Archives for January 2014

New Higher Education Center Construction Begins in January

January 4, 2014 by mcarristo

In January, Santa Fe Community College and the construction firm McCarthy New Mexico begin work on the college’s Higher Education Center. The 34,000-square-foot building is being developed on approximately 5 acres at the southeast corner of the old College of Santa Fe property, at the corner of Yucca Street and Siringo Road.
“It is across the street from Santa Fe High School and we will be doing some dual-credit programs in the daytime, it will be heavily used by our higher-education partners in the evening, and we’ll have some regular Santa Fe Community College classes there,” said Randy Grissom, acting SFCC president.

“It provides a closer location for the state employees downtown to take lunchtime classes. And in the two flex labs we hope to be doing medical-related training for the hospital just down the street. We’ll probably be doing some American Heart Association-type training and some emergency medical training, continuing education for hospital employees.”

The Santa Fe Community College Higher Education Center (HEC) was launched in 2011. In partnership with New Mexico Highlands University, the Institute of American Indian Arts, New Mexico State University, and the University of New Mexico, it gives students the option of earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree without leaving Santa Fe.

The new HEC building is a U-shaped building around a courtyard. It will include 15 classrooms and two flexible lab spaces — all two-story except over the flex labs. “The flex-lab rooms are 900-square-foot spaces and can be closed off for use on weekends, said Henry Mignardot, SFCC director of facilities.

The HEC will use energy-efficient heating and cooling via a ground-source heat pump. The project includes a 175-kilowatt, rooftop photovoltaic system, plus an additional four panels in the parking lot that may be used for instruction purposes.

“This facility will most likely be LEED Gold-certified, so we have continuous insulation; it’s like a big Igloo cooler,” said Matthew McKim, principal, Dekker Perich Sabatini Architects. “It’s steel-frame, mostly EFIS [exterior insulation and finishing system], and it has a very robust infrastructure for wifi.

“One space that’s kind of interesting we’re calling the collaborative learning lab. You enter from exterior doors or from the courtyard and it’s a big socializing space, where you can get computers and use wifi.”

The learning lab will have furniture that can easily be moved and stored, so will also function for lectures and other events.

“There’s a lot of natural light, so when you walk into the collaborative learning lab, you’ll be able to look through the transparent building into the courtyard. We’re trying to blur the inside-outside,” McKim said. “As far as the shading, we’re trying to do something that’s very New Mexican, using the building itself. The U-shaped windows — which have been used at the college, so it’s kind of part of the SFCC brand — are inset in the double-studded walls that will be up to 3 1/2 feet thick on the west side.”

The college will employ a money-saving “hoteling” strategy at HEC, where many faculty members will use immediate, temporary work stations rather than having their own desks. The overall idea is a building that is efficient and flexible.

Among the previous Santa Fe projects of the Albuquerque-based Dekker Perich Sabatini firm are 48 units of student housing for the College of Santa Fe (now Santa Fe University of Art & Design), Plaza Santa Fe Phase II, the Thornburg Investment Management office building, the Zocalo condominiums, and the Bicycle Technologies International building near SFCC.

The college and McCarthy will begin work on the $9 million HEC building this month and is planning for substantial completion in January 2015.
By: Paul Weideman (The Santa Fe New Mexican)

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SEC Deregulation for Commercial Real Estate Investments

