07/21/07
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:38 pm
The city of Chandler is teaming with a Chandler-based developer to plan and build a $300 million mixed-use project in the heart of the historic downtown district. Desert Viking Cos. is one of two developers that responded to a city-issued request for proposals in May. The City Council voted unanimously this month to negotiate a development agreement with the firm. Desert Viking already owns large chunks of downtown land and is building San Marcos Commons, a 15-acre mixed-use project that will include luxury townhomes as well as retail and office space. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:36 pm
Conventional ways of marketing homes aren’t going to be enough to rev up the sputtering housing industry. At least, that’s the thinking of Jennifer and Jeff Wallen, who have created a Web site to help people use an unconventional method: house swapping. The Wallens, who own Hot Realty, a traditional brokerage in Anthem, came up with the creative concept out of personal necessity. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:35 pm
In the slumping residential real estate market, it’s hard being a home builder — even harder being a small, independent home builder. Add to that the fact the builder is a woman developing an unusual product in an unlikely neighborhood. That would create almost insurmountable odds, but Peggy Noonan is determined to make a go of it. More…
Filed under:
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Business,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:29 pm
Steven J. Hilton, chairman and chief executive of Meritage Home Corp., Arizona’s only publicly traded home builder, saw his total compensation drop by $1.2 million between 2005 and 2006. But his 2006 paycheck of $9.74 million still nets him a coveted spot as one of the best-paid executives in Arizona. The housing market is in the tank — as reflected by Meritage’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which show the builder’s net income plummeted 81 percent from first-quarter 2006 to first-quarter 2007. Yet Hilton is not alone among builder executives pulling down hefty incomes. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:21 pm
Even as Mesa ramps up efforts to revive the Fiesta Mall area, a key project there has dropped the brand. Fiesta Lofts condominiums, which was to have been a high-rise project called Fiesta Towers, now are being called Aqua Terra. The complex will have more than 400 luxury condos and will offer more than 45,000 square feet of retail space, but it won’t carry the Fiesta name, despite Mesa’s efforts to set the area apart as a distinct place to live and work. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:20 pm
With the debut of Cave Creek’s largest commercial project just weeks away, some people have mixed feelings about its impact. Some are especially concerned about its mezzanines. Stagecoach Village, a 105,000-square-foot spectacle of Western-style retail and office space, should be finished in late August, officials said. The Cave Creek Town Council voted unanimously Monday to approve a development agreement, securing the project’s original stipulations, including a one-story height limit. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:18 pm
A three-building office complex near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport that is home to UnitedHealthcare, Mesa Air Group Inc. and other firms has sold for $96 million. Transwestern Investment Co., a Chicago-based real-estate investment firm that specializes in commercial buildings, bought the properties, located at the northwestern corner of 44th and Van Buren streets. The sale closed Thursday. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:13 pm
NORTHEAST VALLEY - Gray Development Co. has prevailed in an effort to win zoning changes in Desert Ridge, where it owns 41 acres it purchased in 2004 for $32 million. The company, with property northeast of Tatum Boulevard and Deer Valley Drive, won a lawsuit that will allow it to reduce setbacks from 150 feet to 20 feet, and to add a fifth story to some buildings. It earlier won approval for smaller garages and reduced landscaping on the interior of the project, just north of Desert Ridge Marketplace. More…
Filed under:
General,
Sports
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:09 pm
The local group helping to organize next year’s Super Bowl is walking a delicate line. As it tries to lure big-money sponsors, it’s also trying to retain control of its most precious asset: Super Bowl tickets. E-mails recently obtained by The Arizona Republic show that when the Arizona Office of Tourism pledged $750,000 to sponsor the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, the office was offered just four game tickets in return. That didn’t sit well with Margie Emmermann, the state agency’s director. She thought the cash contributions warranted more tickets. More…
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Business,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:07 pm
SCOTTSDALE - An electrical substation more than two years in the making may have a new home. But some neighbors think that new home is a little too close to theirs. American Public Service Co. is set to buy an easement on state land to build a substation a quarter-mile east of Scottsdale Road and approximately a half-mile south of Thompson Peak Parkway on the north side of the proposed Center Drive alignment. More…
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Business,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:05 pm
