A 26,500-square-foot Goodwill retail store has broken ground on4.3 acres west of Kohl's department store, near the intersection ofSouth Circle Drive and Janitell Road.
The retail center will replace Goodwill's downtown store at PikesPeak and Wahsatch avenues, which is scheduled to close later thisyear.
In addition to departments such as clothing, housewares,collectibles, sporting good and toys, the new store will include a1,000-square-foot teen department and a book nook with a coffee bar.
Janitell-Childs Design Group is the project architect and G.E.Johnson is the general contractor. The total cost of the project isabout $7 million, said spokeswoman Laura Marth.
Population and construction
Colorado is among a handful of Western and Southern states withfast-growing county populations.
Of Colorado counties with populations of more than 100,000,Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas, Weld, Montrose and Larimer sawpopulation increases of more than 2 percent between 2006 and 2007.
El Paso County's population grew by 1.1 percent and Pueblo Countygrew by 1.6 percent.
Other growth areas identified by the Population Reference Bureauwere Florida, the interior of California, parts of Nevada, Arizonaand Utah as well 'as in the suburbs and exurbs of large metropolitanareas, such as Atlanta and Washington, D.C.' The biggest declineswere in the rural Midwest, the upper Great Plains and theMississippi Delta region, including New Orleans.
Ken Simonson, chief economist for Associated General Contractorsof America, sees a link between opportunity for the constructionindustry and population growth.
Perhaps as a result of the price of oil and energy, he alsoreported that based on Census data, several suburban counties thatare farthest from urban centers have seen a 'marked deceleration' inresidents moving in, while some urban areas and close-in suburbsthat had experienced steady population losses are seeing the trendreverse.
Residential updates
The residential real estate market is alive and holding its own,despite of headlines to the contrary.
Campbell Homes, for example, has opened a new sales office inMeridian Ranch. The builder also has a presence in PronghornMeadows, Feathergrass, Cordera, Falcon Hills and Indigo Ranch.
Nichols & Comito has sold three custom lots at Cedar Heightssince the beginning of the year, and a fourth is under contract,said Celeste Marren. The Village at Star Ranch also has seen newactivity, with two lots under contract in the Estates neighborhoodand the first residents moving in this month.
Steel prices won't hurt post
Oil and alternative energy sources are not the only commoditiesin high demand.
During the past six months, steel prices and the prices for someother construction materials have increased as much as 50 percentfrom last summer.
As a result, the cost of many industrial, commercial, energy andgovernment projects along the Front Range will probably go up.
Robert Giles, head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office atFort Carson, said post construction contractors anticipated theincreases.
'Some of our manufactured housing is actually built offsite --and they're using mostly wood,' he said. 'In addition, most of theon-post contractors we work with have switched to wood framing andtrusses because steel is just too expensive. Also, contractors onthe post's new maintenance buildings are using tilt-up concreteinstead of steel which is just too expensive.'
Giles admits that the lifespan of wood isn't that of steel, butstaying within budget requires being resourceful.
Ken Simonson, chief economist for Associated General Contractorsof America's, said he believes that reports from steel producerswill mean an 'unprecedented price spiral at a time of lacklusterdomestic demand, beckoning higher costs for everything fromrefrigerators to new office towers during a period of economicweakness.'
There are bright spots, however. Energy related and industrialprojects, health care, and hotels and resorts are moving ahead, thelatter benefiting from the cheap dollar 'which draws in foreigntourists while keeping U.S. travelers closer to home,' said JohnCross, AISC vice president of marketing.
