Construction Maison

ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor officials are resuming talks of potentially putting a city income tax proposal before voters. The city's staff is scheduled to make a presentation to the City Council at a special work session on Sept. 11. The meeting is dedicated to the topic of city revenue and the idea of implementing a local income tax . Ann Arbor officials have discussed the idea for many years, mostly in the context of finding a way to generate tax revenue from the tens of thousands of people who live outside Ann Arbor and commute here for work, including many University of Michigan employees. UM has a large footprint in the city and does not pay property taxes . The idea of a city income tax reemerged at a city budget retreat last December, where there were talks of updating a 2009 feasibility study and putting a proposal on the November 2018 ballot. State law requires letting city voters decide whether to implement a local income tax . Ann Arbor's city charter also re...

The Aurora City Council has agreed to delay any restaurant development in the former Elks Club building at Stolp Avenue and Benton Street downtown . Aldermen unanimously approved an amendment to the development agreement between the city and Karademas Management that says for the time being, the developer of what is now known as The Mayan luxury apartments does not need to develop a restaurant in the first floor of the building. The original agreement between the city and Karademas called for Karademas to remodel the historic building into apartments, and to include a restaurant as part of the renovation. The city, which had taken ownership of the historic building, gave Karademas ownership of the building for $1. In return, Karademas put up a $500,000 performance bond as assurance he would complete the project. The apartments have been remodeled, and 26 of the 29 units currently are occupied. As he has been working on the project, Karademas has said there was no interest from a r...

Jennifer Johnson was freezing cold and so was her 5-month-old baby. It was January, and the heat in her apartment wouldn 't go above 60. When the wind blew outside, her drapes fluttered inside . She called the maintenance department at Lakecrest Park Apartments in Roosevelt Park . The man who answered was rude, then crude, then hung up on her. Desperate and shivering, Johnson called the police. The result? Inspectors were called who issued citations, city leaders changed the ordinance to allow stricter enforcement of building codes and the apartment complex's East Coast owners became "cooperative" with city officials . And what about the apartment's management and maintenance department she dealt with? All fired. It's unusual for officials of any city to move so quickly to step into a tenant-landlord dispute. But with only a few large apartment complexes in the one-square-mile city, inspectors and leaders decided change was needed fast. A lease nightmar...

The developer of a large proposed Lomita apartment complex will pay the city more than $450,000 initially and then $50,000 annually in development fees to offset the effects of a project more dense than municipal standards currently allow. In addition, to get around the density issue, the city plans to create a specific plan for the area that would permit residential densities of up to 88 units an acre. That’s the exact density of the 220- unit Picerne Apartments , which would sit on a 2.7-acre site on the Torrance border at the northeast corner of Lomita and Crenshaw boulevards. The Planning Commission will discuss the project and specific plan at a 6:30 p.m. Monday public hearing at City Hall, 24300 Narbonne Ave. City staff is recommending approval of the project, saying it is consistent with the goals and objectives of the city’s land-use policies. “Specifically, the project furthers these goals by developing an under-utilized parcel, helping to address a documented housing shor...

PHOENIX - Nearly 200 residents at the Mirabella Apartment complex in Phoenix have been without water for days. That is until late Thursday night when Phoenix Fire Department spokesperson Benjamin Santillan told ABC15 the city agreed to turn the water back on for a week. The water company says the complex near the I-17 and Camelback owes them about $50,000 dollars, and until the bill is paid, the residents are stuck in the middle. "I think this is crazy. Everyone is very emotional, we don't know when this will end or if we'll have to go without water every day," said Crystal Medina who called ABC15 for help. When our crews arrived they found some fed up residents standing outside. They've been dealing with no water for two days. "It's terrible. I have to go to work, but we can't shower, we can't use the toilets, we can't even clean," said new resident Ira Savely . Savely and his roommate just moved into the apartment days ago , unaware ...

If plans work out, the city will be gaining a new restaurant called the Spin-N-Win Cafe. During its meeting Aug. 7, the Highland City Council voted to increase the number of class D2 liquor licenses from 10 to 11 permits. A D2 license allows restaurants to operate video gaming terminals . The council also approved the issuance of the additional license to Surjuit “Sunny” Tut, the owner of Tut Properties Inc. and Highland Liquor and Food Mart, located at 201 Walnut St. In a letter to Mayor Joe Michaelis , Tut said he is in the process of negotiating with a chain food service provider in hopes of opening a restaurant called the Spin-N-Win Cafe. Tut said he originally wanted to open the restaurant out of his existing business. But he decided it would not provide enough space, so instead he purchased a property at 213 Walnut St. with the intent of tearing down a dilapidated home and garage on the property. He said the plan is to construct a new structure for a restaurant. The restaura...

