Author: BEX Staff

By Jim Walsh for East Valley Tribune Mesa is hoping taxpayers kick the Mesa Plays sports complex across the goal line after a shift in financing placed the tax burden on out-of-town patrons for the much awaited, much debated $55M facility. City officials last week acknowledged they are taking a risk that financial forecasts are correct and that Mesa Plays, with 24 fields, will become a magnet for large tournaments. The financing shift, orchestrated by City Manager Chris Brady, leaves Mesa taxpayers responsible for paying off the $25M cost of nine artificial turf fields reserved for community use, even though…

By Tasha Anderson for Arizona Builder’s Exchange The City of Phoenix is in the process of implementing some new changes to their construction procurement request for qualifications scoring process, in order to “provide the best transparency possible to the public and the industry.” One of the biggest changes, as presented by Kandi Kawolsky, design and construction procurement manager for City of Phoenix, to the group at the APWA June 2018 Luncheon on Wednesday, is to the individual scoring process. “We’ve now gone from 100 points to 1000 points, so this is more with industry norm in the procurement world and…

Awards & Accolades 1. Phoenix Business Journal has published its 2018 list of Top Architecture Firms, ranked by number of local, registered architects. With 39 local architects, SmithGroupJJR took the top spot. The full list is available here. 2. DFDG Architecture has announced that one of their employees, Chris Ford, has recently completed certification and testing to become a registered architect and a registered landscape architect. In a state where almost 7,000 architects have registered with the Board of Technical Registration, Chris is one of only 12 who possess registrations in dual disciplines. Company News 3. Virtua Partners announced the…

Groundbreakings 1. The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation will break ground on a new 166KSF casino on June 29. The new casino will replace the existing Fort McDowell Casino once it opens in spring 2020. The current 150KSF casino space will remain in place but will be used for another purpose that is yet to be announced. 2. Abrazo Community Health Network is expanding into the East Valley with construction of a $15M, 32.5KSF “microhospital” on Baseline Road a mile west of Power Road in Mesa. When open in spring 2019, the hospital is expected to employ about 50 full-time equivalent clinical and…

By Gabriela Rico for Arizona Daily Star The Arizona Department of Transportation has agreed to match a $25M federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant to begin construction of a flyover ramp in Nogales to expedite the flow of trade from Mexico. The 3.7-mile Arizona 189 is one of the shortest state routes in Arizona yet supports the Mariposa Port of Entry, one of the nation’s busiest ports serving as the gateway for most of the winter produce entering the United States. It is also a major hub for trade between Arizona and Mexico, estimated at $30B annually. In…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange After five years of fits and starts, the death of a developer, the scrapping of one winning proposal and a sea change in the culture, demographics and economics of Downtown Phoenix, the city is aggressively moving forward once again in hopes of creating a redevelopment plan for one of the area’s most attractive and underused parcels. The Central Station Intermodal Transit Center is once again out for a development bid, and the city is serious about drawing creative ideas. Four years ago, Smithfield Properties won the opportunity to develop on the space at…

Sales Transactions 1. CBRE announced today that the National Retail Partners-West (NRP-West) completed the sale of the 533KSF Westgate Entertainment District in Phoenix for $133M. CBRE retail experts Jimmy Slusher, Kirk Brummer, Sean Heitzler and Philip Voorhees of NRP-West, along with Jesse Goldsmith, Steve Julius and Bryan Taute with CBRE’s Phoenix office, represented both the buyer and the seller. YAM Westgate, LLC, a venture formed by Scottsdale, Arizona-based YAM Properties, purchased the entertainment, retail and office destination from The New Westgate, LLC, formed by iStar Properties, Inc. 2. CBRE has arranged the $100M sale of 24th at Camelback, a 302KSF…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 4.9 percent in April to 4.7 percent, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. The national rate declined from 3.9 percent to 3.7. Twelve months ago, the state had a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.9 percent, and the national was at 4.3. The state had a net loss of 7,200 non-farm jobs over the month. The private sector showed no gain or loss over the previous month. Five of the 11 sectors tracked showed gains, and five showed losses. Natural…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange While backlogs and revenue expectations for U.S. contractors remain strong, a recent report shows the ongoing labor shortage is now affecting 90 percent of contractors across the country. The Q2 2018 Commercial Construction Index, produced and released by USG Corporation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, reports more than half of contractors plan/hope to hire within the next six months but 90 percent are having difficulty locating and attracting skilled labor. Additionally, fully half report concerns about available workers’ skill levels. “Contractors will soon enter their busiest months of the year, and while…

Awards & Accolades 1. Rose Law Group has been honored as a top company to work for in Arizona. The firm was named one of AZCentral’s 2018 Best Companies to Work for in Arizona. 2. Clear Title Agency of Arizona celebrated its 10th year of operation in 2017 and has kicked off its next decade being named among the 2018 Top Companies to Work for in Arizona sponsored by AZCentral. 3. Leroy Breinholt of Commercial Properties Inc. has been honored by ASU in the Sun Devil 100 awards program as #53 of the 100 entrepreneurial & innovative alumni leaders of…