buildings on the street.

Her father, Kevin ONeill, agreed.

Any new buildings must follow guidelines, he said. They must visually match existing infrastructure.

Kevin ONeill cited plans from the Rutgers College Avenue Redevelopment Initiative, stating the lot at 72 Mine St. provides only for the expansion and preservation of single and double family homes by prohibiting apartment buildings.

Only Rutgers has the right to build and run an apartment on the lot where 72 Mine St. is located, he said.

Elizabeth Ciccone, secretary and treasurer of the Friends of The William H. Johnson House, Inc., said her organization works to support the restoration, preservation and maintenance of the historic William H. Johnson house. She said the construction of an apartment building on Mine Street would tarnish the historic streets, buildings and sites in New Brunswick.

Original post:
Proposed Mine Street construction spurs controversy

At least three sizable apartment complexes with a total value of $42 million are in the construction pipeline in the Spokane area and several sources say they expect to see more apartment projects proposed and under construction here in the coming year.

Thats on top of apartment projects valued at more than $72 million currently in some stage of construction in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area.

Colin Conway, a broker with Spokane-based commercial real estate brokerage Kiemle & Hagood Co., says he expects this area to see continued growth in development and investment in apartment projects.

Apartments are usually a stable investment vehicle, Conway says. Everybody needs a place to live.

The growth in demand for rental units isnt necessarily tied to the economy, he says.

Even while the economy was growing (before the Great Recession), there was a move toward apartment living, Conway says.

Nationally, a third of the nations population now lives in apartment complexes, and a roughly equal proportion of the Spokane population also lives in rentals, he says.

Renter numbers are only expected to grow, Conway says, adding that an analysis sponsored by the National Apartment Association and the National Family Housing Council concludes that half of all new family households formed this decade will live in rental units.

Were seeing baby boomers move into more multifamily situations and out of single-family homes, Conway says. Were also seeing echo-boomers choosing apartment lifestyles over owning single family homes.

Carl Durkoop, an appraiser with Valbridge Property Advisors Auble, Jolicoeur & Gentry Inc., of Spokane Valley, says that even with new construction, apartment occupancy rates in the Spokane market and nationwide are trending upward, which also is putting upward pressure on rents.

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Multifamily magnetism

An apartment building that was still under constructionin Anaheim caught fire and partially collapsed Tuesday morning in a dramatic blaze that caused an estimated $2 million in damage.

Part of a housing development in Anaheim caught fire on Tuesday. (Credit: KTLA)

The fire was located south of the 5 Freeway near the intersection of North Muller Street and West Lincoln Avenue (map) and was reported to the Anaheim Fire & Rescue department just before 8:30 a.m., according to a fire department dispatcher.

Aerial video from Sky5 showed multiple apartment buildingsin the area, many of which appeared to still be under construction.

One of the buildings was heavily damaged and appeared to have suffered a partial collapse.

Smoke was visible for miles as more than 80 firefighters responded to the construction site blaze.

There were no reports of injuries as a result of the fire, according to a tweet from the Anaheim Police Department.

Investigators were working to determine the cause and origin of the fire, the fire department said on Twitter. Representatives from the building estimated the damage at $2 million, the tweet stated.

Read the original:
Fire Damage at Anaheim Apartment Complex Estimated at $2 Million

Dan Wilson is a captain of the fire prevention task force that will be taking an inventory of all the wood frame walk up apartment buildings in New Westminster to rate them for their fire safety. The task force was formed in the wake of a fire in January that destroyed an apartment building on Ash Street.

image credit: MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER

The fire that destroyed an apartment building on Ash Street in January has sparked a task force to prevent such a conflagration from happening again.

New West fire chief Tim Armstrong said the eight-member task force will visit each of the city's approximately 500 wood frame walk-up buildings. Their task is to take an inventory of their age, construction, general condition and state of fire safety. The full tour should take 18 months.

He said such an effort was already in the works, but the Ash Street fire gave it more urgency.

"Ash Street was an example of how quickly this type of construction can get away from you in a fire," said Armstrong.

A special agreement with the firefighters' union will allow the task force to be on duty seven days a week. They will also make appearances at community events and provide public education.

New West Coun. Chuck Puchmayr praised the creation of the task force at a recent city council session.

"Anything you can do to give those tools to firefighters is very positive," Puchmayr said.

Puchmayr had called for the federal and provincial governments to find a way to help the owners of older buildings retrofit with sprinkler systems.

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Task force aims to make small apartment buildings safer