TUCSON, Arizona — Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR has announced the promotion of Paul Hooker and Ron Zimmerman. The two high-performing commercial real estate brokerage professionals joined twelve C&W| PICOR principals in January 2017 as active shareholders.

Paul Hooker, an industrial specialist, has been with Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR since 2005. He serves on the boards of CODAC Behavioral Health Services and Pima County Real Estate Research Council.  Paul has been a CoStar “Power Broker Award” for ten consecutive years, 2006 through 2015.

Ron Zimmerman joined the Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR team in 2013 and specializes in industrial, automotive and office build-to-suit development, construction and construction management.  He also works with numerous financial institutions in the disposition of commercial properties and with investors seeking income properties.

Zimmerman can be reached at (520) 546-2755 and Hooker should be contacted at (520) 546-2704.

TUCSON, Arizona — After a competitive selection process, the Rio Nuevo Board has approved contracting with the Architectural Team of SmithGroupJJR + WSM to design the new building for Caterpillar’s Surface Mining & Technology Division.

Rio Nuevo simultaneously approved the selection of Tucson-based Sundt Construction, Inc. as the project’s general contractor.

SmithGroupJJR, (www.smithgroupjjr.com) of Phoenix, is a 160-year-old national architecture and engineering firm that has created a legacy of inspiring places that enhance the environment and enrich the human experience. Among its most significant projects are Phelps Dodge Corporate Headquarters, the renowned Chandler City Hall, Salt River Tribal Government Complex, Microsoft Sales & Health Solutions Group Offices, the GoDaddy Global Technology Center, the White House Visitor Center and hundreds of award-winning projects around the globe.  SmithGroupJJR chose to partner with WSM Architects as their Local Liaison and boots on the ground because of their long history in the Tucson market and commitment to the community. WSM Architects, Tucson (www.wsmarch.com), has a rich history of designing some of the city’s best-known projects, including Tucson Fire Central Headquarters, Tucson Police Department Forensic Crime Lab, and Sundt Tucson Headquarters.

Sundt Construction, Inc. (www.sundt.com) is one of the country’s largest and most respected general contractors. The 127-year-old firm specializes in transportation, industrial, building and concrete work and is known for its commitment to quality and innovative approach to construction services. Sundt has 10 offices throughout Arizona, Texas, California and Utah and is 100 percent owned by its approximately 1,600 employees. In 2016 it was named the nation’s safest construction company by the Associated General Contractors of America for the second time in a decade – an honor no other contractor can claim. Sundt’s charitable arm, the Sundt Foundation, recently crossed the $7.6 million mark in donations made to hundreds of nonprofit organizations across the country.

Sundt established its corporate headquarters in Tucson in 1929 and since then has completed more than $2 billion worth of work in the Tucson area, including more than 40 projects in and around downtown. The company was instrumental in the expansion of the University of Arizona, constructed Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, and has completed projects for many notable companies including Raytheon, Sony Electronics, Dial, American Airlines and American Express.

Caterpillar announced Tucson as the new centralized hub for the Surface Mining & Technology Division in 2016 and accepted Rio Nuevo’s offer to build a new building and lease it back to Caterpillar. Located on the west side of Interstate 10, adjacent to Tucson’s origins, Caterpillar’s new 150,000-square-foot building will house approximately 600 company engineers, product development and support positions working on the next generation of mining equipment, vehicles, and technology.

“We had a great response to our request for proposals,” said Fletcher McCusker, Rio Nuevo Board Chairman. “The iconic Caterpillar project deserves the best team and that’s what we have. We are especially happy to work with Arizona firms.”

The creation of the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District was approved by Tucson voters in 1999, along with an appointed Board, to invest state tax dollars in public and public/private projects to create a vibrant Tucson core. For every dollar the Board invests, the community reaps $10 of construction activity with projects like the AC Hotel Tucson by Marriott, The Arena, Greyhound, The Mercado Annex, City Park, The Marist project, and Caterpillar.

For more information, visit https://rionuevo.org.

Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz of the day will be.

Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 32.40 points, or 0.2 percent, to 20,100.91. The S&P 500 index fell 1.69 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,296.68. The Nasdaq slid 1.16 points, or 0.02 percent, to 5,655.18.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose $1.03, or 2 percent, to close at $53.78 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained $1.16, or 2.1 percent, to close at $56.24 a barrel in London. Wholesale gasoline rose 2 cents to $1.54 a gallon, while heating oil added 3 cents to $1.64 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 5 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $3.38 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Annual GEM Show Starts this Weekend – Approximately 55,000 people will gather in Tucson over the next two weeks to participate in the 63rd annual Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase. The shows begin this Saturday at more than 45 locations throughout the Tucson area. To assist gem show visitors, Park Tucson is again offering GemRide, a free shuttle service that connects convenient parking locations with 40 of the shows. The shuttle’s three routes cover 33 different stops, running from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Jan. 28–Feb. 12. The Official Tucson Gem Show Guide app provides show locations, hours of operation, transportation options, and a guide to local dining (including the Best 23 Miles of Mexican Food). An economic impact study commissioned by Visit Tucson indicates direct spending associated with the 2014 gem show was $120 million. That figure is 20 percent higher than the $100 million spent in 2007 by show owners, exhibitors, and buyers. Today’s Caliente section in the Arizona Daily Star (link below) has detailed information about the shows.
GemRide: https://1.usa.gov/1UDitx9

