Author: BEX Staff

Giving Back 1. Stantec, working with Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA) and Community Engineering Corps (CE Corps), has developed a plan with Holbrook leaders to turn a donated piece of property into a 10-acre park. The all-volunteer Stantec design team has created a conceptual park plan and is now moving forward with the design development phase of the project. Once completed, the park will be a center of pride in the community. Awards & Accolades 2. Best Lawyers in America® 2020 recognized four attorneys from ​Withey Morris PLC​, a prominent Arizona land use law firm for more than 20 years.…

1. Two Marriott-branded hotels in Scottsdale have sold for a combined of $161M to Starwood Capital Group. Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. sold the 243-room Scottsdale Marriott Suites Old Town, 7325 E. Third Avenue, for $81M and sold the 266-room Scottsdale Marriott at McDowell Mountains, 16770 N. Perimeter Drive, for $80M. 2. Innovatus Capital Partners LLC recently purchased Waypoint suburban Class A office campus for $107.6M, from Harvard Investments and Lincoln Property Company. Totaling four buildings at the borders of Mesa, Tempe and Scottsdale, Arizona, the project is the highest-priced office sale of the year in metro Phoenix. The seller…

By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX The Town of Gilbert’s Planning Commission staff received plans for a new multifamily development within Gilbert’s Cooley Station area. Developer, Continental 472 Fund LLC is requesting to rezone approximately 15.27 acres east of the NEC of Recker Road and Williams Field Road from Gateway Village Center with a Planned Area Development overlay to Multifamily/Medium with a Planned Area Development overlay. They are also requesting an existing land use classification change from Village Center to Residential > 14-25 DU/Acre. The project, called Springs at Cooley Station, is proposed as a 276-unit “for-rent apartment community” consisting of…

Source: Trammell Crow Company Trammell Crow Company (TCC) Phoenix has unveiled plans for its newest development, Axis Raintree. The project will include a 175KSF, three-story, Class A speculative office building with a structured garage. Construction is scheduled to begin in October 2019 and will be completed in 4Q 2020. TCC acquired the 8.24-acre site, located at the SWC of East Raintree Drive and North 87th Street in Scottsdale, in April 2019. “The Axis Raintree team has enjoyed working with the City of Scottsdale to design and deliver a best-in-class project that meets the needs of today’s office occupiers,” said Cullen…

Source: Rio Nuevo At an August 13th special meeting, the Rio Nuevo Board of Directors unanimously approved a $65M improvement plan for the Tucson Convention Center and surrounding campus, including the Tucson Music Hall, Leo Rich Theater and the Eckbo Plaza and Fountain. Rio Nuevo officials will now solicit bids and select a contractor for the project. The board also voted to proceed with a $126M financing plan that will earmark about $70M for the renovations and any contingency costs that could emerge, and refinance nearly $48M in debt for the Rio Nuevo district. The funds will also establish an…

By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained constant at 4.9 percent in July, from June 2019, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. The national rate remained at 3.7 percent from June. In July 2018, the state had a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.7 percent, and the national was at 3.9 percent. The state had a net loss of 11,400 non-farm jobs over the month, which is less than the historical 10-year (2009-2018) average loss of 21,000 jobs. Manufacturing had the largest increase of jobs with 1,700, followed by Trade,…

Awards & Accolades 1. The Kiwanis Park Splash Playground in Tempe was selected as one of the American Public Works Association’s Public Works Projects of the Year for 2019 in the category of Structures Less Than $5M. Dig Studio served as primary landscape architect on the project. Groundbreakings 2. Pan-American Charter Schools groundbreaking was last Friday, August 2nd at 8305 W. Thomas Road, Phoenix. Waltz Construction partnered with Highmark School Development, Orcutt I Winslow and Willis Property Company. This project will consist of two buildings, a K-8 two-story building and a one-story high school building. There will be associated site…

By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX More plans have been submitted to the City of Scottsdale for the development of Sereno Canyon Phase Four. Luxury homebuilder, Toll Brothers is requesting approval for final building elevations and a landscape plan for a resort lodge building, townhouse, and cottage resort development on a 129-acre site at the NWC of East Pinnacle Peak Road and North 128th Street. Phase four, also known as The Resort Club at Sereno Canyon, is proposed as a “vacation home series” consisting of 296 units. The units will be a mix of four estate vacation homes, 90 resort townhomes,…

By Tony Davis for Arizona Daily Star A local pro-mining group scheduled a mining appreciation event for October, expected to draw at least 450 people paying tribute to an industry employing roughly 7,500 people in Southern Arizona. The theme was going to be “Miracles from Mining,” highlighting what organizers say are its values to the economy and society as a whole. But after the July 31st federal court ruling halting work on the proposed Rosemont Mine, the Southern Arizona Business Coalition canceled the event. The coalition would have spent $35K, to be repaid through ticket sales, said Rick Grinnell, its…

Source: Associated Builders and Contractors Construction input prices expanded 0.8 percent in July but are down 0.6 percent year-over-year, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index data released. Nonresidential construction input prices also increased 0.8 percent for the month but have declined 0.3 percent on a year-ago basis. Much of the year-over-year decline can be explained by plummeting energy prices, including crude petroleum (-20.3 percent), natural gas (-31 percent) and unprocessed energy materials (20.9 percent). The prices of softwood lumber (-19.5 percent) and iron and steel (-11.1 percent) are…