Author: BEX Staff

After securing voter approval for a suite of bond-financed construction projects last November, Coconino Community College is working to move those developments forward. The $100M CCC facilities improvements bond includes: Rebuilding the Fourth Street Campus, Adding an Allied Health Building on the Lone Tree Campus, Building student housing in Page and A learning lab with the Williams Local School District. CCC has selected DLR Group and BWS Architects as the design teams for the Allied Health Building and Fourth Street Campus, respectively. CORE Construction is the Construction Manager at Risk for both projects. The next step will be design work,…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Employment in the Arizona Construction sector continued to seesaw at the start of 2026, as the sector reported a decrease of 2,200 jobs in January, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 4.5%. The national unemployment rate dropped to 4.3%, down from 4.4 in December. In January 2025, Arizona had a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.2%. The national rate was 4.0%. Arizona had a not-seasonally adjusted decrease of 46,200 nonfarm employment jobs month-over-month. “Prior to the pandemic (2010-2019), NSA nonfarm employment…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Long-stalled plans to develop market-rate multifamily at University Drive and Center Street in Mesa have now evolved into an opportunity to deliver 62 affordable senior housing units after City Council approved a lease and development agreement last month. The DATABEX project database shows plans for the nearly one-acre site at 17, 31 and 37 W. University Dr., dating back to at least 2020. The last iteration was a 54-unit plan with apartments sized between one and three bedrooms. The last reported activity was the property noted as listed for sale in December 2023. The City…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX The North America Q1 2026 RLB Crane Index shows Phoenix crane activity as “steady,” one of six cities noted as such in the 18-city review. Rider Levett Bucknall shows a generally steady trend across the country. The report’s Phoenix summary shows activity in the downtown area is centered around the Bioscience Core, “with two cranes at the University of Arizona’s CAMI project and another at the EV Hotel near Van Buren and Grand Ave.” The DATABEX project database and inquiries from the BEX research staff show this quote’s information to be incorrect. The EV AI…

Giving Back 1. On March 28, Achen-Gardner Construction employee-owners participated in the Run for World Water 5K, an annual event hosted by Water for People Arizona. The event raises funds to support access to clean water in developing countries. Achen-Gardner also served as a sponsor of the event, which was held at Arizona Falls in Phoenix, a facility the company constructed in 2004. Awards & Accolades 2. Caliente Construction announced its President & CEO, Lorraine Bergman, is the recipient of the Wink Ames Memorial Award for Pioneers in Construction. The award was presented by the Construction Financial Management Association. Bergman…

Sales Transactions 1. Mack Real Estate Group sold roughly 28 acres of vacant land in the Mack Innovation Park for $41.06M. United Integrated Services Corporation purchased the site and plans to construct a 480KSF industrial building. DAUM Commercial’s Bob Lundstedt represented the buyer 2. Rise48 Equity purchased a 194-unit apartment community at 1050 W. 8th Ave. for $33.8M in Mesa. The seller was not disclosed. 3. Cadre Holdings purchased a 70.4KSF industrial manufacturing facility at 9330 N. 91st Ave. in Peoria for $30M. The purchase was part of Cadre’s $120M acquisition of TYR Tactical. 4. AndMark Brookwood Apartments LLC recently…

By Rebekah Morris for AZBEX A pilot project has demonstrated the Integrated Design-Build contract type and alternative delivery method accelerate timelines while maintaining focus on the stated goals. In late 2023, the Arizona Department of Transportation solicited a pilot contract type of using Integrated Design-Build (aka Progressive Design-Build) to design and build a total of seven Rest Area Truck Parking Lot Areas at four locations across Arizona. The goal of the project was to reopen shuttered truck parking at locations on Interstate 40 in Parks and on Interstate 17 in Christensen, and to provide as many new truck parking spots…

By Associated Builders and Contractors The construction industry had 202,000 job openings on the last day of February, 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 decreased by 28,000 in February and are down by 53,000 from the same time last year. “Construction hiring fell to the slowest rate on record in February,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “At the same time, contractors remained reluctant…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Personal care products manufacturer Kimberly-Clark is building a facility on 32nd Street between avenues 4E and 5E in Yuma. Phase I construction began in 2025 and will deliver 50KSF on the 120-acre industrial site. The development, known as Project Ambition and developed under the name Top Quality Products, was discussed in a March Yuma City Council work session. The Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation, the City of Yuma, and Sternco Engineering started working with the company to select a site around 2022. According to a local news report, the company worked with the City to…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX The site of a stalled Build-to-Rent plan at the SEC of McCartney Road and State Route 387 in Casa Grande is being reimagined as an expanded commercial and residential development in a set of requests before the Planning and Zoning Commission. Villages at McCartney Ranch was planned as a Build-to-Rent property in the McCartney II Planned Area Development, and a General Plan amendment and PAD rezoning requests were approved by the Casa Grande City Council in 2022, creating a 34.05-acre mixed-use development site. The PAD was placed in the “Community Corridor” land use designation, with…