PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA – The Adamson-Catino Trail is finally ready to open. There will be a dedication ceremony for the long-anticipated Green Valley trail this Saturday, Jan. 22, at 10 a.m.

The ceremony will be held at Canoa Preserve Park, located at 3500 S. Camino De La Canoa in Green Valley, where the trail begins.

“This is a terrific trail,” said Steve Anderson, planning division manager at Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation. “From the park, it crosses the Santa Cruz River, then connects to the 1,200-mile Juan Bautista De Anza National Historic Trail, so it’s really something special.”

The trail is named for two well-known bicycling advocates in the Green Valley area. One of them, Bill Adamson, will be speaking at the dedication ceremony.

“Bill came to me with the concept of linking up the Anza Trail with Canoa Preserve Park with a new trail,” Anderson said. “He’s one of our great bicycle advocates in the Green Valley area.”

The trail’s other namesake is Chuck Catino, a former member of the Pima County Parks Advisory Board who died in 2014. Catino was instrumental in the establishment of Canoa Preserve Park, tirelessly working to raise the money needed to fund it, Anderson said.

About 70 percent of the Adamson-Catino Trail crosses a pecan grove that is owned by the Farmers Investment Company (FICO), which agreed to a public easement that would allow the trail to be constructed on their property. FICO President and CEO Richard S. Walden will be speaking at the event.

“We owe FICO an enormous ‘thank you’ for partnering with us on this project,” Anderson said. “They really went above and beyond.”

Along with permitting the easement, FICO helped with preparation of the new trail, including grading the trail and trimming trees and bushes. They also added interpretive signs to inform trail users about the pecan growing process, as well as signs that honored Adamson and Catino for their role in the trail’s creation.

The trail also crosses under a Union Pacific Railroad line west of Canoa Preserve Park. Anderson said the railroad agreed to an easement that would allow the crossing on the condition that Pima County take precautions to protect users of the trail.

“We placed a canopy that extends approximately 30 feet from each side of the train tracks that will keep trail users safe,” Anderson said.

Funding for the trail was provided by Pima County and the Freeport-McMoRan Foundation, who contributed $40,000 to the project.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA — BOMA Greater Phoenix, the industry group that advances the commercial real estate industry through advocacy, influence, and knowledge, has named Arizona Sen. J.D. Mesnard and Arizona Rep. Ben Toma as its 2021 Legislators of the Year for their work on a flat income tax rate that affects commercial property owners.

Mesnard, (R) Dist. 17, and Toma, (R) Dist. 22, were the architects of the $1.3 billion tax cut package in the 2021 Arizona Legislative session that will move Arizona to a 2.5% flat income tax rate and for BOMA/commercial property owners, reduced the commercial property tax assessment ratio from 18% to 16% over four years.

This property tax change will make Arizona more competitive regionally for large businesses/employers relocating. Changes were needed as Arizona has one of the highest commercial property tax rates regionally and across the country.

“The whole idea in trying to lower the commercial property tax rate is to make us more competitive as we see businesses fleeing California for some of our competitor states,” said BOMA Greater Phoenix Executive Director Farrell Quinlan. “We need to make our rates more competitive and make Arizona more attractive. We really don’t have the kinds of incentives that a state like Texas offers. This legislation is extremely important to the state’s commercial real estate industry.”

The awards were presented by BOMA Greater Phoenix Advocacy Committee Chair and Board Governor Susan Engstrom.

The Advocacy Committee monitors, studies, and recommends policy and advocacy strategies on legislative and regulatory matters that affect the commercial real estate industry. A key driver of these policy determinations is to find ways to make Arizona more economically competitive.

Usually, that is in the form of pursuing policies to reduce uncompetitive high property tax rates, supporting incentive tools for job recruitment, supporting efforts to lessen onerous regulation and litigation to our members, and opposing mandated cost increases on the industry.

PHOTO: Arizona Sen. J.D. Mesnard with BOMA Greater Phoenix Advocacy Committee Chair Susan Engstrom addresses the association’s membership upon receiving his 2021 Legislator of the Year Award.

MARANA, ARIZONA – The Ina Capital Development Joint Venture between John C. Buette and Andrew J. Robbins, announced the $2.4 million, an all cash sale of two retail parcels formerly occupied by Enterprise Rental Car and the Waffle House to Phoenix, Arizona-based DP Land Holdings IX, LLC, dba Lifted Trucks, a custom truck dealer.

The two sites are situated at the southeast corner of the recently re-developed ($128 Million project) Ina & I-10 interchange that comprise approximately 100,000-sqaure-feet (2.23-acres) of retail zoned property with a 3,672-square-foot turn-key building; located at 4601 W Ina and 4545 W Ina Road.

This is the first location for Lifted Trucks in metro Tucson. Last year, the company did $200 million in sales out of their four Phoenix locations.

Sarge Glenn of J&J Commercial Properties represented the buyer and John C. Buette  a principle and with Boss Capital Development represented the seller.

For more information, Buette should be reached at 520.907.3003.

To learn more, see RED Comp #9575