Yearly Archives: 2015

U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced legislation (S. 2318) this week to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for 10 years and reestablish fair and equitable funding for states. The bill specifically returns to the original 1965 funding allocation split between state (60 percent) and federal (40 percent) purposes, resulting in more opportunities for citizens to enjoy a healthy lifestyle in their local communities.

Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors, a nationally-recognized real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in retail property sales, announced today that Senior Vice President Pat Kent completed the sale of Hemet Plaza, a 58,035-square-foot shopping center anchored by Big Lots (not part of the sale) and True Value hardware store in Riverside County, California. The purchase price was $5,575,000, representing a cap rate of 6.3%.

AHS Secretary Hal Cohen and DCF Commissioner Ken Schatz announced today that Vermont has been awarded approximately $18.4 million in federal funds for this year's Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) also known as Seasonal Fuel Assistance. These funds will help about 24,700 low-income Vermont households to heat their homes this winter by paying a portion of their home heating bills

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the grand opening of the rehabilitated F.W. Woolworth building in Watertown. This historic landmark, which was one of the nation's earliest F.W. Woolworth stores, has been transformed from a downtown eyesore into a vibrant building with 50 units of affordable rental housing and ground-level retail space.

“Consumers Energy is thankful to be a part of holiday celebrations across the state as warm Thanksgiving memories are being made, and we are committed to providing many more generations of Michigan families with reliable, affordable energy in all seasons,” said Garrick Rochow, Consumers Energy’s vice president and chief customer officer

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced a $212,500 grant to help support Brothers Redevelopment’s Paris Street project in Aurora, Colo. When complete, the Paris Street development will provide quality, affordable housing for more than 40 families, with a preference for veterans

at the annual meetings of the Minnesota Farm Bureau and the Minnesota Farmers Union, Governor Mark Dayton will announce his plans to convene a statewide Water Quality Summit in February. The summit will focus public attention on the serious challenges facing Minnesota’s water supplies – in both rural and urban areas of the state – and continue statewide dialogue around steps that must be taken to address those challenges. The summit will include water quality experts, farmers, legislators, regulators, the business community, members of the public, local leaders, and a wide variety of other stakeholders

U.S. Representative Patrick E. Murphy (FL-18) joined Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy and other federal, state, and local officials to mark a major milestone in Everglades restoration efforts to benefit Treasure Coast waterways at a groundbreaking ceremony for the reservoir component of the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) project. With a storage capacity of 16 billion gallons, this 3,400-acre reservoir is the largest component of the C-44 Indian River Lagoon South project, which once completed will reduce harm to the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon by providing water storage and treatment areas

U.S. Senators Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin (both D-Md.) today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development (USDARD) has awarded a $1,380,000 federal loan to Charles County to establish a Community Development Center in Charles County.

A Virginia man and woman who recruited participants into a multi-year, multi-property mortgage fraud scheme in Roxbury and Dorchester were sentenced this week in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-09) and Rep. Carlos Curbelo (FL-26) led their House colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to the Chairs and Ranking members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, urging the conference committee on the transportation reauthorization bill to include a provision that strikes the prohibition that bars municipalities from using tax exempt bonds toward Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) projects.

A new survey from the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Colorado in 2015: A ULI Survey of Views on Housing, Transportation and Community, reports that a significant number of Colorado residents face barriers to a healthy and active lifestyle due to community design and land use patterns that make walking, cycling, and recreational opportunities difficult. Despite Colorado’s reputation as one of the healthiest states in the nation, 52 percent of the survey’s respondents said that it is too far for them to walk to shopping and entertainment, and 42 percent said that the bike lanes in their communities are insufficient

HUD published on its website the 2016 Difficult Development Areas (DDAs) and Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs), which are eligible for the 30 percent basis boost under the Housing Credit program. As HUD has long planned, the methodology for determining 2016 metropolitan DDAs relies on new Small Area Fair Market Rents, and thus result in 311 zip code level small area metropolitan DDAs across 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This compares to 35 full metropolitan statistical areas in 11 states plus Puerto Rico that HUD designated as DDAs in 2015.

the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced its proposed “Equal Access in Accordance with an Individual’s Gender Identity in Community Planning and Development Programs Rule (Gender Identity Rule).” The proposed Gender Identity Rule was created after reviewing and monitoring the implementation of HUD’s Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity Rule (Equal Access Rule), which was published in 2012. The Equal Access Rule ensures that housing assisted or insured by HUD is open to all eligible individuals and families without regard to actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) researchers have won 33 of the 100 awards given out this year by R&D Magazine for the most outstanding technology developments with promising commercial potential. The R&D 100 awards, sometimes called the “Oscars of Innovation,” are given annually in recognition of exceptional new products or processes that were developed and introduced into the marketplace during the previous year.

The Boulder Group, a net leased investment brokerage firm, has completed the sale of a single tenant net leased Walgreens property located at 4300 Highway 17 South in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for $5,015,000.

The Appraisal Institute, the nation’s largest professional association of real estate appraisers, today launched a seminar to help appraisers develop a better understanding of the Federal Housing Administration’s new “FHA Handbook 4000.1.”

U.S. Senate After Congress last month finally agreed to a bipartisan budget deal that prevents devastating across-the-board spending cuts, Senator Jon Tester is pushing the Senate to support water projects that could mean life or death for communities ...

After Congress last month finally agreed to a bipartisan budget deal that prevents devastating across-the-board spending cuts, Senator Jon Tester is pushing the Senate to support water projects that could mean life or death for communities in rural Montana

Mayor Ed Murray submitted legislation to the City Council this week to invest an additional $1 million in land acquisition near transit hubs for affordable housing in Seattle. The Regional Equitable Development Initiative (REDI) fund creates a regional pool of resources that will be used to secure land near existing or planned high-capacity transit