Coolidge Annexes Sandia,Looks for $2 Billion Impact

The Coolidge City Council annexed Pivotal Group's 3,214-acre Sandia community, located in northern Pinal County, and approved the project's planned area development plan, which includes approximately 11,000 homes and more than 550 acres of parks, trails and open space.

Sandia is the first master-planned community to be approved in the City of Coolidge, with a possible economic benefit exceeding $2 billion. The first phase of the community will break ground later this year. A 35-acre mixed-use town center and community park at the center of the community will combine public, retail and recreational uses around an eight-acre artificial lake.

Sites for three K-8 schools will be donated to the Coolidge Unified School District. A 40-acre site will be reserved for a high school. Greey/Pickett Group is the project land planner, Circle West Architecture the architect and Wood Patel is the civil engineer.

Kierland Office Building Breaks Ground

Furst Properties broke ground on the tallest office building in the Kierland master-planned development in North Phoenix, The Pinnacle in Kierland IV. The six-story, 210,000-sq.-ft. office building will feature views of the McDowell Mountains and immediate access to shopping and restaurants at Kierland Commons.

The project is scheduled for completion in March 2007. The Pinnacle in Kierland IV will be the sixth office building developed by Furst Properties in Kierland.

Phoenix-based DFD CornoyerHedrick is the project architect, with Wespac Construction as the general contractor.

NAU Lab Facility Breaks Ground

Holder Construction Co. broke ground for the Northern Arizona University New Laboratory Facility. The new $31 million Laboratory Facility for the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences encompasses approximately 90,000 sq. ft. of new instructional and research laboratories in the chemistry and biological sciences building.

The new facility supports the increasingly complex and advanced undergraduate and graduate level laboratory sciences. It includes 18 instructional labs, 18 research labs, and associated support space. The architect is Carter Burgess. Work is scheduled for completion in November 2006.

Construction Begins on Second Tower at Hayden Ferry Lakeside

SunCor Development Company started construction of phase II of Hayden Ferry Lakeside. Once completed, the 12-story office tower will feature 300,000 sq. ft. of Class A office and retail space. The nautical design theme found in the first building is carried through the second tower, with the façade featuring a sapphire blue, acoustically engineered glass skin and below-grade parking. The building is scheduled for completion in February 2007.

The architectural massing of the towers attempts to be both sensitive to views of the Butte and Mill and yet distinctive enough to further create a landmark symbol.

The state of the art office space includes a high-quality telecommunications infrastructure, acoustic engineering to minimize noise penetration, high-efficiency building envelope, special interior lighting for computer workspaces, a flexible and efficient floor plan and extra floor-load capabilities.

McCarthy Building Companies in Phoenix is the contractor, and DFD CornoyerHedrick is the architect.

"World's Heaviest" Concrete Wall Tilted into Place

Construction at the Broadway 101 project in Mesa went into the record books with the raising of a massive concrete tilt-up wall at the former 1.3 million-sq.-ft. Motorola facility. A concrete wall weighing more than 313,100 lbs., the equivalent of over 30 elephants, was lifted into place on the 72.5-acre project. The wall spans 46 ft. high by 42 ft. wide by 16 in. deep.

Phase one of the project will include six buildings and 400,000 sq. ft. of office, manufacturing, retail and warehouse distribution space.

hardison/downey construction, inc. is the general contractor on the project, Lincoln Property Company & RREEF are the developers and Riggs Construction is the concrete subcontractor. Anticipated completion is in May 2006.