Developer picks up 60-acre ready-to-go parcel in the middle of Pinellas County.

Michael T. Rand is in jail awaiting a hearing on 11 counts of federal charges.

WASHINGTON - The economic recovery appears to be stalling as companies cut back last month on their investments in equipment and machines and Americans bought new homes at the weakest pace in decades.

Aug. 25--Last year, Billings real estate professionals spent a lot of time assuring their customers that the local market was in much better shape than the doom and gloom reflected in the national statistics.

WASHINGTON - It's starting to feel like another recession.

Aug. 26--Maria Olmo, 63, doesn't like her chances of paying off her new, 40-year mortgage.

Aug. 26--BLOOMINGTON -- In real estate, it's all about location, location, location -- and the yard sign.

Aug. 26--Unemployment may rise and home sales may fall, but Atlanta's economy is poised for "quasi-growth" the next two years, the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University predicted Wednesday.

Does your house come with a train or a bus?

Excel Homes joins forces with contractor F.E. Moran provide builders with turnkey installation program.

August 26, 2010 04:21:31 GMT

August 25, 2010 22:57:18 GMT

Vestas Americas, a producer of wind power systems will keep its headquarters in Portland in part because of a $30 million recovery bond. The company is planning a $60 million retrofit of this building, the former Meier & Frank warehouse in the Pearl District. (Photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

Cities and counties across Oregon are rushing to use federal bonds before a Dec. 31 deadline.

A significant amount of the bond money, which was intended to stimulate the building industry, has not been used. Local government officials admit that the federal process has been daunting, and that finding the right projects has been tiresome. But they’re working to allocate the money before it disappears.

The bonds, known as recovery bonds, were issued through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to all 50 states. The states distributed money to each county and each city with a population greater than 100,000.

Oregon was authorized to issue $258.7 million in recovery bonds - $155.2 million for facilities and $103.5 million for economic development. Approximately $185 million of the bonds either has been issued already or will be, said Marc Zolton, a spokesman for the Oregon Business and Development Department, which is in charge of issuing the bonds.

The facility bonds are issued through the city or county for private projects. But unlike a typical private bond, the purchaser doesn’t have to pay taxes on the interest earned. Private projects thus receive tax benefits of a public bond.

“These bonds are a great stimulus because they give bond buyers a reason to lend to private projects in this economy,” said Patrick Quinton, urban development, business and industry division manager for the Portland Development Commission, which is in charge of allocating Portland’s bonds. “But even though they can be a big help, they’ve been slow to get off the ground.”

The first speed bump was the time-consuming process to secure the bonds and complete the accompanying paperwork and procedures, Zolton said. Then the department had to market the program to the various cities and counties, he said.

But since the facility bonds were handed over to the cities and counties, the problem has been finding the right projects under the right timelines, Quinton said. The project has to be ready to go and have any additional funding in place before the bond is put on the market, he said.

“In addition to the timeline, the project has to be creditworthy with a credit score of at least an AA- because the city and the state’s name will be attached to it,” Quinton added. “And in this economy, even some of the best positioned developers don’t have that.”

The city of Portland was given $20 million in facility bonds but hasn’t issued any of it. There are four or five projects the PDC has targeted, but nothing has come to fruition yet, Quinton said.

However, the city recently made a move.

Not wanting to use its allotted $20 million, the city of Portland earlier this month asked the state to issue it an additional $30 million in facility bonds to entice Vestas Americas to keep its headquarters in Portland. The request is expected to be approved at the PDC board meeting on Friday. Vestas, the world’s leading producer of solar power systems, would get the $30 million tax-exempt bond for a $60 million renovation of the former Meier & Frank warehouse in the Pearl District.

“We’d heard that some parts of the state weren’t planning on using the money, so we asked the state and (it was) willing to help us keep Vestas around,” Quinton said.

In Eugene, city officials are working to authorize an $8 million recovery bond for Bennett Management Co. to construct a new downtown office building. But the city’s remaining $3 million in bond authority likely won’t be used, said Denny Braud, development analyst for the city of Eugene.

“These are not easy bonds to issue because of all the people you need on board and the timeline that must be stuck to,” Braud said. “We just stumbled into this one project, and will be very fortunate if it works out.”

The economic development recovery bonds, on the other hand, can be used only by public entities, which get a 45 percent interest subsidy on the bond. Also, these bonds may be sold on the private bond market, where they could generate more interest.

Multnomah County has issued has plans to issue its $5 million economic development recovery bond to help pay for its $20 million East County Courthouse project. Because of the subsidy, the county will save $300,000 to $400,000 in interest over the life of the bond, said Mark Campbell, acting director of finance and risk management with Multnomah County.

“We were thinking about a lot of projects, but this one rose to the top because we knew we wanted to get it going by the end of the year,” Campbell said. “It fit the timeline.”

Portland used an $11 million economic recovery bond earlier this year to finance energy and water conservation projects at 100 Portland public schools.

