Author: BEX Staff

The Glendale Planning Commission will hear a request this week from developer McKinney Investments to rezone 40 acres near the SWC of Bethany Home and Sarival roads for a proposed industrial development. Plans for Bethany Home 303 call for a two-building development of approximately 700KSF. The project submittal says the current plan is conceptual and may be altered depending on market conditions. McKinney has requested a rezoning of the property from light industrial to planned area development to allow for a greater range of industrial and commercial uses. Cawley Architects is the project design firm, and engineering services are provided…

The Casa Grande Planning and Zoning Commission has voted to approve two major projects despite opposition. In the first project – known as Post Ranch – City staff recommended against approval. Applicant Scapegoat Design Studio requested a rezoning from Planned Area Development to R-2 on a 567-acre parcel to allow the development of more than 2,000 attached multifamily dwelling units near the SWC of Florence Blvd. and Toltec Buttes Road. Planning staff feared the zone change was not in keeping with Casa Grande’s General Plan, since developments on the west, south and east sides of the planned site are PADs…

By STACK Infrastructure STACK Infrastructure announced its plans to develop a five-building, 230MW campus in the heart of central Phoenix, Arizona. This massively scalable 50-acre campus will be developed to support the increasing demand for critical capacity in this rapidly growing data center market. Located in the center of Phoenix, near the largest hub of long-haul fiber and metro network providers in the region, the new campus will offer strong connectivity for innovators in one of the most active hyperscale data center markets globally. The more than 1.7MSF campus will include a low water use design that supports client sustainability…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Last month, the American Planning Association Arizona Chapter and the Arizona Association for Economic Development conducted a workshop on affordable housing in the state. The presenters were: Ashlee Tziganuk with the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University, Jerry Stabley, former community development director for Pinal County, and Bob Workman of R.L. Workman Homes in Sierra Vista. In individual presentations, the group explained the policies and problems currently impacting affordable housing in the state from both legal and development perspectives and offered insights as to what can be done to better address the problems moving forward.…

Editor’s Note: In our May 17 edition, we published an expansive article based on multiple international reports, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company investor materials, and commentary from a senior TSMC official about the company’s potential to expand its Phoenix operations into six-phase “GIGAFAB®” facility that has the potential to increase final fabrication space to as much as 17.25MSF. (AZBEX, May 17) A report in the Wall Street Journal this week confirmed the possibility that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company may be planning an expansion to its facility currently in development in north Phoenix. Reports say that “in the coming months” the company…

After including a “peace of mind” stipulation that a part of Trilby Wash will be designated as a wildlife corridor and protected from development, Surprise City Council recently approved multiple rezonings for a 320-acre property on the City’s far west end. There are no immediate plans to develop the site, which lies between Deer Valley and Pinnacle Peak roads and between 227th and 231st avenues. Some Council members said they felt the stipulation was redundant, since the design standards in place for the site already include buffer requirements next to environmentally sensitive areas like Trilby Wash. Representatives of RVi Planning…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX We can take yet another arrow out of the NIMBY quiver. A new study has shown clear evidence that publicly subsidized/incentivized low-income housing does not lower surrounding home values in the neighborhood. In fact, it can increase them. The study examined 508 developments that received Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program funding between 1997 and 2016 and used local property assessments and tax records to examine more than 600,000 nearby residential property sales. According to the summary article, “We found that, relative to comparable homes in other neighborhoods, average home prices jumped by 10% within a…

Groundbreakings 1. With the demolition of the former Ladlow’s Fine Furniture building, work has begun on Modera Kierland, a two-section,438-unit multifamily development on Scottsdale Road in north Phoenix. 2. General contractor A.R. Mays Construction announced it has begun construction on the $23M, 98KSF Andretti Indoor Karting and Games facility in Chandler at the NWC of Northrop Blvd. and Cooper Road. Project delivery is expected next November. 3. Queen Creek broke ground recently on the 13-acre Phase II expansion of Mansel Carter Oasis Park. The expansion will add a variety of new sports and recreation facilities, more restrooms and parking, and…

The Phoenix Convention Center is considering expanding its south building, adding a hotel and creating a new entertainment district to make it a more competitive draw and to lure visitors downtown. The City recently requested an update from Convention Sports & Leisure International on a needs assessment report it had commissioned in 2020. Convention Sports & Leisure International’s John Kaatz told the City’s Economic Development and Equity Subcommittee in an Oct. 26 meeting that Phoenix is a mid-level contender for convention opportunities but has the chance to improve with the right investments. Kaatz’s three main recommendations are expanding the south…

By BEX Staff for AZBEX The University of Arizona recently announced two major funding awards for its UA Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies in the Phoenix Bioscience Core. CAMI is planned as a 293KSF building dedicated to supporting “research to catalyze the next generation of precision health care treatments,” according to a UA announcement. UA describes the project by saying, “CAMI will serve as the anchor for an innovation district that aims to differentiate Phoenix from other emerging life sciences hubs, establishing the Phoenix Bioscience Core as a center of cellular and gene-based therapy research, startup activity and…