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Starbucks Still Coming to Alton, But Not by Fall

2 years 7 months ago
From RiverBender:  With the first day of fall less than a month away, some area residents may be wondering why construction work has not yet begun where the old Shop & Save Gas Station was once located. For those with high anticipation of a Starbucks coming to Alton, the word as of now is that the popular […]
Shruthi Beedu

Crestwood Designates Calvert Property as ‘Blighted’

2 years 7 months ago
From Call Newspapers:  The Crestwood Board of Aldermen approved an ordinance June 28 designating Calvert’s Auto Express, 9415 Watson Road, as a blighted area according to state statute. The property around Calverts, the former Crestwood mall, is being redeveloped into a mixed-used development featuring a Dierbergs grocery store, other retail and residential. Ground was broken […]
Dede Hance

How Dream Builders 4 Equity is Investing in Young People

2 years 7 months ago
From Ladue News:  A St. Louis-based nonprofit organization is shifting the way young people think – and investing in the metro area along the way. Founded in 2016, Dream Builders 4 Equity seeks to provide workforce development training for people ages 14 to 24 and recently started planning to transform a newly acquired property into […]
Dede Hance

Safety Tech Boosts Productivity, Contractors Say

2 years 7 months ago
From ConstructionDive:  As Hensel Phelps looks for better ways to improve on all things safety, the multinational contractor is piloting technology solutions like Edify, an app designed to create safety-minded culture within construction companies. Every morning, Hensel Phelps workers log in and answer a seemingly simple question: Why do you want to be safe today? […]
Dede Hance

Key Steps to Prepare for Transportation Funding Opportunities

2 years 7 months ago
by Lexi Elio, Burns & McDonnell The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) promises to inject $1.2 trillion into fixing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, which includes billions of dollars set aside for transportation projects. This additional funding is an opportunity municipalities, counties and local communities can’t ignore. But with so many new programs, it can be difficult […]
Dede Hance

The Need for More Resilient Supply Chains

2 years 7 months ago
From Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis:  “How can firms and how can governments internalize uncertainty of a future shock and what can they do today to hedge the risks of something happening in the future?” asks Ana Maria Santacreu, research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, in her latest discussion about […]
Dede Hance

Emergency Preparedness for Extreme Weather Events

2 years 7 months ago
by Chad Price at Marsh McLennan Agency:  Emergency preparedness is a topic we traditionally publicize in the spring, and for good reason. This is the season where tornadoes and hurricanes spring up and remind us that Mother Nature loves to flex her strength now and then. However, this last winter in the mid-west has shown […]
Dede Hance

Pre- and Post-Project Communication and Measurement Needed by DEIs

2 years 7 months ago
by Ron Unterreiner, Founder, PEOPLE of Construction Editor’s note: “Opportunity Report” is a regular feature of ConstructForSTL.org — a column by PEOPLE of Construction Founder Ron Unterreiner that we’re calling “Opportunity Report”. Martin Luther King wrote, “The struggle for rights is, at bottom, a struggle for opportunities.” Dr. King noted that it does no good […]
Tom Finan

Forum Drone: “Crestwood Crossing” Rises Phoenix-Like From Former Mall Site

2 years 7 months ago
Editor’s Note: This week, Forum Drone Pilot/Photographer Louis Kelly of Drone Eagle LLC provides an eagle-eye view of the site for the “Crestwood Crossing,” development, former location of the Crestwood Plaza shopping center. After lurching along for almost a decade, the reboot of the former Crestwood Plaza location on Watson Road in Crestwood is beginning […]
Tom Finan

Step Into a Coloring Book of St. Louis at MO History Museum

2 years 7 months ago
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch:  Missouri History Museum curators are handing out dry-erase markers and inviting visitors to color on the walls. Yes, really — but not all the walls. The museum’s newest exhibition, “Coloring STL,” takes an in-depth look at St. Louis architecture and the people behind the designs. The walls surrounding the 6,000-square-foot exhibition […]
Dede Hance

Chouteau’s Landing to be Reimagined as “Gateway South”

2 years 7 months ago
From CityScene STL:  Good Developments Group, a firm founded and operated by former employees with New York City-based JDS Development Group, is pursuing an 80-acre project that includes Chouteau’s Landing and areas south. Conceptual plans currently peg the development cost at $1.2 Billion. On August 11th, the project took its first step in the approval […]
Shruthi Beedu

Gov. Pritzker Announces $34.6B Investment in Transportation Over Six Years

2 years 7 months ago
From River Bender:  Governor JB Pritzker joined the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) today to announce a $34.6 billion program to improve roads, bridges, transit, rail, airports, and ports over the next six years. This funding represents a robust commitment to invest in people and communities backed by the historic Rebuild Illinois capital program. “Since I […]
Shruthi Beedu

Carrollton Courthouse Square Getting $1.9M in Improvements

2 years 7 months ago
From River Bender:  Carrollton’s Courthouse Square, the grounds of the Greene County Courthouse at 519 N. Main St. in Carrollton, is receiving $1.9 million in improvements as part of the Rebuild Illinois Downtowns and Main Streets Capital program. Carrollton Mayor Mike Snyder said improvements to be made include new parking areas on the Square’s southern and […]
Shruthi Beedu

New I-64 Interchange to Include Black Cemetery Monument, Space for Pedestrians and Bikes

2 years 7 months ago
From St. Louis Public Radio:  Two looping ramps will be eliminated in favor of a diamond-shaped design at the new Interstate 64 and Illinois 111 interchange in Washington Park. The Illinois Department of Transportation will also move human remains left behind during a 1960s cemetery relocation; erect a monument to Black and poor people buried in the vicinity; […]
Shruthi Beedu

Construction Trades Busy, But Need Workers

2 years 7 months ago
From The Edwardsville Intelligencer:  A “lot of construction” is going on, but there is a need for more skilled trade workers, and both unions and employers are working to bring them into the business sooner. That was much of the focus of a construction roundtable sponsored by Madison County Employment and Training and the St. Clair […]
Shruthi Beedu

Over $2B Announced for Roads, Bridges, Bike lanes Across US

2 years 7 months ago
From The Washington Post:  U.S. transportation officials announced $2.2 billion for local infrastructure projects on Thursday, paving the way for new bridges, roads, bike lanes, railways and ports in scores of communities across the country. The competitive grants are more than double the amount awarded the previous year under the same program. The influx comes from […]
Shruthi Beedu

A Model for Neighborhood Renewal

2 years 7 months ago
From The Washington Post: For decades, the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood on the north side, with its boarded-up rowhouses and empty lots, was one of the most distressed areas of this city. Now the neighborhood — once the only place where Black people could own property in the city — is transforming into a vibrant, working-class community, thanks […]
Shruthi Beedu

Developer Emerges in New Bid to Redevelop Long-Vacant Railway Exchange

2 years 7 months ago
From St. Louis Business Journal: There’s a new plan to redevelop the Railway Exchange building, one of downtown St. Louis’ monster vacant structures. A developer seeking to take the lead on the project would get public subsidies in a plan under consideration by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. The New York-based developer doesn’t want to […]
Shruthi Beedu

Video: How to Fix Construction’s Labor Shortage

2 years 7 months ago
From Equipment World:  It’s no secret the construction industry has a labor shortage. And the big question is, what can be done to fix it? In this episode of The Dirt, host Bryan Furnace makes an impassioned plea for contractors to get involved in helping to solve the problem. He also offers a potential solution that could […]
Shruthi Beedu