A two-alarm fire believed to have been started by lightning badly damaged the storied Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley, but won’t deter controversial plans for a hotel and homes on the site. The fire, which started in a vacant, 8,000-square-foot, single-story building about 11:30 p.m. Monday, is one of several structures the developer planned to tear down for the redo. Covering 68 acres, the Mountain Shadows Resort has been a Paradise Valley landmark since its opening in 1959. All except the clubhouse and golf course closed in 2004 due to low revenue and now is in the center of a battle between the developer and Paradise Valley residents. More…
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Business,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:02 pm
Construction crews are busy building two key parts of Arizona State University’s downtown campus: student housing and the future journalism school. Here’s more information about the final product. First, there’s the $71 million journalism school facility, which will also house KAET (Channel 8). The $150 million student housing complex will be built in two phases. When it’s complete in 2009, it will house 1,300 students. The first 13-story tower will have 750 beds and will open in 2008. The second tower, with 550 beds, will be completed in 2009. More…
Filed under:
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Business,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 7:00 pm
Mike Thomas had a rude awakening when he set out to find a new office for his environmental consulting firm almost a year ago. Lease rates had jumped, and not just in prime areas like the Camelback Corridor, north Scottsdale and downtown Phoenix. Rates in the city’s Central Corridor - a submarket long viewed as the redheaded stepchild to those other corridors - had also risen significantly. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 6:57 pm
Lease rates for Valley office space continue to climb, new market data shows. The average rate for the entire Valley reached $25.82 per square foot, according to numbers released Friday by Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial LLC. That’s up from $23.26 per square foot a year ago. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 6:55 pm
Home building has slowed across metropolitan Phoenix, but private investors with deep pockets continue to spur some office development as they search for steady returns. During the first half of this year, almost 2.2 million square feet of office space was completed across the Valley, according to a new report from CB Richard Ellis. More…
Filed under:
General,
Sports
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 6:51 pm
The local group helping to put on Super Bowl XLII is trying to make it easier for the NFL and its sponsors to host private dinners, pregame parties or corporate meetings ahead of next year’s game. The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee has reached out to dozens of venues throughout the Valley and asked them to block out the four-day period leading up to the Feb. 3 game at University of Phoenix Stadium. More…
Filed under:
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Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 6:47 pm
MESA -A Phoenix developer who prides himself on redeveloping blighted properties filed plans with Mesa’s Planning and Zoning Department to build a 61-unit condominium development on property once considered among Mesa’s most blighted areas. Steve Villarreal of South Vista Homes Inc. leveled a decrepit hospital and nursing home at 715 N. Country Club Drive that had been overrun by transients and has pursued several plans for the central Mesa property, just north of University Drive. More…
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Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 6:41 pm
The pace of the Valley’s growth is sky high, and so is the cost of getting there. Cranes, the ubiquitous symbol of progress, are in such high demand that to rent one locally can cost up to $65,000 per day. Those who want to rent may have to cross state lines, and those in the market to buy can expect to wait as long as 18 months. Even the people who operate them are a hot commodity.
That affects the Valley, where cranes are clustered in downtown Phoenix and Tempe and sitting in Scottsdale and Glendale and elsewhere. More…
Filed under:
General,
Business
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 6:36 pm
A decade ago, Phoenix and Scottsdale fought a tug-of-war over the location of the Valley’s Mayo Clinic Hospital. In some respects, it would have made sense to build it in Scottsdale, expanding its footprint with the existing Mayo Clinic research facility at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard. But after Scottsdale residents loudly protested that the hospital would block their mountain and city-light views, Mayo let Phoenix take hold. Mayo spent $14.8 million to purchase 210 acres west of 56th Street, just south of Loop 101, for its hospital, which opened in 1998. More…
Filed under:
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Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 6:32 pm
At first, it’s hard to notice anything has changed in the past 20 years on Buckeye’s Sun Valley Parkway. A sign tells motorist exiting Interstate 10 that there are no services for 35 miles. There is so little traffic on the parkway, new drivers use it as a practice area. And two men can stand in the middle of the road eyeing a piece of debris. But after driving a few miles north, you begin to see how the 30-mile Sun Valley Parkway, once dubbed the “Road to Nowhere,” is transforming. More…