Construction, Real Estate & Infrastructure

Richmond, Va. – September 30, 2026 -- Construction has begun on five 3D-printed affordable single-family homes at Carter Place I in eastern Henrico County, backed by a $1.1 million Innovation Demonstration grant from Virginia Housing. Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity broke ground on the development at 1590 Darbytown Road near Richmond International Airport, deploying a mobile 3D concrete printer purchased by the Virginia Center for Housing Research at Virginia Tech.

Albany, N.Y. – September 29, 2026 -- Foss & Company has closed four historic rehabilitation investments in Buffalo, Albany, Fredonia and Kingston, New York, creating or preserving 156 affordable housing units by pairing state and federal Historic Tax Credits with New York State Homes and Community Renewal's (HCR) Small Building Participation Loan Program (PLP).

Four New York buildings convert to 156 affordable units via blended financing

The Eckhardt Building, a 1940s former department store in Buffalo's Broadway-Fillmore Historic District, is now complete with 28 apartments restricted to an average of 65% Area Median Income (AMI) and roughly 22,000 square feet of commercial space leased to a nonprofit child day care provider.

Birmingham, Ala. – September 29, 2026 -- The Ductile Iron Pipe Research Association (DIPRA) has promoted Gregg Horn to Senior Vice President of Research and Josh Blount to Vice President of Technical Resources, elevating two veteran staffers to lead the trade group's core technical operations.

Horn takes charge of research after 40 years with the association

Horn joined DIPRA in 1986 as a Regional Engineer, became Director of Regional Engineers in 1990, and served as Vice President of Technical Resources since 2013. In his new role, he will lead DIPRA's technical research efforts, Standards activities and comparative studies of substitute materials, while facilitating the Technical Committee, Environmental Subcommittee and other groups addressing research on Ductile iron pipe. He is a Life Member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and has served on committees within AWWA, ASCE, ASTM and ISO.

Seattle and San Francisco – September 29, 2026 -- ITpipes, a pipe inspection software provider used by more than 300 utilities, municipalities, and CCTV contractors across North America, has secured a strategic growth investment from Luminate Capital Partners to accelerate development of its AI-driven defect-detection technology.

Aging sewer networks face a $69 billion annual funding gap

The American Society of Civil Engineers gave U.S. wastewater infrastructure a D+ rating in its 2025 Report Card, pointing to more than 1.87 million miles of collection system pipe and a roughly $69 billion annual capital investment shortfall. Utilities are being asked to inspect more pipe and justify every dollar of spending with the same crews and budgets they had a decade ago, raising demand for condition data that regulators and finance officers can trust.

Cold Spring, Minn. – September 29, 2026 -- More than 20 million Americans currently keep a loved one's cremated remains at home or pass them between generations without a permanent memorial site, according to data cited by Minnesota-based stone and bronze fabricator Coldspring. The company has established and registered the first-ever National Cremation Placement Day, set for Saturday, October 17, 2026, to address the gap.

Coldspring registers new annual observance tied to cremation's 150th U.S. anniversary

The date coincides with the 150th anniversary of cremation practice in America. Coldspring has designated the observance to recur annually on the third Saturday of October, giving the funeral and memorialization sector a recurring calendar event.

Charlotte, N.C. – September 29, 2026 -- JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. (NYSE: JELD) has entered into a commitment and consent letter with a significant group of lenders and noteholders to extend the maturities of its 4.875% Senior Notes due 2027 and its 2028 Term Loans to 2031, while raising $135 million in new money debt financing.

Nearly all 2027 noteholders and most 2028 lenders back the deal

The agreement covers approximately 94.5% of the 2027 Notes and approximately 72.2% of the 2028 Term Loans. Under the arrangement, the existing debt will be refinanced and/or exchanged for new first-lien debt maturing in 2031.

Exchange offers to launch within weeks

JELD-WEN said it intends to commence exchange offers to holders of the 2027 Notes and 2028 Term Loans in the coming weeks to implement the transactions.

Wichita, Kan. – September 29, 2026 -- Landscape architecture firm Hoerr Schaudt has completed a $25 million civic playscape at Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas, featuring what is believed to be the first aviation-themed playground of its scale in the world and one of the largest educational water play environments in the United States.

Adventure Playscape spans 10 themed environments built into a renaturalized riverfront landscape

As master planner and design lead, Hoerr Schaudt organized the site as a continuous riverfront campus of paths, gardens and native plantings rather than a collection of standalone attractions. The project incorporates more than 40,000 plants emphasizing native Kansas species and grasses, 500 tons of Kansas limestone, and 250 new trees alongside preserved existing trees. City water consumption at Exploration Place is expected to decline through revised irrigation design and stormwater management.

Los Angeles – September 29, 2026 -- Explore The Trades, a Minnesota-based nonprofit founded in 2005, has placed classroom poster kits reaching more than 1.3 million students since 2021 across over 3,400 U.S. school districts, roughly a quarter of the country, as part of a national push to rebuild the plumbing, HVAC, and electrical talent pipeline.

Public Television Feature Set to Film October 2 in Boca Raton

The organization will be profiled in an upcoming segment of "All Access hosted by Andy Garcia," a short-form documentary series distributed to Public Television stations nationwide. Filming is scheduled for October 2, 2026, at the program's Boca Raton, Florida studio, with the segment examining how the nonprofit works at the classroom level to reintroduce trades careers before students choose a path.

Guangzhou – – September 29, 2026 -- Overseas attendance at the 2026 China (Guangzhou) International Building Decoration Fair reached 11,473 visitors, up 33.4% year on year, with participants drawn from 147 countries and regions despite broader market pressures on the sector.

Exhibitor numbers grow as fair concludes at Canton Fair Complex

The 2026 edition wrapped at the Canton Fair Complex with exhibitor growth reported even as the home furnishing and building decoration industry navigates a shift away from a property-driven growth model toward renovation and upgrading. Chen Penghan, Sales Head of CBD Fair, said new opportunities lie in renovation, quality upgrades, intelligent innovation and broader channel development, pointing to early-stage brand globalization, supply-procurement mismatches and incomplete service chains as ongoing challenges.

Pasadena, Calif. – September 29, 2026 -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE) has closed an amended $5.0 billion unsecured senior line of credit, pushing the facility's maturity to January 2032 and cutting its borrowing margin by 11 basis points. The amended agreement became effective September 29, 2026.

Maturity extended by two years through staged extension options

The amendment moves the facility's maturity date from September 29, 2026 to September 29, 2026, contingent on Alexandria exercising two available six-month extension options, subject to certain conditions. The move preserves the life science REIT's revolving credit capacity and extends its debt maturity ladder.

Borrowing rate drops to SOFR plus 0.725%

The applicable borrowing rate falls to SOFR plus 0.725%, down from SOFR plus 0.835%, an 11-basis-point reduction that lowers Alexandria's cost of capital on the facility.