Author: BEX Staff

Heritage Academy is currently gauging interest in the possibility of adding a new K-5 elementary school in Maricopa. The education provider is soliciting signatures from families with elementary-aged children to foster momentum. Heritage Academy is a tuition-free public charter school that promotes a four-day school week and small class sizes. It began operating in Maricopa in 2019. School officials said they will evaluate interest and then talk about possible locations and construction dates “in a couple of months.” (Source)

By Associated Builders and Contractors The construction industry added 25,000 jobs on net in January, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On a year-over-year basis, industry employment has risen by 294,000 jobs, an increase of 3.9%. Nonresidential construction employment increased by 19,300 positions on net, with growth in two of the three subcategories. Nonresidential specialty trades added 16,500 net new jobs, while nonresidential building added 4,000 positions. Heavy and civil engineering lost 1,200 jobs for the month. The construction unemployment rate rose to 6.9% in January. Unemployment…

Awards & Accolades 1. Trey Davis, Pinal County land specialist at Land Advisors Organization, has been named LAO’s Rookie of the Year.   Company News 2. Alliance Residential Company spinoff Alliance Industrial Company has launched in Phoenix and opened an office at 7135 E. Camelback Road. The office is staffed by John Paul Quinn, who transferred to Arizona from the company’s Houston location.   Promotions 3. Rider Levett Bucknall recently announced four promotions. Josh Marks has been promoted to Principal. Jesse Zunke and Aaron Woodward have both been named Associate Principal, and Jeff Landtiser has been promoted to Associate.  4. Achen-Gardner Construction…

Sales Transactions 1. An investment management company has acquired a portfolio of 18 self-storage properties in the Southwest for $266.2M. The portfolio was sold by a joint venture of Wentworth Property Company and an institutional equity investor. Six of the properties are in greater Phoenix. The buyer for this off-market transaction was procured by Tom Gustafson of Colliers’ National Self Storage team in Cleveland, Ohio. John Smeck and Alix Hanna with Colliers Arizona worked with Eastdil Secured’s NYC office (Grant Frankel, Adam Licari, John Caraviello and Lucas Blumenfeld) to arrange $160M in financing for the buyer.  2. Cushman & Wakefield…

The Mesa Design Review Board met last month to discuss the layout and landscaping plan for Legacy Gateway Self Storage, a proposed 153.4KSF facility on Ellsworth Road south of SR 24. The development will be a single three-story structure with an aluminum storefront, painted stucco and concrete masonry. Plans also call for both covered and uncovered RV parking and storage. The site is currently situated in Maricopa County, but an annexation request is included along with a rezoning to light industrial. The project will be developed by Levine Investments Limited Partnership on land owned by Mesa BA Land LLC, which…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX From Founder and President Rebekah Morris down through the entire Research, Editorial and Support staff, the crew at BEX Companies proudly self-identifies as “Data Geeks”. The annual Construction Activity Forecast Event is our time to shine and show off the extreme (some might even say excessive) volume of data we’ve put together over the year and compare it to the previous year’s output and result. For our 2023 event(s), 365 attendees registered to drink from the data firehose and soak up as much information as they could in a whirlwind two-hour presentation by Morris and…

The Prescott City Council has approved a site plan and water allocation appeal for Palmer Apartments, a proposed 209-unit residential development on 14 vacant acres at the SWC of Gateway Blvd. and Palmer Lane. The site lies between Gateway Mall and a single-family subdivision. Palmer Apartments will feature eight three-story and two two-story buildings, as well as a pool, community center, mail center and dog grooming area. Council discussed the proposal in its December meeting. The project’s requested water allocation of 29 acre-feet exceeded the City’s entire 25 acre-feet 2023 allocation. Under Prescott’s water policy, individual projects cannot be approved…

Phoenix officials are working on a pilot program to introduce water efficiency regulations on new developments as part of the rezoning process. The new regulations could become part of the City code by the fall. Planning staff is meeting with development stakeholders to determine the best practices that arise from those stipulations and plan to propose a code amendment this summer. Single-family residential is the largest water user by category, according to City officials, with a volume totaling slightly more than half of Phoenix’s total use. A third of the total comes from outdoor water use. When multifamily and single-family…

By Associated Builders and Contractors The construction industry had 413,000 job openings in December, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. JOLTS defines a job opening as any unfilled position for which an employer is actively recruiting. Industry job openings increased by 82,000 for the month and are up by 54,000 from December 2021. “The number of open construction jobs surged at the end of 2022,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “The 5% of industrywide positions that were unfilled in December is the…

Awards & Accolades 1. Achen-Gardner Construction was presented with a Build Arizona Award from the Arizona Chapter Associated General Contractors of America for its ZONE 1 Transmission Main Assessment and Rehabilitation CMAR project for the Town of Gilbert. The project consists of removing and replacing sections totaling more than 270 feet of large diameter bar-wrapped concrete cylinder pipe and more than 30 valves in a critical water transmission main. Groundbreakings 2. South Pier Tempe Holdings LLC (McBride-Cohen Management Group), has started construction on South Pier Phase I, part of the $1.8B South Pier at Tempe Town Lake master plan. Phase…