Author: BEX Staff

By Anne Ryman for The Arizona Republic Arizona State University unveiled preliminary plans last week for a $160M renovation of Wells Fargo Arena with an adjacent indoor sports complex to house men’s hockey, wrestling and gymnastics. The plans were reviewed by the Arizona Board of Regents Business and Finance Committee, and members voted unanimously to send the plans to the full board for approval in February. About half of the $160M would go toward renovating Wells Fargo Arena and the other half on the new hockey venue, which will be right next door on what is now parking spaces. ASU officials…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Cushman & Wakefield last week issued their Q4 2017 Metro Phoenix MarketBeat reports for Industrial, Office and Retail, noting high degrees of activity across all three sectors. Industrial Industrial posted an overall vacancy rate of 7.9 percent for the quarter. Twelve of the 17 submarkets showed positive absorption for the quarter and the year as a whole. Only Tempe had more than 100KSF of negative absorption for the year. Southwest Phoenix had the highest occupancy growth for the year at 8 percent. In Q4, Metro Phoenix absorbed a total of 2.74MSF, with distribution…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Four commercial real estate and development leaders gave their predictions for what lies ahead in 2018 at Valley Partnership’s Friday Morning Breakfast program, Jan. 26. Following a brief address by Republican U.S. Senate candidate, and current congressional representative, Martha McSally, moderator Mark Detmer, managing director of JLL, introduced the morning’s panel: Chris Anderson, managing director of Hines Development; Rick Butler, principal of Butler Design Group; and Paul Engler, senior VP of Alliance Bank. Detmer started off by asking the group for their thoughts on the economy overall. Anderson went first, saying Arizona is…

Miscellaneous 1. The Fidelity National Title Agency | Camelback Lakes team announced it closed on Pima County Industrial Development Authority Education Facility Revenue Series 2017 Bonds for American Leadership Academy, Inc., in the aggregate amount of $192.2M. The Fidelity National Title Camelback Lakes office team comprises Diane Carpenter, Kristina Gooding, and Leo Sanchez. Sales Transactions 2. Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap announced the sale of Red Mountain Villas, a 768-unit apartment complex in Phoenix. The property is the sixth-largest multifamily asset in Arizona, and the $110M sales price is the second-largest for a single multifamily property in…

Source: Trammell Crow Company Trammell Crow Company and an institutional investor have partnered to acquire a 22.2-acre site at the SWC of 99th Avenue and Van Buren Street for the development of the Tolleson Logistics Center, a new 329KSF Class A industrial building. Construction on the new facility is scheduled to begin sometime this quarter. “The Southwest Valley submarket is highly desirable by occupiers given its location and immediate access to Interstate 10, Interstate 17, the future Loop 202 and proximity to Sky Harbor International Airport,” said Cathy Thuringer, principal with Trammell Crow Company’s Phoenix Business Unit. “The submarket boasts a tremendous…

By AZBEX Staff for Arizona Builder’s Exchange The Rio Nuevo Board voted this week to enter negotiations on a final development agreement for what could be one of downtown Tucson’s tallest buildings. According to Rio Nuevo’s announcement, Todd Freed, VP of construction for JE Dunn Construction, told the board the potentially 300-foot-tall building his proposes to create on the parking lot at Broadway and 6th Avenue could contain 250KSF of office space, 40KSF of retail space and 500-600 parking spaces. It will be the first Class “A” building downtown since the Tucson Electric Power building across Broadway from the parking lot,…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Tempe’s next skyscraping mixed-use is a step closer to reality following the Development Review Commission’s approval of a submittal for The Hayden – a 22-story hotel, condo and restaurant project proposed for the NWC of 6th Street and College Avenue. The 0.4-acre site is currently occupied by one- and two-story office buildings, which will be demolished when development begins. The new plan calls for a 22-story tower that will house 186 hotel rooms and suites, as many as 60 condominiums, a lobby to be shared by both the hotel and the private residences,…

Awards & Accolades 1. Business Insider has recently named Tempe City Hall, or Tempe Municipal Building, as the ugliest building in the Arizona. Along with the city hall were a few “dishonorable mentions”, showcasing the Century Link Tower and BMO Tower in Phoenix. Groundbreakings 2. Great Wolf Lodge broke ground last week to mark the start of construction on its latest water park and family entertainment center in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near Scottsdale. 3. Western States Lodging recently broke ground on its third community in the Phoenix metropolitan area with Legacy Village of Salt River, located at Pima Center in Scottsdale. 4. Work is scheduled to begin next…

Awards & Accolades 1. Cooper Fratt of CBRE has been named 2018 Chairman for the NAIOP Arizona Developing Leaders. 2. For the eighth year, CBRE is No. 1 on the Phoenix Business Journal’s Commercial Real Estate Appraisers list. The company had 1,520 appraisal jobs last year. Boards & Commissions 3. Achieve60AZ selected Rachel Yanof as its first executive director. Achieve60AZ is an alliance of nearly 100 business, philanthropic, education and community organizations. Its main goal is for 60 percent of Arizona adults age 25 to 64 to earn a professional certificate or college degree by 2030. 4. The Tucson Metro Chamber board has named Amber…

By Connor Dziawura for West Valley View The Gates at Goodyear Ballpark is coming soon. The new high-rise condominiums are set for a spot adjacent to Goodyear Ballpark. The idea has been forming for the past two years, according to Andra Fair, CEO of Fair Development. The idea, he said, was given to him by his land partner, David Byrd, who owns and operates several hotels in Goodyear. The plan was adapted from a previous mixed-use development of Fair’s that he said was shelved. “What we did was that we took the components from my mixed-use development and we put…