Author: BEX Staff

By Tasha Anderson for Arizona Builder’s Exchange At their June 20 meeting, the City of Chandler Planning and Zoning Commission approved preliminary plans for a new parking garage as part of a $194.8M expansion of the Dignity Health Chandler Regional Medical Center. The whole expansion is expected to sit on a 35-acre site at Dobson and Frye roads. The five-story, 948-stall garage will be located at the 35-acre site’s southeast corner at Fairview Street and Pennington Drive and is expected to replace an area designed in 2009 for underground storage. According to the staff report, “The approximate 948-stall garage will…

Awards & Accolades 1. Taylor Morrison Chairman and CEO Sheryl Palmer has been named a Top CEO in 2018 in the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards, chosen by users of the site, Glassdoor.com. Palmer got an approval rating of 96%, which landed her the 19th position among all CEOs of large companies (1,000+ employees) in the U.S. Boards & Commissions 2. After serving more than four years at the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Laura Ciscomani will be the new director of development for both the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Arizona Chamber Foundation. Her role will involve engaging chamber members to use services and…

Groundbreakings 1. Scottsdale’s SkySong is building its fifth office building — the third new office building in the complex in three years and the tallest yet. A ground-breaking ceremony on the more than $43M building and accompanying parking structure is slated for early July. 2. Salt River Devco has started construction on a $15M, 77KSF Marriott Residence Inn at the NEC of Pima Rd and Vista Dr. in Scottsdale. At completion, the hotel will consist of 112 guest rooms. Todd & Associates is the architect and A.R. Mays is the general contractor. Progress Reports 3. Sun Health, a nonprofit organization that operates senior-living…

By Darrell Jackson for The Glendale Star As housing rental rates continue to climb, the Glendale Planning Commission approved plans for a proposed new 240-unit apartment complex near Camelback Road and the Loop 101. The commission unanimously approved the plan during the June 7 meeting and the plan will now be forwarded to council for final approval. The new complex is located near the corner of Camelback Road and 95th Avenue and is currently owned by Lowe’s, which was going to build before agreeing to sell the property to P.B. Bell, the developer of the complex. The property was rezoned…

By Zahra Ahmad for The Arizona Republic A high-profile, but complicated, swath of land along a stretch of freeway in Scottsdale may soon transform from open desert to tall buildings. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company aims to acquire 136 acres of the land for its regional headquarters and other development that would support some 5,500 jobs. The land improvements the project would require, along with rezoning approved by the Scottsdale City Council this month, could open far more land to development. The parcel Nationwide is eyeing is part of 1,000 acres of state trust land sitting on both sides of the freeway and…

Sales Transactions 1. Salt Lake City-based TM Equities Inc. paid $42M for the Sonoma Ridge Apartments, a 240-unit garden-style multifamily community at 8201 W. Beardsley Rd, Peoria, through a 1031 exchange. Tyler Anderson, Sean Cunningham, Asher Gunterand Matt Pesch with CBRE Phoenix represented the seller, San Diego-Based Sunroad. 2. NexMetro Communities has sold its first asset, the 125-unit Avilla Palm Valley, located at 4200 N. Falcon Dr, Goodyear, to a private investor for $25.1M. Teams from Berkadia’s Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., offices represented NexMetro in the transaction. 3. A joint venture between Los Angeles-based Barker Pacific Group and Phoenix-based Pacific Real Estate Partners bought the…

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…