Author: BEX Staff

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange If we don’t build it – and maintain it, and repair it – they won’t come, and we can’t go. But we can’t build, maintain or repair it if we don’t fund it. If you will forgive a litany of mixed metaphors, this is not a chicken and egg problem. It is the direct result of decades of childish “neener, neener” level finger pointing and kicking the can down the road in the political hope that complicated and nuanced political and economic issues will become someone else’s problems. That’s not a partisan statement.…

Sales Transactions 1. Rich Uncles NNN REIT Inc. of Costa Mesa, Calif. expanded into the Phoenix market through a $26.5M purchase of AvAir’s headquarters. The 163KSF creative office/warehouse space is located at 6877 and 6971 West Frye Road in Chandler. Andy Ogan of Lee & Associates Arizona brokered the sale. The seller, Reasons Aviation LLC, was assisted by John Hink of Tiffany & Bosco P.A. 2. ABI Multifamily announced the $12.2M sale of the 288-unit garden-style, The Quails Apartments at 1120 E Irvington Road in Tucson. The ABI Multifamily Team of Alon Shnitzer, Lance Parsons and Ryan Kippes handled the transaction. The…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate nudged upward in December to 4.5 percent, up from 4.3 percent in November. The October number had also been 4.5 percent, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. The national rate remained steady at 4.1 percent. The state had a net gain of 5,700 non-farm jobs over the month. Most of the gains came from Manufacturing, which added 2,900. Eight of the 11 sectors tracked reported gains. The three sectors with losses were Government (-3,800), Education & Health Services (-500) and Natural…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange It looks as though they’re probably going with A. When Stockdale Capital Partners, LLC secured approval for a massive mixed-use project on the Scottsdale Waterfront a year-and-a-half ago, they had two options under consideration. Alternative A consisted of 240 condos, a 269-room hotel and up to 31KSF of commercial space. Alternative B had no hotel, 416 multifamily units and 20KSF of commercial. (AZBEX; June 24, 2016). Some Scottsdale City Council members at the time expressed a preference for Alternative A, but the matter was left unresolved when the zoning and authorization to enter…

Groundbreakings 1. Sletten Construction has started remodeling work at the former Reynolds school location in southeast Tucson. A.23studios is the architect for owner Sonoran Schools. When completed in May, the project will have brought a school that had been shuttered for 10 years back into compliance. 2. Plaza Cos. has broken ground on a $16M, 64KSF medical office project on Banner Health’s Banner Estrella Medical Campus in the West Valley. The property is expected to open in December. 3. Groundbreaking for the Third Avenue Parking Garage Expansion at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center was January 2. The design-build project team is JE Dunn…

Awards & Accolades 1. AZ Big Media has published its list of “20 in their 20s in Commercial Real Estate”: Patrick Anthon, NAI Horizon; Justin Beall, Layton Construction; James “Jimmy” Crawley, Marcus & Millichap; Jaymee Geelan, Quarles & Brady; Nicole Hanson, Squire Patton Boggs; Tim Hurley, JLL; Justin Kinsler, Alexander Building Company; Jordan G. Kravitz, HKS Inc.; Sean Lieb, SRS Real Estate Partners; Cole Malham, SiteWorks; Chelsea McCaw, EPS Group Inc.; Cameron Miller, Evergreen Devco, Inc.; Matthew Pickering, LevRose Commercial Real Estate; Matthew Reeg, Southwest Traffic Engineering; Hannah Sanders, AME Landscape Companies; Massimo “Max” Sommacampagna, Somma Realty; Robert Takahashi, Silver Fern Companies; Andrew Veatch, SimonCRE;…

By Kim Slowey, Mary Tyler March and Laurie Cowin for ConstructionDIVE After a robust 2017, commercial construction companies are anticipating an even stronger 2018, with the majority reporting they plan to expand their staffs, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. As professionals seek to map out 2018 and beyond, there are a number of trends shaping the construction industry. Some are evolutions of past years, such as offsite construction and an increasing reliance on technology, and some trends are new, such as a focus on resiliency after the most damaging hurricane season on record and devastating fires in California. Other trends that will shape…

By Perry Vandell for The Arizona Republic The Arrowhead BMW dealership Glendale landed last March comes with a $1.5M price tag to the city. That’s because the city needs to carry its waterline across the Loop 101 freeway to the dealership and other expected businesses. The Glendale City Council unanimously approved the deal. City staff say the work is necessary to continue growing on a strip of land within the city limits that’s just northwest of Union Hills Drive and the freeway. Who Pays? While the waterline is for future businesses west of Loop 101, Glendale is picking up most of the tab.…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Despite the sea of controversy surrounding last month’s revamp of the federal tax code, one benefit is on its way to Arizona utilities customers in the form of rate reductions. The relevant change is a cut in the corporate tax rate from 34 percent to 21 percent. Arizona Public Service Company announced last week it has requested approval of a $119M reduction from the Arizona Corporation Commission. “If approved, the $119M decrease will offset the $95M revenue increase that resulted from APS’s last rate review,” the announcement stated. “The savings… will be passed…

By Peter Madrid and AZBEX Staff for Arizona Builder’s Exchange While it was nearly a given multifamily would be king of the hill in the 2017 commercial construction landscape, many other trends the Arizona Builder’s Exchange staff uncovered in preparation for its inaugural 2018 Construction Forecast event last Friday caught both them and several industry experts by surprise. “We track individual projects every day. We know the market. We live this stuff; this is what we do. Even I was surprised to see how the exact construction activity percentages worked out,” said AZBEX Owner and Publisher Rebekah Morris. Multifamily construction…