Author: BEX Staff

By JLL and IndiCap Boutique commercial real estate company IndiCap announced it will develop Virgin Industrial Park in partnership with Invesco. At build-out, the two-phase, 110-acre Class A development will total more than 1.5MSF in five buildings. It will also bring IndiCap’s local industrial development pipeline to more than 14.4MSF and 880 acres. Virgin Industrial Park is located on the NWC of Olive and Reems Roads in Glendale. The project sits within the Loop 303 industrial corridor and immediately north of Northern Parkway. Virgin Industrial Park will be developed in two phases. Phase I will include three buildings totaling 566KSF,…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Two projects approved by the Tempe Development Review Board this week will, if built, add 943 apartments to the city’s housing stock. Emerald Multifamily For the larger of the two projects – Emerald Multifamily – Davis Development requested an amended planned area development overlay; a use permit for residential and a development plan review to create a new 591-unit, five-story multifamily community on 16.8 acres at the SWC of Priest and Commerce drives. The site is currently zoned Regional Commercial Center and has a mixed-use land use designation. The current request deals with the northern…

The U.S. Treasury Department has announced guidance intended to increase state, local and tribal governments’ use of American Rescue Plan Act funds that will let more multifamily developers increase production via Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Under the Treasury plan, state housing agencies can use State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to finance LIHTC Projects. The change will enable significant new financing for affordable housing. Treasury is also updating guidance to make it clear SLFRF funds can be used to fund development, repair or operation for affordable rental housing with affordable designations 20-years or more for households earning 65% or less…

Groundbreakings 1. Picking up an announcement from CoStar, ORION Investment Real Estate reports EKN Development has begun construction on the dual-branded, 148-room Fairfield Inn and TownePlace Suites at Tempe Market Station near Tempe Marketplace. FFKR Architects is the design firm, and Porter Brothers Construction serves as general contractor. 2. EPCOR has begun construction on the Copper Basin Water Reclamation Facility in San Tan Valley. The new facility will replace the Section 11 lagoon-style plant, which will be decommissioned by 2025. Copper Basin is scheduled to be in operation by December 2023. Progress Reports 3. After a full year of construction,…

To the chagrin of some San Tan Ranch residents, the Gilbert Planning Commission has recommended a two-story, 75KSF self-storage plan at the SWC of Pecos and Recker roads for approval. The request involves a rezoning and minor General Plan amendment for the 2.92-acre site to allow the developer to build a two-story storage facility greater than 25KSF. The self-storage use is already permitted by right, according to planning officials. Some residents of San Tan Ranch started an opposition petition against the project, which ultimately got 70 signatures. Among the concerns expressed were an increased in crime and homeless/transient traffic, neighborhood…

The Mesa City Council unanimously approved plans for the 36-unit Countryside Townhomes (also known as Countryside Modern) development on 2.4 infill acres at Southern Avenue and 32nd Street following months of meetings and negotiations between the developer and nearby residents opposed to the original plan. Over the course of five months, opponents – mostly from the nearby Dana Park community – got enough concessions from the project owner to pave the way for approval. Council members commented during the July 11th meeting on the hundreds of hours spent by staff, residents and project representatives to get the approval to the…

The City of El Mirage has expressed its support for a request by Dermody Properties to designate approximately 700-acres of LogistiCenter at Copperwing as a Foreign Trade Zone. Requests are ultimately reviewed and approved or rejected by the federal government, but El Mirage will draft a letter supporting the request. El Mirage wants to help the industrial park remain competitive in the face of rampant industrial development in the area. The City reports there are currently seven speculative buildings planned for the park. A Foreign Trade Zone designation is an attractive differentiator, as it allows materials to be stored, processed…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Diversified Partners is requesting a minor general plan amendment and zoning amendments for a 78.6-acre site at the NWC of Black Mountain and Goldrush roads in Bullhead City for a mixed residential and commercial development. The site lies just east of the City Square Shopping Center and other commercial properties at the NEC of Black Mountain Road and Highway 95. The requests are the first step in developing Trails at Black Mountain, a mixed project of multifamily, manufactured housing, single-family and self-storage components. According to the project description, “The rezoning exhibit depicts a single 16-acre…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Doing what we do the way we do it, the BEX staff and I see just about every major project in the state, as well as several that don’t quite make the cut in terms of size. For the last couple of years, at least, nearly every one of them has some component of “resident concern” attached to it. These range from the traditional NIMBYs (We’re not opposed to development, per se, you understand, but we hate this particular project. We’ll probably hate the next one, too.), to BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone)…

Delays in entitlements and construction processes are adding an average of five months to new industrial builds. Data from Newmark shows projects in the pipeline are hitting major backlogs. Starts are up 64% between 2019 and 2021. Tenant demand is up 120%. Deliveries are only up 5.7%. Newmark’s report shows challenges from entitlements to supply to labor are impacting construction at every point in the development process. Lead times for materials are uncertain and can reach out to a year (or more) in some cases. Municipalities are short-staffed while simultaneously seeing a higher number of projects coming in. The construction…