Tucson, Arizona – James P. Robertson, Jr. MBA, CCIM, Senior Commercial Associate Broker with Realty Executives Tucson Elite of Tucson, Arizona, has been honored with a named endowed scholarship.  The purpose of the Named Endowed Scholarship is to honor a CCIM member for their dedication, commitment, outstanding achievement and service in the commercial real estate and investment area.

CCIM Foundation, along with matching funds from individuals and local CCIM Chapters, created the James P. Robertson, Jr. Named Endowed Scholarship in 2016: James has been an active member and supporter for many years of the Southern Arizona CCIM Chapter, currently serves on the CCIM Institutes Board of Directors, and is an active committee member with the National Association of Realtors.

CCIM Foundation has been granting scholarships to deserving commercial real estate professionals since 1988. Scholarship recipients represent a cross section of the commercial real estate industry. There are two scholarship categories given, Named Endowed Scholarships and CCIM Course Scholarships

Since 1969, the Chicago-based CCIM Institute has conferred the Certified Commercial Investment Member designation to commercial real estate and allied professionals through an extensive curriculum of 200 classroom hours and professional experiential requirements.  Currently, there are more than 9,000 CCIMs in 1,000 markets throughout the U.S., Canada, and 30 additional countries.  Another 7,000 practitioners are pursuing the designation.  Only about 6 percent of the estimated 150,000 commercial real estate practitioners nationwide hold the CCIM designation, which reflects not only the caliber of the program, but why it is one of the most coveted and respected designations in the industry.  An affiliate of the National Association of Realtors®, the CCIM Institute’s recognized curriculum, powerful technology tools, and networking programs impact and influence the commercial real estate industry.

Visit www.ccim.com for more information.

TUCSON, AZ — Scottsdale, Arizona-based SWH, LLC (Nick Christifulli and Jodi Johnson, managers) an affiliate of Christifulli Companies  has purchased 11.38 acres at the southwest corner of Valencia and Headley in Tucson for $3.3 million ($6.66 PSF) from JVBM Properties, LLC (James Click, Jr. and Robert Tuttle, members).

Larry Cesar, partner and vice-president at Broadway Realty & Trust in Tucson represented the seller and will represent the developer for sale and for lease at the new 75,000-square-foot shopping center, when fully built out.

Cesar told us the center will wrap around the large Octopus Car Wash at the westside of property, and consist of a bank pad on the corner of Headley & Valencia, several 17,700-square feet clothing stores and restaurants have shown interest in the center. Cesar is submitting plans to the City and expects blading to begin in approximately 60-days.

Located in the Midvale area, the new center is a block away from Tucson’s latest 104,000-square-feet Fry’s store at 1805 West Valencia, under construction with an anticipated opening this March-April. Cesare also handle the sale of the Fry’s site for Tuttle-Click

Buyer and developer, Christifulli, prior to establishing Christifulli Companies, was a founding partner of Vertical Holdings Company; a firm focused on community and neighborhood retail projects and long-term triple net build-to-suit developments for national retail tenants. Formerly representing a number of national retail tenants in the Western United States including: AMC Theaters, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Staples, Ross Dress for Less, Sports Authority, Home Base and Brinker International, among others. Christifulli has been in the shopping center business for more than 28 years and has been involved in over 20 million-square-feet of development and leasing.

For many years, Christifulli served as the Vice President of Development and Leasing for Westcor Partners, now a part of Macerich. Christifulli’s latest major retail development was Chauncey Ranch Center in Scottsdale, a 173,000-square-feet Whole Foods anchored shopping center.

“We’ve already had tremendous enthusiasm from tenants for this project,” Christifulli said.

Valencia is a main arterial road serving the Southwest Tucson submarket with approximately 50,000 average vehicles per day. Neighboring tenants include Walmart Supercenter, Lowe’s and several banks and restaurants.

Kurt Kalocin, vice-president of SRS Real Estate Partners in Phoenix represented the buyer / developer in this transaction.

For additional information, Kalocin can be reached at 602.682.6078 and Cesare should be contacted at 520.584.5804 for leasing and sales interest.

To learn more, see RED Comp #4190.

The Southern Arizona CCIM Chapter held its 23^rd Annual Forecast Meeting Tuesday to a packed room of over 300 attendees. The Forecast is an opportunity for Tucson Commercial Real Estate Professionals to showcase their knowledge of our local market, share their data, thoughts, insights, opinions and suggestions as to where the local market is heading.

This year there was a special effort to bring City and County dignitaries to the event. City of Tucson Mayor, Jonathan Rothschild was keynote speaker and Ward 3 Council member Karin Uhlich also attended with Hector Martinez from the City of Tucson Real Estate Department. Although several County Supervisors had accepted the invitation, none were present.

Mayor Rothschild delivered an energized and honest review of the mechanics of being Tucson’s Mayor and what it looks like going from the 1^st floor to the 10^th floor.  Rothschild said he gets it and claimed, “The City Council is beginning to understand that it takes a thriving economy to bring all the community services that people want.”

Rothschild’s two-year plan spoke of the Five T’s: technology, trade, transportation, tourism and teaching as a way to create future jobs for Tucsonans.

Although subtle, the message was expressed often, that we are still the state of 5 C’s: cattle, cotton, citrus, climate and copper. As members of the industrial panel pointed out to the audience, the mining industry and its off-shoot businesses has been the major impetus for private job growth during the recession.

The forecast categories were industrial, land, finance, multi-family, office and retail. All predictions were similar, ‘expect slow growth’. One member of the multi-family panel finally said as she saw it, “Let Rosemont Mine open or nothing is going to change.”

Another panelist, a local commercial appraiser, expressed his thoughts with a limerick:

               There once was a town called Tucson

               That grew environmentalists quite fearsome

               Rosemont is delayed

               Grand Canyon was filleted

               No wonder our wages are gruesome

Nick Miner, a CCIM member from Phoenix who had also attended the CCIM Forecast meeting last month in Phoenix commented, “The Tucson Market appears to be four years behind Phoenix in the recovery.”

CCIM Chapter President, James Robertson, Jr. and Brandon Rodgers, CCIM, Vice-President and Market Forecast Chair warned at the start of the meeting, “There’s a sense in the Tucson market that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we don’t think it’s a train.”