Author: BEX Staff

Giving Back 1. Native American communities in eastern Arizona will benefit from a new source of clean drinking water through a project sponsored by Resolution Copper and Stantec to deploy “hydropanel” technology. The companies are partnering with White Mountain Apache community members to provide 64 hydropanels on the Fort Apache Reservation and supporting hydropanel installation programs in other Native American communities. Hydropanels are a renewable water technology that uses solar energy to provide drinking water by drawing pure, constantly replenished water vapor out of the sky. Promotions 2. Orcutt | Winslow’s Managing Partners (Neil Terry, Vispi Karanjia, Carl Nelson and Erik Clinite) announce…

Sales Transactions 1. American Campus Communities Inc. has formed a joint venture with Harrison Street for ACC’s eight-property Arizona State University student housing portfolio. Harrison Street acquired a 45% stake in the JV. The closing will be in two stages. Stage 1 closed in December, totaling three properties at $271.7M. The remaining five properties, valued at $279.6M, are expected to close in late 2022 or early 2023. 2. The Boulevard, a 294-unit apartment complex in Phoenix, has been purchased by Davlyn Investments for $112.5M. The seller, who was not disclosed, was represented by Steve Gebing and Cliff David of Institutional…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Last week we talked about the constraints holding back construction and completions, which had been a primary theme of the BEX Companies 2022 Forecast Event. For those of you who missed the event or the writeup, a major takeaway came from BEX Founder and President Rebekah Morris when she said, “We have projects that could go well north of 20 billion (dollars). The market can’t deliver them. We’re going to hold our projections flat. We think the market’s at capacity. Unless we get some massive increase in supply, we’re not going to be able to…

Plans for Unbound Gateway, a 2.5MSF industrial development in Mesa near the SEC of Sossaman and Pecos roads, are going back before the Planning and Zoning Board after “substantial revision.” Union Pacific Railroad had raised concerns Unbound Gateway could interfere with the railroad’s long planned Pecos Industrial Rail Access and Train Extension project (PIRATE), a six-mile rail extension the company hopes to get started building as early as this year. When Mesa officials approved Unbound Gateway in October, it was seen as a means to increase industrial development in the project area. Union Pacific raised objections at the time, but…

Amazon.com Services has bought 51 acres across from Amazon’s existing 1.2MSF Fulfillment Center on South Kolb Road in Tucson where it plans to build a Delivery Station. Steve Cohen with Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR negotiated the transaction on behalf of both the buyer and seller. Delivery stations average slightly more than 123KSF at full build-out and are used to prepare orders for “last-mile delivery” to customers. Amazon dramatically increased its number of delivery centers recently, adding 178 facilities between the ends of 2019 and 2020. The new location will be Amazon’s third station in the Tucson area. (Source)

Flagstaff Unified School District has voted to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Flagstaff to build water retention basis at Killip Elementary School, which is currently undergoing a rebuild. Flagstaff City Council approved the IGA earlier this month. Undertaking the retention basin project while the rebuild is under construction should make it easier to complete. The finished project will help protect the building and surrounding neighborhood. The field will hold approximately 11-acre feet of water. When not flooded, the basins will serve as sports fields. The FUSD Board approved two maximum price proposals from CORE Construction for…

Funding for the 20-year, $13.1B transportation master plan Move Tucson will rely heaving on voter approvals and federal grants. The plan was created to demonstrate Tucson’s needs, not as an actual project improvement plan. City leaders set the more realistic goal of increasing transportation funds by $128M/year, a 50% increase beyond the current funding level and a number that would allow for many of the highest priority projects. In a recent Tucson City Council meeting, officials made clear voter approvals will determine the plan’s ultimate viability. Even if voters approve the plan, a minimum of $100M in grant money will…

Higley Unified School District in Gilbert is once again considering putting a bond request before voters to shore up its funding. A $95M request failed last November. The District receives $6M annually from the state for capital projects, but $4.4M of that goes to pay for two leases from 2012 for buildings at Cooley and Sossaman middle schools. Roughly $44M has been paid on the leases to date, according to officials. There are 31 years left on the leases, which would total $168M over the full term. Because of the lease obligations, HUSD has had to use monies from its…

Panelists at the recent NMHC 2022 Apartment Strategies Conference noted the surge of Build-to-Rent development nationwide and discussed the state of other building types as well, but labor, or the lack of it, was a leading topic of discussion. Build-to-Rent has emerged from the Sunbelt and become a desirable housing type in many markets, and work from home has created new growth across the board in market-rate apartments. Mike Clow, Executive Managing Director, Global Property Management, Greystar, commented on the growth but tempered it by saying everywhere the company wants to develop, the question becomes, “Do we have enough labor…

Groundbreakings 1. Construction has begun at the 28-story, 352-unit PALMtower (Palm Court Tower) near the Arizona Center in Phoenix. 2. Peoria will start work on an expansion to its Reclaimed Water Pipeline project to place a 7.6-mile pipeline running from the water reclamation facility on Beardsley Road to Paloma Community Park. 3. Groundbreaking is scheduled this month at the 26.6KSF Rancho Solano Preparatory School Lower Campus on Pima Road in Scottsdale. 4. A planned 460KSF expansion of the Red Bull, Rauch Fruit Juice & Ball Corp. Filling and Distribution Facilities in Glendale is expected to get underway before the end…