Author: Brianna Johnson

Birch Infrastructure is proposing a solar project on 1,172 acres in Tonopah near the SWC of Courthouse Road and 483rd Avenue. The Harquahala Sun Photovoltaic Solar Energy Generation and Storage Project will include roughly 400,000 solar modules, a 500kV substation, an equipment building and a battery storage system, which may include Tesla Megapack batteries. If built as planned, the finished project will provide approximately 150MW of electricity and 1,800MW hours of storage. A requested plan approval and zone change was recommended for approval by the Maricopa County Planning Commission last month. The Board of Supervisors will hear the requests April…

1. Two trailheads in the McDowell Sonoran Reserve have received Crescordia awards from Arizona Forward. The Fraesfield and Granite Mountain trailheads won in the categories for Natural Environment Preservation and Civic Buildings, Structures and Landscape Design. Groundbreakings 2. Excavation and construction has gotten underway at Paragon Development’s 151-unit Build-to-Rent Hampton Edison community in Maricopa. 3. Alieron Apartments, a 287-unit multifamily development at 20350 N. 7th Ave. in Phoenix, is expected to break ground “within days.” The 11-building development is expected to deliver in mid-2024. 4. The Hermosa Drive Bridge over I-40 in Holbrook will be rehabilitated beginning this spring by the…

Luxury residential developer Optima, Inc. plans to build a 1,500-unit luxury community at the SEC of Scottsdale Road and Loop 101. In local media reports, Optima officials said they are currently considering potential lenders and capital partners for the Optima McDowell Mountain Village development, which will be the company’s largest undertaking so far. Optima has reportedly submitted a pre-application to the City of Scottsdale to start the development approval process. Scottsdale generally does not make pre-application materials available to the public or the media. Optima has a contract in place that is expected to close escrow in December for a…

Documents submitted in Maricopa County show an industrial development future as a possibility for Hidden Waters Ranch, a 1,314-acre master-planned site in Tonopah that was once planned primarily for residential uses. The site, which ranges from I-10 down to Buckeye Road and between 339th and 351st Avenues is made up of both privately owned and state trust land. The Maricopa County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended a proposal to rezone roughly 200 privately owned acres from residential to industrial last month. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hear the matter April 20th. More than 400 acres are already zoned…

Grant & I-10 Storage – a seven-story, mid-rise, 100KSF storage facility – is planned for a site west of the intersection of Grant Road and I-10 in Tucson. The building will feature a contemporary exterior and offer 1,000 air-conditioned units, some of which may be fully humidity/climate-controlled. The development plan is currently being prepared by owner Abraham Slilaty, who has developed several other storage facilities in the Tucson area. (Source)

BNSF Railway Company has purchased a 3,508-acre site in Wittmann that could become the site of a long-planned Western Hub for the freight company. BNSF was the sole bidder in an Arizona State Land Department auction and procured the site for the minimum bid of $49.11M. The company applied for the auction last year and got approval in January. Plans have been circulating since at least 2007 for BNSF to build an intermodal shipping facility and rail hub in the area, functionally creating an inland port similar to ones found in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago areas. The general plan…

By Aligned Data Centers Aligned Data Centers announced its further expansion in the Phoenix market with the planned development of PHX-05, a new data center on its flagship hyperscale campus in Arizona. The greenfield deployment is projected to meet an aggressive construction timeline in response to growing demands for capacity as well as Aligned’s intelligent and adaptive infrastructure solutions among hyperscalers in the greater Phoenix region. Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned, said, “Aligned’s latest hyperscale data center not only answers the call of massive campus scalability as well as water conservation in a water-strained region, but also highlights our team’s…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX BEXclusive In a move intended to take advantage of perceived market shortcomings and maximize development opportunities, City of Phoenix planning and economic development officials have announced a draft incentive plan to encourage developers to submit taller and denser multifamily plans along the city’s eastern edge. In announcing the plan, a Phoenix spokesperson said, “Scottsdale has adopted a general plan that sets ‘highest density’ at some ridiculously low dwelling units/acre, and developers will be hard-pressed to get anything taller than four stories approved even in the most dense and thriving areas. Our leadership decided, ‘Hey, if…

Mesa Public Schools will raise the final $95M of the $300M in general obligation bonds that was approved in 2018. Interest rates for municipal bonds have remained at historic lows despite rising inflation, and MPS’ financial advisors recommended finishing all its authorized bond sales while rates remain favorable. The last four sales have been for $65M or less. The 2019 master plan for the bond monies included campus renovations at Mountain View High School and Mesa High School, which have a combined total of $100M. The 2018 bond is directed toward the first third of the multi-phase projects. Several elementary…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX In its first “Retail Market in Focus” report, CBRE Research has taken a look at the state of retail in Phoenix. Among the report’s highlights, Phoenix has been a Top Five market for new retail development over the last two years and is expected to be a Top Three market in the next two years. A key factor in Phoenix’s retail market health is its demographic strength. With a population of nearly 4.9M and a growth rate of 8.1% over the last five years, Phoenix comes in second only to the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area…