Washington County has a list of projects for its bonds, as well. It has issued $19.3 million in facility bonds and $12.8 million in economic development bonds. Hillsboro and Banks have been the main beneficiaries so far. Beaverton felt the effects of the short timeline; it wasn’t able to get a list of potential projects together for the bonds by the time Washington County commissioners needed it.

And even Umatilla County recently authorized a $9 million grant for improvements to a Snack Alliance manufacturing facility in Hermiston. The company also is in an enterprise zone, so it gets property tax abatement on top of the bond financing for the improvements.

“They’ve been slow to get issued,” Zolst said. “But we’re going to do everything in our power to get the money out the door before it’s gone.”

Crews from Chris Arsenault Costruction last week moved the final house that had been standing in a Lents area that the city wants to restore to a floodplain. (Photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

The city of Portland recently cleared its largest hurdle for a construction project to reduce flooding in Lents, when the last house within the floodplain was trucked to a new home.

In order to reduce flooding along Southeast Foster Road between 106th and 111th avenues, the city for the past few years has been working to relocate homeowners living in the area so that it can become a floodplain again.

But unlike other homeowners, who let their homes be deconstructed in exchange for new homes paid for by the city, resident Wes Wolfe chose not to part with his house. After months of negotiations, the city and Wolfe reached an agreement for his home to be moved south on Southeast 108th Avenue, and out of the floodplain. The deal allowed the city to meet a crucial deadline, according to Mike Rosen, watershed manager with Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services.

“There were $2.7 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency grants set to expire next month for this project,” Rosen said. “Now we will absolutely be able to use our grant. The final obstacle of getting that house off the site has been cleared.”

In February, Wolfe still had not signed a final agreement with BES, leading to concern in the agency that it would not be able to start construction on the $4 million floodplain restoration project in time to use federal grant money. Wolfe finally agreed to a deal in which the city purchased his property and gave him salvage rights so that he could relocate his house close to its current location. Additional time and effort were required to relocate Wolfe; however, Eli Callison, environmental program specialist with BES, said the deal will actually save the city money.

“Wes’ situation was unique,” Callison said. “He and his wife, Joyce, had a strong connection to the area. We finally have everyone out and everyone seems pretty happy.”

Crews from D&T Excavation are removing trees from the 30-acre project site so that excavational work can begin next summer, according to Lloyd Stahning, supervising engineer with BES. The goal is to create an open space where floodwaters from nearby Johnson Creek can collect during the rainy season.

Floodwaters presently flow onto nearby Foster Road, where businesses like Precision Auto Glass are affected at least once per year. Precision employees have a plan in place to meet at the nearby New Copper Penny restaurant, at 5932 S.E. 92nd Ave., and carpool to work in a truck or SUV on days when floodwaters become hazardous for most vehicles.

Lents resident Wes Wolfe has lived in this house for 30 years. He reached an agreement with the city of Portland for this home to be relocated outside the floodplain on Southeast 108th Avenue. (Photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

“We’re lucky in that the previous owner built up our building so it won’t flood,” said Cheryl Van Alstine, a Precision employee. “Driving down the road to get to work is the big issue. Last year when it flooded, you could have swum in it. The water was so high.”

A request for bids will go out later this year for contractors to remove 50,000 square feet of earth from the area. Excavational work and habitat enhancements will be performed in 2011. Trees removed from the area will be used to create habitat for wildlife living near Johnson Creek. In 2012, several bridges will be removed and a new road will be constructed between Southeast 112th and 108th avenues to complete the project.

“We have a certain in-water period where we can perform this work and that’s during the dry season,” Stahning said. “Getting the work done in the timeframe allowed will be our next big challenge.”

Wolfe, while watching crews from Chris Arsenault Construction prep his 30-year-old home for its move, said he looked at other places in Portland to build a new home. But in the end, he couldn’t part with the quiet, natural beauty of the neighborhood where he has lived for three decades.

“There are not many people or developments here. We like that,” Wolfe said. “At the same time, I’m going to miss having a creek in my yard and my giant tree. Coming home to this house feels like putting on an old pair of slippers.”

A little-known building in Aspen, Colorado, designed by the late Chicago architect Harry Weese—whose most celebrated work is the Washington, D.C., Metro system—is threatened with demolition.

Newly linked contractor Balfour Beatty and professional services firm Parsons Brinckerhoff are seeking their sweet spot as a global infrastructure firm.

The overall global construction market continues to be soft as investment capital is hard to come by, but there are bright spots both geographically and in market sectors.

A surge in audits and criminal investigations mostly involves U.S. citizens and firms, report says.

planned two-mile relocation of Chicago’s South Shore Drive, about 10 miles south of the city’s downtown, is spurring a $4-billion megaproject to turn the vacant 530-acre site of a former U.S. Steel mill on Lake Michigan into a new community with nearly 14,000 housing units.

Construction workplace deaths continued to decline in 2009, but the fatality rate held even with the previous year’s mark, and industry safety specialists see little sign that conditions are improving on project sites nationwide.