Author: BEX Staff

An investors conference call by bond trustee UMB Bank provided new details on Legacy Cares, Inc. (Legacy Sports, LLC)’s default at Bell Bank Park in Mesa. The project is now officially in default, with bond payments not made and contractors not having received payment. UMB representative Michael Slade said the project has never brought in sufficient revenues to cover payments since the project was completed and opened. The site is owned by Pacific Proving LLC, leased by non-profit Legacy Cares and operated by for-profit Legacy Sports. The project was losing, on average, $800K per month, according to Legacy Sports USA…

Awards & Accolades 1. The Arizona Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects had their awards gala recently and provided numerous awards for Arizona projects. The Project Awards and recipients were: Granite Mountain & Fraesfield Trailheads – Honor Award: SmithGroup;Roadrunner – Honor Award: Collaborative V Design Studio;Biodesign Institute at ASU Building C – Honor Award: Trueform Landscape Architecture;Arcadia Neighborhood Learning Center – Award of Excellence: Colwell Shelor;Sznewajs Residence – Honor Award: Collaborative V Design Studio;Fez Way Residence – Award of Excellence: The Green Room Collaborative;Casa Blanca Retreat – Honor Award: The Green Room Collaborative;Edison Eastlake Community Master Plan – Award…

Two apartment projects won recommendations for approval, and another was sent back to the drawing board, at the Scottsdale Design Review Board’s Oct. 6 meeting. Chaparral Commons The first plan recommended for approval was the 225-unit Chaparral Commons – also known as Gold Dust Ave & Scottsdale Rd Multifamily – which also includes 11.4KSF of commercial space on 4.6 acres near the intersection of Scottsdale Road and Gold Dust Avenue. Three amendment requests have been added to the plan since it was originally proposed. In the first, the building would be set back more than the minimum, which will be…

By BEX Staff for AZBEX The Buckeye City Council voted unanimously to approve an annexation and rezoning request for a 226.88-acre site west of SR 85 between Baseline Road and Southern Avenue. The site is currently in an unincorporated Maricopa County island. The land is undeveloped and used for agriculture, according to the project narrative. Property owners Desert Sonora Company and Dinan Holdings LLLP, along with developer Eisenberg Company, sought to have the land rezoned from rural single-family residential to light industrial, in accordance with the Buckeye 2040 General Plan. The General Plan designates the site for Employment uses. Known…

By Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. has announced the addition of new hangar space adjacent to Gulfstream Customer Support’s all-new Mesa service center, which continues to progress toward completion next year at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. The new hangar is located at the SkyBridge development at the airport and augments hangar space Gulfstream established at the facility in March. Gulfstream Customer Support announced the new Mesa facility in November 2021 and broke ground last May. The new 225KSF service center comprises a more than $100M investment and will significantly expand Gulfstream’s Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul capabilities in the Western United…

Tucson City Council has unanimously approved six water conservation and management actions and directed Tucson Water to return with formal proposals later. In the first, Council directed staff to develop a proposed ban on ornamental “nonfunctional” grass installations in new developments and to develop a plan to phase out those installations in existing developments. The action would primarily apply to businesses and multifamily developments. Tucson Water has 90 days to deliver the plan, which would not apply to new single-family subdivisions. The measure’s originator – Councilmember Kevin Dahl – exempted single-family homes because lawns are used by residents for recreation…

Sustainability advocates are looking into ways to manage, recycle and otherwise minimize Construction and Demolition waste. Approximately 25% of Arizona’s total waste stream comes from C&D. That national rate is much worse, hovering around 40%. About 90% of C&D waste is generated from demolition. Advocates are pushing to develop implementation of methods that move usable materials back into the production stream instead of landfilling them and are reaching out to generate buy-in from owners, builders and the design community. The US Green Building Council estimates that the built environment accounts for 40% of raw materials use, approximately three billion tons…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX A pair of recently released market reports paint an interesting picture of the national construction and commercial real estate markets and give insights into where Phoenix and Arizona fit into the overall matrix. The two reports from Rider Levett Bucknall show Phoenix construction continues to grow, albeit at a more modest pace than in previous reviews. The company’s RLB Crane Index – North America Q3 2022 report finds a nominal national decrease in cranes, falling by three from the Q1 report. Nine of the cities surveyed showed increases; one decreased, and four were unchanged. According…

By BEX Staff for AZBEX In our Oct. 21 issue, we picked up a Phoenix Business Journal article on the purchase of 920 acres in Buckeye by Phoenix Hydrogen Hub LLC – an entity of Nikola Corporation and partner TC Energy. The story included speculation that the site was likely planned for the development of a hydrogen hub facility, which Nikola had announced in August. (AZBEX, Oct. 21) In the time since that article ran, Nikola has confirmed it is working with partners to build production and infrastructure to supply materials for its planned hydrogen fuel cell fleet of semitrucks…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 3.7% in September, up from 3.5% in August, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. The national rate fell to 3.5%, up from 3.7%. In Sept. 2021, the state had a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.2%, and the national was 4.7%. The state had a net gain of 25,200 non-farm jobs over the month. “Prior to the pandemic, nonfarm employment averaged a gain of 28,800 jobs in September (2010-2019),” the report states. Government gained 14,500, fewer than the pre-pandemic average of 23,300.…