TUCSON, AZ (April 17, 2026) — After months of discussion and limited visible activity, site work is now underway on the proposed Project Blue data center campus near Houghton Road and Interstate 10.

The site, located just north of the Pima County Fairgrounds, is beginning to show signs of movement as this year’s fair gets underway. Recent drone footage shows a newly installed gate allowing construction equipment onto the property, one of the clearest indications yet that early-stage development has begun.

The Pima County Fair runs from April 16-26 this year, and traffic is already emerging as a concern for fairgoers and nearby residents. The Pima County Fair Authority said it has a traffic plan in place and expects fair operations to continue running smoothly.

Dust control is another issue as crews begin grading the desert site. Removing vegetation and disturbing native soil can increase airborne dust during large-scale site preparation. The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality said it has issued a dust control permit to Project Blue contractors and provided requirements intended to limit dust from leaving the site.

Beale Infrastructure, the company developing the data center complex, said the Houghton Road project remains on track to be operational in 2028.

“The Houghton Road data center project is anticipated to be operational in 2028. Construction is currently underway – including clearing and grading – for early stage site development. Dust mitigation plans are in place and being managed on a daily basis, and closely monitored at all times,” the company said in a statement.

For now, the start of clearing and grading marks the most visible sign to date that the Project Blue site is entering its first phase of development.

(April 17, 2026) — Marcus & Millichap’s April 2026 research brief offers a useful snapshot of how a softer labor market is beginning to influence commercial real estate, with the clearest effects showing up in multifamily rather than across all property types. The brief argues that while the broader economy continues to expand, the pace of job creation has slowed sharply, labor force participation has weakened, and those shifts are changing how quickly some sectors can absorb space.

One of the report’s strengths is that it does not overstate the problem. It notes that March job growth was relatively solid at an estimated 178,000 positions, but places that in the broader context of a much weaker trendline. Average monthly job creation over the past year fell far below 2023 and 2024 levels, and hiring has become increasingly concentrated in fewer sectors, especially health care. That framing makes the report more credible because it recognizes that the issue is not a collapsing labor market but a narrowing, less dynamic one.

The most compelling part of the brief is its discussion of multifamily. The report links slower job growth and lower labor force participation among younger adults to softer apartment demand, noting that more young adults are living with family and that this trend has now exceeded even pandemic-era levels. That is an important observation because it directly links labor conditions to household formation, one of the clearest demand drivers for apartments. At the same time, the brief makes the important point that this demand may be delayed rather than destroyed. Its historical comparison to the post-pandemic rebound helps support the argument that once young adults regain confidence in job prospects, apartment absorption could recover quickly.

The report is also useful in drawing distinctions across property types. Office, retail, and industrial are portrayed as less directly affected by current labor-market softness. The office section is especially notable because it points to seven straight quarters of positive net absorption through the end of 2025, with suburban and Class A product capturing most of that demand. That suggests tenant preferences and flight-to-quality trends are still shaping the office market more than headline employment weakness alone. Retail and industrial sectors, meanwhile, are described as more sensitive to tariffs than to current hiring trends.

The brief is somewhat limited in its scale and specificity. It is a national research note, so it does not break down how these trends may differ by market, which matters a great deal in CRE. Conditions in places with strong in-migration, university-driven economies, or major industrial expansion pipelines may not track neatly with the national average. The report also points to declines in labor force participation among workers aged 55 and older and those aged 20 to 24, but it does not fully explore what those shifts mean for local labor availability, wage pressure, or sector-specific space demand.

Overall, this is a solid and measured brief that persuasively argues that labor-market cooling is having its biggest immediate impact on multifamily, while office, retail, and industrial remain influenced more by sector-specific dynamics. Its central takeaway is clear: weaker job growth is delaying some space demand, especially apartment demand tied to young adult household formation, but that demand could return quickly when labor conditions improve.

Read the full report here. 

TUCSON, AZ (April 16, 2026) — Villa Blanca Apartments, a 24-unit multifamily property at 2853 N. Euclid Avenue in Tucson’s Central submarket, sold March 12 for $4.2 million, or about $171.23 per square foot. The sale also equates to $175,000 per unit.

Built in 1964, the 24,528-square-foot property sits on 1.75 acres and consists of six masonry fourplex buildings. The unit mix includes 12 two-bedroom, one-bath units of about 700 square feet and 12 three-bedroom, two-bath units of about 1,200 square feet, along with a swimming pool.

The buyer was Villa Blanca Coyote LLC of Henderson, Nevada, an affiliate of J&A B&C Legacy Holdings, LLC, et al, William and Jason Clune, members. The seller was Amphi Gardens LLC of Scottsdale, affiliated with Taylor Street Investments, LLC, and Patrick O’Meara, a member. Joseph Bernard Investment Real Estate’s Joseph Chaplik handled the transaction.

Located in Central Tucson near the University area, Midtown employment centers, and established neighborhood amenities, the property reflects continued investor interest in smaller in-town apartment communities that offer both current income and future upside. Assets of this size and configuration remain notable in Tucson’s multifamily market, particularly when they include a larger share of family-sized units, which are harder to find in older core-area inventory.

The sale underscores ongoing demand for well-located multifamily properties in Tucson’s central neighborhoods, where proximity to jobs, education, and services continues to support buyer interest in both stable operations and longer-term repositioning opportunities.