Author: BEX Staff

Sale Transactions 1. Medical Properties Trust, Inc. sold Arizona General Hospital and seven freestanding Arizona emergency department facilities to Dignity Health, a subsidiary of CommonSpirit Health, for $160M. 2. Bridge Investment Group sold Equestrian, a 288-apartment complex in Tucson, to Investors Capital Group for $60.2M. Clint Wadlund, Hamid Panahi, Steve Gebing and Cliff David of Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, represented the seller and procured the buyer. 3. JLL Capital Markets brokered the $12.6M sale of Corona Del Sol, a 64-unit apartment complex in Phoenix. JLL represented the undisclosed seller and sourced the buyer, KDF Communities.…

Mattress manufacturer and retailer 3Z Brands announced it is planning a major expansion of its production facility on Bethany Home Road between 55th and 51st avenues in Glendale. The company, which manufactures and sells mattresses under multiple brand names, plans to break ground in August on a 250KSF expansion of its existing $72M “dream factory” and headquarters site. The new construction will take place at the NWC of the 43-acre site. The expansion will add to the company’s manufacturing capacity, particularly for its foam-pouring operation. At completion, targeted for 2025, the site will include almost 900KSF of manufacturing space. 3Z…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX LGE Design Build released its Construction Delivery Outlook for Q3 this week, and the data shows signs that a continued positive attitude may be justified, although challenges for the Phoenix and national construction industry still remain. To be clear, AZBEX receives quarterly market reports from nearly every outlet that covers Phoenix and Arizona. With no disrespect intended, those reports are usually from commercial real estate brokerages, most of which draw from the same data sources. As a result, our coverage is usually on a first-come, first-served basis. We like to examine the LGE reports from…

A new solar power and battery energy storage system proposed in Mobile is making progress. The City of Goodyear annexed 67 square miles of desert land in 2007, anticipating developments that were derailed by the onset of the Great Recession in 2008. That annexation included the community of Mobile. Now, developer EDF Renewables is proposing a solar farm and BESS project approximately four miles south of State Route 238, which runs through Mobile. The company has asked Goodyear to annex almost 830 more acres in the area so it can develop the project under a single jurisdiction. The Arizona State…

By BEX Staff for AZBEX The Hermosa Ranch Technology Campus North master-planned area—a 234-acre location at the SWC of Avondale Blvd. and Lower Buckeye Road in Avondale that is planned for data center, restaurant and retail uses—is the site of a newly disclosed data center development from QTS Realty Trust. Local news outlets report QTS—which is owned by Blackstone, Inc.—paid TGV Investments LLC (an entity of Rexco LLC) $246.8M for 206 acres on the site earlier this month. TGV Investments secured a rezoning and general plan amendment for the Hermosa Ranch site in May. Avondale City Council also approved a…

East Valley landowner and developer The Saia Family have turned in a pre-submittal application to the City of Mesa for a mixed-use project on approximately 20 acres at Elliot and Power roads north of the Avalon Ranch retail center. The project seeks to rezone 7.8 acres for a luxury multifamily development. The remainder would consist of a shopping center with restaurant and retail offerings. The plan calls for a 30KSF anchor and a 12KSF “junior anchor” commercial tenant, three in-line shops and four pad sites for restaurants with outdoor seating. Butler Design Group is the design firm, and the project…

Awards & Accolades 1. The IPAZ, or Inland Port Arizona, was named the 2023 Project of the Year by the Arizona chapter of the American Public Works Association in Pinal County. The work that was honored included paving former farm roads, widening existing roadways and improving traffic by installing signals at the intersection. Groundbreakings 2. Construction of Ocotillo Bridge, a $112M, 0.85-mile bridge, has begun in Gilbert. The bridge will provide Gilbert Fire Station No. 9 with an improved response time and give more access to Gilbert Regional Park. Construction is expected to be completed in summer 2026. 3. Okland…

Using a $4M grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe plans to build a 3.2KSF worker training facility in downtown Tucson that will prepare tribal members and regional residents for work in the construction industry. The grant will be used both to build the Pascua Yaqui Career Pivot Center and to acquire heavy equipment and simulators for apprentice training with the goal of creating approximately 135 new jobs. Students will be trained for jobs with Sonoran Pueblo Contracting, the tribe’s construction company, and other area partners. Design and engineering work is expected to begin in August.…

By BEX Staff for AZBEX Originally introduced in Chandler’s 2020 Transportation Master Plan, a project that will implement 2.5 miles of protected bike lanes in Chandler continues to move forward. In a presentation last month to the Chandler City Council Connectivity Subcommittee, Senior Transportation Planner Jason Crampton said the preliminary design, public outreach and design components of the project are complete. According to a local news report, Crampton explained that the grant-funded $15M project would also include the need for repaving the roadway. Neither the article nor the presentation materials identified the sources for the grant funding. The materials showed,…

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 3.3% in June, down from 3.4% in May, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. The national unemployment rate increased over the month, rising to 4.1% from 4.0%. Last June, Arizona had a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.8%. The national rate was 3.6%. The Arizona Construction sector added 400 jobs over the month. Arizona had a not-seasonally adjusted loss of 46,300 in nonfarm employment jobs month-over-month. “Prior to the pandemic (2010-2019), NSA nonfarm employment lost 51,600 jobs on average in June,” the…