Metrocenter-area location breaks with tradition for tuition-free school, includes Boys & Girls Club space

PHOENIX, Arizona – Just in time for the 2022-23 school year, Stevens-Leinweber Construction, Inc. has completed its fifth and newest campus for Vista College Preparatory (VCP), a tuition-free public charter school educating K-8 students in metro Phoenix.

Called VCP-Metro North, the new location is an adaptive reuse of an existing call center and was chosen after an extensive socioeconomic and demographic analysis.

“VCP’s mission is to provide high-quality programming – often to underserved communities – that prepares kids for success in college and life,” said Julia Meyerson, CEO of Vista College Prep. “By locating within an existing building, VCP-Metro North can deliver on that mission at a much faster pace, in a market where population growth is placing heavy demand on education. We’re so proud and excited to start the 2022-23 school year at our newest VCP location.”

Located at 2133 W. Peoria Ave., VCP-Metro North totals 64,162 square feet in the Black Canyon Commerce Park. At capacity, VCP-Metro North will serve 820 students from kindergarten through eighth grade with state-of-the-art classrooms, a library, generous multi-purpose room, cafeteria services and administrative space. Future development includes the addition of a gym and soccer field.

In addition to bringing an award-winning school to the Metrocenter submarket, VCP has also partnered with the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley, which is opening its first branch in the area. The Boys & Girls Club Metro North Branch will initially only be available to Vista College Prep students and will offer after school, summer and sports and recreation programs.

“VCP is an exceptional organization, always looking for new ways to serve its students,” said SLC Vice President Erik Powell. “We worked side-by-side with the VCP team to transform this building into an incredible space for learning and play, and one that will serve students in the area for years to come.”

Carhuff + Cueva served as the project architect at VCP-Metro North. Foursite Consulting provided real estate consulting services. The school sits just off of Interstate 17 with quick access to Light Rail and within one mile of Metrocenter, where a $750 million plan is underway to redevelop the former mall into thousands of multifamily units, almost 400,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, and a park.

SLC provided full construction management and interior services for VCP-Metro North. SLC has served in the same role for all VCP Phoenix campuses: VCP-Hadley, VCP-Maryvale and VCP-Sueño Park. For more information, visit www.vistacollegeprep.org.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA – AZCREW, the commercial real estate organization that exists to transform the industry by advancing women globally, resumes its monthly lunch events with a look at office trends around the Valley.

“Coming out of COVID, no one was really sure what the status of the Metro Phoenix office sector would be,” said event moderator, Sam Pinkal, Vice President of Business Development for the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC). “As it turns out, workers are returning to their offices and the market sector is heating up again. When I go out for lunch downtown during the week, it’s hard to get a seat because the restaurants are so full. There is a new normal, and we’re thrilled that our panel will let us know what’s going on in the office market as it relates to new office design and construction and vacancy rates.”

Panelists include Jim Bulsiewicz, Director, Hines; Charlie von Arentschildt, Vice President, CBRE; and Alexandra Ayres, Senior Associate/Project Design Manager, Corgan.

The event is August 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the E-Center Esplanade, 2501 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix.

Registration fee is $25 for members; $45 for non-members. This is an in-person event. Please review the COVID waiver and agree to it when registering. Register here.

TUCSON, ARIZONA — Despite interest rate hikes, two quarters of negative GDP and a cooling housing market, the industrial market remains strong. We can attribute the strength of the industrial market to the growing retail-e-commerce market, new construction market, overseas supply chain relocation and a lack of inventory.

With a handful of 40+ acre industrial parcels recently sold or in escrow, we can expect new to Tucson developers to start breaking ground in the second half of 2022. The vast majority of this new speculative construction will be catered to distributors and manufacturers occupying 20,000 SF + bays. There has been some talk of interest rates affecting new developments and banks starting to underwrite these developments more conservatively. Recently, we have seen an increase in seller carry back financing and expect to see this trend grow.

User demand for large industrial parcels of land continues as China faces more shutdowns which is driving companies to relocate their manufacturing to the US and Mexico. We don’t expect this trend to slow down any time soon as supply chain challenges look more long term than short term.

So far, there has been no new construction of bays less than 5,000 SF which is putting pressure on small bay industrial business parks.  In addition, upcoming redevelopment projects of industrial property are also a key factor in the limited existing supply. Currently, the vacancy rate is below 5% as out of state investors are purchasing property at record low cap rates. To justify the low returns, out of state investors are raising lease rates at least 20%. There have even been reports of 80% increases from out of state investors in lease rates for incubator industrial buildings.

Building materials seem to be flattening while commodities such as steel, copper and lumber start to drop in price. Inflationary pressures continue to affect small and large businesses, especially in the transportation sector as fuel and energy remains high. The two largest problems that businesses are facing today is a lack of labor and inflationary pressures.

Arizona is one of the best positioned states right now as migration continues, supply chain is moving from overseas to Arizona after covid shutdowns disrupted the supply chain, and copper demand continues to increase as the EV, electronics and solar market grows rapidly.

Here are a few of our recent deals highlighted:

• Lincoln Property Co purchased 77 Acres at the SE Corner of Alvernon and Los Reales from Diamond Ventures. Max Fisher, BRD Realty handled this transaction. Plans for I-10 International include four warehouse/distribution buildings totaling 476,000 square feet, 214,882 square feet, 188,327 square feet and 158,908 square feet, located on 77 acres just minutes from both Interstate 10 and Tucson International Airport. To discuss leasing, investment or property management opportunities with Lincoln Property Company in the Desert West region, please call David Krumwiede or John Orsak at (602) 912-8888.
• 540 W Prince, a 7,489 square-foot office business park for 7 tenants was sold to SAW Properties and Development LLC for $500,000. The seller, Rich Rodgers Central Inc was represented by Max Fisher and Brandon Rodgers of BRD Realty. The buyer was represented by Sandra Reece of United Brokers Group.

For additional information, Fisher can be reached at 520.612.7962.

To learn more, see RED Comp #9948 and #10041.