The nation’s impressive, record run of economic growth is stretching into its 11th year, which has many believing that we’re past due for an economic downturn. In Arizona, the commercial real estate market is humming right along, with a diverse industry base, a growing population base and a pro-business environment, creating many real estate companies to watch in Arizona as we go deeper into 2020.
Here’s a look at some of the top real estate companies to watch in Arizona. These companies have seen tremendous growth in Arizona and they will be the ones driving the industry forward, through calm water or rough seas.
ARCHSOL
Celebrating their 15th year anniversary, ARCHSOL remains focused on providing collaborative architectural solutions to a wide-range of healthcare clients including Banner Health, Dignity Health, HonorHealth and others. Their growing team continues to enjoy supportive professional development and looks forward to the grand opening of their seven thousand square foot office expansion which includes a state-of-the-art virtual reality lab.
Aspirant Development
With its first downtown Phoenix high-rise apartment (The Stewart) completed and over 50 percent leased, Aspirant has turned its focus to The Stewart’s baby brother – a 17-story, 254 unit apartment project at 3rd Avenue and Fillmore. Called “Aspire”, it broke ground in late 2019 so its vertical ascent should occur throughout 2020. The Aspirant team recently submitted plans to the City of Phoenix for a $350 million, two-tower, mixed use project to be located on the parking lot immediately west of the downtown YMCA between Fillmore and Van Buren.
Butler Design Group
Butler Design Group was named the NAIOP Architectural Firm of the Year for the 14th time and recently surpassed the 19 million square foot mark of projects completed or under construction. BDG has designed several marquee projects like the SkySong Office Campus, Cavasson mixed-use development and the Creighton University Health Sciences Campus. Other notable industrial projects include the PV303, as well as build-to-suit projects like Project Ferraro and Daimler. At BDG, they take nothing for granted and feel fortunate to have the longstanding relationships that they’ve had, and the pipeline for 2020 looks strong.
CBRE
In 2019, CBRE continued to deliver on its promise to focus relentlessly on creating exceptional outcomes for its clients. In 2020, CBRE will leverage its involvement and influence in the community and its team of world-class professionals and resources to build advantage for its clients across all spectrums of commercial real estate.
CHASSE Building Team
2019 Most Admired Company and Real Estate Development award winner CHASSE Building Team’s motto is “Building to make a difference…” They’ve put the concept into motion in a major way in recent years. For clients, they’ve enhanced their LEAN Construction and Virtual Technology processes. For the community, they offer Project-Based Learning and STEM Programs for children. In 2020, CHASSE expects to oversee $250 million-plus in projects while focusing on providing an exceptional client experience in all aspects of construction.
Colliers International in Arizona
Looking to 2020, Colliers expects to have another year of strong results. They assisted their clients in making over a billion dollars in commercial real estate decisions involving more than 700 separate transactions during 2019, and they expect to exceed those results in 2020. In 2019 Colliers continued to attract strong brokerage talent, adding the Healthcare team of Julie Johnson and Alexandra Loye, corporate solutions specialist Ross Peterson and others. The addition of Julie and Alexandra brought their total number of female brokers to 13, the highest number of any Arizona commercial brokerage firm.
CORGAN
Corgan’s 2019 growth was marked by banner projects in aviation, education, interiors and healthcare including Terminal 3 at Phoenix Sky Harbor, Dove Mountain C-STEM K-8 school in Marana and a new partnership with Cigna Medical Group. Winning the 2019 RED Awards for best office interiors and tenant improvement of the year for Best of NAIOP respectively, Indeed.com and JDA’s Customer Experience Center celebrate the firm’s commitment to inspiring, human-centric designs.
Cuningham Group
For more than 50 years, Cuningham Group has earned an outstanding reputation for delivering excellence in architecture, interior design, urban design, and landscape architecture for a diverse mix of clients and project types including healthcare, senior living and multifamily. Select work includes Valleywise Health’s Roosevelt Campus Replacement Hospital, Yavapai Regional Medical Center’s Outpatient Services Building, and Millennium Park Central, which will provide market-rate apartments as part of the redevelopment at Park Central.
Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield is a leading global real estate firm that delivers exceptional value for the world’s top occupiers and owners. Fueled by ideas, expertise and dedication across borders and beyond service lines, they create real estate solutions to prepare their clients for what’s next.
DAVIS
DAVIS goes into 2020 launching its new Creative Technology business unit. DAVIS has been designing inspired architecture for over 28 years. It is now taking those designs and creating new, exciting ways to display and interact with them. As the architect, DAVIS is uniquely positioned to create and support the marketing collateral for its clients’ projects. DAVIS produces everything from branding books, renderings and video animations to virtual and augmented reality. DAVIS packages all this engaging content into an information-rich and elegant website, keeping it updated with the latest design changes, ensuring the visual representation of the project remains exact.