Tucson Recipient of National Biking Award – Tucson will receive the equivalent of $200,000 a year in technical support from PeopleForBikes to support the development of bike infrastructure and programs that encourage biking in a given neighborhood. Tucson is one of 10 cities chosen by the national bike foundation to “radically reimagine their bicycling infrastructure, propelling communities nationwide into a better future for biking.” The new initiative, called the Big Jump Project, aims to double or triple bike ridership in specific neighborhoods over the course of three years. Tucson’s focus areas include the City of South Tucson and the Rose, Fairgrounds, Menlo Park, South Park, and Pueblo Gardens neighborhoods. The winning cities all demonstrated ongoing commitments to improving transportation, housing, and redevelopment, with both leaders and residents mobilized toward change. Over the past four years, the PeopleForBikes initiative has produced a quadrupling of protected bike lane projects in cities.

Average US 30-year mortgage rate rises to 4.19 percent — Long-term US mortgage rates rose this week after three weeks of declines, marking their first increase of the year. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the rate on 30-year fixed-rate loans climbed to an average 4.19 percent from 4.09 percent last week. That was still sharply higher than a 30-year rate that averaged 3.65 percent for all of 2016, the lowest level recorded from records going back to 1971. A year ago, the benchmark rate stood at 3.79 percent. The average for a 15-year mortgage increased to 3.40 percent from 3.34 percent last week.

US new-home sales tumble in December — Americans pulled back sharply from buying new homes in December, but sales for all of 2016 were the highest since 2007. The Commerce Department said Thursday that new-home sales last month fell 10.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate 536,000. But sales totaled 563,000 in 2016, up 12.2 percent over the past year. Much of the sales growth during 2016 came from low mortgage rates and a steadily improving job market. But 2017 begins with some of that momentum possibly stalling as mortgage rates have risen since the November presidential election, worsening affordability and potentially curbing sales growth as more buyers cope with affordability issues.

Government’s Fannie Mae Will Back PE Giant Blackstone’s Rental Home Debt “Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is getting into the single-family rental business in a big way. The government-backed agency said it is going into business with private equity giant and major housing player Blackstone by backing $1 billion in debt. Blackstone’s Invitation Homes filed for an initial public offering this week, and the Fannie Mae relationship was disclosed afterward. Blackstone is looking to raise $1.6 billion by selling shares to the public.” (CNBC)

White House, Trump Organization Name Ethics Advisers “President Donald Trump and his hotel and real estate business on Wednesday separately named ethics counselors, the latest step in the president’s plan to address conflicts-of-interest concerns that arise from his decision to maintain financial ties to his company. Trump selected Washington attorney Stefan Passantino as his White House ethics adviser, press secretary Sean Spicer said. The announcement came the same day Trump’s company tapped a former George H.W. Bush campaign lawyer and a longtime company executive as in-house ethics monitors.” (ABC News)

Blackstone President: U.S. Real Estate Market “Softer” “The Blackstone Group’s real estate business continued to grow in the fourth quarter of 2016, but the company’s president Tony James cautioned that investment opportunities could be harder to come by as the market matures. ‘The one area that’s a little softer I’d say is real estate in the U.S.,’ he said on an earnings call with journalists Thursday morning. The fund manager ended the year with $102 billion in real estate assets under management – up 9 percent over 2015 – making real estate its largest business line ahead of private equity.” (The Real Deal)

Buyers Haven’t Flocked to New Homes This Much Since the Bubble “It’s fairly common to hear that a particular economic data point is the best since the recession. But you’d have to go back a bit further to compare the last time home builder sentiment was so high. In December, builder sentiment, as measured by the National Association of Home Builders’ housing market index, surged to the highest reading since July 2005 — the height of the housing bubble.” (MarketWatch)

Department Stores Need to Close 800 Locations to Restore Their 2006 Productivity “Those 110 Sears and Macy’s stores that have been marked for closure are only the beginning. As department store chains cede market share to off-price, fast-fashion and online competitors, they would need to close about 800 locations to achieve their inflation-adjusted sales productivity level of 2006, according to Green Street’s 2017 Mall Outlook.” (CNBC)

Banana Republic Ousts President After Continued Sales Slump “Fixing Banana Republic is turning out to be Mission Impossible. And after two years of trying to nurse the once iconic brand of affordable but smart clothing back to health, the well regarded brand president Andi Owen is out of a job, the company said on Tuesday. One prominent Wall Street analyst even thinks struggling parent company Gap Inc should consider shuttering the brand, which he sees as beyond repair, or selling it off to better focus on its overall turnaround.” (Fortune)

