Author: BEX Staff

A planned 90-unit affordable housing development is stirring tensions between Chicanos Por La Causa and historic preservation advocates in Mesa. CPLC’s for-profit development arm purchased the former Kiva Lodge at 668 W. Main Street and neighboring sites with plans to demolish the former motel to build the new project. The Kiva makes up approximately 17% of the overall site. The lodge is one of the oldest in the state and its neon sign has been a popular photographic curiosity for decades. The inn declined in its later years and was a human smuggling and drug site. Before CPLC bought the…

The Arizona Court of Appeals has thrown out an appeal from opposition group Voice of Surprise that sought to stop Dominium Management’s master-planned affordable housing development Waddell Crossing. The group had filed a petition appealing the City Council’s approval of the development and calling for a referendum. The development will create standard affordable housing units, senior affordable housing units and a self-storage facility at Waddell Road and Cotton Lane. The petition had more than 5,000 signatures but was rejected by the City because it failed to comply with state law by not attaching a copy of the title and text…

Plans to demolish an aging church near 7th Avenue and Fillmore Street and replace it with a 122-unit apartment development have some nearby residents concerned about history. Trumont Group is under contract to buy the Mercy Hill Church for its planned apartment development. The church plans to use the funds from the sale to build a new facility nearby on land it also owns. Along with funding the new location, church officials say the existing building has fallen into disrepair and would take between $2M and $4M to restore. They want to avoid the burden of trying to keep up…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Compass Datacenters is proposing a new data center development called Compass PHX II and consisting of three buildings of 208KSF each at the SWC of El Mirage Road and Peoria Avenue in El Mirage. The proposed buildings are 30-foot, single story structures of precast concrete building shells. Each building will have an exterior equipment yard to house power and cooling equipment for the data centers. According to the project description, the equipment yards are larger than the data center buildings’ footprint and will be adjacent to the building’s rear wall. A loop center road configuration…

Plans to demolish an aging church near 7th Avenue and Fillmore Street and replace it with a 122-unit apartment development have some nearby residents concerned about history. Trumont Group is under contract to buy the Mercy Hill Church for its planned apartment development. The church plans to use the funds from the sale to build a new facility nearby on land it also owns. Along with funding the new location, church officials say the existing building has fallen into disrepair and would take between $2M and $4M to restore. They want to avoid the burden of trying to keep up…

By BEX Staff for AZBEX The Mesa Planning and Zoning Board has recommended approval for a site plan, preliminary plat and rezoning with Planned Area Development Overlay for Shopoff Realty Investment’s planned 273-acre industrial development The Block on Elliot. AZBEX first reported on the planned 3.86MSF proposal last September. (AZBEX, (Sept. 6, 2022) A possible 16 buildings are proposed for the site near Sossaman and Elliot roads, according to project representatives. Development is planned across three total phases. Along with the industrial components, three café/club buildings are planned in the second phase to offset the lack of nearby amenities for…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX The Casa Grande Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended City Council approval for a 321-acre master plan with single-family, multifamily, industrial and commercial uses at the NEC of Selma Highway and Henness Road. Vista Estates earned a Planned Area Development zoning designation to include “Commercial, Office, Single-Family Residential and Multi-Family Residential uses,” in 2006. Economic conditions prevented that plan from coming to fruition. The site was purchased for $23M by Casa Grande 320 Acres LLC—an entity of Valley Land Group—in 2021. The current PAD request names Casa Grande 320 Acres as the owner and Arizona…

By Associated Builders and Contractors Associated Builders and Contractors reports that its Construction Backlog Indicator declined 0.2 months to 9.0 in January, according to an ABC member survey conducted from Jan. 20 to Feb. 3. The reading is 1.0 months higher than in January 2022. Despite the decline in January, backlog remains elevated by historical standards and is 0.1 months higher than in February 2020, the month before the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact the economy. ABC’s Construction Confidence Index reading for sales, profit margins and staffing levels increased in January. All three readings remain above the threshold of 50,…

Awards & Accolades 1. Two Arizona projects from Norris Design won awards from the National Association of Home Builders at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas. Norris’ work on the Hospice of the Valley Dementia Care & Education Center was recognized with top honors, a Gold Award, in the Best Assisted Living or Memory Care Community category, and TerraSante was recognized with a Gold Award in the On the Boards Community category. Groundbreakings 2. Family Development (Blue Vista Capital Management LLC) recently announced construction starts for two Build-to-Rent projects in the West Valley under its “Villas” brand. Villas Litchfield…

Empty big-box and other former retail parking lots could see a boom in multifamily development around Tucson, according to market reports and local officials. Currently, the owners of a vacant Sears at 5950 E. Broadway are considering placing a multifamily project on the Park Place parking lot, which has more than 1,000 spaces. Part of the Park Place Sears was remodeled and renovated into a multitenant and shell space in 2019. New owners Park Place Partnership LLC bought the building last year and are planning a self-storage development in the basement, according to representatives from CBRE Tucson. The ground level…