Author: BEX Staff

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…

By Ricardo Cano for The Arizona Republic Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday announced a plan he says would “reverse Recession-era cuts” to Arizona school funding and help settle a $1B lawsuit over a decade of cuts to school capital funding. Surrounded by more than 50 Arizona school superintendents, Ducey said his budget this year will include $100M in “permanent” and “flexible” school capital funding. He promised to continue to increase that capital funding until it reaches $371M by 2023. The plan would be to distribute that money to schools via the so-called District and Charter Additional Assistance funding, which goes toward expenses such as…

Awards & Accolades 1. With 2017 home sales surpassing 900, Eastmark has been recognized as the top-selling master-planned community in Arizona for the third year in a row, according to reports by real estate advisory group RCLCO. Progress Reports 2. The 93-room Silverbell Hotel on Tucson’s south side is in the midst of a $2.5M restoration and rebrand. To be renamed Hotel McCoy, the revitalized facility is scheduled to reopen this spring. 3. The latest in a series of asphalt walking paths, or andadors, will open for public use on Somerton’s west side by the end of January. Completions 4. Jackson-Shaw…

Awards & Accolades 1. GLHN’s John Jolly, Justin Jolly and Joyce Kelly were presented with Awards of Merit by the Illuminating Engineering Society for their lighting design for the University of Arizona’s Environment and Natural Resources 2. 2. Gallagher & Kennedy announced Jennifer Cranston has been named President-Elect of the Board of Directors of AZCREW, one of the founding chapters of the Commercial Real Estate Women Network. 3. Danny Lee has been named the Top Producer of 2017 at Desert Commercial Advisors. Company News 4. Scottsdale-based Foresight Intelligence Inc. is expanding with its software solution for construction companies that run heavy machinery. At 50 employees currently,…

Source Associated Builders and Contractors The nonresidential construction sector added 11,800 net new jobs in December, representing nearly 10 percent of the nation’s jobs created during the month, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The nation’s overall construction sector added 30,000 net new jobs in December, a 0.4 percent month-over-month increase. Construction easily embodies the most positive news emerging from the national unemployment report. Although both nonresidential building construction (-1,300 net jobs) and heavy and civil engineering (-700 net jobs) were down for the month, job gains were driven…

By Mike Sunnucks for Phoenix Business Journal The Arizona Legislature is again looking at property tax breaks cities give to developers and businesses. That includes changing the rules that govern them and restricting them. Conservatives at the Legislature have been scrutinizing and targeting tax breaks called Government Property Lease Excise Taxes. Those involve cities leasing land they own to developers and businesses. That allows them to avoid paying traditional property taxes. They instead pay a lower excise tax. That creates islands of property tax breaks on properties while other privately held land pays traditional property tax rates. State lawmakers have…