January 3, 2014 by mcarristo

As mentioned in these pages last year (“Realty Mogul Reaches $10 Million Crowdfunding Benchmark”), recent SEC deregulation has cleared the way for commercial real estate investments to seek capital from individual investors with fewer requirements than before. Add the internet to this new playing field and you get crowdsourcing of real estate investment: where property-based offers are thrown open to anybody with a web browser (and sufficient capital).
Among the early wave of startup companies in the crowdsourced real estate investment business is Realty Mogul. If this startup is any indication, it appears the new crowdfunding sector is getting off the ground: the company has announced $10 million in property acquisitions totaling 27 properties.
The properties include multifamily, retail centers and storage facilities. As reported by Globe St.’s Kelsi Maree Borland, one thing that characterizes each of the portfolio’s properties is cash flow:
“Our early success confirms that people are frustrated with the low returns offered by banks and are looking for alternative ways to invest,” says Realty Mogul co-founder and CEO Jilliene Helman. The company has invested in multifamily properties, retail centers and storage facilities with cash flow, offering investors a quick return on their investment.
The web-based platform simplifies the investment process. Participants can do everything through the website from browsing opportunities to viewing transaction details and signing legal documents. “We’ve made it easy to participate in real estate investing via the Internet by creating a fantastic user experience,” says Helman. “Crowdfunding is going to revolutionize capital formation in real estate. It is here to stay.”
These thoughts are echoed by the SEC who unanimously voted in October to approve Title III crowdfunding proposed rules that allow businesses or investor groups to participate in securities-based crowdfunding. That means that unaccredited investors could make private investments, something that has been banned for 80 years.”
By: Wayne Grohl (The Source by NAR)
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Economic Forecast for 2014: Steady Improvement

January 1, 2014 by mcarristo

The economic landscape for 2014 looks pleasantly solid. The American economy should continue to improve, unemployment rates should keep falling, house prices should rise by about 6% to 7% from current levels, and the manufacturing sector will continue to slowly pick up steam. Most importantly, DC budget brinksmanship appears to have taken a breather, thereby reducing policy uncertainty which should boost business spending and risk taking. In addition, the continued rise in consumer sentiment, along with the improving jobs picture, will insure that new home construction continues its steady, albeit unspectacular, ascent. Lastly, while the developing world will slow in 2014, Europe is out of recession, Japan looks better and China looks OK. The only serious domestic fly in the ointment is the fact that wage growth is slim to none and inflation is too low.

With all this in mind, I expect full year 2014 GDP to come in at no less than 2.85%, a healthy rise from the expected 2.2% GDP growth experienced in 2013. As for housing starts, they should, for the first time in years, exceed a million units, with total starts coming in at 1.12 million. For all of 2014, single-family starts should total about 750,000 and in Q4, starts should hit an annualized rate of 800,000. Multifamily starts for 2014 should total 370,000 but exhibit no trend from quarter to quarter.
As for jobs, given the slowly improving labor market, expect net new monthly job gains to average close to 215,000 per month. As a result, the unemployment rate should steadily fall from the current level of 7% to 6.5% and maybe even 6.4% by year end 2014, with much riding upon the behavior of the falling labor force participation rate (LFPR). If the LFPR remains where it is, an unemployment rate of 6.5% will not be a stretch, but if the LFRP rises, and that would be a good thing, unemployment may end the year at 6.7%.
Inflation will remain quite benign but possibly show modest upward drift. The combination of mildly improving global growth, flat to declining energy and commodity prices, and mildly rising food prices will keep the CPI pretty much where it is; at or below 2%. Moreover, the combination of miniscule rises in import prices, producer prices, and anemic wage growth means that personal consumption expenditure inflation, the Feds preferred inflation measure, will not exceed 1.7%. That will give the Federal Reserve ample room to slowly ratchet down its monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage backed securities in $10 billion increments until the program ends in late 2014. Importantly, the Fed should have no problem keeping short term interest rates at their current rock bottom levels, at least through the end of 2014.
As a result of faster GDP growth in 2014, 30-year mortgage rates will probably end the year around 5%. But not to worry, as a combination of easing credit market conditions, rising house values, mild increases in consumer spending, and slightly rising exports will keep the economy on track despite mildly rising mortgage rates. In short, given decent GDP growth, the expected interest rate rise will not sap growth. Lastly, I put the chances of a recession in 2014 at only 10%. So look forward to steady improvement during the next 12 months and fear not rising interest rates.
Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D. is President of GraphsandLaughs, LLC and can be reached at Elliot@graphsandlaughs.net. His daily 70 word economics and policy blog can be seen at www.econ70.com.
By: Elliot Eisenberg (GraphsandLaughs)