Author: BEX Staff

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX The U.S. General Services Administration has announced commercial inspections at the U.S.-Mexico border at Douglas will relocate from the existing Raul H. Castro Land Port of Entry to a new facility 4.5 miles away once it is built. News reports say the Castro POE only has five inspection bays and cannot meet the needs of Customs and Border Protection. GSA will work to construct the new POE while simultaneously modernizing and renovating Castro. The decision comes after a nearly two-year environmental review of the new location. The new port will be funded under the Infrastructure…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Construction trade groups and the Goldwater Institute issued celebratory statements after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bradley Astrowsky ruled that a prevailing wage and a minimum wage are not the same thing, no matter how much some state and local authorities might wish it so. In a June 21 ruling, Astrowsky found the prevailing wage ordinances passed by Phoenix and Tucson in January violate an Arizona state law specifically prohibiting such actions. The ruling also held the cities’ legal foundation for taking their actions to be fundamentally flawed. The Goldwater Institute represented the Arizona Chapter…

The Tempe Development Review Commission has voted to recommend a student housing community that will replace the existing Moxy Phoenix Tempe/ASU Area hotel on almost four acres near the SEC of Rural Road and Apache Blvd. Vale Student Housing is proposed as an eight-story, 277-unit development. In addition to replacing the 186-room Moxy Hotel, a CVS Pharmacy on the site would also eventually be redeveloped. CVS currently has a ground lease in place and will not be part of the initial development. Units will range from studios up to four bedrooms, with two- and four-bedroom units comprising the majority. Having…

By BEX Staff for AZBEX A pair of resident opposition groups have won their appeals against Sedona’s approval of plans for the Oak Creek Heritage Lodge resort on 11.58 acres along Oak Creek. A development review request for the project, which would include a 70-room hotel and associated amenities, was approved by the Sedona Planning and Zoning Commission in April. Two opposition groups appealed that approval and were heard this week by the Sedona City Council. According to news reports, the first appeal, filed by Sedona Residents Unite, claimed the project proposed by R. D. Olson Development is inconsistent with…

Gov. Katie Hobbs has signed legislation that renews Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport’s status as a Military Reuse Zone. The Arizona Legislature created the MRZ status in 1992 to mitigate the impacts of military base closures. The airport had been home to Williams Air Force Base, which closed in 1993. The MRZ status allows for tax incentives targeting the development of aviation- and aerospace-related businesses and for the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Authority. The designation was scheduled to expire in October 2026 but is now in place until October 2031. The Authority and businesses can apply for a sales tax exemption and property…

Awards & Accolades 1. Area Development magazine has named LG Energy Solution’s Queen Creek plan as one of its 15 Manufacturing Projects of the Year and one of 10 Cleantech Projects of the Year. The magazine also named Amkor’s Peoria semiconductor packaging and testing facility as one of its 10 Non-manufacturing Projects of the Year.  2. Aligned Data Centers received a Green Globe for New Construction certification from Green Building Initiative for its Phoenix (PHX) and Chicago (ORD) data centers. Both data centers received a rating of three Green Globes for their design and construction, demonstrating outstanding success in resource…

The Gilbert Town Council has approved the boundaries for the Northwest Gilbert Redevelopment Area to encourage and support redevelopment in an area that is simultaneously home to 37% of the town’s jobs and also a leader in foreclosures, code violations, police calls and other signs of decline. The redevelopment area is bounded by Baseline Road on the north, Ray Road on the south, Arizona Avenue on the east and Lindsay Road on the west. While the approval identifies the targeted area for redevelopment, there are no specific goals or plans in place yet. Town staff will conduct an outreach program…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to a record low of 3.4% in May, down from 3.6% in April, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. The national unemployment rate increased over the month, rising to 4.0% from 3.9%. Last May, Arizona had a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.7%. The national rate was also 3.7%. The Arizona Construction sector lost 400 jobs over the month. Arizona had a not-seasonally adjusted loss of 10,300 in nonfarm employment jobs. “Prior to the pandemic (2010-2019), NSA nonfarm employment lost 6,700 jobs on…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Developer BET Investments, Inc. is requesting a planned area development amendment that would allow it to build a projected 463 units of mixed residential types on a 42.4-acre parcel near the SEC of the Cotton Road alignment of the future Loop 303 freeway and Lower Buckeye Road in Goodyear. The site is one parcel of the overall El Cidro PAD, which has been amended eight times since its original adoption in 2007. According to the submitted narrative, Willow at El Cidro Ranch is “an approximately 463-unit residential community, comprising a mix of single-family detached, single-family…

By Arizona Department of Transportation The State Transportation Board has approved the 2025-2029 Five-Year Transportation Facilities Construction Program, which emphasizes pavement and bridge improvements and expanding several key highways. The final 2025-2029 Five-Year Transportation Facilities Construction Program is available for review at azdot.gov/FiveYearProgram. The $8.2B program puts a major emphasis on improving highway pavement and bridge infrastructure throughout greater Arizona, which encompasses areas outside of Maricopa and Pima counties. The plan provides more than $2.5B for these high-priority improvements during the next five years. This amounts to an average investment of approximately $500M/year to preserve, rehabilitate and replace pavement and…