Author: BEX Staff

Groundbreakings 1. Representatives from North American Development Group, Will Bruder Architects, LJC and Clayco joined local officials to celebrate the official groundbreaking of PALMtower Residences at Arizona Center, a new 28-story tower in downtown Phoenix. The structure is scheduled for completion in early 2024. 2. The Mayo Clinic has broken ground on its 150KSF Integrated Education and Research Building near 56th Street and Mayo Blvd. in north Phoenix. The building is part of a $748M expansion plan. 3. Construction has begun on the $30M project to expand and improve Red Mountain Park on Brown Road in Mesa. Completion is expected in early-to-mid-2024. 4. A.R. Mays Construction has started work on the 61KSF $15.8M FatCats family entertainment center…

The Surprise Planning & Zoning Commission met April 7th to consider policy changes to streamline approvals. According to a presentation to the Commission, the process started last December when the mayor and City Council directed staff to find ways of improving projects’ speed to market. Staff studied its options from December through February and presented findings to Council. The mayor and council then directed the staff to pursue a zoning text amendment. Among the proposed changes are: Removing the “major” and “minor designations for site plan amendments;Put the decision-making authority for preliminary plats in the hands of the Commission, with appeals going to…

Since we were lucky enough to have four of the state’s leading experts on the Build-to-Rent market address our BEX Leading Market Series event this week, we decided to take a closer look at the state of the market as it stands today. Arizona is generally considered the origin point for the modern Build-to-Rent multifamily sector. Even though the sector has gained traction in every U.S. market, Arizona – particularly metro Phoenix – continues to dominate. A January 2020 market review by RentCaféshowed Phoenix with 6,420 units in inventory. Metro Columbus was a distant second with 4,780. That same report identified 6,740 units delivered across the country…

More than 60 industry professionals attended Wednesday’s BEX Companies Leading Market Series panel discussion on the Build-to-Rent market. Lance Keller, founder and managing member of Lifestyle Homes, served as moderator. The three-person panel consisted of: Jim Belfiore, chief strategist at Keystone Homes;Shelby Duplessis, president of land development at Empire Group, andBret Rinehart, residential lot and land advisor at Land Advisors. Following a brief introduction by BEX Companies Founder and President Rebekah Morris, Keller took the panel into the questions and answers straightaway. The first question was one that has plagued the industry since Build-to-Rent first started becoming a market factor: How do you define it? While answers ranged from…

After encountering fierce opposition to plans to eliminate popular commercial real estate tax benefits last year, the Biden Administration has taken another approach and simply placed the measure into the White House’s new budget proposal. In addition to rolling back the popular 1031 exchange, the actions also target several other deductions and processes. Congress had initially removed 1031 exchange revisions from the budget. The Administration put them back in. 1031 exchanges are one of 10 deductions the Administration is branding as “tax loopholes” and is seeking to close. Industry experts cite the positive impact the deferred capital gains under 1031 exchanges have brought…

More details and discussion have emerged on Optima, Inc.’s proposal to build Optima McDowell Mountain Village, a project consisting of 1,500 multifamily units and 31KSF of commercial uses in six 11-story buildings near Scottsdale Road and Loop 101. An article in Scottsdale Progress reports Optima hopes to get construction underway on the first two towers – one for apartments and one for condos – before the end of the year. Once begun, construction is expected to take between 24 and 28 months. Planned unit sizes range from 675SF to more than 2.2KSF. Planned amenities running tracks, Olympic pools, outdoor barbeques…

Neighborhood opposition has led developer DHI Communities to revise its plan for Ascend at Longbow Highpoint, a planned multifamily community at Recker and McDowell roads. DHI had requested a rezoning for the site from light industrial to develop a 359-unit apartment complex comprised of two- and three-story buildings and featuring 38KSF of retail. Nearby residents inhabiting single-family homes in the area vigorously opposed the proposal before the Planning and Zoning Board in February. The opposition centered around the standard concerns over potentially increased crime, traffic and impacts to neighborhood character, along with the other points of contention concerning height and…

Sales Transactions 1: Western Wealth Capital has purchased the 880-unit apartment portfolio Tucson V in Tucson from Weidner Apartment Homes for $130M. The portfolio consists of Las Brisas (248 units), Aventura (239 units), Alegria (161 units), The Enclave (120 units) and Vista Montana (112 units). The sale was brokered by Hamid Panahi, Steve Gebing and Cliff David of Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, representing the seller and procuring the buyer. 2: JLL Capital Markets announced it has closed the $86.5M sale of The Alexander & The Johnathan, a pair of Class A office assets totaling 219.6KSF feet…

Dysart Unified School District is estimating its new campus needs and expects to require a new high school and two or three elementary schools before 2030. About half the needed funds will come from the Arizona School Facilities Board, but state funding will likely not be available to meet all DUSD’s needs before space needs become critical. A new high school will be essential to handle expected volume increases of as many as 3,000 students before the end of the decade, according to officials. SFB monies are considered likely for this project. The pandemic has affected enrollment numbers, making projections…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX For long-time Arizona residents, the growth and maturation of Glendale is still somewhat surprising. It wasn’t all that long ago the city was viewed as perpetually stalled – a kind of backwater where grand, and occasionally even modest, visions were proposed that then withered on the vine without coming to fruition. The completion of the Loop 101, followed by the long-promised and eventually delivered Loop 303, and, later, the western leg of the Loop 202, finally put the stars in correct alignment, and project after project, employer after employer and rooftop after rooftop have followed,…