Author: BEX Staff

Sales Transactions 1. A joint venture between Nippon Steel subsidiary Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate and Continental Realty Group recently paid $58.25M for the 150-unit apartment development Arrive Fountain Hills. The property will undergo interior upgrades and be rebranded as Luna at Fountain Hills. 2. A year after acquiring a 227KSF industrial property at 10300 W. Buckeye in Tolleson for $16.35M, Stos Partners has sold the property for $27.5M. 3. Cushman & Wakefield has brokered the sale of West 101 Business Center, a 118.9KSF, three-building suburban office park in west Phoenix. The property was acquired by Higley Project LLC for…

Project, Process Became a Test Case for Revitalization vs. NIMBY By Roland Murphy for AZBEX After a nearly two-year struggle, multiple revisions and accommodations to neighborhood and regulatory resistance, abundant mis- and disinformation, and its emergence as a poster child representative of the ongoing reformative development versus the forces of Not In My Back Yard, a highly revised and scaled back version of the Greenbelt 88 mixed-use proposal to revitalize a dying shopping center at Hayden and Osborn roads in Scottsdale gained approval from the City Council this week. Having run thousands-upon-thousands of words here about the project’s details and…

By BEX Staff for AZBEX Tempe City Council planned to vote on February 10th on entering negotiations with two potential developers on the adaptive reuse of Hayden Flour Mill. Results of the vote were not available by press time. The proposal moving forward was jointly submitted by Venue Projects and Sunbelt Holdings, both of which are highly experienced in delivering projects in the Valley. Tempe’s evaluation committee recommended the firms following a Request for Proposals released in September. Plan details from the submitted proposal have not yet been released. According to the background information accompanying the Request for Council Action,…

El Dorado Holdings is working to change plans for a site near Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway and Porter Road in Maricopa. An age-restricted patio home development had been planned for the 23-acre property, but representatives with iPlan Consulting say the most likely plan to come is a market rate multifamily project. There are currently more than 1,000 residential units planned for the immediate area. The iPlan official said a mixed-use component on six acres of the property will be part of the proposal, which is currently the preliminary planning stage with the City. A formal proposal and pre-application narrative are expected…

By City of Prescott The City of Prescott announced plans for a new 220KSF FedEx Ground distribution facility near Prescott Regional Airport. The land for the facility totals about 30 acres. Commercial developer Kiernan West LLC acquired the property from the City of Prescott following a public bid process, and will develop the facility on behalf of FedEx Ground. In 2021, the City acquired a total of 115 acres of land, off Melville Road, as part of the development agreement with Arizona Eco Development, which was approved earlier this year. “FedEx Ground will be the first anchor tenant of this property,”…

The 2022 Regional Skills Competition was canceled. To give students an opportunity to compete, Peoria Unified School District developed its own multi-school challenge in which students created constructed wood pieces in the District Administration Center parking lot. Winners will be announced February 11th at the schools and on social media. The winning team will receive the “Best Peoria Unified CTE Construction Program 2022” Award. The contest is being conducted as part of Career and Technical Education Month. (Source)

Casa Grande officials are considering a $115M bond request to fund infrastructure improvements in the city. Potential projects include $41M in road improvements, new trail development, a City Hall expansion, renovations and upgrades to three fire stations, multiple parks and recreation projects, improvements to the Ed Hooper Park/Paul Mason Sports Complex and to the Aquatic Center. City Council members unanimously expressed support for the plan in a recent study session. A resident survey of park priorities is currently in development. If the plan advances, it would be put out for a vote in this year’s general election. (Source)

Economists presenting at the recent 2022 International Builder’s Show in Orlando predicted the compressed housing inventory and high buyer demand, combined with supply chain shortcomings and the ongoing labor shortage will maintain the hot pace of the housing market and its associated impacts on affordability. National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist Robert Dietz reported materials costs have increased 21% Year-over-Year. NAHB has estimated residential construction will have to add 740,000 workers/year to keep pace with demand. Another challenge confronting affordability is the combination of rising inflation and the impending commencement of rate increases from the Federal Reserve to contain…

Groundbreakings 1. City of Phoenix will begin installation of the Drought Pipeline under Glendale Avenue at 21st Street on February 14th as part of the $300M Drought Resiliency Infrastructure Program. The work is expected to take six to eight weeks. Construction for the project continues on Bell Road from 31st to 32nd Street. Additional pipeline work is ongoing along 32nd Street. 2. CapRock Partners has begun construction on the 2.56MSF first phase of its 2.56MSF CapRock West 202 Logistics spec industrial park near 59th Avenue and Van Buren. Completion is expected early next year. 3. Isola Communities has started construction…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX A new bipartisan piece of legislation proposed by Republican State Representative Steve Kaiser and Democratic State Representative César Chávez would, among other items, preempt municipalities from using zoning regulations to restrict residential development and enact ‘zoning by right’ to simplify and accelerate the process for both traditional single-family and multifamily developments around the state. Bureaucratic opposition or inertia is regularly cited as one of three key factors hindering the construction and development industry’s ability to generate supply at a pace that can address demand, the other two being the ongoing labor shortage and construction materials…