DPR Construction
DPR Construction is proud to celebrate 25 years of building great things in Arizona! DPR thanks their clients and partners who have trusted them with $4.2 billion worth of projects through the years. In 2019, they saw many successes including: breaking ground on their first hospitality project built using a prefabricated, load-bearing structure; successfully delivering critical upgrades for their aviation partners; and the grand opening of a new patient tower in Tucson. As they look to 2020, DPR will continue to innovate, using prefabrication and virtual design & construction services to deliver the greatest projects in Arizona.
Graycor
Graycor is a 98-year old national construction company. In the Southwest it enjoys long-standing relationships focused on industrial, corporate office and hospitality projects. In the past five years they’ve constructed more than 20 million square feet of distribution center and warehouse space. With the best and brightest professionals, Graycor delivers a best-in-class experience every time. Their dedication to proactive pre-construction, design-build delivery, value engineering, constructability, quality and safety affirms their commitment to Building Something More.
Healthcare Trust of America
HTA has now closed $221 million of investments and a land purchase of $7 million totaling approximately 559,000 square feet of GLA to close out 2019. In addition, HTA has an additional $199 million of investments that have closed or are under exclusive contract, which are subject to customary closing conditions. Looking ahead at 2020, HTA plans to re-develop two of its MOBs on its St. Joseph Health — Mission Viejo campus in Mission Viejo, Calif. HTA will invest up to $12.5 million over the next 12-18 months to modernize the buildings.
Henderson Engineers
In 2019, the Henderson Phoenix team earned three Engineering News-Record regional awards (one project of the year). The team also completed Arizona State’s Sun Devil Stadium and Great Wolf Lodge, began design of confidential projects that will change the Phoenix skyline, continued a 10-plus-year relationship with Sprouts, and closed the office for a day of community service at Ronald McDonald House. Looking ahead to 2020, Henderson celebrates its 50th anniversary, with 15 years in Phoenix focusing on people, end-users and service.
Hines
Continuing on Hines’ success in planning, entitling and developing complicated mixed-use projects, Hines began construction in December 2019 on 100 Mill. In partnership with Cousins Properties, Hines secured one of downtown Tempe’s crown jewel sites overlooking Tempe Beach Park. 100 Mill will feature an 18-story Class AA office tower, 280,000 SF office space and a Class A luxury hotel. Also in 2019, Hines opened its Offices at Chandler Viridian, the Mixed-Use Project of the Year and Speculative Office of the Year at the 2019 Best of NAIOP Arizona Awards.
Holualoa Companies
Holualoa Companies continues to be a part of some of the most distinctive real estate projects in Arizona and the western United States. Its signature projects at Park Central, Camelback Collective, and SkySong Scottsdale Innovation Center have both generated a significant amount of buzz in the real estate community over the past year, and are well-positioned to have a positive impact on the local economy. The firm also continues to acquire and develop a strong portfolio of properties in the retail, office, hospitality, multifamily and industrial sectors, and will continue to look for opportunities as they move into the new decade.
JLL
JLL is one of Phoenix’s leading full-service commercial real estate firms – and it continues to grow. Employing more than 590 of the region’s most recognized industry experts, JLL specializes in landlord and tenant brokerage, facility and investment management and investment and development services. Over the past year, JLL has also deepened its capital markets offerings by strengthening its team and integrating new technologies that help clients create rewarding opportunities and Achieve Ambitions.
Jokake
Catapulting into 2019 from a record $100 million year in 2018, Jokake continued its growth and expansion of services as a real estate solutions provider, seeing great success in the tech market with clients like Carvana, Zillow, Amazon and JDA Software. Construction in 2020 will focus on the industrial and manufacturing sectors with an intense focus on e-commerce. The firm also anticipates a surge of growth into new markets with the company’s portfolio to include development and corporate services reaching beyond the Southwest region.
Katerra
Katerra is currently building two high-rise apartment projects in downtown Phoenix (X Phoenix and the Kenect PHX) and breaking ground on another two, high-rise, market-rate apartment projects and a high-end hotel in the same area in 2020. Also in the pipeline are multiple commercial offices in Phoenix and Old Town Scottsdale, self-storage facilities, an adaptive reuse high-rise and scores of multifamily projects throughout metropolitan Phoenix.
KRAUSE
Building on 25 years of service, culture and award-winning designs, KRAUSE recently exploded into ground-up architecture with the forward-thinking re-imagining of the Rio Salado, Rio ECO2 project, which was honored with five awards this year alone. Exciting current projects include; Novel Coworking, eight floors within the 100-year-old historic Heard building, a $33 million Re-positioning of four medical office buildings on 12 acres at the Dobson Banner Campus and high-end Interiors for new offices of DMB Development.
Layton Construction
Spurred by significant growth in the office, industrial, and hospitality market sectors, Layton Construction experienced unparalleled results at both the local and national level in 2019. Building on several consecutive record-setting years, a substantial backlog of major projects, and a strong team of talented employees, this positive momentum is forecasted to propel Layton to another unprecedented year in 2020.
