Author: BEX Staff

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX A little more than a year ago, I talked with Withey Morris Partner Jason Morris to get his take on the state of zoning and entitlement issues around Arizona. (AZBEX, Feb. 22, 2022) Since he was forthcoming, effuse and exceptionally quotable in his responses—and since the intervening year has been chock full of variations on the same themes—I decided to reach out again to get Morris’ take on what’s changed, what hasn’t and what the future may hold. The hot topic last year was HB 2674, a bill in the Arizona House that would have…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX The Buckeye Planning and Zoning Commission recently advanced more than 1,400 new residential units across three projects. Officials say the City is working to catch up on housing stock to serve its exceptional growth after years of underbuilding. Hancock Communities at Rooks Hancock Communities is requesting a rezoning for nearly 77 acres west of the NWC of Rooks and Broadway roads at the 263rd Avenue alignment from planned residential to multifamily to build an 847-unit multifamily community. According to the submitted project narrative, “The proposed multifamily development will consist of an estimated 847 units, providing…

Even though voters rejected the half-cent Proposition 469 sales tax to fund the Pinal Regional Transportation Authority last November, Pinal County officials are hopeful its Transportation Improvement and Maintenance Program tax will be renewed before it expires at the end of 2026. Unlike the Prop 469 request, which was intended for large-scale transportation projects, TIMP has been in place for nearly 40 years and has become an essential part of the County’s road repair and maintenance efforts as well as those of its cities and towns. Pinal County received $12.2M from the tax in fiscal year 2021. The constituent municipalities…

Awards & Accolades 1. Menlo Group Commercial Real Estate announced that Mark Haslip has earned the SIOR designation from the Society of Industrial and Office REALTORS®. He is the sixth of Menlo Group’s nine advisors to win the designation. 2. Ranking Arizona has released its list of the 2023 Top 10 Office Brokerages in Arizona. They are: Colliers, CBRE, Kidder Mathews, Menlo Group Commercial Real Estate, Avison Young, Davis Commercial AZ, Commercial Properties Inc., Newmark, JLL, and Cushman & Wakefield. Promotions 3. The City of Avondale has promoted Harold Siguenza to Public Works Assistant Director. He now leads the Field Operations Division, including…

Sales Transactions 1. KHP Capital Partners has paid $110M to Host Hotels and Resorts for the 277-room The Camby, Autograph Collection hotel in Phoenix’s Camelback Corridor. 2. Banner Health has sold its 70KSF Banner Health Care Plus outpatient facility at 4200 E. Camelback Road to RED Development for $48.5M. The healthcare leader also sold its 73.2KSF Banner Health Center medical office facility on North Plaza del Rio Blvd. in Peoria to Montecito Medical Real Estate for $29M. Banner will lease back the Peoria space from the new owner. 3. Cushman & Wakefield has advised seller ViaWest Group and their institutional…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Full disclosure: When I first moved to Arizona, my first apartment was less than half a mile from Fiesta Village. Between when I first arrived in 1994 until I moved across the Valley in 2000, I watched the neighborhood go from a pleasant mix of students and young professionals to an increasingly desolate wasteland with entire developments fenced off behind chain link, major decreases in every quality of life indicator, and ever-climbing rates of both vacancy and crime. Fiesta Village didn’t just fall. It plummeted. Over the last plus-or-minus 25 years, there have been multiple…

By Associated Builders and Contractors Associated Builders and Contractors reported that its Construction Backlog Indicator increased to 9.2 months in February, according to an ABC member survey conducted from Feb. 20 to March 6. The reading is 1.2 months higher than in February 2022. Backlog rebounded in February and for the past four months has hovered around highs not seen since the start of the pandemic. The Southern region continues to post the highest backlog of any region and, as of February, has had at least 11 months of backlog in four of the previous five months. ABC’s Construction Confidence…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Another 566 apartment units could be on the way in Tempe following the March 14th Development Review Commission’s recommendations for approval of four requests from multifamily developer IDM Companies. IDM has requested a general plan amendment, rezoning, Planned Area Development overlay and development plan review of its IDM Fountainhead project, planned on 8.24 acres of a total 24.95-acre site at Priest and Alameda drives, east of the I-10. The proposal seeks to build 566 apartments in two new five-story buildings, as well as a third, two-story building that will serve as a clubhouse and amenity…

By National Park Service The National Park Service is preparing for a multi-year $208M rehabilitation of the Transcanyon Waterline and related upgrades to the associated water delivery system within the inner canyon and South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. This critical investment will ensure the park is able to meet water supply needs for the next 50-plus years, supporting six million annual visitors and approximately 2,500 year-round residents. Initial activity in late spring and summer 2023 will focus on establishing construction infrastructure and staging areas in the Grand Canyon Village Area on the park’s South Rim. The NPS does…

The City of Goodyear and Microsoft Corp. have updated their development agreement for future projects. Microsoft will change its cooling system on future data centers and contribute nearly $42M to expanding Goodyear’s wastewater capacity. To date, Microsoft has developed a 290KSF building and has another 250KSF building under construction. It plans to start another 250KSF building soon. The company also has plans for a five-building data center on approximately 300 acres near the Phoenix Goodyear Airport. Microsoft and Goodyear have been in discussions for years about the volume of wastewater produced by cooling its data centers. This is the third…