Author: BEX Staff

Source: Town of Gilbert The town of Gilbert is now accepting Request for Qualifications from developers for the Town-owned property located at the NWC of Elliot and Gilbert Roads. This land, which is 2.18 acres, was identified as the South Anchor in the Council-adopted 2018 Heritage District Redevelopment Plan. Submittals are due March 12th, 2020 at 2:00PM. Gilbert is a community of more than 260,000 residents, making it the fifth largest city in Arizona. The Heritage District is the community’s original town site, representing the cultural and historical center of town. Today the District is approximately 0.3 square miles in…

Source: Equipment Leasing and Finance Association The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s Monthly Leasing and Finance Index, which reports economic activity from 25 companies representing a cross section of the $900B equipment finance sector, showed their overall new business volume for December was $12.9B, up two percent year-over-year from new business volume in December 2018. Volume was up 65 percent month-to-month from $7.8B in November in a typical end-of-year spike. Cumulative new business volume for 2019 was up five percent from 2018. Receivables over 30 days were 2.20 percent, up from 1.80 percent the previous month and up from 1.70 percent the…

Awards & Accolades 1. Lincoln Property Company (LPC) has won a “The Outstanding Building of the Year” (TOBY) award for its management of The Grand – the first of eight Class A office buildings that LPC is developing at the 60-acre Grand at Papago Park Center mixed-use development in Tempe. The Grand now advances to BOMA’s regional competition, where it will compete against projects across the West and potentially advance to the international BOMA awards. 2. Achen-Gardner Construction won a Build Arizona Award from the Arizona Chapter Associated General Contractors of America for their Salt River Siphon Repair Design-Build project…

By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX The single-family rental community development trend is growing in Arizona, from the “Bungalows” projects being developed across the Valley by Cavan Companies (AZBEX, Dec. 17, 2019), to the mass of Christopher Todd Communities developments, to the Cadence Multifamily project in Mesa, to be developed by GTIS Partners. (AZBEX, Jan. 24, 2020) These projects are meant to provide residents with a more single-family feel by being developed horizontally rather than vertically, with detached units, and providing benefits such as private backyards, while still including central amenities. Hancock Communities is looking to add to the continuing growth…

By Erin Thorburn for AZ Big Media Erik Lee, executive director for North American Research Partnership, summarizes the impact very succinctly. “SkyBridge is the most consequential Mexico-Arizona business project in this part of Arizona,” Lee states emphatically. SkyBridge marks the nation’s first inland air cargo hub to house a joint United States-Mexico customs facility. The recent groundbreaking of SkyBridge, housed in Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, marks an opportunity for 17,000 projected long-term jobs to enter the region — both directly and indirectly. But job creation is just one snippet born of a much larger “SkyBridge vision.” Those wondering just how valuable the Mexico-Arizona…

Source: GSD Group Atari® has announced a deal with GSD Group —led by founder Shelly Murphy and partner Napoleon Smith III — to acquire the rights to build video game-themed Atari Hotels in the United States, with the first location breaking ground in Phoenix later this year. Atari, a trailblazer in the gaming industry, is pioneering a new concept: a unique lodging experience combining the iconic brand with a video game-themed destination. True North Studio will develop the first Atari-branded hotel. One of the most distinctive trends in gaming is gamers gravitating toward recognizable intellectual property. Atari Hotels will offer…

By Ellen Knickmeyer for Associated Press The Trump Administration on Thursday ended federal protection for many of the nation’s millions of miles of streams, arroyos and wetlands, a sweeping environmental rollback that could leave the waterways more vulnerable to pollution from development, industry and farms. The change, signed by heads of the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, narrows the types of waterways that qualify for federal protection under the Clean Water Act. President Donald Trump has targeted environmental and public health regulations that he says imposed unnecessary burdens on business. Speaking to farmers in Texas on Sunday, Trump repeated…

By Catherine Reagor for The Arizona Republic Metro Phoenix is expected to grow by 1 million people during the next decade. That will be like adding a city the size of San Jose, CA or Austin, TX, to the Valley. The billion-dollar question is where all those new residents will live. Most of the available land is on the edge of the West Valley and deep into Pinal County. About 5 million people already call metro Phoenix home, and the region already faces infrastructure and housing affordability issues. Mark Stapp, director of the Master of Real Estate Development program at Arizona State University,…

Source: Associated Builders and Contractors Confidence among U.S. construction industry leaders increased in November 2019 with respect to sales, profit margins and staffing, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors Construction Confidence Index. Sales and profit margin expectations reached their highest levels since May 2019, while staffing expectations reached their highest level since April 2019. Three-quarters of contractors expect sales to rise over the next six months and, as a result, nearly 65 percent expect to increase their staffing levels, indicating that the average contractor will face even greater challenges recruiting and retaining talent through the first half of 2020. More than…

Giving Back 1. Redden Construction has begun collecting non-perishable foods to donate to the Community Presbyterian Food Bank in Payson. Collection bins have been placed at jobsites at Community Presbyterian in Payson and the Shirdi Saibaba jobsite at 17110 N. 17th Avenue, Phoenix. Food will be delivered to Community Presbyterian on Friday, February 14th. Boards & Commissions 2. Terry Martin-Denning, CEO & Designated Broker, NAI Horizon, was named Secretary of the NAI Global 2020 Leadership Board. Martin-Denning will also serve on the NAI Global Board’s Executive Leadership Committee, comprised of executive committee officers, past chairs, and NAI Global’s executive leaders.…