Global Data Center Marketplace Expected to Explode in 2017 “According to JLL’s new 2017 Data Center Outlook, the public’s obsession with online video binge-watching is just one of the factors helping the data center industry flourish worldwide. Furthermore, massive movement of data from private corporate servers to cloud-based solutions and a growing corporate thirst for Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives are pushing corporate demand too. With data consumption skyrocketing, some major cloud providers are anticipating the need to triple their infrastructure by 2020.” (World Property Journal)

Whole Foods Shutters Regional Kitchens as Turnaround Continues “Whole Foods Market is closing its three remaining regional kitchens, the latest setback as the grocer struggles to turn the company around after five consecutive quarters of negative comparable sales. Austin, TX-based Whole Foods will close the kitchens, in Georgia, Maryland and Massachusetts, where ready-to-eat products were prepared for some stores. The Massachusetts facility was previously singled out by the FDA, which alleged that Whole Foods’ food safety procedures at the facility were inadequate and potentially conducive to contamination.” (The Street)

SL Green Forms One Vanderbilt JV with Korean Pension Fund, Hines “SL Green Realty Corp. has brought in two new equity partners for One Vanderbilt, the developer’s under-construction tower adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. National Pension Service of Korea now owns a 27.6 percent interest in the planned skyscraper, while fellow developer Hines has taken a 1.4 percent stake, according to an SL Green press release. Together, the two companies are investing at least $525 million into One Vanderbilt, which will stand at 1,401 feet with 58 stories when completed in 2020.” (Commercial Observer)

U.S. Industrial Market Enjoyed Record Pace in 2016 “Global property consultant Cushman & Wakefield announced this week that the U.S. industrial market nationwide absorbed 63.6 million square feet (MSF) of space in the fourth quarter of 2016, which propelled net absorption for the year to a record-setting 282.9 million square feet. The current industrial expansion is one for the record book. As of January 2017, the industrial sector has registered 27 consecutive quarters of net occupancy gains, placing this expansion among the longest ever.” (World Property Journal)

Tucson Saguaros recruiting host families for 2017 season – Two dozen Tucson Saguaros players need host families for their return to Tucson for the 2017 baseball season. While there’s no official deadline for host families to apply, the Tucson Saguaros season gets underway at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, 2500 E. Ajo Way, May 25 and the team will need homes for at least 24 roster players by then. “Without host families, the Saguaros cannot survive in Tucson,” said Ken Weir, Tucson Saguaros host family coordinator. Tucson Saguaros players, generally between 21-25 years old, earn a minimum salary for their play time and depend on host families to get them through the season. Most of them play for an opportunity to move up to higher-level leagues or extend their baseball careers.  The team seeks potential families that can house one to two players and provide them with a bedroom to share, access to a bathroom, kitchen, and washer and dryer when possible. In return, the team will offer the families $1.50 game tickets and discounts on select Saguaros merchandise.  In addition, the families must commit to house the player for the entire summer season, which runs from May to August, depending how far the team makes it during playoffs. In 2016, the Tucson Saguaros won the Pecos League Championship. Due to away games scheduled Sunday to Wednesday, the players generally only live with their host families four days out of the week. “It’s a good opportunity to develop relationships with very good young men who have great goals and are great role models for everyone,” Weir said. Interested families must fill out a questionnaire, found on the Tucson Saguaros website. For more information on becoming a host family they may also contact Ken Weir at (575) 491-3216 or weirken61@hotmail.com. The team will start assigning players to host families in early May. To see the Tucson Saguaros 2017 schedule and purchase general admission game tickets or season passes, visit the Tucson Saguaros website.

PACC offers free adoptions to Clear the Shelter Jan. 27-28  — Waived adoption fees apply to all adult dogs and cats –Pima Animal Care Center will offer waived adoption fees for all adult dogs and cats during its Clear the Shelter sale Jan. 27–28. Shelter officials launched the special to incentivize the community to adopt from its significantly overcrowded shelter, which currently has about 463 pets. “Our dog kennels are full, and because we recently rescued 57 cats and kittens from a hoarding situation, our cats need more space, too,” said José Ocaño, PACC’s director of operations. As of Wednesday morning, the shelter had 331 dogs and 132 cats in its care. The two-day free adoption sale begins at noon Friday at PACC’s shelter, 4000 N. Silverbell Road and will extend to PACC’s five partner PetSmart stores through Saturday. The sale does not include the $17 licensing fee for dogs and will not apply to puppies and kittens less than 6 months old. As always, adopted pets come spayed or neutered, which eliminates the possibility of future litters, and they also come with up-to-date vaccinations, microchips, and with a free vet visit, too. Help PACC make room at its shelter by adopting a new furry friend. Visit the shelter or PACC’s website to see the pets ready for adoption.