Author: BEX Staff

By Associated Builders and Contractors The construction industry added 19,000 jobs on net in September, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On a year-over-year basis, industry employment has risen by 292,000 jobs, or 3.9%. Nonresidential construction employment increased by 13,100 positions on net, with growth in two of the three subcategories. Nonresidential specialty trade added 11,200 net new jobs, while nonresidential building added an additional 2,400. The number of heavy and civil engineering jobs decreased by 500 positions. The construction unemployment rate decreased to 3.4% in September. Unemployment…

Giving Back 1. Electrical workers gathered last month at the We-Ko-Pa Golf Club in Fort McDowell to raise more than $262K for The Rosendin Foundation at its Inaugural Fundraising Golf Tournament and auction. Boards & Commissions 2. Governor Doug Ducey has announced his four appointments to the new Water Infrastructure Finance Authority Board. The designees are David Beckham, Buchanan Davis, Johnathan Lines and Andy Tobin. Promotions 3. Juliana Jervis has been promoted to Operations and Events Manager at the Arizona Association for Economic Development. She first joined AAED in 2019. 4. Marisa Palomo has been promoted to VP of Arizona at The…

Sales Transactions 1. The 1.2MSF Building A of Cubes at Glendale (also known as Williams-Sonoma at The Cubes at Glendale, was purchased by JLL West Phoenix Distribution DST (LaSalle Investment Management) for $135M. Will Strong, Greer Oliver and Connor Nebeker-Hay of Cushman & Wakefield represented the developer and seller, CRG (Clayco Realty Group). 2. Rise48 Equity purchased two apartment communities in metro Phoenix. The company paid $29.2M for the 120-unit Aspire Glendale Apartments in Glendale and $31M for the 124-unit Brookfield Apartments in Phoenix. Rise48 has planned $6.6M in improvements and upgrades. 3. The 200-unit Mission Tierra Apartments in Tucson…

Arizona Department of Transportation Director John Halikowski and attorneys for the Federal Highway Administration are taking a multi-pronged approach in their arguments to quash a lawsuit filed by opponents to the Interstate 11 freeway project. Plaintiffs including the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Friends of Ironwood Forest and the Audubon Society filed litigation earlier this year opposing the planned highway. They claim the preferred route would have major environmental impacts, including harm to sensitive areas and protected or endangered species. Specifically, they allege the necessary evaluations of impacts on public lands were not completed…

Firefighters in Casa Grande are urging approval of a bond measure that would fund the building of new fire stations and the purchase of new equipment. The upcoming ballot proposition includes $22M in general obligation bonds that would, among other items, build new Station 505 and rebuild stations 501 and 502. Representatives of the local firefighters union said no new trucks have been added to the department’s inventory since 2010, despite a population growth of around 16,000 people. Casa Grande intends to issue new bonds through 2028 with a tax rate capped at $1.50. If all the proposed requests are…

Phoenix and federal officials announced this week that a major taxiway project at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport will receive $194M in federal funds over the next five years. The 2,000-foot Crossfield Taxiway U project will connect the north and south airfields on the airport’s west side, improving capacity and operational flow. The federal funding comes via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Sky Harbor will cover the difference between the $194M award and the total $260M estimated project cost using funds from airport revenue and passenger facility charges. Last year, the federal government awarded a separate grant of $5.3M…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Credit: Christopher Cherrington/Salt Lake Tribune Much has been written in the last several months on Arizona’s reduced allocations of Colorado River water, the ongoing Millennium Drought and the future of growth and prosperity in the state. Unfortunately, much of what has been written has been incomplete, hyperbolic or badly reported. Rather than nitpicking the ins and outs, we decided to take a broader and more expansive overview in hopes of setting the record a little more straight and providing our readers a more encompassing looking into the state of water supply and development in Arizona…

Industrial and manufacturing projects continue to march steadily forward in Casa Grande, with two new projects coming before the Planning and Zoning Commission this week and another looking to continue its progress. In the first of the new projects, Opus Development Company LLC (The Opus Group) is planning a new speculative light industrial project on 22 acres at the Confluence Industrial Park near Sunland Gin Road and Jimmie Kerr Blvd. Plans call for two buildings of 153KSF and 173KSF, both of which will have heights of 32 feet. The buildings will share an interior truck court, and a rail spur…

By Associated Builders and Contractors The construction industry had 407,000 job openings in August, 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 54,000 last month and are up by 45,000 from the same time last year. Construction workers quit their jobs at a faster rate than they were laid off or discharged for the 18th consecutive month in August. “Today’s job openings estimate is…

Wages in some CRE sectors are declining, and the mixed signals are causing some confusion. Some analysts believe the construction labor market is hitting an inflection point and starting to soften due to inflation and the ongoing fear of recession. Residential construction wages fell $0.28 from June to July. Nonresidential wages were flat and specialty trades wages increased $0.14. Residential construction wages are up 3.4% year-over-year, but annual growth has been higher than usual throughout the pandemic. Growth rates averaged 6%-7% in 2021. Experts say rising interest rates make it harder for developers and owners to make deals pencil out,…