BWE secured a $23.5 million loan to finance the acquisition and substantial improvement of The Edge, a 173-unit, 553-bed student housing community near Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. 

BWE’s Chris Carroll and Max Miller originated the financing on behalf of Campus Realty Advisors. Texas State has seen a surge in enrollment, which has increased by 5% over the last year to bring the entire student body above 40,000. 

The Edge features a mix of 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-bedroom apartments and offers students a wide range of amenities, including a fitness center, clubhouse, and basketball court. The community is located less than a mile from the Texas State campus. 

As part of the acquisition, The Edge will receive numerous upgrades to improve the residents’ experiences. All units will receive new flooring, cabinets, and doors, upgraded bathroom fixtures, and improved lighting. The clubhouse, study areas, fitness center and other amenities will also receive major improvements to enhance the students’ sense of community. 

Hawkins Way Capital, a fully vertically integrated real estate company with $3 billion of assets under management, acquired Varsity Berkeley student housing in Berkeley, its fifth acquisition in Northern California. Terms were not disclosed. The property is set to be integrated into Hawkins Way’s FOUND Study brand and will be managed by FCL Management.

“This acquisition represents an opportunity for Hawkins Way Capital to create strategic value in a market where student housing demands continue to grow,” said Ross Walker, managing partner, Hawkins Way Capital. “By transforming the property into FOUND Study Downtown Berkeley, we are helping to ease students’ stress of finding comfortable, convenient and affordable accommodations, allowing them to fully concentrate on their education.”. 

Varsity Berkeley features 159 bedrooms including studios and two- and three-bedroom units. Hawkins Way Capital plans to upgrade all units to reflect a more contemporary aesthetic starting in summer 2025. The company’s FOUND Study brand is approaching 7,000 beds.

The Metra board of directors approved a $33.4 million contract to rehabilitate and expand the 95th St./Chicago State University Station on the Metra Electric Line. The project will help improve the station’s accessibility and connection to the university.

“We are prioritizing improvement on the Metra Electric Line to make them accessible to persons with disabilities,” said Metra Executive Director/CEO Jim Derwinski. “At the same time, this is an opportunity to grow our relationship with Chicago State University and build a station that is a gateway between the school and our system.”

The contract, awarded to John Burns Construction, includes the replacement of the existing headhouse, platform and stairs, a new street-level entrance on 95th St. with a new storefront, an enclosed entrance area, and a new elevator. The project will also involve the construction of a new platform with a full-length canopy, a new CSU campus headhouse, and a walkway and bike lane to a new commuter parking lot. The work is expected to start later this summer and take about 40 months to complete.

John Deere will invest about $70 million to build a new 380,000-square-foot factory in Kernersville, an expansion of its John Deere Kernersville, NC campus. The factory will produce small, 6-10 metric ton, excavators and is expected to add about 150 new jobs. Currently, about 600 salaried and production employees work at the Kernersville campus.

“Kernersville has been an ideal location for John Deere for more than 35 years,” says John Deere’s Steve Brewer. “We are excited to further invest in our future-generation excavator portfolio and grow our engaged team.”

The company’s history of building excavators in Kernersville is supported by the city’s proximity to key markets and strong infrastructure with excellent connectivity to highways, seaports, and airports. With 50% of the North American small excavator industry located in the Southern US, Kernersville is close to customers and key suppliers. 

Construction of the new Deere factory is expected to begin in late 2024. 

StandardAero, an aircraft maintenance company, plans to expand its operation at Augusta Business Aviation’s MRO (maintenance, repair, overhaul) facility. The company recently began work on a $33 million upgrade that will create 90 new jobs.

Operating in Augusta since 1974, StandardAero currently supports more than 170 jobs in the area. The facility annually processes approximately 425 aircraft and 500 turbine aircraft engines for MRO service.

StandardAero will construct a new hangar and engine shop at 1150 Hangar Road adjacent to the Augusta Regional Airport. The expansion will add 80,500 square feet to the company’s footprint in Augusta.

StandardAero’s Chris Bodine added, “The new facility will add over 60 percent of new space to our existing footprint. The current facility was built in the 1970s, when aircraft were a lot smaller.” The expansion will allow the company to work on larger Dassault Falcon, Gulfstream, and Bombardier aircraft.

With the recent closing of the WellStar Atlanta Medical Center, Grady Memorial Hospital believes it is time to jump into the breach. Besides its vaunted burn unit, Grady is left with the town’s only Level-1 trauma center.

Grady Memorial Hospital is pursuing a $46 million project that includes upgrades to the decades-old burn unit at its Downtown Atlanta campus. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports it would also renovate lab space and add over 100 healthcare workers. Just over $22 million would be spent on improvements to the burn unit, with the rest going toward renovated labs. About a third of the project would be funded with philanthropic donations. The 953-bed hospital is the center of the state’s indigent health care system.

Sections of the facility have not undergone significant renovation in many years. The project will kick off in June and is expected to be completed in April 2025.

An Amtrak train in Los Angeles

Amtrak is on the verge of significant expansion to as many as 160 new communities thanks to the new trillion-dollar federal infrastructure bill.

The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed late Friday by the House of Representatives, will deliver more than $100B in investment to passenger and freight rail, Construction Dive reported. Of that amount, $19.2B specifically will be earmarked for Amtrak investment, the American Public Transit Association said. 

By 2035, the nation’s passenger rail service could reach more cities with 30 new routes and establish more frequent service on at least 20 existing lines. Major projects include a new $11B Hudson River Tunnel between New Jersey and New York that could begin construction in 2025.

Amtrak over the summer projected a $117B price tag for massive expansion by 2035, including shoring up the important Northeast Corridor, which it said was overdue for renovation.

“The Northeast Corridor is such a massive part of the Northeast economy, and the Northeast economy is such a huge driver of the national economy,” Real Estate Board of New York Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Reggie Thomas told Bisnow earlier this year.

Plans to upgrade the 450-mile corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston by 2035 could spur $195B in economic activity and support more than 26,000 permanent jobs, Amtrak’s study earlier this year found.

Amtrak could also introduce service between thriving Southeast metros like Atlanta to Charlotte and Atlanta to Nashville, as well as farther north between Cleveland and Detroit. The nation’s largest metro without Amtrak service, Columbus, Ohio, could also get service with a new Cincinnati-to-Columbus-to-Cleveland route. 

The routes would reach previously underserved communities, which could come alongside improved public transportation and transit-oriented development, William Murdock, executive director of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, told Construction Dive. 

The trillion-dollar infrastructure bill will also send $110B toward roads and bridges and $39B for public transit improvements. Biden said he would sign the bill once lawmakers return from a weeklong recess, Time reported.