Casa Grande City Council OKs rezone for amusement park. (Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Blocks Sports Group.) “City Council voted 7-0 Wednesday night to approve a rezone change of 1,500 acres [along I-8], setting the stage for the massive [Dreamport Villages] project to begin construction… [Rose Law Group attorney] Cameron Carter… told the council last week the project [which will also ‘include residential and commercial spaces’] would be constructed in multiple phases, with the first phase being a $1.2 billion investment, including $300 million on the infrastructure…” PinalCentral. (Rose Law Group Reporter also has a handful of real-time tweets from Wednesday night’s proceedings.) http://bit.ly/2vGvPVG
The Phoenician releases details on its downsized golf course. Wanna go to the Phoenician for a couple rounds of putt-putt through windmills, castles, and dragon throats? Don’t worry, architect Phil Smith’s downsizing plans don’t call for something that miniature. But the “10-month redesign” and rerouting will reduce the 27-hole course to 18. And there will “likely be high-end residential space taking over the area where the resort’s nine holes are now.” Much more on the ‘linkage’ shrinkage in Phoenix Business Journal. http://bit.ly/2w6hsuK
ON THE ‘EDGE’ – Scottsdale Desert EDGE proposal begins municipal, community inquisition. “The Scottsdale Tourism Development and McDowell Sonoran Preserve commissions hosted a joint work study discussion… [and] a few items of note emerged:… Barstow, Calif. has a Desert Discovery Center; EDGE proponents believe the 2004 Preserve sales tax ballot language… creates a mechanism… for those dollars to build the… venue; and… both Preserve and bed-tax remits will be needed to build the Desert EDGE but what the numbers come out to is unknown.” Scottsdale Independent. http://bit.ly/2wTBZAn
WalletHub study: Scottsdale ranks as fourth-best city to retire in. “[T]he study compared the 150 largest U.S. cities across 40 different categories, including affordability, quality of life, health care and availability of recreational activities.” Only Orlando, Tampa and Miami ranked higher than Scottsdale. Among the “bottom five cities” to retire in was the city of Detroit. That makes sense — after all it’s a pretty tough city – get out while you can! Unless, perhaps, you’d like to hasten your departure to that Great Retirement Home in the sky. More on this study at KTAR. http://bit.ly/2wTBGp8
Paradise Valley leaders talk matters of note as fall session looms. “Paradise Valley Independent reached out to top officials — both elected and hired — to better understand what residents can expect from their local government…” Town Manager Kevin Burke, Vice Mayor Jerry Bien-Willner and Councilman Paul Dembow discuss items in the upcoming “monster agenda,” including “party houses,” “traffic congestion” and “cell service.” http://bit.ly/2x7Kmro
Flagstaff council declines Schultz Pass open space petition. “The Flagstaff City Council declined to move forward with a citizens’ petition asking the council to rezone a three-acre parcel of city-owned land on the corner of Schultz Pass and Fort Valley roads as open space at its meeting Tuesday night.The city has already spent more than $400,000 on the lot in preparation for housing.” Arizona Daily Sun. http://bit.ly/2vH0jqE
[VIDEO] 20 Cities in 20 Days: San Tan Valley. CBS 5 meteorologist Ian Schwartz parks himself outside the Fry’s Food Store in San Tan Valley and talks with Pinal County Supervisor Mike Goodman about San Tan Valley’s quest to become a city. http://bit.ly/2wU21U4
[VIDEO] 20 Cities in 20 Days: Buckeye. This installment features Mayor Jackie Meck and Economic Developmental Director David Roderique on Buckeye’s “growth.” http://bit.ly/2uUpfrT
July sees slump In multifamily starts. “A sharp drop in construction starts for multifamily properties brought groundbreakings overall down by 4.8% during July, according to data released Wednesday by the Census Bureau and [HUD].” GlobeSt. looks at other “metrics in the July residential construction data [that] also pointed to weakness in multifamily.” http://bit.ly/2i91Qkt
Siding, paint, roofing, wallboard join lumber as input inflation drivers. “When it comes to material input costs, lumber prices have hogged headlines… ‘Unfortunately for builders, costs are rising elsewhere as well, with… indices for the other 12 categories all higher on a year-to-date basis…” Builder. http://bit.ly/2wkbJkI
Panel sees recession risk by year end 2020. “There is a 73% chance… according to a panel of experts surveyed for the 2017 Q3 Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey. But the experts don’t anticipate the housing market would play as big a role as in past recessions. Instead, they anticipate a geopolitical crisis could trigger the next recession.” Builder. http://bit.ly/2w5De1K
Trump, in tweet, hits Amazon over taxes, jobs. “Amazon is doing great damage to tax paying retailers. Towns, cities and states throughout the U.S. are being hurt – many jobs being lost!” President Trump tweeted yesterday. (Good thing for him that he named “Amazon” in the tweet. If he’d just run with the part about towns, cities, and states “being hurt,” it could’ve very easily been misconstrued as referring to the overall impact of his Charlottesville remarks. But back to Amazon…) Does the President have a point? Reuters reports that “Amazon’s growth has upended the U.S. retail market” and its Whole Foods acquisition “has also raised some questions about jobs.” (Also see item below.) http://bit.ly/2we1Ndk
Is Amazon threatening to put a major dent in Home Depot’s business? “Simply put, continuing fears of the ‘Amazonification’ of retail is hitting the sector hard today, and Home Depot — long considered immune from the Amazon effect — is getting swept up in the worries.” HousingWire reports Home Depot’s stock is “tanking” and that it “isn’t the only company that’s Amazon is striking fear into.” http://bit.ly/2uMlVmF
The knives are out: Trump expected to endorse Flake challenger at Arizona rally. “President Trump’s new campaign trip to Arizona next week has state Republicans speculating that he is going to endorse a primary challenger to Sen. Jeff Flake. Mr. Trump is leaning towards endorsing Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit, state Republican sources told The Washington Times...” (TRUMP TWEET UPDATE, from earlier today: “Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He’s toxic!”) http://bit.ly/2uUkOgt
Cameron’s $5M + deals of the day – http://bit.ly/2wjQTSO
