HDR to Provide Light Rail Design Services

The Phoenix office of HDR will provide final engineering design services for Line Section 5 of the new Central Phoenix/East Valley Light Rail Transit (LRT) project. HDR will provide these services as a subcontractor to the general engineering consultant team led by Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade and Douglas Inc.

HDR and its subconsultants are designing civil, structural, electrical and landscape architectural improvements with an estimated construction cost of $50 million. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2004 with a completion date of December 2006 for the first phase of the project from downtown Phoenix to downtown Tempe. The segment includes service to Arizona State University and is located within the cities of Tempe and Mesa. Project components for the 5.3-mile segment will include major roadway, intersection, utility and drainage improvements, as well as modifications to the existing Apache Road Bridge over the Loop 101 and the Apache Boulevard Bridge over the Tempe Canal. Construction costs for the entire 20-mile starter line are estimated at $480 million.

Weitz Building Huge Resort

The Weitz Company recently announced the company has started construction of the Marriott Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, Ariz. Weitz has provided extensive construction services on the 564,000-sq.- ft. resort. Situated in the Sonoran Desert, this $70.5 million facility will be the largest resort in Tucson with 575 rooms, 66,000 sq. ft. of convention and meeting space, three restaurants, a 22,000-sq.-ft. spa, a gift shop, structured valet parking and other hotel amenities.

Hornberger + Worstell, Inc. in San Francisco is the architect and Starr Pass Resort Developments LLC is the owner. The Marriott Starr Pass Resort is scheduled for completion in January 2005.

Design Work Starts at NAU, U of A

GLHN Architects & Engineers, Inc. of Tucson has recently begun design work on the $6 million campus infrastructure upgrades at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. GLHN will formulate a campus-wide utility development plan and provide design/construction period services in collaboration with Sundt Construction Inc., the selected construction manager at-risk.

GLHN is also currently providing engineering services in relation to the $14 million Infrastructure Phase VI and $5 million Open Space projects at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The work will include mechanical, electrical, telecommunications, chilled water production and distribution and sanitary sewer systems.

Developer Starts Work

Devcon Enterprises has commenced construction of the company's 22nd commercial construction project to be located in the City of Scottsdale.

McDowell Mountain Business Park, an 86,000 s.f. industrial project located at Bell Road and 94th Street, recently broke ground. The four building complex will be located on approximately seven of the 20 acres at the property abutting Bahia Drive. Miller Holdings of Scottsdale is the project developer. Completion is scheduled for the Fall of 2003.

Miller Holdings, with Scottsdale architect Jim Elson, designed the project to provide both lease and purchase opportunities for industrial users. The approximate $3 million project received construction financing from the Scottsdale office of Stearns Bank.

Devcon Enterprises will waste little time in commencing their 23rd, 24th and 25th Scottsdale projects later this spring. A retail center, Northsight Vilage (Phase III), an office building, Zocallo Corporate Center, and an Eckerd Drug are scheduled for commencement of construction over the next several weeks. Developers of all three projects are from Scottsdale. These additional projects will generate approximately $5.5 million in new Scottsdale construction work.

DL Withers Tops Out County Project

Pinal County representatives and community members will join together as DL Withers Construction crews celebrate the topping out of the $24.5 million new Superior Courthouse and Sheriff's Office with the ceremonial lifting of a 25,000-lb. canopy beam in the main entryway of the courthouse.

The superior courthouse and sheriff's office is the single largest project Pinal County has ever built. On schedule for completion in early 2004, the new buildings are located in Florence, Ariz.

Designed by Durrant Architects, the project includes two separate buildings and parking areas.

The new Superior Court will be an approximately 144,500-sq.-ft. four-story building that will house nine courtrooms with expansion space for three additional courtrooms in the future, judicial chambers, court administration offices, and county attorney, adult probation and prosecutors' offices.

The three-story sheriff's administration building will be approximately 38,000-sq.-ft., three-stories and include offices, evidence storage and dispatching facilities.

Kitchell Starts Shopping Center

Kitchell Development Company has broken ground for the construction of Camelback Crossing, a 16-acre neighborhood shopping center at Camelback and Dysart roads west of Phoenix.

The anchor tenant for the center will be Bashas', scheduled to open in December 2003, and Walgreens, which will open in August 2003. There is one additional anchor tenant space of approximately 15,000-sq.-ft. available as well as shop and pad space.

Kitchell is also serving as construction manager/general contractor for Bashas' and the shop space. Butler Design Group is the architect.