LGE Design Build
Celebrating 25 years in business, LGE Design Build had a busy 2019 with its highest volume year to date. In addition to embarking on its largest-ever local build – the 800,000 square-foot The HUB in Goodyear – LGE launched its residential division and broke ground on its first project in Paradise Valley. Internally, LGE employees made big moves. Longtime LGE Design Build employee Carrie Masters was promoted to Chief Operations Officer. Architect Ben McRae was promoted to Vice President of LGE Design Group. 2020 will be LGE Design Build’s biggest year to date as it opens its first Texas office and expands its reach beyond Arizona.
Lincoln Property Company
Named NAIOP Arizona’s 2018 Owner/Developer of the Year, LPC is actively leading some of Phoenix’s most prominent projects. With Lincoln Logistics 40 and Waypoint it completed $177 million in dispositions, marking the Valley’s largest office and industrial sales of 2019. It is the exclusive office developer for The Grand and has embarked on the Class A Union office project and the Park303 industrial development. LPC’s management portfolio is equally significant, totaling 10 million square feet.
Marcus & Millichap
In 2019, Marcus & Millichap Phoenix enjoyed the best annual performance in its history. Record levels in gross revenue, total number of transactions, total volume and market share mark the best year since 2017. This success will carry into 2020 as the Phoenix branch and company as a whole continually expand and advance. Locally, the Phoenix office will have its third office expansion in three years as more investment professionals and Institutional Property Advisors (IPA) agents join the team.
McCarthy Building Companies
For McCarthy Building Companies, 2020 will be a year focused on critical infrastructure projects, meeting the needs of the state in terms of population growth and advancements in innovation for some of the state’s fastest-growing industry sectors, including cutting-edge research and medical programs. They are poised for these as well as traditional infrastructure improvements where their long history of expertise will benefit water, solar and energy storage, schools, aviation and hospital projects. Serving their key clients in these areas will be a significant focus in 2020.
Prologis
Prologis, publicly traded on the NYSE and a member of the S&P 500, is the global leader in logistics real estate with roughly 800 million square feet of modern logistics facilities in 19 countries. Locally, the Prologis Phoenix metro portfolio is comprised of 42 buildings totaling approximately 7 million square feet. With a couple large company acquisitions slated to close in Q1 2020 and planned development for 2020, the local portfolio is slated to grow to 70 plus buildings totaling over 11 million square feet and in excess of 150 customers.
Ryan Companies US, Inc.
In 2019, Ryan successfully leveraged their collective insights of development, construction, architecture + engineering, real estate management services, and capital markets, resulting in over a 20 percent increase to their bottom line. Given this success, they plan to expand and deepen their customer relationships, continuously finding ways to deliver a superior product in both value and cost, while emphasizing a customer-centric focus. They expect to see continued growth in their senior living, multifamily, and industrial pipelines, as they continue to execute office and industrial build-to-suits.
The Statesman Group
The Statesman Group has launched nearly $200 million in luxury real estate within the master-planned community in Desert Ridge including luxury for-sale, for-rent and senior-living residential units. These developments span 50 acres of land and include The Manor Village Senior Living Center, Montreux Luxury Apartments, The Luxe Condo Living and the existing Toscana of Desert Ridge. These projects are in addition to The Cays at Downtown Ocotillo, a $90 million luxury condominium community located within the sought-after neighborhood of Ocotillo in Chandler, totaling more than $400 million in real estate around the Valley.
Tower Capital
The past year has been a tremendous year of growth for Tower Capital. In 2019, we saw origination volume more than double year over year. The company plans to continue that momentum into 2020 as it wins larger assignments and becomes increasingly active in the new construction and “single family for rent” space. Tower plans to hire additional capital advisors and support staff as it gains market share and a more regional presence.
Transwestern
2019 marked the highest volume year in Transwestern Phoenix office’s history. Brokerage emerged into new submarkets and product types gaining more market share Valley wide. The Phoenix team also moved to new office space designed by Gensler located at the former Mortenson Steak House at the Esplanade. 2020 will be a banner year for Transwestern with continued expansion of both brokerage and administrative teams and increased market exposure.
ViaWest Group
ViaWest Group’s plans for 2020 include completion of four new industrial developments commenced in 2019: Goodyear Crossing, Superior Logistics Center, Central Logistics Center and AZ202 Commerce Park. They are acquiring and renovating the 300,000 SF Canyon Corporate Center office complex, completing the renovations and leasing of 200 EVB and The Monroe both 250,000 SF office projects, and a number of other properties. They will continue to build their Southern California office and focus on the growth of their property management division, which now exceeds six million square feet.
The Weitz Company
With a 42-year history in Arizona and one of the nation’s oldest contractors, The Weitz Company is poised for a break out year in 2020 after a strong 2019. This past year they broke ground on their largest data center project, expanded their senior living presence, started projects in Yuma and Flagstaff, continued to build their public sector resume, and served our residential and healthcare clients. They continue to be a major player in the airport and senior living space and are excited about their future growth in data centers, office, industrial, and other key growth areas heading into 2020.
