Author: BEX Staff

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…

Sales Transactions 1. Florida-based Avesta Communities has entered the Arizona real estate market with its $58M purchase of the 320-unit Coronado Crossing apartment complex in Chandler. 2. Berkadia has announced the sale and financing for Villas on Bell, a multifamily garden-style property in Phoenix. Mark Forrester, Ric Holway and Dan Cheyne of Berkadia’s Phoenix office completed the $24.6M sale on behalf of the buyer, KMG Properties. Jackson Cloak and Collin Downey of Berkadia’s Irvine office arranged $12.7M in Fannie Mae financing for the purchase. The seller was RK Properties. 3. Jevan Capital has acquired La Mirada, a 300-unit apartment community in Phoenix…

By AZBEX Staff for Arizona Builder’s Exchange In a major win for the Tucson area, Sun Corridor, Inc. issued a press release this week that Bourn Companies will develop and build a new 200KSF regional office for GEICO at The Bridges master-planned site in Tucson. The new building is planned on 20 acres near 36th Street and MLK way. Bourn Companies’ will purchase, rezone and develop 115 acres in The Bridges’ 350 total acre space. GEICO’s facility will be the Bourn’s first under the plan which will ultimately consist of, “a new corporate employment center, a variety of multifamily residential…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Tech Parks Arizona and Tucson Electric Power this week issued an RFP for companies interested in taking part in Phase II of The Solar Zone. The Solar Zone is a public-private partnership between the University of Arizona and TEP, serving as an innovation hub to test, evaluate and demonstrate solar technologies. According to the description, it was the first-of-its-kind solar research park when it was established in 2010. “It consists of 223 acres of land designed to generate 20 megawatts of power, which is nearly twice the daily electrical consumption of the Tech…