Some graduate students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are pushing the university to build more on-campus housing, and using MIT’s plans to build in the heart of red- hot Kendall Square as leverage. A group of grad students and Cambridge residents Monday filed a proposal with the city that would prevent MIT from developing the 14-acre site of the Volpe Transportation Center — which MIT is buying from the federal government for $750 million — until it adds up to 1,800 more dorm beds for graduate students. Advertisement The zoning petition would need approval from the Cambridge City Council , and its proponents framed it more as “the beginning of a conversation” than an outright demand. And it comes as MIT officials pledge another review of graduate student housing . It’s the latest round in a long debate over how MIT, and other Boston-area schools, should house their growing student bodies in an increasingly crowded city .Officials in Boston have been pushing colleges a...

It will take a supermajority of Charleston City Council votes tonight to approve a badly needed six- month moratorium on large new developments on James Island. Council members should not hesitate to lend their wholehearted support. The Town of James Island unanimously passed a moratorium in May. So did City Council, although the city Planning Commission rejected it in June. County Council inexplicably has remained largely silent on the issue. But no one should be under the illusion that a half-year ban on multi-family developments will somehow straighten out the island’s longstanding, growth-related woes in and of itself. Rather the moratorium is simply an opportunity to do what City Council should have been doing for decades — develop a workable strategy to preserve James Island ’s livability and unique character in the face of a booming population. That strategy must involve infrastructure upgrades , like pushing forward the stalled but crucial Rethink Folly Road plan in coo...

Samuelson Development has spent the past 15 years building and managing apartments in Sioux Falls, one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. Now, the construction firm has struck out for the west where it is seeing new opportunities and investing millions of dollars. "We love the Rapid City market ," said Matt Petersen, property manager for Samuelson Development . "Our research showed there was a high demand for luxury housing."  The company, which has about 600 properties in its portfolio, is spending about $16 million on the Copper Ridge Apartments project now under construction at 2000 Golden Eagle Road in southwest Rapid City , project manager John Samuelson said. It is the company's first project in Rapid City. The construction of those apartments, along with the Gateway Apartment project on Marlin Drive in southern Rapid City that has a permit value of $15.1 million, represents a resurgence in the construction of new multi-housing projects...

Whitney and Luke Bowerman dream of building cottages on one of the few larger lots remaining in Olympia’s Eastside neighborhood. They want to leave the existing trees on the Fairview Street Southeast lot , and reflect the character of the neighborhood in their design. The cottages would join a new, three-bedroom house also designed to fit the area. But the city of Olympia has made it expensive to build cottages, the Bowermans said. They estimate that city fees alone will run $30,000 to $40,000 per cottage. And the cottages will be just between 500 and 800 square feet. “The impact fees for a 500-square-foot cottage are almost the same as for a single-family home,” Whitney Bowerman said. “But you can’t rent them for as much,” Luke Bowerman said. If changes aren’t made to reduce the costs, the Bowermans said, they might have to abandon the cottage idea and build a more traditional subdivision. Out of respect for the neighborhood, they don’t want to do that. Meanwhile, Olympia is poised...

Downtown Merchants Association coordinator Jessica Kohn said one resounding issue is brought up at each monthly meeting of downtown Auburn business owners . “A huge hurdle is employees not having designated parking spaces for them,” Kohn said. “Unless business owners lease parking spaces , that’s really the only way they’re guaranteed a space. Certain business owners tell their employees to catch a ride or walk.” On average, 125 employees work at businesses downtown each day, she added. Not having them park their personal vehicles downtown frees parking spaces for customers. Yet the rallying cry from people who work, shop and eat in Auburn is that there is simply not enough parking space available to everyone. “In all the parking studies we’ve done, we’ve always been told that what Auburn needs is not one huge deck with 1,000 cars or 2,000 cars. It’s several little spaces,” interim city manager Jim Buston said. “Because our town is not that big; our town is smal...

In the latest sign of a renaissance on the south end of downtown, a five-story building with a bank, street- level retail shops and 130 loft apartments is scheduled to open next week. The Pinnacle Bank Place is a five-story structure on Lancaster Avenue, between Jennings and Throckmorton streets. It is just west of the Fort Worth Water Gardens and north of Texas & Pacific Warehouse. Not all of the features in the blond-brick building will open at once. Many of the retail shops will open toward the end of the year, including a Novak Hair Studio , Stories Coffee Shop and Dentistry of Downtown Fort Worth , a city official said. But the bank itself is ready for customers. And lofts are about 70 percent leased, said Robert Sturns, economic development director with the city of Fort Worth. “The Pinnacle Bank Place is going to spur a lot of the activity we have been expecting in that area near the Water Gardens,” Sturns said. Joining forces In 2015, Pinnacle Bank and the city’s Loc...