EB-5 investment funds new Miramar, Fla. business complex

Riviera Point Holdings LLC will broke ground March 29 on a $17 million business complex in Miramar, Fla. that brings international investment and a location for hundreds of new jobs to the area. The first new office construction in that market since 2009, The Professional Center at Riviera Point, located on a four-acre site at University Drive and the Florida Turnpike, will have 70,000 sf of office space in two four-story buildings. The initial building is projected for completion in February 2013.

According to an economic impact study by Wright Johnson LLC of Palm Beach, The Riviera Point development will result in the creation of 441 jobs from the construction and operation of the center once fully tenanted. Corrales Architectural Group of Boca Raton designed the professional center and Cushman Wakefield is the leasing agent. According to Jon Blunk of Cushman Wakefield, the complex offers easy access to area expressways and is flexible enough to accommodate multiple professional firms or a single corporate user in each building. He noted that the development is well-timed to meet the demand for new generation space in a market where vacancy rates have been steadily declining.

The Professional Center at Riviera Point qualified as an EB-5 investment opportunity under the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services program, and is part of the Florida Regional Center EB-5 Investment, LLC. EB-5 allows a foreign national interested in obtaining permanent U.S residency to qualify by investing in a commercial enterprise that generates at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers for two years. At that point, the conditional EB-5 Visa becomes permanent. The qualifying investment for a project such as Riviera Point, which is located in a Targeted Employment Area, is $500,000. BD+C

Outside Paris, Holcim, a Swiss-based provider of innovative and sustainable building solutions, and Seqens, a social housing provider in France, are partnering to build Recygénie—a 220-unit housing complex, including 70 social housing units. Holcim is calling the project the world’s first fully recycled concrete building.

Multifamily Housing | Apr 21, 2023

Arlington County, Va., eliminates single-family-only zoning

Arlington County, a Washington, D.C., community that took shape in the 1950s, when single-family homes were the rule in suburbia, recently became one of the first locations on the East Coast to eliminate single-family-only zoning.

March 2023 AIA Deltek Architecture Billings Index

Architects | Apr 21, 2023

Architecture billings improve slightly in March

Architecture firms reported a modest increase in March billings. This positive news was tempered by a slight decrease in new design contracts according to a new report released today from The American Institute of Architects (AIA). March was the first time since last September in which billings improved.

Green | Apr 21, 2023

Top 10 green building projects for 2023

The Harvard University Science and Engineering Complex in Boston and the Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis are among the AIA COTE Top Ten Awards honorees for 2023.

The Paseo 48-story mixed-used residential tower in Austin, Texas, architect Pappageorge Haymes Partners

Multifamily Housing | Apr 19, 2023

Austin’s historic Rainey Street welcomes a new neighbor: a 48-story mixed-used residential tower

Austin’s historic Rainey Street is welcoming a new neighbor. The Paseo, a 48-story mixed-used residential tower, will bring 557 apartments and two levels of retail to the popular Austin entertainment district, known for houses that have been converted into bungalow bars and restaurants.

Reinforced concrete fins provide shade to the 300-meter-tall National Bank of Kuwait headquarters. Photo: Nigel Young/Foster + Partners

Design Innovation Report | Apr 19, 2023

Reinforced concrete walls and fins stiffen and shade the National Bank of Kuwait skyscraper

When the National Bank of Kuwait first conceived its new headquarters more than a decade ago, it wanted to make a statement about passive design with a soaring tower that could withstand the extreme heat of Kuwait City, the country’s desert capital.