Author: BEX Staff

By Tasha Anderson and Rebekah Morris for AZBEX  Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 6.6 percent in July 2021, from 6.8 percent in June 2021, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity.   The national rate decreased to 5.4 percent from 5.9 percent in June. In July 2020, the state had a seasonally adjusted rate of 10.4 percent, and the national was at 10.2 percent.  The state had a net gain of 6,100 non-farm jobs over the month. “Historically (2011-2020), Nonfarm employment has recorded a loss of 19,700 jobs in July,” the report states. Professional & Business Services had the largest net gain of 11,700 jobs, followed by Leisure & Hospitality with 2,400. Government had the largest net loss of 10,000 jobs. Construction gained 300…

As of 2020, only four percent of skilled construction workers in the United States were women.  While new programs have come about around the country, including one from the LA-based nonprofit Women In Non Traditional Employment Roles and a Biden Administration proposal currently in discussion that would create one million to two million apprenticeships, enhancing the pipeline for women and minorities, females’ participation in the trades has not flourished much since the 1980s.  President Lyndon Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 in 1965, prohibiting employment discrimination by federal contractors and requiring affirmative action in payroll diversification. Following a lawsuit by the National Women’s Law Center in 1976, the Department of Labor set a goal…

The Yuma Marine Corps Air Station and Yuma International Airport stand to receive $6.8M in project funding over the next five years if the current version of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is passed and signed into law.  The current version of the Act was championed by Arizona U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema and Ohio U.S. Senator Rob Portman, passing the Senate on a 69-30 vote. The House will take up the measure when it returns from recess later this month. The $1T bill includes $25B for repair and upgrades at U.S. airports.  Sinema chairs the Senate Aviation Safety, Operations and Innovation Subcommittee.  Yuma Airport officials note the allocation, along with earlier appropriations,…

Awards & Accolades  1. The Arizona Multihousing Association announced the winners of the 29th Annual AMA/Cox Communications Tribute Awards. The projects that were awarded were:  Affordable Community of the Year: Cottonwood Crossing Apartments, Shelton Residential  Renovated Community of the Year: Haven at South Mountain, Shelton Residential  Developers Award for Best Community Design Garden Style: Acero Cooley Station, IDM Apartments  Developers Award for Best Community Design Mid/Low Rise Style: The McKinley, Baron Property Services, LLC  Groundbreakings  2. Adolfson & Peterson Construction and Douglas Unified School District #27 broke ground on a $27M expansion and renovation project for Douglas High School. The project includes four new pre-engineered metal buildings encompassing 87.5KSF, additional classrooms, and new athletics equipment and facilities. Construction on the Douglas High School…

By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX  The City of Phoenix recently issued two Requests for Qualifications for the design and construction of a new taxiway at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.  The first RFQ is for a consultant team to provide engineering services including assessment, design and possible construction administration service. The second RFQ is for a Construction Manager at Risk to provide preconstruction and full construction services.  The approximately $220M project, called New Crossfield Taxiway U, “will extend from existing Taxiway D on the south airfield to Taxiway C on the north airfield and will accommodate Group VI aircraft,” according to the RFQ. “In…

By Salt River Project  Following its recent announcement to expand utility-scale solar resources to 2,025 megawatts by 2025, Salt River Project has announced three new solar energy plants that will deliver a total of 500MW of renewable energy.   Facebook announced it will be SRP’s largest off-taker of these new clean energy resources, utilizing 450MW of the combined solar capacity to support Facebook’s newly announced data center in Mesa, and help meet the company’s 100-percent renewable energy commitments.  The three projects include two 200MW solar plants and one 100MW solar plant. SRP is contracting with subsidiaries of solar developers AES, EDP and NextEra Energy Resources to construct and operate the three new plants. The first project is…

A generation from now a $4.1B desalination plant in Sonora could help alleviate worst-case-scenario water woes in Pima County.  A Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department study examined possible water sources if Central Arizona Project’s Colorado River water supplies dry up and the county population grows to 1.5 million by 2100.  One possible solution is a desalination plant that is proposed to convert saltwater from the Sea of Cortez and then move it nearly 200 miles by pipeline to Pima County.  Officials place the project as roughly equivalent in scale to the creation of CAP, which cost $4B in 1993 dollars. The CAP authorization process started in 1968, and its development took nearly 40 years to complete.…

Lumber prices have begun to settle after hitting a record high of $1,515/thousand board feet in May.  Prices fell to $472 in the first week of August, comparable to summer 2018 prices.  The adjustment has been attributed to producers ramping up supply as developers and buildings planned project delays or switched to other building materials. That materials shift, however, also caused price increases in other construction inputs, such as steel. Bloomberg reports international steel producers have, so far, not increased production.  Single-family and low-rise multifamily projects had been hardest hit by the lumber price spikes and were most likely to have experienced delays. (Source) 

By Associated Builders and Contractors  Construction input prices rose 0.6 percent in July, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index data. Nonresidential construction input prices increased 0.8 percent for the month.  Construction input prices are 23.1 percent higher than a year ago, while nonresidential construction input prices increased 23.4 percent over that span. Energy prices continue to experience substantial year-over-year price increases. The price of natural gas is up 146.7 percent, while crude petroleum and unprocessed energy materials prices are up 102.9 percent and 93.8 percent, respectively. Prices for steel mill products increased 10.8 percent for the month and are up 108.6 percent for the year.  “One’s definition of transitory needs to evolve with these data,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu.…

Awards & Accolades  1. The Phoenix Journal recently published their Top 40 Under 40 for 2021. The Commercial Real Estate and Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry honorees are:  Amanda Elliott – Redevelopment Program Manager for Town of Gilbert  Chris Hanson – Founder of Hanson Capital Group  Kris Pugsley – Senior Director, Marketing & Communications for ON Semiconductor  Tiffany Sharp – Owner of Sharp Construction LLC  Michael Stafford – CFO for LGE Design Build  Boards & Commissions  2. The Pinal County Board of Supervisors on August 4th passed a resolution recognizing Gold Canyon Community Inc. as a valuable partner for enhancing community outreach and receiving community input on projects and issues affecting the Gold Canyon area and…