Author: BEX Staff

Discussions between Tucson Electric Power Co., the City of Tucson and other stakeholders over the planned overhead installation of the Kino to DeMoss-Petrie 138-kilovolt Transmission Line project will continue into the new year. After ongoing controversy swirled around the proposal, TEP requested a 90-day continuance to a planned September 13th hearing before the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee. Scheduling conflicts caused the continuance to extend to February. TEP wants to install the overhead line to connect a substation near 36th Street and Kino Parkway to another substation at I-10 and Grant Road. Some towers along the route…

Having recently sold off The Stewart luxury apartment development on Central Avenue for $125.5M, The Empire Group/Aspirant Development is setting its sights on building Arizona’s tallest tower: The Astra Phoenix. The proposed 47-story, 535-foot tower on 2nd Avenue is one of two planned for the development and will supplant the 483-foot Chase Tower as the tallest in the state. Astra Phoenix will cost approximately $450M to build, according to Empire Group officials, with projected rents exceeding $3/SF. Groundbreaking is planned for next year, opening in 2024, and full completion in 2025. The Opportunity Zone-located development will feature 400 luxury apartments…

The need for new housing units in the Phoenix area is greater than at any point in recent memory. Demand has steadily outpaced supply, leading to year-over-year rent increases of 17.7 percent in May and likely dropping the region from 29th to 38th on Zillow’s list of most affordable metro areas. Despite an estimated need for 150,000 rental units by 2030, building has fallen from a high of nearly 106,000 units in the 1980s to an average of 47,000 per decade since. Even though the need is widely recognized as urgent, however, resistance to new development, particularly in multifamily, is…

Data center developments has taken off around the country. Recent data from JLL shows construction increasing from 611.8MW at the end of 2020 to a First Half 2021 volume of 680.8MW. The record pipeline was set in First Half 2020 with 695MW distributed across 14 markets. Metro Phoenix currently has 32MW under construction, placing it behind Northern Virginia and Northern California but ahead of Salt Lake City and Atlanta. Phoenix will likely continue to benefit from development difficulties in California, including the high cost of power. Despite the increasing appetite for data centers, developers frequently find themselves in competition with…

Company News 1. Capital Asset Management announced it has acquired Valley firm ZELL Commercial Real Estate Services, doubling CAM’s assets with the addition of 50 Arizona commercial properties, for which CAM will take over management and leasing. Promotions 2. Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher has named three key additions to his executive team: Kathleen Gitkin as the city’s Chief Financial Officer; Steen Hambric as Chief Information Officer; and Michael Hammett as the city’s first Chief Innovation Officer. 3. Sundt Construction, Inc., promoted Nick Favia to assistant project manager in its Tempe office. For the last two years, Favia has served…

Sales Transactions 1. LPC Desert West announced the 1.25MSF Park 303 Phase I in Glendale has sold for $186M to BentallGreenOak, making it the largest single-building industrial transaction in state history. The speculative project completed construction approximately a month ago and has been fully leased to a major retailer. The tenant was represented by Ed Lampitt, Mike Haenel, Andy Markham and Phil Haenel of Cushman and Wakefield. Will Strong of Cushman and Wakefield represented LPC. LPC will continue to provide property management services. 2. The Empire Group/Aspirant Development has sold the 312-unit The Stewart Apartments in downtown Phoenix to New…

By Rebekah Morris for AZBEX Holoualoa Companies has plans in a bustling area of north Tempe for workforce housing in the form of a 129-unit multifamily development. The 2.06-acre complex at the NWC of Farmer Avenue and Fifth Street will be comprised of studio and one-bedroom units. Currently on site are office buildings, including that of Architekton, who is acting as the design architect on this project, while WORKSBUREAU is the Architect of Record. The offices will remain intact with the housing being redeveloped around them. If all goes according to plan, the project could break ground as early as…

By LPC Desert West In a joint venture partnership, LPC Desert West, the Southwest regional office of Lincoln Property Company, and Harvard Investments have purchased 585 acres in metro Phoenix’s West Valley submarket for a major new, Class A industrial development called Goodyear AirPark. Situated next to the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport, it is one of the last large industrial-zoned land parcel remaining in the immensely popular Goodyear industrial market. It also sits immediately adjacent to a Dark Fiber line, making it highly attractive for data center development – a market sector in which Phoenix ranks as a U.S. leader. LPC and Harvard will…

By Arizona Department of Transportation Following a comprehensive procurement process, the Arizona Department of Transportation has entered into negotiations with the apparent preferred developer to design, construct, operate and maintain improvements to Interstate 17 between Anthem Way and Sunset Point, a major stretch of highway that sees more than one million travelers every year. After an extensive review process, Kiewit-Fann Joint Venture has been selected as the preferred developer. Key members of the development team include Kiewit Infrastructure West Co.; Fann Contracting Inc.; Kiewit Engineering Group Inc.; DBI Services LLC; CONSOR Engineers LLC dba Apex Design; T.Y. Lin International; Lee…

Alfonso Durazo, the recently elected governor of Sonora, Mexico, says $27.7M has been earmarked for the Mexican port of entry project at San Luis Rio Colorado and construction could begin early next year. The State of Sonora and area municipalities will contribute funds to this and other planned projects in the region. Durazo recently toured the area to see the facilities to be upgraded. Funds have also been earmarked by Congress to create additional lanes and other features on the U.S. side to manage traffic coming in from Mexico. The Mexican side of the project will see new car lanes…