Awards and Accolades
1. Arizona has once again earned the prestigious Gold Shovel Award from Area Development. In addition, Nikola Motor’s selection of Coolidge was named Project of the Year by Area Development.
Groundbreakings
2. The first phase of the Mount Elden Middle School renovation began. Flagstaff Unified School District is clearing out the old building to make room for a two-story permanent building, which is scheduled to be completed as early as the start of the 2020-21 school year. Phase II will start in the fall, with most of the work occurring next summer.
3. Crews on Wednesday began grading the future site of a Lucid Motors manufacturing plant in preparation for construction. Lucid Motors announced plans in November 2016 to build a manufacturing plant to produce electric vehicles by 2018. However, that date was later pushed back to December 2020.
4. Queen Creek welcomed the town’s first hotel, Hampton Inn, with a groundbreaking on July 17. With just more than 100 rooms, the Hampton Inn will serve as an economic driver for the community. HD Management serves as the developer and operator with Cedar Point Enterprises as the project manager and Porter Brothers completing the construction. The Hampton Inn is anticipated to open in a little over a year.
5. Tucson Marriott University Park, 880 E. Second St., is getting $18M worth of upgrades to its 250 guest rooms and the lobby, restaurant and meeting spaces. The ballroom and meeting spaces are expected to be complete in September, the guest rooms in October and lobby and public areas by November. The hotel is owned by Atrium Holdings.
6. The new Pascua Yaqui Health Services Center II, to be located at Camino de Oeste and Calle Tetakusim, has broken ground on a new 100KSF building. With an 18-month timeline, construction is expected to be completed by late 2020 or early 2021. Two hundred employees will work at the new facility. Swaim Associates, Ltd. is the architect and BFL Construction is the general contractor.
7. A groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate construction of Best Western Plus Casa Grande Inn & Suites is set for 9 a.m. Monday at the lot where the hotel will be built, 1918 E. Florence Boulevard. The $6M property will feature 68 guest rooms and amenities for business and leisure travelers. It will be built with a meeting room, fitness center, an onsite bar and outdoor swimming pool. Construction is expected to be finished by August 2020.
Progress Reports
8. Sagewood, a Life Plan Community focused on independence and well-being, is underway with Phase II. The $100M, Phase II at Sagewood adds 220KSF across 3.5 acres including 101 independent living apartment homes, new restaurants and community amenities in northeast Phoenix. Phase II will be the largest addition to the Sagewood community since opening in 2010, noted the release about the planned completion in late 2020.
9. Phase II improvements begin soon on the Pyramid Peak Water Treatment Plant expansion. Phase I improvements at the plant at the Glendale-owned plant in north Phoenix were recently completed. The expansion is expected to be completed by Summer 2021.
10. Work is clearly underway on a new building on Fifth Street, just south of Roosevelt Street. But Desert Viking, the real estate development firm that announced plans for a mixed-use project in the area back in 2016, isn’t sharing details about what’s under construction, or other plans for moving the project forward. The developer announced early on that The Blocks project would be completed in three phases, starting with renovations to the former Flowers building. The second phase was set to include a new building at the site where construction is currently underway, plus the two bungalows on Fifth Street.
Completions
11. A Grand Opening of the new Element at SkySong Hotel on Thursday, July 18, a 157-room property that is one of Marriott’s premium lifestyle brand hotels, located at ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center complex near Scottsdale Road and Enterprise Drive. The hotel was developed by Jackson-Shaw, Plaza Companies is the master developer of SkySong in partnership with Holualoa Companies, ASU University Realty and the City of Scottsdale.
12. Laughlin Ranch Boulevard is now about a mile longer on its east end and there are plans to extend the road even farther as the number of people living near the road increases. This is a long-awaited project within the 10,000-acre master-planned community. The boulevard will be seven miles long when fully constructed, from the Colorado River to the mountains, and provide a variety of “spectacular” views.