Author: BEX Staff

A $200M plan to fund water project in regions lacking proper supplies appears likely to pass the Arizona Legislature.  The funding is intended to aid water supply and conservation projects and help meet long-term water needs.   Proposed as part of the Fiscal Year 2022 budget, the Senate approved the measure on June 22nd. It has not yet been taken up in the House.   The legislation would create a Drought Mitigation Board and establish a $200M Drought Mitigation Revolving Fund.  Democrats opposed the measure, calling it insufficient and expressing concerns it could hasten groundwater depletion. It was also opposed by the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter. (Source) 

Every state and the District of Columbia saw increases in their real gross domestic product in Q1 2021 versus Q4 2020. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, shows a range of 10.9 in Nevada to 2.9 percent for DC.  Nationwide GDP growth on a seasonally adjusted annual rate grew 4.3 percent in Q4, compared to 6.4 percent in Q1.  Leading contributors included durable goods manufacturing, and professional and other services.   The Southwest region experienced a real GP increase of 4.8 percent.   Nationally, 15 of the 22 industry groups monitored were shown to have contributed to the increases. (Source) 

By Associated Builders and Contractors  National nonresidential construction spending declined 0.7 percent in May, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data published by the U.S. Census Bureau. On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, nonresidential spending totaled $784.5B for the month.  Spending fell on a monthly basis in 11 of the 16 nonresidential subcategories and is down in every category except sewage and waste disposal year over year. Private nonresidential spending fell 1.1 percent in May, while public nonresidential construction spending declined 0.3 percent. Nonresidential construction spending is down 7.1 percent on a year-over-year basis.  “There is a significant gap between elevated levels of contractor confidence and still poor nonresidential construction industry outcomes,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “Recent months…

Awards & Accolades  1. Grange Park, the central amenity at the heart of Harvest Queen Creek, was honored with an Award of Merit for Best Community Amenity at the PCBC 2021 Gold Nugget Awards. Developed by TerraWest Communities in partnership with Brookfield Residential, Harvest was designed to embrace the agrarian heritage of Queen Creek, as well as to appeal to the renewed interest in agriculture and urban farming. RVi provided Planning and Landscape Architecture services for Harvest Queen Creek.  Groundbreakings  2. W.M. Grace Companies recently started construction on the Village Grove at Verrado – Shops A, B and Ace Hardware at the NWC Jackrabbit Trail & Indian School Road, Buckeye. The $4.3M project consists of the construction of three retail…

By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX As municipalities and state agencies begin to roll out their Fiscal Year 2022 Capital Improvement Programs and bring new projects to light, BEX wanted to know the current top projects in the public sector that are in the planning stage. Digging through DATABEX, our online searchable database, we pulled the current Top 10 Public Projects, in order based on total project valuation. Interesting to note, yet not really surprising, is that the largest projects by valuation are all in the Transportation market, showing some incredible road and rail project opportunities coming down the pipeline in…

By Phoenix Community & Economic Development Department The City of Phoenix is accepting proposals to lease and develop a 7-parcel site on 1.11 acres in a vibrant, fast-growing area of the city. The site, located between 14th and 15th Streets along Jefferson Street, is in the Eastlake Park Neighborhood, which has a mix of historic properties, single-family and multi-family homes, and is home to one of Phoenix’s oldest parks, Eastlake Park. “This site is a truly unique opportunity for the developer, the city and our community,” said Christine Mackay, Community and Economic Development Director.  “A great project with mixed uses…

By Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters An overwhelming bipartisan majority of voters – 90 percent – reported repairing our nation’s crumbling infrastructure as an important issue, according to a new Arizona poll released today by Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters and administered by Public Policy Polling. The poll also found that infrastructure is important to respondents across party lines, including 94 percent of Democrats, 91 percent of Independents, and 85 percent of Republicans. These results come as U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema plays a leading role in the latest rounds of bipartisan infrastructure negotiations between the Senate and the White House. Among the poll’s…

Tight vacancies and high demand are sparking bidding wars for industrial space across the U.S., driving both asking rent and taking rent growth to new highs, according to a new report from CBRE. Asking rents increased a record 8.3 percent year-over-year in Q4 2020 and 7.1 percent in Q1 2021—well above the five-year annual growth average of 6.8 percent. Asking rents are the listed rates that landlords are offering for space. Meanwhile, “taking rents” — first-year base rents on industrial leases of 12 months or more—increased 9.7 percent year-over-year for the first five months of 2021. Bulk warehouses accounted for the…

Awards & Accolades 1. For the fourth consecutive year, HILGARTWILSON has been ranked on Zweig Group’s Hot Firm List. The Hot Firm Award recognizes the 100 fastest-growing A/E/C firms in the United States and Canada. Rankings are based on both dollar and percentage of revenue growth over the previous three years. HILGARTWILSON earned the #27 spot this year (up from #39 in 2020) and is the only firm on the list with headquarters in Arizona. 2. Craig Coppola was recently awarded the 2020 NAIOP Award of Excellence. The purpose of this award is to recognize an individual who has made…

Sales Transactions 1. Sares Regis Group purchased Level at Sixteenth, a 240-unit, mid-rise apartment community at the intersection of 16th Street and Camelback Road, Phoenix, for $69.1M. Steve Gebing and Cliff David with Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, procured the buyer and represented the seller, an affiliate of Abacus Capital Group. 2. Rise48 Equity purchased Cascada Del Sol Apartments, a 166-unit multifamily apartment property in Phoenix, for $26.726M, from the Canada-based, undisclosed seller. ABI Multifamily’s Phoenix-based Institutional Apartment Group – Alon Shnitzer, Rue Bax, Eddie Chang, and Doug Lazovick brokered this transaction. 3. Newmark Knight…