MIDLAND, TEXAS — General contractor Adolfson & Peterson has broken ground on a 60,000-square-foot early education center at Midland College in West Texas. The two-story building will be an expansion of the existing pre-K campus, allowing for an enrollment increase of more than 200 students. Parkhill is designing the project, which is expected to be complete in time for the fall 2023 semester.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte City Council has approved the proposed $275 million financing package for renovations to Spectrum Center, the home arena for the NBA franchise Charlotte Hornets. The city council voted 10-1 to approve the plan, which includes a $60 million budget to build a new basketball practice training facility that will be funded via new revenue generated from sponsorships and naming right agreements. Financing for the city’s role in the $215 million in renovations to Spectrum Center (approximately $173 million) will be sourced from rental car and hotel taxes. The plan also extends the team’s lease through 2045, an additional 15 years from its lease expiration in 2030. Located at 333 E. Trade St. in Uptown Charlotte, Spectrum Center opened in October 2005 and has a seating capacity exceeding 20,000. In addition to Hornets home games, the arena hosts concerts, collegiate sporting competitions, comedy shows and other events. The City of Charlotte owns the arena and Hornets Sports & Entertainment operates it. Details about specific renovations or a construction timeline have not been made public.
WORCESTER, MASS. — Shawmut Design & Construction has broken ground on a 70,000-square-foot academic building at Clark University in the central Massachusetts city of Worcester. The two-wing building will serve as the new center for the media arts, computing and design programs. Design features will include a multimedia gallery, virtual reality lab, video game library for researching interactive media, a makerspace, incubator space, robotics lab, data science lab, a tiered classroom and faculty offices. Completion is slated for next fall.
HOUSTON — Avenue, a locally based affordable housing owner-operator, has opened a 30,500-square-foot community resource center in Houston’s Near Northside neighborhood. Global architecture firm Page designed the three-story facility, which houses a community health clinic that provides an array of general and specialty services, as well as a YMCA Children’s Academy. The facility opened in phases beginning last year and now has all services fully operational.
NEW YORK CITY — Chicago-based investment firm Syndicated Equities has acquired a 110-space parking garage located at 58 W. 58th St. in Manhattan’s Midtown East neighborhood. The structure house both ground-level and underground parking space. Syndicated Equities acquired the property, which is leased to Icon Garages, in partnership with Centerpark Realty, a locally based investment firm that specializes in the product type. The seller and sales price were not disclosed.
BALTIMORE — The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) has broken ground on the Roslyn and Leonard Stoler Center for Advanced Medicine, a nine-story patient care tower located on the UMMC campus at 22 S. Greene St. in downtown Baltimore. The facility will serve as the new entrance to the UMMC and house the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC). The $219 million development is expected to be completed in mid-2025. The project, which will more than double the cancer center’s footprint, will feature 198,000 square feet of new space and 42,000 square feet of renovated space. UMMC is funding the tower with $100 million from the state of Maryland, along with private donations and UMMC capital funds. UMMC has raised more than $51 million from 130 donors as part of UMMC’s Building for Life Campaign to fund the project. Clark Construction will serve as general contractor for the project, which is estimated to be wrap up in 32 months.
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — Matthews Southwest has begun the final phase of the expansion and redevelopment of the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, which includes the 29-story, 800-room Omni Fort Lauderdale hotel. The total cost of the project is about $1.3 billion and is expected to deliver in late 2025. Nunzio Marc DeSantis Architects designed the hotel, Fentress Architects designed the convention center expansion and Balfour Beatty is handling construction. The project is expected to generate 1,000 construction jobs and 1,300 permanent jobs. Matthews Southwest opened Phase I of the convention center in October 2021. The expansion project will add an additional 600,000 square feet of flexible indoor event and meeting space and an additional 200,000 square feet of outdoor programming space, to create a total of more than 1.4 million square feet of event space that includes 350,000 square feet of contiguous exhibition space. The expanded center will also feature a new 65,000-square-foot waterfront ballroom, 50 meeting rooms, new dining concepts, pre-function space and modern décor and technologies. The new Omni hotel will feature a rooftop bar, grand and junior ballrooms, meeting spaces, yoga deck and a pool deck. The project will also include an onsite water taxi …
BOSTON — International developer Skanska has completed a 118,000-square-foot expansion project in Boston for Brookline High School. The new building sits partially atop the MBTA’s Brookline Hills station and features lab space, classrooms for general use, dedicated event space, dining and food service areas, a library and collaboration spaces. Skanska also demolished a large portion of the existing campus to build a new, 70,000-square-foot wing with biology and chemistry labs/classrooms, collaboration and maker spaces, a culinary arts kitchen and a student restaurant/café.
NEW YORK CITY — The Museum of Women will open a 25,000-square-foot venue at 480 Broadway in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. The museum will offer 14 interactive exhibits, as well as a commissary and gift shop. The short-term lease agreement will expire in January 2023. Richard Skulnik, Lindsay Zegans and Ben Sabin of RIPCO Real Estate represented the landlord, KPG Funds, in the lease negotiations. Josh Berger of Norman Bobrow & Co. represented the tenant.
LAS VEGAS — Oak View Group has unveiled plans for a $3 billion entertainment district spanning 25 acres south of the Las Vegas Strip. The project will be located at the intersection of Interstates 15 and 215, and is set to include an 850,000-square-foot arena, casino, hotel and an additional entertainment venue. The arena will host upwards of 20,000 seats and will offer amenities such as suites and premium hospitality clubs. Oak View Group is actively seeking a partner to operate the hotel and casino portion of the development, and has held talks with a number of potential participants, according to reports by Bloomberg. The arena portion does not yet have a tenant. “We are proud Oak View Group has chosen Nevada for its next and largest project,” says Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak. “This newly proposed entertainment district in Las Vegas will help continue the state’s economic momentum and create thousands of jobs and greater prosperity for Nevadans.” Groundbreaking on the project, which is designed by architecture firms Gensler and Populous, is scheduled for 2023. Marc Badain, former president of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, will also partner with Oak View Group on the development. “South of the Las Vegas strip represents …