The Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) is wrapping up phase one of its whopping $3.7 billion capital improvement and restoration program, Engineering News Record reported last week.  The $500 million phase one work included expansion and renovation of three wastewater treatment plants and construction of a fifth, the $233 million Lower Meramec Rvier plant. In phase two, MSD will spend $600 million to $1 billion to address urgent replacement and repair needs on MSD’s 6,300 miles of sewers, some of which were built 130 years ago.  The balance of the work - between $2.2 billion and $2.6 billion - will be defined in future planning efforts.

From Mayor Slay’s blog, new developments in St. Louis City neighborhoods:

• City Planning Commission rezoned the Commerce Bank site on South Grand Avenue between Juniata and Hartford.
• A “Habitat for Neighborhood Business” incubator for retail and service businesses owned and operated by neighborhood residents will be located on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. Developers include Saint Louis University’s Smurfit-Stone Center for Entrepreneurship, elected officials in the 4th Ward, and the St. Louis Development Corporation.
• Middendorf Meat is planning an expansion of its facility in the 3700 block of North Broadway with an 11,000 sq. ft. refrigerated area.
• Bruce Mills is moving forward with a major $50 million mixed use development on N. Euclid.

(I guess you can call that a blog…but where are the public comments?)

Valuation of A/E firms is at the highest point in years according to ZweigWhite’s 2007 Valuation Survey of Architecture, Engineering, Planning & Environmental Consulting Firms. The survey shows that value per employee at A/E firms has increased annually for the last 10 years. This year, the median value per employee reached an all-time high of $43,590, a 50% increase since 1998.

Bloggers are not coders, which I proved last week when I added a simple bit of information to the AEC St. Louis blog — it not only crashed the blog but also took the entire server with it! I’ve promised not to play at programming…at least for awhile.

If you’re worried about the impact of interest rates on real estate this year, you have good company.

REBusinessOnline.com asked readers which they thought would have the greatest impact on the industry in 2007 - interest rates, energy costs, war or security. More than 68% believe interest rates will have more of an impact on the industry than energy costs (19%), war (6%) and security (6%). Readers generally agree on the correlation: rising interest rates will have a negative effect while falling or stable rates will have a positive effect.

Some readers introduced their own concerns, among them insurance costs, construction costs, taxes, job security and the economy.

Tony Thompson, President and CEO of St. Louis-based Kwame Building Group (KWAME), has been named to the first-ever Midwest Real Estate News “Forty Over 40” list, highlighting excellence in commercial real estate throughout the Midwest.  There are lots of 40 Under 40 lists, so the editor Brian Sutton decided to “recognizes and celebrates expertise and execution rather than youth and potential.”