MACHESNEY PARK, ILL. — A new Army Reserves Training Facility is joining the Willow Creek Business Center in Machesney Park. The facility will consist of more than 15 acres of office and industrial ground and will be located north of Highway 173. The campus will include administrative offices, a library, learning center, weapons vault, weapons simulator and physical fitness area. Orput Cos. sold the land for $1.1 million. The Reserves' objective is to consolidate two of its training facilities to one central campus for better efficiency.
ST. PAUL, MINN. — The Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority has selected Jones Lang LaSalle as the property manager and retail leasing agent for St. Paul Union Depot. The historic facility is undergoing a $243 million transformation from a defunct rail station to an active transit center in St. Paul's Lowertown neighborhood. It will be the terminus of the Twin Cities' new light rail transit line, which connects the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, local and inner-city bus service, taxis, Amtrak and, in the future, high-speed rail service to Chicago.
JERSEY CITY, N. J. — The Boys & Girls Club of Hudson County will be getting new facilities attached to a new, 422-unit luxury rental building in Jersey City. Developers recently broke ground on the 30,000-square-foot facility, which will include classroom space, room for arts and music programs, a gymnasium and more. The new building will replace the organization's current facility, which was built in 1912 as a storage facility and retrofitted for the Boys & Girls Club in 1984. The club will be attached but operated independently from 18 Park, a 550,000-square-foot rental building. Ironstate Development Co. and Kushner Real Estate Group have partnered to develop the project, which is expected to be complete in the fall of 2014.
HOUSTON — Hoar Construction has completed the $31.2 million, 78,000-square-foot University of Houston Science Teaching Lab building and is planning to add 12,000 square feet of research space to the facility. Hoar will complete the unfinished shell space on the fourth floor of the property. Each teaching lab of the facility includes six workstations, fume hoods, instrumentation benches, locked drawers for personal lab supplies, multi-media capabilities and a lounge on each floor. The construction is part of the Board of Regents' pursuit of Tier One status, which The Carnegie Foundation granted in January 2011. The pursuit included $240 million of construction projects to the university.
BELLEVILLE, ILL. — Contegra Construction Co. is building a new $37.8 million laboratory facility for the Illinois State Police and other law enforcement agencies in southwest Illinois that will quadruple the space dedicated in the region to crime-solving forensic science technology. The two-story, 64,100-square-foot building is taking shape on a 2.3-acre site at the intersection of 23rd and West Main streets in Belleville. When operational, it will serve 154 police agencies in a contiguous eight-county area in Illinois.The building will include more than 40,000 square feet of lab space housing research infrastructure and equipment for crime scene services such as trace chemistry, polygraph, latent prints, firearms and forensic biology/DNA testing. The building will replace 15,000 square feet of antiquated forensic science space the law enforcement agency currently leases in Fairview Heights, Ill. and is being funded by the state's Illinois Jobs Now! Capital Development Board. Joining prime contractor Contegra on the project team are Pyramid Electrical Contractors Inc., Amsco Mechanical Inc. and Bi-State Fire Protection Corp.
CHICAGO — Mortenson Construction has upgraded the Great Hall at Chicago's historic Union Station as part of a $25 million infrastructure improvement project. Mortenson replaced or upgraded the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in the 87-year-old building, and also installed fire safety equipment. Amtrak, the owner of Union Station, provided the funding while Jones Lang LaSalle managed the project.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — Charles Perry Partners Inc. has completed the $3.36 million, 16,000-square-foot University of North Florida College of Education's Disability Resource Center (DRC). The two-story facility promotes and facilitates partnerships among UNF students with disabilities and the UNF community. The DRC also assists those with hearing, learning, medical, psychological, physical, speech and vision disabilities, as well as ADHD, ADD, traumatic head injury and other diagnosed disabilities.
ALEXANDRIA, MINN. — Construction will begin this month on a new $65.15 million high school in Alexandria that will house 1,500 students. The school will be constructed on a 167-acre site located at 50th Avenue and Pioneer Road. The 280,000-square-foot high school will include two, 3-story academic wings with 36 classrooms, science labs, art rooms, a media center and special education classrooms. The facility will also feature new athletic fields, a stadium, a performing arts wing and a 1,000-seat auditorium. The new school will replace the current facility, which is landlocked and had few options for expansion. The Alexandria School District hired Kraus-Anderson Construction Co. as the project construction manager.
NEW YORK CITY — Construction is complete on the New York Police Department's (NYPD) auto pound in Springfield Garden, Queens. The project included the construction of a 10,000-square-foot facility, which contains a public redemption area, enclosed offices and locker rooms. The 550,800-square-foot site also contains storage for up to 4,000 automobiles impounded by the NYPD. The auto pound was relocated from its former location in College Point, Queens, to make way for a new police academy. Spacesmith served as the architect for the project and Hudson Meridian Construction Group was the project manager. The project team also included MG Engineering, Hage Engineering and Langan Engineering & Environmental Services.
DECORAH, IOWA — Opus Design Build will construct a 17,800-square-foot aquatics center at Luther College in Decorah at a cost of $5.9 million. The facility will feature an 8-lane competition pool, 13-foot-depth diving area and shallow pool for swimming lessons. Opus AE Group will serve as the architect and structural engineer while Michaels Engineering will be the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer and Braun Intertec the geotechnical consultant. Construction is set to begin this September with completion expected in May 2013.