Author: BEX Staff

Chandler officials have joined with neighborhood opponents against a planned joint senior and workforce affordable multifamily development on unincorporated Maricopa County land on Ocotillo Road. Affordable housing developer Dominium Management wants to build The Landings at Ocotillo, which would create a 182-unit senior living complex and 336-unit multifamily complex on 25 acres. Estimated rents for the units would be priced at between 8% and 12% less than standard market rates, according to projections. Chandler officials’ stated opposition stems from the City’s efforts to market the area, which is surrounded by Chandler land, as an employment corridor. They met with Dominium…

The Phoenix City Council has approved a list of 150 City-owned vacant land parcels that could be used for affordable housing construction. Some developers have already expressed interest, and City staff has plans to request proposals. The Housing Phoenix Plan has a goal of creating or preserving 50,000 residential units by 2030. To date, the City says it has preserved or created 22,683. In a September Council meeting, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said private developers have also increased housing production and that multifamily permit issuances have increased 64%. Land costs are a key component in determining development costs and the…

Twenty-four school districts in Maricopa County are seeking voter-approved funding in the upcoming elections. Funding requests come in the form of bonds for specific long-term projects like facilities construction, maintenance and operations overrides for standard expenses, and district additional assistance overrides to boost capital funding and cover extra expenses. Following is a snapshot of the districts looking for funding approval, the types and amounts. Agua Fria Union High School District $209M bond for multiple uses, including construction of a new high school,15% override renewal. Buckeye Union High School District 10% M&O override renewal. Cartwright Elementary School District 15% M&O override…

Giving Back 1. The Arizona Chapter of NAIOP has kicked off the second semester of partnering with Junior Achievement of Arizona to teach a course entitled “Real Estate Development and the Built Environment” to students at Gateway Early College High School. NAIOP Arizona volunteers teach students the basics of commercial real estate development, including different building types, entitlements and zoning, financing a project, putting together a team, and finding tenants. Company News 2. Colliers announced it will acquire a controlling interest in CRE property management firm Arcadia Management Group, Inc. Arcadia’s senior leadership will retain a direct equity stake in…

Sales Transactions 1. Baron Properties has bought the 222-unit Dana Park apartment community in Mesa for $64.6M. Seller OpenPath Investments was represented by Cliff David and Steve Gebing of Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, who also procured the buyer. 2. Cushman & Wakefield announced the firm has brokered the $40.3M sale of the newly constructed Laveen Park Place, a 109.2KSF retail shopping center in the Laveen area of Phoenix. The buyer was Tradewinds Capital LP. Seller LB 59th LLC – an entity of Kitchell Corp. – was represented by Michael Hackett and Ryan Schubert with Cushman & Wakefield in…

By Rebekah Morris for AZBEX The Town of Gilbert is the third-largest public agency in the state when considering capital programs, with the five-year total coming in at more than $2.1B. Only ADOT and City of Phoenix have larger capital programs. Not in the too distant past, Gilbert’s CIP budget was less than one-quarter of what it is today. As recently as seven years ago, the total five-year CIP budget was only $508.9M, which was roughly the same level for the four years prior to FY 2016. Fiscal years 2017 – 2018 – 2019 saw the Town’s CIP budget grow…

Kingman’s $7M Beale Street Infrastructure Project will go with a Construction Manager at Risk delivery method and not use American Rescue Plan Act funds to free up flexibility in executing the overall project. The change was approved in an Oct. 4 Kingman City Council meeting. Banicki Construction has been chosen as the CMAR. City officials said the change and adoption of a CMAR will allow more leeway in scheduling, phasing, cost reduction and other options to maximize the project’s processes and overall value. Work during the phased project will include narrowing Beale, adding sidewalks from First Street to Sixth Street,…

By Associated Builders and Contractors Associated Builders and Contractors reported its Construction Backlog Indicator increased to 9.0 months in September, according to an ABC member survey conducted Sept. 20 to Oct. 5. The reading is 1.4 months higher than in September 2021. Backlog reached its highest level since May 2022 and is once again above the level observed at the start of the pandemic (8.9 months in February 2020). Backlog in heavy industrial increased sizably in September, spurred by a 21.5% year-over-year increase in manufacturing-related construction spending. ABC’s Construction Confidence Index readings for profit margins and staffing levels increased in September, while…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX There are any number of reasons magazines rarely take on Special Coverage projects. The amount of time it takes to write everything is massive, and the time spent in research is often several times the writing time. They take up a lot of space. While that’s not nearly as great a concern in the digital age as it was when we were printing everything, every page still has to be planned, prepped and laid out as seamlessly and efficiently as possible, which is another big outlay of time and talent. Those are really secondary considerations,…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX The current half-cent Maricopa County transportation tax has its roots in the mid-1980s. Mayors around the Phoenix metro regions came together and decided to tax themselves rather than waiting on the state to change its transportation funding mechanisms or to expect the same kind of funding East Coast cities enjoyed under federal spending programs. The first iteration was focused toward the freeway loop system currently in place. In a video conference with AZBEX last month, Maricopa Association of Governments’ Transportation Planning Program Manager Audra Koester Thomas said that funding system is unique. “We don’t have…