Author: BEX Staff

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 4.9 percent in February, up from 4.8 percent in January, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. The national rate remained steady at 4.1 percent. Twelve months ago, the state had a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.1 percent, and the national was at 4. The state had a net gain of 31,100 non-farm jobs over the month, 16,600 of them in the private sector. Nine of the 11 sectors tracked showed gains, while Natural Resources and Mining was unchanged and…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Lennar Multifamily Communities is advancing a Planned Unit Development proposal to redevelop two commercial buildings in north Phoenix into a 299-unit luxury multifamily project: LMC Kierland. According to materials submitted to the Phoenix Planning & Development Department, the plan will replace the two aging suburban-style office structures on 71st Street north of East Tierra Buena Lane with a “4-Over-2-Podium” design of four residential levels over two stories of podium-style parking. “The Project is targeted toward attracting new residents into the Kierland area who desire a resort-style living experience and a ‘lock and leave’…

Groundbreakings 1. The Milwaukee Brewers along with City of Phoenix and community partners broke ground on the renovation project for Maryvale Baseball Park in Phoenix. The Brewers will invest $56-$60M in the construction phase of the program. Phoenix will allocate $2M each year for the next five years for renovations, and the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority will contribute approximately $5.7M. 2. Construction started in mid-February on Gilbert’s new $14M, 600-space Heritage District Parking Garage. 3. Canyon Building & Design announced the groundbreaking of two new ground up hotels in Phoenix. It will construct the 4-story, 128-room Holiday Inn Express and the 4-story,…

By AZBEX Staff for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Inspiration at Cottonwood will be a new, two- and three-story garden style apartment community designed to provide workforce housing to fill a growing need for families currently living in, or moving to, the Verde Valley. Developer Inspiration Holding Company, LLC hopes to break ground this summer. According to an announcement from Sefton Engineering Consultants, the project’s civil engineer, the complex will have 192 “affordable apartment homes with amenities normally seen in upscale apartment complexes.” One target demographic is area hospital employees who want “affordable, yet upscale homes near their employment.” The property is…

By Jane Stewart for Arizona Builder’s Exchange A new industrial park is being proposed along Ray Road in Mesa on 20.89 acres of raw land sandwiched between the Loop 202 San Tan Freeway to the north and Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport to the south. Applicant/Architect Eric Zitny with Ware Malcomb, representing owner Marwest Enterprises, LLC, put plans for The Landing at PMG, Phase I before the city’s Design Review Board for a preliminary review at the March 13th meeting. While unable to approve or deny any cases under a preliminary review, the board will offer suggestions for the applicant to…

The Tucson area has been abuzz with speculation about a massive (technically) speculative warehouse/distribution center project being planned for Century Park Research Center/Port of Tucson that would have a footprint of between 800KSF and 1MSF. We’re sorry for being a couple days late to the party, but AZBEX can confirm plans are in the works; Amazon is the intended tenant, and while the footprint will be 857KSF, the overall building area is 2.3MSF, according to a preliminary plan and document set we were provided by a confidential source affiliated with the project. Known as “Project Wildcat,” the documentation includes a…

Sales Transactions 1. Continental Realty Advisors partnered with GTIS Partners to acquire the 240-unit San Palmas at Mission Park apartment complex in Chandler for $43.2M. The seller, Spring Brook Development, bought the garden-style community in February 2013 for $33.6M, according to CoStar’s analytics. The partnership plans to renovate the complex and upgrade the amenities. 2. ABI Multifamily announced the $19.5M sale of the Rio Santa Fe Apartments in Yuma. Rio Santa Fe Apartments is a 312-unit garden-style apartment community. The buyer is a private multifamily investor based in Arizona. The seller, a partnership formed by Paul Ash Management Company, is a private…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange W.M. Grace Companies and PB Bell have proposed a Planned Area Development to try to breathe new life into a long-dead site at the NWC of Southern Avenue and Alma School Road in Mesa. The 15-net-acre Fiesta Village site was originally developed as a shopping center in 1979, but shifting demographics and retail trends slowly forced merchants out, and the property has sat vacant for years. Nearly 10 years ago there were tentative plans to develop a Lowe’s home improvement store on the property. Those plans fell through, and little, if anything, has…

Awards & Accolades 1. AZRE magazine held its annual Real Estate & Development Awards March 8. The RED Awards highlight impressive projects completed in the last year, as well as the companies and people that make each project possible. 2. AZRE has published the list of 10 most expensive building permits in Phoenix, as compiled by the research team at BuildZoom. 3. Iconic Design Studio and AWE Corporate Interiors are combining their talents to represent the design and furniture industries at the 2018 Western Regional Dental Experience in Glendale. The two will collaborate on “Iconic & AWE: One & Done Dental…

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate nudged upward in January to 4.8 percent, up from 4.7 percent in December, according to the latest report published by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. The national rate remained steady at 4.1 percent. Twelve months ago, the state had a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.2 percent, and the national was at 4.8. It should be noted that every year before the January numbers are published, the Current Employment Statistics program revises prior estimates by incorporating material from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages to achieve a…